Nextcloud Forms to Tables Sync

Syncs submissions from Nextcloud Forms to Nextcloud Tables via API. Deduplicates by submission timestamp.

Features

• ✅ Reads Forms API v3 submissions (/ocs/v2.php/apps/forms/api/v3/forms/{id}/submissions)
• ✅ Writes to Tables API v1 (/index.php/apps/tables/api/1/tables/{id}/rows)
• ✅ Handles Forms v3 answers list structure (questionId → text/choice/etc.)
• ✅ Converts Unix timestamps to ISO 8601 datetime strings
• ✅ Deduplicates by exact timestamp match (no external files needed)
• ✅ Fully configurable via .env
• ✅ Production logging and error handling

Requirements

pip install requests python-dotenv

Nextcloud apps required:

• Forms
• Tables

Setup

1. Copy config:

cp .env.example .env

2. Edit .env with your values:

NC_URL=https://your-nextcloud.com
NC_USERNAME=your-username
NC_APP_PASSWORD=your-app-password
FORM_ID=123
TABLE_ID=456
TIMESTAMP_COLUMN_NAME="Zeitstempel"
FIELD_MAPPING={"44":"Work E-Mail","50":"Name of challenge",...}

3. Secure the file:

chmod 600 .env

4. Generate App Password:
   • Nextcloud → Settings → Personal → Security → "Create new app password"

Usage

python transfer_forms_to_table.py

Output:

INFO:__main__:Retrieved 3 form responses
INFO:__main__:Retrieved 19 columns from table 32
INFO:__main__:Collected 2 existing timestamps from table 32
INFO:__main__:Skipping submission 33 (timestamp 2026-01-15T16:28:48+01:00 already in table)
INFO:__main__:Successfully wrote row to table 32
INFO:__main__:Synced 1 new responses
Synced 1 rows

Configuration

.env Variables

Variable	Description	Example
NC_URL	Nextcloud base URL	https://my-url.org
NC_USERNAME	Nextcloud username	my.user
NC_APP_PASSWORD	App password (not main password)	my-password
FORM_ID	Form ID (integer)	11
TABLE_ID	Table ID (integer)	32
TIMESTAMP_COLUMN_NAME	Exact column title for timestamps	Zeitstempel
FIELD_MAPPING	JSON {questionId: "column title"}	{"44":"Work E-Mail","50":"Name of challenge"}

Field Mapping

Get question IDs from:

GET /ocs/v2.php/apps/forms/api/v3/forms/{FORM_ID}?format=json

Example:

{
  "44": "Work E-Mail",
  "50": "Name of challenge", 
  "53": "Challenge Description"
}

How It Works

1. Forms API → List submissions (id, timestamp, answers[])
2. Tables API → Get columns {title: id}
3. Tables API → Get existing timestamps from Zeitstempel column
4. For each submission:
   ├─ Skip if timestamp already exists
   ├─ Transform answers[] → {columnId: value}
   └─ Convert timestamp → ISO 8601 string
5. Tables API → POST new rows

API Endpoints Used

Purpose	URL
List submissions	GET /ocs/v2.php/apps/forms/api/v3/forms/{id}/submissions
List columns	GET /index.php/apps/tables/api/1/tables/{id}/columns
List rows	GET /index.php/apps/tables/api/1/tables/{id}/rows
Create row	POST /index.php/apps/tables/api/1/tables/{id}/rows

Deployment

Cron (every 15 minutes)

*/15 * * * * cd /path/to/script && /usr/bin/python3 transfer_forms_to_table.py >> /var/log/forms_to_tables.log 2>&1

Docker

FROM python:3.11-slim
WORKDIR /app
COPY requirements.txt .
RUN pip install -r requirements.txt
COPY . .
CMD ["python", "transfer_forms_to_table.py"]

Troubleshooting

Error	Fix
404 Forms	Check FORM_ID, ensure Forms app enabled
404 Tables	Check TABLE_ID, ensure Tables app enabled
Empty rows	Verify FIELD_MAPPING questionIds match form
Column not found	Check exact column titles (case-sensitive, spaces)
Missing env vars	Copy .env.example → .env and fill values

Debug: Add logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG) for full HTTP traces.

Files

├── transfer_forms_to_table.py     # Main script
├── .env                          # Your config (gitignored)
├── .env.example                  # Template (git tracked)
└── README.md                     # This file