REDCap upgrade Jan. 29 brings new features; downtime from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.

On the evening of Wednesday, Jan. 29, the CTS-IT will upgrade REDCap from version 9.1.1 to 9.3.5. You can expect a downtime for REDCap from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. while we complete the upgrade.

The new version of REDCap scheduled for release on Jan. 29 has some new features and several improvements to existing features, including:

New features

 Rich text editor for field labels and section headers

  • For any field on an instrument in the Online Designer, users may optionally utilize the rich text editor for styling field labels or section headers with many text-formatting options. The rich text editor allows users to change the color of text (including background color), create tables, add text of varying sizes, bullet lists, and more. For any field labels that were originally created without the rich text editor, users may optionally enable the rich text editor for any field by clicking the ‘Use the Rich Text Editor’ checkbox. It may also be disabled afterward at any time just the same. Rich text is enabled by default for any new fields being created via the Online Designer.
  • Note: The PDF export of surveys/instruments will *not* reflect all the styling of the rich text editor, so keep in mind that line breaks and paragraphs should be represented well in PDFs, but other text-formatting options, such as large text, bullet points, and colors are not able to be translated into the PDF export of the instrument. This is a current limitation in REDCap.

 10 new Smart Variables

  • [project-id] – The Project ID (i.e., PID) of the current REDCap project.
  • [user-fullname] -The current user’s first and last name (as listed on their My Profile page).
  • [user-email] – The current user’s primary email address (as listed on their My Profile page).
  • [redcap-base-url] – The base web address for the REDCap installation.
  • [redcap-version] – The current REDCap version number of the REDCap installation.
  • [redcap-version-url] – The base web address of the current REDCap version directory for the REDCap installation.
  • [survey-base-url] – The base web address for surveys for the REDCap installation.
  • [instrument-name] – The unique instrument name of the current survey or data entry form. It will return a blank value if not in an instrument context.
  • [instrument-label] – The instrument label of the current survey or data entry form. It will return a blank value if not in an instrument context.
  • [survey-title] – The survey title of the instrument specified by the ‘instrument’ parameter (if provided). If the ‘instrument’ parameter is not provided, the current survey instrument will be used, else it will return a blank value if not in an instrument/survey context.

4 new Action Tags

  • @NOW_SERVER – Loads the REDCap server’s date+time into a blank Text field – similar to the @TODAY tag but additionally includes the time portion. If the field has validation, the value will adjust to match the date format. NOTE: The time used will be the REDCap server’s local time, which might be different from the user’s local time if in another time zone. Also, do not use this tag on fields with branching logic because it will always prompt the user to erase the value, so look at using @HIDDEN instead if you wish to hide the field.
  • @TODAY_SERVER – Loads the REDCap server’s date into a blank Text field – similar to the @NOW tag but without the time portion. If the field has validation, the value will adjust to match the date format. Also, do not use this tag on fields with branching logic because it will always prompt the user to erase the value, so look at using @HIDDEN instead if you wish to hide the field.
  • @NOW_UTC – Loads the current UTC/GMT date+time into a blank Text field – similar to the @TODAY tag but additionally includes the time portion. If the field has validation, the value will adjust to match the date format. NOTE: The time used will be the current UTC/GMT time, which might be different from the user’s local time if in another time zone. Also, do not use this tag on fields with branching logic because it will always prompt the user to erase the value, so look at using @HIDDEN instead if you wish to hide the field.
  • @TODAY_UTC – Loads the current UTC/GMT date into a blank Text field – similar to the @NOW tag but without the time portion. If the field has validation, the value will adjust to match the date format. Also, do not use this tag on fields with branching logic because it will always prompt the user to erase the value, so look at using @HIDDEN instead if you wish to hide the field.

File Version History for File Upload fields (project-level setting)

  • This feature allows a new file to be uploaded onto a File Upload field that already has a file uploaded for it. If a file has already been uploaded, the field will have a new link “Upload new version”, and after being clicked, it will allow the user to upload another file without having to delete the existing one. The old/existing file will not be deleted but will still be accessible as an older version of that file in the Data History popup (by clicking the “H” icon next to the field). Within the Data History popup, a user may view, download, or delete any existing version of the file that exists, in which all versions of the file will be displayed in a table format and listed in chronological order.

Improvement

In a project with repeating instruments, the Record Home Page now displays a count of total instances of a given repeating instrument next to the instrument name in the tables of instances displayed at the bottom of that page.