Environmental Information

• Onadata version: 5.15.3

Problem description

When a form is replaced (via XFormViewSet.partial_update → _try_update_xlsform), create_xform_version in onadata/libs/utils/logger_tools.py is called to save a snapshot in XFormVersion. The model has unique_together = ["xform", "version"], and create_xform_version swallows IntegrityError silently:

try:
    with transaction.atomic():
        versioned_xform = XFormVersion.objects.create(...)
except IntegrityError:
    pass

If the replacement XLSForm/XML carries the same version string as the existing XFormVersion row (a common case — users frequently re-upload a fixed XLSForm without bumping the settings-sheet version), the insert fails on the unique constraint and is silently dropped. Meanwhile dd.xls/dd.xml have already been overwritten on the DataDictionary, so the prior XLSForm/XML is unrecoverable and no new version row is recorded.

A second, related bug exists in publish_xml_form: dd.version is never set from the parsed XML, so initial XML-form publishes also fail to create an XFormVersion row (the empty version causes the same silently-swallowed IntegrityError).

Affected call sites:

• onadata/apps/api/viewsets/xform_viewset.py::_try_update_xlsform
• onadata/libs/utils/logger_tools.py::publish_xls_form, publish_xml_form, create_xform_version
• onadata/apps/viewer/models/data_dictionary.py::DataDictionary.save

Expected behavior

Each form replacement persists a new XFormVersion row that captures the replacement's xls, xml, json, and version, regardless of whether the user bumped the version string in the XLSForm/XML. The replacement is also surfaced to clients (e.g., ODK Collect) as a new version so devices fetch the updated form.

Steps to reproduce the behavior

1. Publish an XLSForm to a project.
2. PATCH /api/v1/forms/<pk> with the same XLSForm (or any XLSForm where the settings-sheet version matches the existing XForm.version).
3. Inspect XFormVersion.objects.filter(xform=...) — only the original row exists. The replacement is lost.

Additional Information

Proposed fix on branch feat/onadata-1143-bump-version-on-form-replace: auto-bump XForm.version to <original>-N (smallest unused N >= 2) when a replacement would otherwise collide. For XLSForms the bump runs in DataDictionary.save() before survey.to_xml() so the XML/JSON/version stay in sync. For raw XML uploads publish_xml_form extracts the version from the XML, bumps it, and surgically rewrites the <data version="..."> attribute. publish_xml_form also now sets dd.version on initial publish so the first XFormVersion row is persisted.