pyxform is a Python library that makes writing forms for ODK Collect and Enketo easy by converting XLSForms (Excel spreadsheets) into ODK XForms. The XLSForms format is used in a number of tools.

XLS(X) documents used as input must follow to the XLSForm standard and the resulting output follows the ODK XForms standard.

pyxform is a major rewrite of xls2xform.

For those who want to convert forms at the command line, the latest official release of pyxform can be installed using pip:

pip install pyxform

The xls2xform command can then be used:

xls2xform path_to_XLSForm [output_path]

The currently supported Python versions for pyxform are 3.7, 3.8 and 3.9.

Note that you must uninstall any globally installed pyxform instance in order to use local modules. Please install java 8 or newer version.

From the command line, complete the following. These steps use a virtualenv to make dependency management easier, and to keep the global site-packages directory clean:

# Get a copy of the repository.
mkdir -P ~/repos/pyxform
cd ~/repos/pyxform
git clone https://github.com/XLSForm/pyxform.git repo

# Create and activate a virtual environment for the install.
/usr/local/bin/python3.8 -m venv venv
. venv/bin/activate

# Install the pyxform and it's production dependencies.
(venv)$ cd repo
# If this doesn't work, upgrade pip ``pip install --upgrade pip`` and retry.
(venv)$ pip install -e .
(venv)$ python pyxform/xls2xform.py --help
(venv)$ xls2xform --help           # same effect as previous line
(venv)$ which xls2xform            # ~/repos/pyxform/venv/bin/xls2xform

To leave and return to the virtualenv:

(venv)$ deactivate                 # leave the venv, scripts not on $PATH
$ xls2xform --help
# -bash: xls2xform: command not found
$ . ~/repos/pyxform/venv/bin/activate     # reactivate the venv
(venv)$ which xls2xform                   # scripts available on $PATH again
~/repos/pyxform/venv/bin/xls2xform

pip can install from the GitHub repository. Only do this if you want to install from the master branch, which is likely to have pre-release code. To install the latest release, see above.:

pip install git+https://github.com/XLSForm/pyxform.git@master#egg=pyxform

You can then run xls2xform from the commandline:

xls2xform path_to_XLSForm [output_path]

To set up for development / contributing, first complete the above steps for "Running pyxform from local source". Then repeat the command used to install pyxform, but with [dev] appended to the end, e.g.:

pip install -e .[dev]

You can run tests with:

python -m unittest

Before committing, make sure to format and lint the code using ruff:

ruff format pyxform tests
ruff check pyxform tests

If you are using a copy of ruff outside your virtualenv, make sure it is the same version as listed in pyproject.toml. Use the project configuration for ruff` inpyproject.toml, which occurs automatically ifruffis run from the project root (wherepyproject.tomlis). Writing tests ------------- Make sure to include tests for the changes you're working on. When writing new tests you should add them intestsfolder. Add to an existing test module, or create a new test module. Test modules are named after the corresponding source file, or if the tests concern many files then module name is the topic or feature under test. When creating new test cases, where possible usePyxformTestCaseas a base class instead ofunittest.TestCase. ThePyxformTestCaseis a toolkit for writing XLSForms as MarkDown tables, compiling example XLSForms, and making assertions on the resulting XForm. This makes code review much easier by putting the XLSForm content inline with the test, instead of in a separate file. Aunittest.TestCasemay be used if the new tests do not involve compiling an XLSForm (but most will). Do not add new tests using the old styleXFormTestCase. When writing newPyxformTestCasetests that make content assertions, it is strongly recommended that thexml__xpath*matchers are used, in particularxml__xpath_match. Most older tests use matchers likexml__containsandxml__excludes, which are simple string matches of XML snippets against the result XForm. Thexml__xpath_matchkwarg accepts an XPath expression and expects 1 match. The main benefits of using XPath are 1) it allows specifying a document location, and 2) it does not require a particular document order for elements or attributes or whitespace output. To take full advantage of 1), the XPath expressions should specify the full document path (e.g./h:html/h:head/x:model) rather than a search (e.g..//x:model). To take full advantage of 2), the expression should include element predicates that specify the expected attribute values, e.g./h:html/h:body/x:input[@ref='/trigger-column/a']. To specify the absence of an element, an expression like the following may be used withxml__xpath_match:/h:html[not(descendant::x:input)], or alternativelyxml__xpath_count:.//x:inputwith an expected count of 0 (zero). Documentation ============= For developers,pyxformuses docstrings, type annotations, and test cases. Most modern IDEs can display docstrings and type annotations in a easily navigable format, so no additional docs are compiled (e.g. sphinx). In addition to the user documentation, developers should be familiar with the `ODK XForms Specification https://getodk.github.io/xforms-spec/`. For users,pyxformhas documentation at the following locations: * `XLSForm docs https://xlsform.org/` * `XLSForm template https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1v9Bumt3R0vCOGEKQI6ExUf2-8T72-XXp_CbKKTACuko/edit#gid=1052905058` * `ODK Docs https://docs.getodk.org/` Change Log ========== `Changelog <CHANGES.txt>`_ Releasing pyxform ================= 1. Make sure the version of ODK Validate in the repo is up-to-date:: pyxform_validator_update odk update ODK-Validate-vx.x.x.jar 2. Run all tests through Validate by setting the default forrun_odk_validatetokwargs.get("run_odk_validate", True)intests/pyxform_test_case.py. 3. Draft a new GitHub release with the list of merged PRs. Follow the title and description pattern of the previous release. 4. Checkout a release branch from latest upstream master. 5. UpdateCHANGES.txtwith the text of the draft release. 6. Updatepyproject.toml,pyxform/__init__.pywith the new release version number. 7. Commit, push the branch, and initiate a pull request. Wait for tests to pass, then merge the PR. 8. Tag the release and it will automatically be published Manually releasing =================== Releases are now automatic. These instructions are provided for forks or for a future change in process. 1. In a clean new release only directory, check out master. 2. Create a new virtualenv in this directory to ensure a clean Python environment:: /usr/local/bin/python3.8 -m venv pyxform-release . pyxform-release/bin/activate 3. Install the production and packaging requirements:: pip install -e . pip install flit==3.9.0 4. Clean up build and dist folders:: rm -rf build dist pyxform.egg-info 5. Preparesdistandbdist_wheel`` distributions, and publish to PyPI:

flit --debug publish --no-use-vcs

6. Tag the GitHub release and publish it.