Field Collector Guide

Field collectors use the Dharini mobile app to collect samples and record site information directly from the field. This guide covers the workflows and features available in the mobile app.

Getting Started

Installing the App

1. Use the official link to download and install the latest version: https://in.dharini.artpark.ai/download/
2. Install the application on your Android phone
3. Allow the permissions when the app asks for them:
   • Location – Used to find nearby sites and to record where a visit took place
   • Camera – Used to scan sample barcodes and to take photos

Logging In

You log in with a one-time password (OTP). You can receive the OTP by Phone (SMS) or by Email.

1. Open the Dharini app. You will see the login screen.
2. At the top, choose Email or Phone.
3. Enter your registered email address or phone number.
   • It must already have been added by your team admin. If it has not, the app will not send you a code.
4. Tap Send OTP.
5. Enter the verification code you received, then tap Log in.

Tip

If the code does not arrive, tap Resend OTP. If you typed the wrong email or number, tap Change email or Change number to go back. An OTP is valid for 3 minutes.

Caution

If you enter a wrong code several times in a row, the app stops accepting codes for a while. Tap Resend OTP to get a new code.

First-Time Setup

The first time you log in, the app shows a short welcome screen with your role and project details. Tap Get Started to continue. If the app asks you to set up your profile, enter your name and tap Proceed.

Choosing a Project

If you are assigned to more than one project, the app asks you to Select a project. Projects are grouped under your workspace. Tap a project to open it. A small badge such as “2 pending” next to a project means that project has visits waiting to be uploaded.

If you are not assigned to any project yet, the app tells you to contact your administrator.

To switch to another project later, go to the Profile tab and tap Switch Project.

Finding Your Way Around

The bottom bar has these tabs:

• Home – Your upcoming and past visits at a glance
• Visits – All your visits, in a Pending tab and a Completed tab
• Sites – Sites you can visit and a button to create a new site
• Team – Only for Collector Admins. See team progress and add or remove team members.
• Profile – Your details, language, project switching and log out

Home Screen

The Home screen shows a greeting, then:

• Upcoming Visits – Visits scheduled for you. Tap View All to open the full list.
• Past Visits – Visits you have already completed. Tap View All to open the full list.
• Add Visit button – Starts a visit at a site (shown if your role allows creating visits)

Pull down on the Home screen to refresh your sites and visits.

At the top of the screen you will also see:

• A network indicator
• A sync icon with a number when visits are waiting to be uploaded. Tap it to upload them right away.

Working in Another Language

Go to Profile, then Change Language. You can choose English, Hindi, Kannada or Telugu.

Working with Scheduled Visits

Step 1: Find the Visit

1. Open Home or the Visits tab.
2. In the Pending tab, visits are shown in two groups:
   • Overdue Visits – Visits whose date has passed. Each card shows how many days overdue it is.
   • Upcoming Visits – Visits grouped by date. Use the filter at the top to show All Sites or one site, and All dates, This week or This month.
3. A visit card may show a Rescheduled badge if your admin moved the date, and a Round badge such as “Round 2” showing which round of sampling it belongs to.

Step 2: Open the Visit

1. Tap the visit. The Collection Details screen opens with the site address, contact details and the diseases being monitored.
2. Tap Start Visit.

If you started this visit earlier and did not finish, the app asks Resume Visit Draft? Tap Resume to carry on where you stopped, or Start Fresh to begin again.

Step 3: Skip an Overdue Visit

If you cannot do an overdue visit, tap Mark as Skipped on its card. The app confirms with “Visit successfully marked as skipped”. Tap Revisit instead if you want to go and complete it now.

Starting a Visit at Any Site

If you need to visit a site that is not on your schedule:

1. On the Home screen, tap Add Visit.
2. On the Select Site screen, choose a site:
   • Nearby Sites shows sites close to your current location (the app needs location permission).
   • Type in Search sites by name… to find a site by name.
   • Without network, you will see the sites saved on your phone.
3. Tap the site, then tap Select Existing Site.

If the site is not in the list, tap Create New Site and follow the steps in the next section.

If you are offline, the visit is created on your phone and syncs later. The app says “Visit created locally. Will sync when online.”

To see visits that have not yet uploaded, tap View Pending Visits at the bottom of the Select Site screen.

Creating a New Site

1. Tap Create New Site (from Add Visit), or open the Sites tab and tap Create Site.
2. Fill in the Site Details:
   • Name of Site
   • The disease or diseases being monitored at this site
   • The farm type and the site type
   • Whether the site is Private, Government or Corporate
   • No. of Workers
3. Fill in the Site Address: Address, State, District and Pincode.
4. Set the location. Tap Use My Current Location, or type the Latitude and Longitude.
5. Under Contact Details, enter the contact person’s Name and Phone Number (10 digits).
6. Under Assigning Collectors, select the collector or collectors for this site.
7. Under Collection Plan, set how often the site should be visited. The options are Once, Daily, Weekly, Fortnightly, Monthly or Quarterly, plus the days, time and duration.
8. Optionally add photos and comments.
9. Tap Create Site.

If a required field is missing, the app shows a message under it. Fix the fields and tap Create Site again.

If the app cannot reach the server, it says “Could not create site online. Saving offline…” and uploads the site later.

You can later change a site from its Site Details page, either by editing the site itself or by updating its collection plan.

Recording Visit Details

After you start a visit (scheduled or not), the Add Visit Details screen opens.

1. Under Select Diseases, choose the diseases for this visit from the diseases linked to your project. You must choose at least one.
2. For each disease, answer the questions shown. Depending on the disease, these may include:
   • Active Infections Present? and Number of Active Infections
   • Suspected Positives? and Number of Suspected Positives
   • Details about the animals or herd at the site
3. Under Additional Info, tap Add Photos to attach photos (the site, conditions, and so on).
4. Under Comments, add any extra information.
5. Tap Proceed.

Your work is saved as a draft as you go, so if the app closes you can resume it from the same visit.

Collecting Samples

Step 1: Read the Guidelines

The Guidelines for Sample Collection screen shows tips for safe and effective collection, such as using sterile swabs and wearing protective equipment. Read them, then tap Proceed.

Step 2: Choose What You Are Collecting

On the Sample Collection screen, under What are you collecting?, choose one of:

• Clinical samples – Samples taken from animals or birds
• Environmental samples – Samples taken from the surroundings, such as water or soil
• Both – Then choose which one to start with

Tap Proceed.

Step 3: Clinical Samples – Animal or Bird Details

For clinical samples, the Animal/Bird Metadata screen opens first.

1. To record a new animal or bird, fill in its details, for example species, tag ID, vaccination and whether fever was observed. These details are attached to all the samples from this animal.
2. To reuse an animal you have already recorded at this site, open Choose Animal ID, pick the animal, and tap Use Selected Animal.
3. Tap Continue to Sample Selection.

Step 4: Choose Sample Types and Counts

The Clinical Samples or Environmental Samples screen lists the sample types available for your project.

1. Under Select types and enter count per type, set the number of samples for each type. Use the plus and minus buttons or type a number.
2. The Total Samples Selected line shows your running total.
3. Tap Proceed.

For environmental samples, the Environmental Data screen may follow. It has optional Sample Details questions for each sample type. Fill them in and tap Continue to Barcode Entry.

Step 5: Add Barcodes

The Clinical Sample Barcodes or Environmental Sample Barcodes screen has one section for each sample type. Every sample needs its own unique barcode, taken from the label on the container.

You can add barcodes in three ways.

Option A: Scan with the camera (one at a time)

1. On the sample’s row, tap Scan.
2. Point the camera at the barcode. The screen says Point at the barcode. Tap the flashlight icon to light up a dark label.
3. When the app reads the code, it checks it. If the code is fine, it is shown as verified. Tap Use barcode to accept it, or Rescan to try again.
4. If the app shows a problem, such as “is already assigned to another sample”, Use barcode stays greyed out. Tap Scan another and scan a different barcode.

Option B: Continuous Scan (many at once)

1. In the sample type section, choose Continuous Scan.
2. Tap Start Scanning. The screen shows how many more barcodes you need.
3. Scan a barcode, then tap Add & continue. Repeat. The scanned barcodes appear in a row at the bottom, and the counter at the top shows your progress.
4. To remove a barcode you scanned by mistake, tap it in the row at the bottom.
5. When you are finished, tap Done. The button shows how many barcodes you scanned, for example Done · 5.

Option C: Bulk Generate (labels with running numbers)

Use this when your labels are numbered in a sequence.

1. In the sample type section, choose Bulk Generate.
2. Enter the first barcode in Enter prefix e.g. BMM001.
3. Tap Generate. Dharini fills in a barcode for each sample by counting up from your number (BMM001, BMM002, BMM003, and so on).

Typing a barcode by hand

• Inside the scanner, tap Enter manually, type the barcode in the box, and tap Check barcode.
• On the barcode screen, you can also type directly into the Barcode box of a sample.

Caution

Every barcode must be unique. The scanner refuses a code that was already scanned in this visit (“was already scanned in this session”) or is already used for another sample (“is already assigned to another sample”). While you are offline, the app can only check against samples on your phone, so the server checks the barcodes again when you sync.

If the camera does not start, the scanner tells you to allow camera access in your phone’s Settings, or to try again or type the barcode instead.

Step 6: Quantity, Replicates, Photos and Comments

For each sample row, you can also:

• Enter the Quantity and Unit
• Add a replicate: tap Add Replicate and enter the replicate’s ID. Use this when you take more than one tube from the same sample.
• Tap Add Photos (or Add More Photos) to attach photos of the sample
• Add optional comments in Add comments (optional)

Tap Save & Continue when every sample has a barcode.

Step 7: Add More Samples or Continue

On the barcode screen, you can tap Add More Samples to add another sample type to the same visit.

After you save, the Sample Added Successfully screen shows the total number of samples collected so far. From here you can:

• Add another animal (Clinical) – Record another animal or bird
• Continue to Environmental or Continue to Clinical – If you chose Both, move on to the other kind of sample
• Review Visit – Finish collecting and go to the review screen

Reviewing and Submitting a Visit

1. On the Visit Details review screen, check the site details, visit date, location, disease information, and every sample (barcode, type, replicates, photos and comments).
2. Tap Submit Visit. The app captures your current location and validates the visit.

If the app says you are not assigned to a team, you cannot submit. Ask your admin to add you to a team.

After you tap Submit Visit, the app shows one of these messages:

• Visit saved. Syncing in background… – You are online and the visit is uploading.
• Visit saved locally. Will sync when online. – You are offline. The visit is safe on your phone and will upload later.

The Success Screen

After you submit, the Visit saved successfully screen opens. At the top you may see:

• Syncing visit to server… – Upload in progress
• Visit synced successfully! – The visit is on the server
• Sync failed. Will retry when online. – Nothing is lost. The app will try again.

Below, Next Step tells you to Deliver Samples to Lab, with the lab team’s name and address. Tap Back to Home when you are done.

Viewing Sites and Visits

Sites Tab

The Sites tab lists Assigned Sites and All Sites. Tap a site to open Site Details:

• Site address and owner or caretaker contact
• Collection Configuration: frequency, day and time, and Assigned Collectors
• Recent Visits
• Photos & Comments

From here you can edit the site or update its collection plan.

Visits Tab

The Visits tab has two tabs:

• Pending – Overdue Visits, Upcoming Visits, and Offline Pending Visits (visits saved on your phone that have not uploaded yet)
• Completed – Visits you have finished. Tap one to open its Visit Details, including surveillance details, samples, photos and your comments.

Team Tab (Collector Admins Only)

If you are a Collector Admin, the Team tab shows Team Progress with:

• A period filter: This week, This month or 3 Months
• Team Activity counts for OVERDUE, PENDING and COMPLETED visits
• A list of members with their visits. You can use Filter and Sort by.

Adding members from the mobile app is not available at the moment. A Team Admin can add them from the web app (see Managing Team Access).

To remove members, tap Remove Members.

Profile and Settings

Open the Profile tab to see your name, organisation, phone number and email. From here you can:

• Edit your profile
• Change Language
• Switch Project
• Logout

When you tap Logout, the app first tries for a few seconds to upload any pending visits. Anything it cannot upload stays safely on your phone and uploads the next time the app is online.

Working Offline

The Dharini app is designed to work without a network.

What Works Offline

• Viewing the sites and visits that were last downloaded to your phone
• Creating sites and visits
• Collecting samples, scanning barcodes and taking photos
• Submitting visits. They are saved on your phone.

When you are offline, a banner at the top says You are working offline. Changes will sync when online.

How Syncing Works

• The app uploads pending visits automatically when the network comes back, and checks again every few minutes.
• A sync icon with a number appears at the top of the Home screen while visits are waiting. Tap it to upload them immediately.
• A yellow bar with Syncing pending visits… shows while an upload is running.
• If a visit depends on a site that has not uploaded yet, the app says “Some visits are pending server sync. Will retry automatically.” This is normal. It uploads the site first, then the visit.

Best Practices for Offline Work

• Open the app and let it sync before you head out, so your sites and visits are up to date
• Keep your device charged. GPS and camera use a lot of battery.
• Do not uninstall the app while visits are still waiting to upload
• At the end of each field day, connect to WiFi or mobile data and wait until the sync icon disappears

Tip

The app can store several days’ worth of visits offline. Even so, sync regularly so your data is backed up on the server.

Tips for Efficient Field Collection

Before Leaving for the Field

• Check your upcoming and overdue visits for the day
• Make sure your phone is fully charged
• Sync any pending visits
• Check that location and camera permissions are on

During Field Collection

• Take clear photos in good light
• Check barcodes before you save them
• Fill in all required fields
• Add comments about anything unusual

After Returning from the Field

• Connect to WiFi or mobile data
• Wait for the pending-visit number on the sync icon to disappear
• Read any sync messages that appear, and tap the sync icon to try again if one failed

Troubleshooting

For common issues and their solutions, see the Troubleshooting Guide.

Next Steps

• Learn about Team Admin workflows
• Learn about Lab Technician workflows
• View Troubleshooting Guide
• Return to User Guide Overview