Making changes in Production and how it may impact your dataOnce a project is in production, changes to the data collection instruments can no longer be made in real time.
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How do I make changes to my data instruments?
In the Online Designer (or ‘Designer’ in the lefthand menu), you will need to enter Draft Mode.
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Draft Mode will track the changes being made and allow them to be submitted for review, if necessary. Changes can also be rejected by clicking ‘Remove all drafted changes’
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Changes made |
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in Draft Mode will not be seen until they are submitted |
How do I make changes to my events?
Changes to longitudinal events in production status must be done by an administrator. Contact our support desk at cru@ucalgary.ca
Can I go back to development mode?
If a project was put into production mode too early, or does not yet contain any real data, it can be moved back into development mode by an an administrator. Contact our support desk at cru@ucalgary.ca
How can I test my changes before implementing them?
It is possible to preview a data collection instrument in the Online Designer. This allows the form to be seen, but does not allow for the testing of branching logic and other functions.
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If significant changes are being made to the project, contact us for assistance at cru@ucalgary.ca
How will the changes affect my data?
It is important to note that field responses are associated with corresponding records using the raw value of a particular choice, rather than the descriptor. This means that if you change a descriptor for a raw value, you will effectively change the data collected prior to the change.
For example, if you have a field with radio buttons consisting of 0, Female and 1, Male and you changed the choices to 0, Male and 1, Female then all existing records with a value of 0 will now essentially be Male even though the original response indicated Female.
You can see how important it is to keep the descriptor associated with its raw value. This also holds true when modifying a field to add or reorganize field choices. To avoid impacting existing data, it is better to add additional field choices rather than modify existing choices.
It is also important to consider any branching logic or calculations which might be affected when changing field choices, as those calculations and logic are performed by using the raw value. Modifying field choices used in calculations or within branching logic may affect other fields downstream.
Deleting fields will also delete any associated data.
Why can't I see my changes?
Once your changes have been made, they can be submitted for Production. This sends a notification to the REDCap Support Team where they will review the changes for any potential problems. If issues are spotted that may impact existing data, you will be contacted to verify you are aware of the impact and give you the option of proceeding with the changes, perform additional changes or to reject and reset the pending changes.
More information on Field Types can be found on the Help & FAQ page in REDCap
For additional assistance, please contact Deleting fields will erase the data that is associated with them. If a field is no longer needed, use the action tag @HIDDEN to hide it from view while maintaining the data.
Adding fields will not affect any previous data.
Editing fields may change your data, depending on what is being changed:
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The Field Label can be edited freely. Discretion is needed as changes to the field label may change the meaning of the data being collected.
Existing Choices should not be changed, as this may change the meaning of the data. It is important to keep the descriptor with its raw value (the number/letter it is associated with). Choices are also commonly used with branching logic, so changes may affect other fields.
(In the example above, changing to “1=Monday, 2=Tuesday, 3=Wednesday…” would change the meaning of the existing data, where 1 was selected to mean ‘Monday-Wednesday-Friday’)Action Tags are very useful for hiding ‘retired’ questions or choices without loss of existing data.
Field Annotations can be used to add comments or explanations about how/when a field is changed.Variable Names cannot be changed once in production.
If you are unsure how your changes may impact your data, please contact us for assistance at cru@ucalgary.ca