Connection between Collect and Collect Earth

Dear Jeremy,

Collect is the application that we use for designing a survey and later (if necessary due to the complexity of the survey process or other needs) you can use for aggregating and analyzing the data.

In Collect, when you design a survey, you can export it to a Collect Earth format (.CEP file). This file can then be clicked by the user and Collect Earth will start and allow the user to collect the data through the Google Earth interface.

Once the data is collected, the user can choose to analyze the data directly through Saiku (which comes installed with Collect Earth) -using the Tools->Start Saiku Analysis menu item - or to export the data as CSV to perform the analysis through Excel.

Both Collect and Collect Earth have the same integration with Saiku, so you don't need to use Collect. You might just use the Saiku that comes with Collect Earth.

It is worth noting than even if you have Collect and Collect Earth installed in the same computer the de databases used by both applications are independent from each other! So you will not see the data collect in Collect Earth automatically in Collect. Instead you would have to export the data from CE and then import it in Collect. In any case, this will not be necessary unless you really want to use Collect instead of Collect Earth.

ALSO: Important to note that if you are multiple people using Collect Earth to assess a region (say three interpreters collecting data in Saudi Arabia) each interpreter has an independent local database with the data in their computer. So when you need to aggregate the data collected into a single computer you will need to export that data (as XML) and import it into one of the computers running Collect Earth.