Introduction¶

Publish MDM is a tool for managing and publishing forms to ODK Central, a powerful data collection platform. It offers support for:

Single sign-on with Google and access to Google Sheets
Form templates and variables, which can be used to create multiple versions of a form for different app users
A user-friendly interface for publishing form versions
MDM integration with either TinyMDM or Android EMM to automatically configure devices with the correct forms and settings
VPN integration with Tailscale to securely connect devices to ODK Central

Form Design Workflow¶

If you’re here, you’re probably already familiar with the form design workflow in ODK Central as outlined in the XLSForm tutorial: Your first form. At a high level, the workflow looks like this:

        ---
title: ODK Central Form Design Workflow
---
sequenceDiagram
    autonumber
    loop Repeat to fix errors
        Form Designer->>Google Sheets: Update form definition
        Google Sheets->>Desktop: Download .xlsx file
        Desktop->>ODK Central: Create new draft and upload .xlsx file
    end
    Form Designer->>ODK Central: Refresh form list on device
    ODK Central->>Form Designer: Form is available on device

Let’s step through the process above from the Form Designer’s perspective:

Update the form definition in Google Sheets.
Save or download the form as an XLSX file.
Log into your Central server.
If you don’t already have a Project, create one and give it a name.
Click on the New button next to Forms.
Drag and drop your XLSX file onto the file uploader.
Click on the Save button and test the form.

This is a simple example, but it demonstrates the process of creating a form in ODK Central. It can become more complex when you have multiple forms, app users, projects, and devices.

Publish MDM builds on this workflow in several ways. Form publishing is a single click in Publish MDM, and the form is published to ODK Central without the need to download the form to your desktop and upload it to ODK Central.

        ---
title: Publish MDM Form Design Workflow
---
sequenceDiagram
    autonumber
    loop Repeat to fix errors
        Form Designer->>Google Sheets: Update form definition
        Form Designer->>Publish MDM: Publish next version
    end
    Form Designer->>ODK Central: Refresh form list on device
    ODK Central->>Form Designer: Form is available on device

Publish MDM also introduces the concept of form templates, which are reusable form definitions that can be published to multiple ODK Central forms. A single publish event can trigger the creation of many versions of a form, each with different template variables. This is where Publish MDM really shines.

ODK Central Concepts¶

In order to understand how Publish MDM works, it’s important to understand the concepts behind ODK Central.

ODK Central Form: The heart of the ODK ecosystem is the form. Forms provide a structured way to collect and provide information. They are defined in XML and can be published to ODK Central.
ODK Central Server: An instance of ODK Central that hosts projects, forms, and app users. Publish MDM can connect to multiple ODK Central servers, each associated with an organization. Servers are configured with base URL, username, and password credentials that are encrypted and stored securely.
ODK Central App User: App Users interact with ODK Central through the ODK Collect app. They are granted limited access to specific forms within a project.

Tip

A key feature of Publish MDM is the ability to link devices to ODK Central App Users through MDM. Devices assigned to an ODK Central App User will automatically configure ODK Collect with the correct forms and settings without needing to scan a QR code (using ODK Collect’s MDM configuration).
ODK Central Project: A container within ODK Central that groups related forms and app users together. Projects in Publish MDM are synchronized with ODK Central projects and can be created either locally or by syncing from existing ODK Central projects.

Publish MDM extends the ODK Central concepts, as well as introduces new concepts to support its features. See the following sections for more information.