REDCap Advanced Features and their uses

Branching Logic

Calculated Fields

Data Exports, Reports, and Stats

Data Import Tool

Manage Survey Participants

Record Locking

Calendar - longitudinal automatic scheduling

API vs. Hooks vs. Plugins vs. External Modules

API

• Web service that users can utilize to import or export data, metadata, etc.

• Users can build API scripts in any programming language 

• Examples:

  • Exporting data out of REDCap and into another system or local device

  • Importing data from another system to a REDCap project

Plugins

• Are PHP scripts external to REDCap 

• Can appear as if part of REDCap (but are not) 

• Cannot affect behavior or look of existing REDCap pages

• Examples: 

  • Extra page in a REDCap project

  • Simple dashboards and reports

  • Entire web applications that sit on top of REDCap

Hooks

• Are PHP scripts executed internally by REDCap in specific places in the application 

• Can affect behavior or look of REDCap pages 

• Examples:

  • Customize a survey page, data entry form, etc.

  • Perform additional back-end operations on data entry forms, survey pages, or during a “save record” event

External Modules

• Are the next generation of REDCap plugins and hooks 

• Are kind of a hybrid of plugins and hooks 

• Can be downloaded from the REDCap Repo (public repository of modules) by a REDCap administrator

• Examples:

  • Survey Link Lookup

  • Email Alerts module (similar to Auto-Notify plugin)