REDCap Update User Summary
REDCap will be down for a planned outage from 5:00pm to 7:00pm EDT on Monday October 8th. We will be updating to REDCap 8.5.13.
Highlights of what this REDCap update means for REDCap users and researchers
New Feature: Survey-specific email invitation fields
You can designate any email field in your project to use for sending survey invitations for that particular survey. Thus, you can collect several email addresses (e.g., for a student, a parent, and a teacher) and utilize each email for a different survey in the project. Then you can send each person an invitation to their own survey, after which all the survey responses get stored as one single record in the project. To learn more about Survey-specific email invitation fields click here
New Feature: Smart Variables
Smart Variables are dynamic variables (from a predefined list of 32 that can be found here) that can be used in calculated fields, conditional/branching logic, and piping. Similar to using project variable names inside square brackets - e.g., [heart_rate], Smart Variables are also represented inside brackets - e.g., [user-name], [survey-link], [previous-event-name][weight], or [heart_rate][previous-instance]. But instead of pointing to data fields, Smart Variables are context-aware and thus adapt to the current situation. Some can be used with field variables or other Smart Variables, and some are meant to be used as stand-alone. There are many possibilities. Smart Variables can reference things with regard to users, records, forms, surveys, events/arms, or repeating instances. To learn more about Smart Variables click here
New Feature: Improved e-Consent Framework:
New e-consent tools including an extra certification page, better consent review workflow and PDF saving tools, and improved signature box look and workflow. As an optional tool, additional e-consent values (i.e., name, date of birth, IP Address, etc.) can be added to the PDF as extra documentation of the identity of the person who is consenting. Improved e-signature workflow and look. To learn more about e-Consent Framework click here
New Feature: PDF Auto-Archiver
Upon survey completion, a compact PDF copy of the survey response can be automatically stored in the project's File Repository, from which the archived PDFs can be downloaded at any time.
Improvement: SQL fields can utilize Smart Variables
Utilizing Smart Variables in SQL fields can be very powerful because they allow the query to be truly dynamic and change from context to context or record to record, rather than it always being a static query that gets executed against the database.
Bug fix: Twilio Participant Preference Selection with DateDiff logic
When using the Twilio telophony module for sending survey invitations while also using Automated Survey Invitations that contain conditional logic containing datediff+today or datediff+now, if the ASI has "Participant Preference" as the invitation type, then in certain cases (but not all the time) it would mistakenly send the invitation via email rather than via the participant's preferred delivery method. And if those participants do not have an associated email address, then the invitation would simply fail to send, as noted in the Survey Invitation Log.
To see a full list of new features and bug fixes please click here.
Have questions? Please attend a workshop to ask questions and have a discussion about a specific issue or attend a training to see a presentation covering the basics. All users can be found at: CCTST Events
Full List of Updates and Bug Fixes
Overview
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