REDCap
Source: https://act.utoronto.ca/external-modules/ Parent: https://act.utoronto.ca/redcap/
External Modules
What is an external module?
External Modules are individual packages of software that can be downloaded and installed by a REDCap administrator. Modules extend REDCap’s current functionality and can also provide customizations and enhancements for REDCap’s existing behaviour and appearance at the system level or project level. Refer to the list of Available External Modules for approved modules.
Requesting an external module
- External module requests will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
- If a project owner wishes to request an external module for their projects, please email the support team at redcap@utoronto.ca with the following information:
- Project ID (PID)
- The name of the external module
- A brief explanation of why the project owner needs the module and how it will support their project(s).
- If available, provide a link to GitHub
Please note that external modules are beyond the scope of REDCap’s core functionality. The University of Toronto REDCap Administrative Team will not be able to provide technical support or troubleshooting for any issues related to their use.
REDCap is intended for data collection, and alternative tools to REDCap may be suggested for use cases such as data analysis. For example, R statistical software is better suited for data cleaning and analysis.
Approval Process
- Before an external module is enabled, the REDCap Administrative team will conduct a preliminary screening of the external module.
- The findings will be brought forward to the University’s REDCap Operations team for review.
- The University’s REDCap Operations team consists of representation from:
- Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education
- Academic, Research & Collaborative Technologies (ARC), Information Technology Services (ITS)
- Centre for Research Innovation & Support (CRIS), Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation (VPRI)
- Enterprise Infrastructure Support (EIS), ITS
- Information Security @ UofT, ITS
- Key considerations as part of the review include information security and privacy, and support and maintenance of the module.
- If a module has been approved by the University’s REDCap Operations team, then a submission will be placed for the Information Technology Services Change Management
External Module Considerations
- Only external modules which have been accepted and listed in the should be submitted.
- Consider why and if the external module aligns with the project design.
- Please also consult the list of external modules already available on the system, and whether they may fit your use case.
- Is there confirmation that the external module has been updated or upgraded within the previous 2 years?
Available External Modules
The following EMs are available on REDCap:
- Auto DAGS
- Choice Columns
- Field Shuffle
- GeoMarker
- HIDESUBMIT Action Tags
- Image Map
- Locking Forms
- Matrix Question Randomization
- Multi-Column Menu
- Public Survey DAG
- Notes:
- DAG-specific URLs may not be functional after every REDCap upgrade (last Wednesday of each month). It is recommended that the setting “Enable API URLs” would need to be enabled after the project is built and DAGs are defined but before sending any emails and generating links. The “Enable API URLs” setting should then remain on for the life of the project (if it is disabled at any point within that project, all DAG-specific URLs will break).
- It is recommended to investigate the use of Public Survey DAG’s auto-delete feature as it helps to prevent creation of incomplete records (e.g. in the even that there is unwanted bot activity and generates empty records, the empty records would be removed by the module).