A data point contains all the information collected for a particular something, such as a water point, school, or farmer. Some data points hold more than one form, and all the filled forms are part of the same data point. This is particularly useful when you want to track data changes over time, and a given point needs to be monitored periodically.

Each data point has a name created based on answers to selected questions. In the online space, you can specify which questions are used to create the data point name. Following the name you see a unique identifier. The data point identifier consists of random numbers and letters and is generated automatically. You can see when the data point was submitted or last modified. The icon represents the status of the data point.

Data points are created by submitting a survey form. Here you can find out how to submit a form for a simple survey or for a monitored survey where the data point is created via the registration form.

Data point name

When creating your survey form you can specify which question answers will be used to create the data point name. If you do not select any question "Use as data point name" then your data points will be unnamed in your list. It is especially useful to name your data points if you want to collect more data for the point when monitoring.

Data point status

Each data point in the data point list is shown with an icon. There are three icons:

• Saved (or draft) - this means that a form in the data point was started, but not submitted yet. The user needs to go back to the form, finish it, and submit it.
• Submitted - this means that a form in the data point was submitted and exported to the memory of your device, but not synced to the server yet. The device needs to have connectivity before it can sync the data.
• Uploaded - all submitted forms in the data point have been synced to the Flow server correctly.

If you downloaded data points for your monitoring surveys, the newly downloaded data points will be shown in bold so you can easily recognise, which points are new on your device.

If there are multiple forms inside a data point, the icon used will display the ‘worst case’, meaning that if some of the forms are already synced, but one form is only submitted but not synced yet, it will display the Submitted icon.

You can order the data point list according to the status, by selecting the Status option in the Sort menu option under to overflow icon.

It is extremely important that you check the synchronisation status before deleting data from the device by making sure that all data has a green icon and therefore has been synced correctly. Otherwise you might lose data.

Selecting a data point

To select a data point, click on it in the Data Points tab, or browse the Map tab to find it. Clicking on a marker on the map will show you the name and id of the datapoint. Clicking on that name will take you to the datapoint.

Searching for a data point

You might have thousands of data points in your list on your device, but you only want to fill in a monitoring for, or check a submitted form for one specific data point. You can search for your data point by clicking on search icon on the top of your screen.

Search for a data point by its name or ID. You do not need to know the exact name of the point. Type in a letter and the list of points will only show those points that have your searched letter in the points name or ID.

Sorting the list of data points

You can sort the data point list as well. By default the data points are ordered by date, where the latest data point (the one with the newest form submission) is placed on the top of the list. Click on the overflow icon in the top right corner of your screen and select Sort. You can sort the data points order by date, distance from your current location, upload status and name.

Data point statistics

You can also see an overview of the data point statistics, by clicking on Stats located under the overflow menu icon. The stats show you: the total number of data points on your device,

• Total data points - The total number of data points on your device (a data point can hold one or more form submissions, if it is monitored).
• Last 7 days - The number of data points created in the last 7 days but also updated in the last 7 days. So if a monitoring form was submitted to a data point, it will show in that number.
• Today - The number of data points created or updated today.