Library locking

Last updated: 29 Aug 2025

“Library locking” refers to the feature enabling various aspects of a survey to be “locked” when created from a template containing locking attributes. All aspects of a form’s editing are available to be locked through the assigning of “locking profiles” at the form, question or group level. These locking profiles can be assigned granular “restrictions” that group together locking functionalities. Alternatively, the form can be fully locked down, preventing all aspects of editing.

Currently, only locking set within the XLSForm itself is supported, but will be incorporated into the formbuilder at some point in the future.

This feature may be useful in a large, distributed team setting where a standard template is used, with some locked features, and each team can make necessary local adjustments for their needs. The creator of the template can continue to make updates, but the locks will restrict changes to specified aspects of the form for those who create a project based on the template.

Locking aspects of a form is separate from managing project permissions.

Restrictions

There are three levels of restrictions that can be set:

1. Question,

2. Group, and

3. Form

Additionally, there is a kobo--lock_all boolean that can set in the settings sheet that will render the survey completely locked.

kobo--lock_all boolean

If kobo--lock_all is set to True, then all additional granular restrictions are redundant as the form is fully locked down. If it is set to False or omitted from the settings sheet, then defined locking profiles can be used to control the locked behaviour:

settings sheet

kobo–lock_all

true

settings

The accepted values for kobo--lock_all are the same as in the survey sheet that pyxform supports. No error will be thrown if an invalid value is used, only the form will not function as intended from the user’s perspective.

Note that the restriction name, such as choice_add below, is predefined and only the restrictions listed below are valid options.

Question-level restrictions

Name	Description
choice_add	Add new choices to a select_* question
choice_delete	Remove an existing choice from a select_* question
choice_value_edit	Edit a choice name
choice_label_edit	Edit a choice label
choice_order_edit	Reorder the choices of a select_* question
question_delete	Delete a given question
question_label_edit	Edit an existing label or hint
question_settings_edit	Edit a question’s settings (other than constraint or relevant)
question_skip_logic_edit	Edit a question’s skip logic settings (relevant)
question_validation_edit	Edit a question’s validation criteria settings (constraint)

Group-level restrictions

Name	Description
group_delete	Delete group modal Delete everything button (or delete group button if paired with group_split)
group_split	Delete group modal Ungroup questions button (or delete group button if paired with group_delete)
group_label_edit	Edit a group label
group_question_add	Adding or cloning questions inside given group (children groups included)
group_question_delete	Delete any question from given group (children groups questions included)
group_question_order_edit	Changing order of questions inside given group (children groups included)
group_settings_edit	Changing All group settings from given group Settings
group_skip_logic_edit	Changing Skip Logic from given group Settings

Form-level restrictions

Name	Description
form_appearance	Changing form appearance from Layout & Settings
form_replace	Replacing form using Replace Form modal
group_add	Button for grouping questions
question_add	Using Insert cascading select option and each Add Question and Clone Question button
question_order_edit	Changing any questions order
language_edit	Edit languages in Translations Modal
form_meta_edit	Edit meta questions from Layout & Settings

XLSForm configuration

There are three sheets where locking profiles are defined and set: survey, settings and kobo--locking-profiles. The sheet of kobo--locking-profiles is not officially supported by pyxform and is KoboToolbox-specific.

Form-level restrictions are defined in the settings sheet and question and group-level restrictions are defined in the survey sheet.

From within the kobo--locking-profiles sheet, all the locking profiles are defined in a matrix structure, using the keyword “locked” to assign a “restriction” to a specific “profile”. For example:

kobo–locking-profiles

Define the profiles and assign them restrictions. There is no limit on the number of profiles that can be defined (profile_1, …, profile_n) but there are only three colours that differentiate their locking appearance in the formbuilder.

restriction	profile_1	profile_2	profile_3
choice_add	locked
choice_delete		locked
choice_label_edit	locked
choice_order_edit	locked	locked
form_appearance			locked
kobo–locking-profiles

Note that not all valid restrictions need to be included in the restriction column, but an error will be thrown if an invalid restriction is included.

settings sheet

Set form-level restrictions and kobo--lock_all boolean.

kobo–locking-profile	kobo–lock_all
profile_3	false
settings

Note that omitting kobo--lock_all from the settings sheet is equivalent to setting it to False.

survey sheet

Set question and group-level restrictions.

type	name	label	kobo–locking-profile
select_one countries	country	Select your country	profile_1
select_one cities	city	Select your city	profile_2
survey

choices sheet

No restrictions can be set in the choices sheet.

list_name	name	label
countries	canada	Canada
countries	usa	United States of America
cities	vancouver	Vancouver
cities	toronto	Toronto
cities	baltimore	Baltimore
cities	boston	Boston
choices

This example XLSForm can be downloaded here.

Import locked XLSForms

Import your XLSForm as a template through the KoboToolbox UI by navigating to your Library and clicking on NEW and then Upload. Ensure that you select template from the Choose desired type drop-down menu and then import your XLSForm.

The locked template will now show in your library list view with a lock symbol.

Create project from locked template

Once a locked template has been added to your library – either directly through importing an XLSForm as a template, creating a template based on a locked survey or adding a locked template from the public collections – you can create a new project. In the Projects section of the UI, click on NEW and then Use a template.

• Choose the locked template you want to use to create the new project.

• From there, continue to create the project.

When this example locked template is used to create a new project, the formbuilder will look like the following:

• The grayed out areas are those that have been disabled through the restrictions.

• A dialogue box above the first question will show an overview of some of the form’s restrictions.

• Each question with locking profiles will display, in its settings, which restrictions have been set.

• Some form-level settings will also be greyed out.

Form validation

The following cases will currently throw a FormPackLibraryLockingError:

• If a locking profile name (column header in the kobo--locking-profiles sheet) is “locked” (the same as the locking keyword)

• If a restriction listed in kobo--locking-profiles is invalid (not in the list of predefined restrictions)

• If there is a sheet called kobo--locking-profiles but no restriction column

• If no locking profiles are defined (column headers in the kobo--locking-profiles sheet)

Validation of the XLSForm library locking features will be expanded in the future.

Caveats

In some spreadsheet editors, two single dashes (--) are automatically converted to an m-dash (—), therefore making it difficult to type kobo-- into a cell. We therefore convert all instances of n- and m-dashes into two single dashes (when prefixed with kobo). An XLSForm with the sheet name of “kobo—locking-profiles” will be converted to kobo--locking-profiles and similarly for the column headers.

JSON representation

There are two attributes of the asset where locking information can be accessed and modified: asset.summary and asset.content.

If kobo--locking-profile is a column name in the survey sheet, it will also be listed in the asset.summary.columns array.

In asset.summary, the following two Boolean attributes describe an overview of the form’s locking structure:

• lock_all, and

• lock_any

The logic by which each of those Booleans are set is as follows:

• lock_all is True only if kobo--lock_all is set to True in the settings sheet, otherwise it’s False

• lock_any is set to True if any of the following cases are True:

  • lock_all is True,

  • A kobo--locking-profile is set in the settings sheet, or

  • At least one kobo--locking-profile is set in the survey sheet

In the example above, the following will be present in the asset.summary:

{
  ...,
  "columns": [
    ...,
    "kobo--locking-profile"
  ],
  "lock_all": false,
  "lock_any": true,
  ...
}

In asset.content, an attribute of content.kobo--locking-profiles exists as an array of JSON objects with the following structure:

[
  {
    "name": "profile_1",
    "restrictions": [
      "choice_add",
      "choice_label_edit",
      "choice_order_edit"
    ]
  },
  ...
]

In content.settings, the following will be present in a JSON object:

{
  "kobo--locking-profile": "profile_3",
  "kobo--lock_all": false
}

And finally in content.survey, each question that has been assigned a locking profile will have a kobo--locking-profile attribute as follows:

[
  {
    "name": "country",
    "type": "select_one",
    ...
    "kobo--locking-profile": "profile_1"
  },
  {
    "name": "city",
    "type": "select_one",
    ...
    "kobo--locking-profile": "profile_2"
  },
  ...
]

Locking profiles and asset types

Of the four asset types (survey, template, question and block), only templates and surveys handle library locking features and the locks are enforced only on surveys. Practically, this means the following:

Assume an XLSForm containing valid locking features is imported:

• If imported as a block, then all traces of locking are excluded and/or stripped from the asset. This results in a block asset that will be equivalent to the same form uploaded without any locking features;

• If imported as a survey (imported through the Projects section) or template then all locks are intact:

  • If, from within the formbuilder:

    • a question is added to the library, then all locks are stripped from the new question asset

    • a group of questions is added to the library as a block, then all locks are stripped

  • If a template is created from the locked survey asset, then that template will inherit all the locks the survey had (but since it is a template, you are able to edit the contents in the formbuilder),

  • If a survey is created from a locked template, the survey will inherit all the locks that the template had

Original Asset Type	Process/action	Resulting asset’s Status
survey	import XLSForm file of locked survey	locked
survey	create template from locked survey	locked
survey	create question from locked survey※	not locked
survey	create block from locked survey※	not locked
template	import XLSForm file of locked template	locked
template	create survey from locked template	locked
template	create question from locked template※	not locked
template	create block from locked template※	not locked
block	import XLSForm file of locked block※	not locked
block	add locked block from Library into survey	not locked
block	add locked block from Library into template	not locked
block	create question from locked block※	not locked
question	import XLSForm file of locked block※	not locked
question	add locked question from Library into survey	not locked
question	add locked question from Library into template	not locked
question	create block from locked question※	not locked

※ These actions are not possible in the UI.

Terminology

kobo--lock_all

Attribute containing a Boolean value, set in the settings sheet and applies all locking restrictions to the form and all questions and groups (rendering granular locking profiles redundant).

kobo--locking-profile

Column name in the survey and settings sheets where the locking profile is assigned to a question or group (in survey) or to the form (in settings).

kobo--locking-profiles

Sheet name where restrictions are assigned to profiles.

locked

Keyword used to assign a restriction to a profile in the kobo--locking-profiles sheet.

Profile

The name assigned to a group of restrictions, defined in the kobo--locking-profiles sheet. It is assigned to questions and groups in the survey sheet and to the from in the settings sheet.

Restriction

A granular locking attribute that can be assigned to a profile and control the locking behaviour at the question, group or form level.

Unlocked

A form containing no locking attributes.