REDCap Archive

This is a list of REDcap updates older than 2021 going back to version 6.1. For more recent versions, see the main REDCap Versions page.

Bug fixes
Improvement: When viewing files in the File Repository that are archived from a data export, it now displays the data export details.
Change: The @PREFILL action tag has been renamed to @SETVALUE, which more accurately captures how it behaves. Some confusion had occurred regarding this action tag's behavior simply because of its name.
Change: Any fields using the @PREFILL/@SETVALUE action tag will no longer be read-only/disabled on survey pages and data entry forms but will be editable.

Improvement: Assign a user to a DAG at the same time as adding the user to the project - Whenever a user is being added to a project via the User Rights page, if Data Access Groups are being utilized in the project, a new option will appear (whether if adding the user with custom rights or if assigning them to a user role) that allows you to assign the user to a DAG at the same time as adding them to the project.
Improvement: When exporting a PDF of all record data via the "Other Export Options" page, a copy of the downloaded PDF will now be archived and stored in the File Repository, similar to how other data exports (i.e., CSV, SPSS) are archived.
Improvement: The project logging page now displays more information for PDF Exports that contain data, such as displaying the record name, event, and instrument for the downloaded PDF.
Improvement: Further performance gains for projects with lots of records (25K+), especially during the process of creating new records via data entry forms and via data imports, which have been known to be slow in the past for large projects.
Change/improvement: The "Phone (North America)" field validation now allows phone numbers that begin with "800" and “811”.
New feature: Field that maps to a participant’s Twilio delivery preference - When using Twilio for surveys, users can control each participant's invitation preference automatically using a multiple choice field.
New feature: Custom offline message for surveys in offline status
New feature: Survey-level Stop Action controls(new section on Survey Settings page)
Improvement: New project-level option for importing email addresses for patients from an EHR via REDCap’s Clinical Data Interoperability Services (CDIS).
Improvement: If a project contains more than 25,000 records, the Logging page will no longer display the record filtering drop-down at the top of the page but instead will display an auto-complete text box to allow the user to enter the record name if they wish to filter the logging by record.
Improvement: The upload max file size for File Upload fields and general file attachments can now be increased or decreased on a per-project basis if needing to be different from the system-level settings as defined on the "File Upload Settings" page in the Control Center. This can be changed at the bottom of the Control Center's "Edit a Project's Settings" page for any given project.
Change/improvement: The institution name is now included in the email subject for all emails sent regarding user expiration and account suspension due to inactivity. This is done to provide greater clarity to the user regarding which REDCap installation is being referenced in the email.

Major Bug fix: When using advanced filter logic, the logic would not get interpreted correctly
Improvement: Custom ranges (min/max) for slider fields
New feature: New API “Export Logging” method
New feature: Ability to import/export user rights via a CSV file on the User Rights page

New feature: New “:link” piping option for File Upload fields

New feature: Field Bank - When adding new fields via the Online Designer, users will see an "Import from Field Bank" button, which will allow them to search different standardized catalogs of commonly used fields
New feature: @INLINE action tag - Allows a PDF file or image file (JPG, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIF, BMP) that is uploaded to a File Upload field to be displayed in an inline manner on the survey page or data entry form so that the PDF/image can be viewed by the user or survey participant without having to download it.
New feature: New “:inline” piping option for File Upload fields
Improvement: Fields that have action tags will have those action tags listed below the field
Improvement: Field variables and Smart Variables can now be piped into the "src" attribute of HTML image tags ("img")
New feature: New editor for conditional logic, branching logic, calculations, report filters, etc.
New feature: Auto-numbering of repeating instances for data imports - When performing a data import now for a repeating event/instrument, users may use the literal value “new” as the value for the “redcap_repeat_instance” field in their data import.
New feature: New survey option “Save a PDF of completed survey response to a File Upload field” - On the Survey Settings page in the Online Designer, users may select a File Upload field in the project where a static PDF file of a participant’s survey response will be stored immediately after they complete the survey.

New action tag: @PREFILL - Sets a field's value to static text or dynamic/piped text whenever a data entry form or survey page is loaded, in which it will always overwrite an existing value of the field. The format must follow the pattern @PREFILL="????", in which the desired value should be inside single or double quotes. A field with @PREFILL will always be read-only, thus its value cannot be modified. NOTE: The only difference between @PREFILL and @DEFAULT is that @DEFAULT is only applied when an instrument has no data yet, whereas @PREFILL will always be applied on an instrument, meaning that @PREFILL will ALWAYS overwrite the value if a field value already exists. TIP: To pipe the value of one multiple choice field into another multiple choice field, make sure you append ':value' to the variable being piped - e.g., @PREFILL='[my_dropdown:value]'
New special functions: left(), right(), mid(), length(), find(), trim(), upper(), lower(), and concat(). These nine new functions can be specifically used when dealing with text values and may be especially useful when using them in conjunction with the @CALCTEXT action tag. To learn more and to see some practical examples of their usage, click the blue 'Special Functions' button in the Online Designer in any project
New action tag: @CALCDATE - Performs a date calculation by adding or subtracting a specified amount of time from a specified date or datetime field and then provides the result as a date or datetime value - e.g., @CALCDATE([visit_date], 7, 'd'). It is important to realize that a field with @CALCDATE will not be editable on the survey page or data entry form, and the field will function almost exactly like a normal calculated field, in which its value may get updated via a data import, when running Data Quality rule H, or in real-time during normal data entry on a form or survey.
New action tag: @CALCTEXT - Evaluates logic that is provided inside a @CALCTEXT() function and outputs the result as text, typically performed with an if(x,y,z) function - e.g., @CALCTEXT(if([gender]='1', 'male', 'female')). It is important to realize that a field with @CALCTEXT will not be editable on the survey page or data entry form, and the field will function almost exactly like a normal calculated field, in which its value may get updated via a data import, when running Data Quality rule H, or in real-time during normal data entry on a form or survey.
New feature: Data Access Group import/export and DAG-User assignment import/export
New feature: Data Quality Rule import/export
New feature: Added "Language of text to be spoken" for the "Text-To-Speech" survey functionality, which is available on the Survey Settings page.
New feature: Users may re-evaluate some or all Alerts & Notifications for all records in a project
Improvement: When deleting an invitation from the Survey Invitation Log, it now provides a new option in the dialog prompt to “Permanently cancel this invitation?”
Improvement: The Survey Invitation Log has a new filter drop-down option to view “only deleted invitations” (i.e., permanently cancelled invitations).
Improvement: Import Records API method has a new parameter “csvDelimiter” to specify the delimiter character when sending data in CSV format. Options include: comma ',' (default), 'tab', semi-colon ';', pipe '|', or caret '^'.
Improvement: Smart Variables and regular field variables can now be piped into the URL of Project Bookmarks.
New feature: Integration of Paul Litwin's Stealth Queue external module
New setting to ”Keep the Survey Queue hidden from participants?” in the “Set up Survey Queue” dialog on the Online Designer
New feature: SendGrid Email API Integration
As an alternative for sending outgoing emails from REDCap (rather than using the standard settings in PHP.INI to send them natively from the web server), you may use SendGrid, which is a third-party paid service (owned by Twilio) that can send emails on behalf of REDCap.
The option can be configured on the General Configuration page in the Control Center. You merely have to provide the API key for your SendGrid account, and it will begin using the SendGrid Web API to send *all* emails going out of REDCap.
New feature: Select and modify multiple fields together on the Online Designer - Users may select multiple fields on the Online Designer by holding the Ctrl, Shift, or Cmd key on their keyboard while clicking on the field in the table, which will reveal the options to Move, Copy, or Delete all the selected fields.
Improvement: Survey pages are now considered ADA Section 508 compliant
New feature: Field Embedding is the ultimate way to customize surveys and data collection instruments to make them look exactly how you want. Field Embedding is a Shazam-like feature that allows you to reposition field elements on a survey page or data entry form so that they get embedded in a new location on that same page. Embedding fields gives users greater control over the look and feel of your instrument. Users may place fields in a grid/table for a more compact user-friendly page, or they can position fields close together in a group if they are related.
New feature: This feature allows users to lock an entire record (as opposed to locking individual instruments) so that none of the record’s data can ever be modified unless someone with record-level locking/unlocking privileges goes and unlocks the record again
Improvement: When defining when the ASI/Alert should be sent, the option “Send after a lapse of time” has a new setting added so that, if desired, the user may set the time lapse relative to the value of a date or datetime field in the project
New feature: DAG Switcher - Users assigned to Data Access Groups (DAGs) can optionally be assigned to multiple *potential* DAGs, in which they may be given the privilege of switching in and out of specific DAGs on their own whenever they wish.

Project life cycle changes:
- Archived status removed
- Inactive status renamed to Analysis/Cleanup. This status now supports locked/read-only or editable.
- New status: Completed.
New feature: Optional surveys to capture custom information during project status transition
New feature: “View Project As...” feature for administrators so we can "see what you are seeing"

New feature: REDCap-branded URL Shortener (https://redcap.link)

New feature: SMS and Voice Calls for Alerts & Notifications
New feature: A “Trigger Limit” setting was added to Alerts & Notifications

New Action Tag: @HIDDEN-PDF
Improvement: More rich text editors - The rich text editor is now available when composing survey invitations.
Improvement: Improvements & changes when exporting data from REDCap into SAS - Full integration of the Missing Data Code functionality in the SAS data export syntax file to prevent issues when loading data containing Missing Data Codes into SAS.

New feature: Missing Data Codes (i.e., “Data Missingness” functionality): Fields that have a blank/missing value may be marked with a custom 'Missing Data Code' to note why the value is blank. These missing codes may be used to aid in data analysis by specifying why a field lacks a value. Users may enable custom missing data codes at the project-level in the Additional Customizations popup on the Project Setup page.
Improvement: A custom email “display name” can be set for the email sender when sending an email for Alerts & Notifications, the Survey Email Confirmation option on the Survey Settings page, and when sending survey invitations via Automated Survey Invitations, via the Participant List, or via the Compose Invitation option on a data entry form.
Improvement: Line breaks may be preserved in data values in CSV data exports - When creating/editing a report, the section "Additional report options" contains a new setting: "Remove line breaks/carriage returns in all text data values (only applicable for CSV Raw and CSV Label data exports)". This setting will be enabled by default for all.
Improvement: Added “Copy” and “Paste” options to the [right-click] context menu for all rich text editors.

New feature: file version history for File Upload fields
Improvement: The "Cancel" button on data entry forms now displays a confirmation prompt.
Improvement: Performance improvement for large data exports that might have previously taxed the REDCap servers or might have failed to complete altogether for some large projects.
Improvement: Performance improvement for when REDCap is generating the record list cache for a project.
Improvement/change: The Codebook now denotes if an instrument is enabled as a survey to the right of the instrument name.
Improvement: Major performance improvement when loading the Participant List page for projects with surveys.
Improvement: Performance improvement for record searching on the "Add/Edit Records" page when entering part of a record name in the "Enter a new or existing [Record ID]" text box.
Improvement: Performance improvement for projects using record auto-numbering, in which the process of generating the record name of the next potential record is much faster, especially for projects with many records.

Change: Smart variables and action tags added.

New Feature: Rich text editor for field labels and section headers

The Clinical Data Mart module can pull clinical data from the EHR in bulk (i.e., dozens or hundreds of patients at once), as compared with the Clinical Data Pull (CDP) that pulls patient data from the EHR just one patient at a time. Both Data Mart and CDP utilize REDCap’s “Clinical Data Interoperability Services” infrastructure, which can interface with any EHR system that has FHIR web services enabled. If CDP has already been set up and enabled in REDCap, then enabling Data Mart is very simple and requires no further setup other than enabling it on the CDIS page in the Control Center. (Note: The Clinical Data Mart module is not currently in use at Fred Hutch.)

New Feature: The Alerts & Notifications feature allows you to construct alerts and send customized email notifications. These notifications may be sent to one or more recipients and can be triggered or scheduled when a form/survey is saved and/or based on conditional logic whenever data is saved or imported. When adding/editing an alert, you will need to 1) set how the alert gets triggered, 2) define when the notification should be sent (including how many times), and 3) specify the recipient, sender, message text, and other settings for the notification. For the message, you may utilize customized options such as rich text, the piping of field variables (including Smart Variables), and uploading multiple file attachments. While similar in many respects to Automated Survey Invitations, Alerts & Notifications allow for greater complexity and have more capabilities. For example, alerts apply to both data entry forms and surveys, and they also allow for more options regarding who can be the recipient of a notification (project users, survey participants, etc.).
Converting existing Email Alerts into Alerts & Notifications – If your REDCap installation currently has the Email Alerts external module installed and is being used in projects, there will be an option (a green button) at the top left of the Email Alerts configuration page to convert all the Email Alerts in a given project into Alerts & Notifications.
Change: Replaced many of the older icons in the user interface with Font Awesome icons, especially on the left-hand project menu and left-hand Control Center menu.
Change: Consolidated the two project pages “Record Locking Customization” and “E-signature and Locking Mgmt” into a single two-tabbed page named”Customize & Manage Locking/E-signatures”. Note: If user only has access to one of these pages, they will simply not see the other page/tab.
Improvement: The rich text editors on the Survey Settings page have now been updated to a newer version of the TinyMCE package. (Note: IE9 and IE10 will still use the older version of the rich text editor because they are not compatible with the newer one.)
Improvement: New records can now be created directly from the Record Status Dashboard. If record auto-numbering is enabled, it will display an “Add new record” button, otherwise it will display a text field for users to enter a new record name to create.
Improvement: Links to the Online Designer, Data Dictionary Upload page, and Codebook were added to the left-hand project menu for easier navigation. Also, a new section “Project Home and Design” was added on the left-hand menu to contain all these links, as well as the Project Home and Project Setup page links.
Change: The Quick Tasks box on the Project Home page was removed since all the pages listed inside it are now located on the left-hand project menu, thus making the Quick Tasks box redundant.
Improvement: Force e-Consent signature fields to be erased when modifying responses - The e-Consent Framework setup on the Survey Settings page has a new option to allow users to specify up to five signature fields in the current survey, in which it will force all signature field values to be erased in the survey if the participant clicks Previous Page button while on the certification page (i.e., the last page of the survey).
Improvement: Custom message for e-Consent Framework settings - In the e-Consent Framework section on the Modules/Services Configuration page in the Control Center, an administrator may define custom text (including HTML styling), in which that custom text will be displayed at the bottom of the e-Consent Framework section on the Survey Settings page in every project. This may be utilized for informing users of some information surrounding the use of the e-Consent Framework at the local institution, for example.
Change: Improved accessibility on survey pages for users with visual impairments using screen readers.
Change: For Alerts & Notifications, in Step 2B ("send it how many times?"), the "Just once" option now has more clarifying text for longitudinal projects or projects with repeating instruments/events to explain that that the alert will be triggered at a per-event and per-repeating-instance level.
Improvement: On the Alerts & Notifications page, the email "From" address is now displayed in the right-hand Email box for each alert.

Improvement: When enabling an instrument as a survey or editing an existing survey's survey settings, it now displays a "Save Changes" button at the top of the page (next to the Cancel button) so that the user does not necessarily have to scroll all the way to the bottom to submit the page.
New feature: The "Codebook Concertina" external module was integrated into REDCap.
New feature: The "Sticky Matrix Header" external module was integrated into REDCap.
New feature: The "REDCaptcha" external module was integrated into REDCap.
New feature: The "Survey Link Lookup" external module was integrated into REDCap.
Improvement: When copying a project, there are now separate options for copying users and/or user roles. In previous versions, these were combined as a single choice "Copy users and roles", but now users may decide to copy one or the other.

Improvement: New options added to Secondary Unique Field functionality - In the "Additional Customizations" popup on the Project Setup page, users may now choose to optionally display the Secondary Unique Field's value in conjunction to displaying a record name on various project pages (in previous versions it was always displayed regardless). If left unchecked, the uniqueness of the value will still be checked during data entry or import, but the Secondary Unique Field's value will not be displayed next to the record name anywhere (e.g., in record lists, record status dashboards, reports). A second option has also been added that dictates whether or not the field label of the Secondary Unique Field will be displayed next to the value (if the value is set to be displayed next to a record name).
Change: Dashes/hyphens can now be used as the raw coded value for multiple choice fields.
New API method: “Import Repeating Instruments and Events” – Allows users to import a list of the repeated instruments and repeating events for a project as a means of setting which instruments and events should be repeatable.
New feature: Many project components added to the Project XML file – When downloading the Project XML of metadata or metadata+data on the Project Setup->Other Functionality page, it now provides checkboxes to allow users to incorporate the project components listed below in the XML file. This means that all these things will be easily transferable now when exporting/importing the Project XML to create a new project on the same REDCap server or on a different REDCap server. Note: The server on which a project is being created using a Project XML file must also be on REDCap 8.10.0 or higher in order for these components to be added, otherwise it will simply ignore these components when creating the new project.
- Data Access Groups (including DAG assignments for records if data is included in the XML file)
- Data Quality Rules
- User Roles
- Surveys and survey settings (including a survey logo, if used)
- Automated Survey Invitations
- Survey Queue
- Reports
- Report Folders
- Record Status Dashboards
- DDP Field Mappings (for DDP Custom and DDP on FHIR) – administrator must still enable DDP in the project manually
Change: Survey responses that were completed using the e-Consent Framework will no longer be editable (this includes no editing on data entry forms, surveys, Data Import Tool, API, and Mobile App). In previous versions, completed e-consent surveys were editable.
Change: When granting a user access to a project via the User Rights page, in which the "notify user via email" checkbox is checked, it now includes a link directly to the project in the resulting email to the user, whereas previous versions only included a link to the main REDCap home page.

New feature (administrators only): AWS Quick Start – Method for quickly deploying a full, production-ready REDCap server environment on AWS (Amazon Web Services) CloudFormation.
New features relating to Data Privacy (for EU GDPR) – These new and optional settings must be enabled by a REDCap administrator on a per-project basis
- Delete a record's logging activity when deleting the record
- Auto-delete all Data Export Files in the File Repository that were created more than X days ago
- Custom footer text for survey pages
Change/improvement: When composing a survey invitation on the Participants List page or via Survey Options on a data entry form, the "From"/sender drop-down list now displays all the email addresses (primary, secondary, and tertiary) of all users in the project.
Improvement: A new search utility was added to the top of the “Help & FAQ” page to make finding keywords easier on the page. It allows for multiple word matches and also “exact phrase” matching.
Improvement: The DDP field mapping page (for both DDP Custom and DDP on FHIR) now has a CSV import/export capability that allows users to easily import an existing DDP mapping rather than having to set the field mapping manually via point-and-click.
Improvement: A new "Filter by event" option was added to the Logging page: "Record deleted (only)". This allows users to display only the logged events in which a record was deleted in the project.
Change: To be consistent, Data Quality rules A and B will no longer ignore checkboxes but will return discrepancies for a checkbox if it has no options checked.
Improvement: When copying a project, a new option has been added to copy "all report folders".
Change: The alert that is displayed on a survey page or data entry form that notifies the user that an unvalidated text field begins or ends with extra spaces has been eliminated.
Change: On the "Add/Edit Records" page for projects in development status, the notice that real data should not be entered into a project while in development has been moved more to the top of the page to make it more prominent as a reminder to users.
New feature: Report Folders - Reports can now be organized into folders in any given project. If a user has "Add/Edit Reports" privileges, they will see an "Organize" link on the left-hand project menu above the project’s reports.
New feature: “Edit Access” for reports - In addition to setting "View Access" when creating or editing a report, users can now set the report's "Edit Access" (under Step 1) to control who in the project can edit, copy, or delete the report. This setting will be very useful if one wishes to prevent certain users from modifying or deleting a particular report.
New feature: Report search - A new search feature exists on the left-hand menu to allow users to search within the title of that project’s reports to help them navigate to a report very quickly.
Change: Changed the text "Manage Survey Participants" to "Survey Distribution Tools", which more clearly describes the pages in that section.

Improvement: Projects with thousands of records have performance improvements for projects exceeding 25,000 records, by truncating the drop-downs so that they only display the last 25,000 records. This is to improve performance by preventing the page from having to output so much HTML to the client.
Improvement: The "Sponsor Dashboard" and the Control Center's "Browse Users" page now have a new action button: "Re-send account creation email". This will often be used in case the user did not receive the original email (for whatever reason).
Improvement: Under the "PDF Customization Options" section in the Additional Customizations popup on the Project Setup page, a new option has been added: "Display or hide the Secondary Unique Field value (if enabled) at the top right corner of the PDF". This option will be useful, for example, when sending the PDF to a survey participant, in which the Secondary Unique Field value should not be known or viewable to the participant.
Improvement: When selecting a color for an item under "Custom survey theme options" on the Survey Settings page, the color-picker now allows users to provide the Hex color code (e.g., #0b5394) to choose the color of the item.
New feature: PROMIS Batteries – 15 batteries of instruments are now available in the REDCap Shared Library. A battery is a set of instruments that can be downloaded from the Shared Library as a bundle, in which they are meant to all be taken together one after another within a single battery. When downloading from the Shared Library, the survey auto-continue feature will be enabled for these instruments to allow a participant to automatically continue from one to another to simulate the battery functionality.
Improvement: A project's Record ID field can now be used as a Live Filter in any given report, thus allowing users to easily view the report for a single record.

Change: Added the HTML tags <map> and <area> to the list of allowed tags that can be used in user-defined text (e.g., field labels, survey instructions).
New options for Data Exports that allow you to change the delimiter character (by default a comma) and the decimal character (this would be for other languages).

Improvement: Several speed improvements and security fixes
Improvement: Smart Variables (see V8.4) now supported in Data Quality Rules
Improvement: Improved naming of uploaded files when the names exceed 34 characters
New feature (administators only): Easy Upgrade - Allows REDCap administrators to more easily upgrade to a new version of REDCap.

Improvement: REDCap Mobile App v3.0 supports Repeating Instruments and Events
New feature (administrators only): DDP on FHIR with EHR Launch
- REDCap’s “DDP on FHIR with EHR Launch” feature provides the ability to launch a REDCap window while inside an EHR and to quickly and seamlessly import clinical data from the EHR into a REDCap project. As a built-in module in REDCap that can be enabled by an administrator, this feature can interface with any EHR system that has “SMART on FHIR” web services enabled.
- For more documentation on “DDP on FHIR”, please see https://redcap.vanderbilt.edu/redcap_v8.5.0/Resources/misc/redcap_ddp_fhir_setup.zip To view a 5-min overview video of DDP, please see https://tinyurl.com/redcapddp (note: this video is not specific to DDP on FHIR since the video was originally created for DDP Custom years ago, but it contains most of the functionality in DDP on FHIR (i.e., it does not showcase the EHR Launch feature of DDP on FHIR).
- NOTE: We have not setup any DDP on FHIR systems at the Hutch, nor do we anticipate setting up DDP on FHIR anytime soon. Setup would require additional funding.
Improvement: PDF Customization Options – Users may change or remove the “Confidential” text displayed in the header of all PDFs in a project. Also, instead of displaying the REDCap logo and REDCap website URL at the bottom right of all PDF pages, they can instead choose to display the text “Powered by REDCap” in small font. These two settings are project-level, so they will be applied to every page of a PDF for all instruments in a project (for both forms and surveys). These settings can be found in the Additional Customizations popup on the Project Setup page.

Smart Variables:
- Smart Variables are dynamic variables 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.
- 35 Smart Variables are available. They can reference things with regard to users, records, forms, surveys, events/arms, or repeating instances. Documentation and examples for using Smart Variables are included on the Project Setup page, Online Designer, and other places throughout REDCap in a popup and alternatively as a standalone Smart Variables Help page.
- Note: While Smart Variables can be used for filters in reports and for filters for Custom Record Status Dashboards, they are not yet able to be utilized in Data Quality rule logic.
- SQL fields, Custom Record Labels, and email invites can all use smart variables.
Custom survey invitation text - When composing a survey invitation, the standard text and survey link are no longer automatically appended to the survey invitation text at the time the email is sent. Instead, users must now specify all the entirety of the text of the email (including the stock text and survey link that used to be appended automatically, if they wish) and therefore must supply [survey-url] and/or [survey-link] in the text if they wish to provide the participant with a link to the survey.
New syntax for referencing fields on repeating instances in piping, logic, and calculations - Fields that exist on a repeating instrument or on a repeating event can be referenced using a new syntax (note: repeating events and instruments are used the exact same way). This is done by appending the “repeat instance” number to the field inside square brackets – e.g., [weight][2], which points to repeating instance #2 for the field “weight”.
Piping improvements - piping now works for checkbox fields and you can get either the value or the label when piping multiple choice (radio button or drop-down fields). See piping help page.
Smarter Copy Project - When copying a project, REDCap now copies the Record Locking Customization settings for the project and it now displays an option to the user to copy all custom record status dashboards in the project.

Auto-Archiver + e-Consent Framework - ability to automatically save e-Consent and other surveys.
Survey-specific email invitation fields - ability to use unique emails for each survey in a project

Sponsor Dashboard - This feature is for adminstrators and users who sponsor other users. The new Sponsor Dashboard lets you review all your sponsored users and perform actions on all or a subset of the users.

New action tag: @MAXCHOICE - Causes one or more specified choices to be disabled (i.e., displayed but not usable) for a checkbox, radio button, or drop-down field after a specified amount of records have been saved with that choice. For example, @MAXCHOICE(0=50,1=75,2=50) would imply that once 50 records have selected the '0' coded choice, that choice will become disabled for any record viewed afterward that does not have that choice saved, such as when the form/survey is opened for a new record, and thus 75 records for choice '1', 50 for choice '2', etc.
New action tag: @MAXCHECKED - Allows a checkbox field to have a maximum number of checkboxes that can be checked. If other checkbox options are clicked after the maximum has been reached, those choices will not be able to be checked. The format must be @MAXCHECKED=#, in which # is a positive integer. For example, @MAXCHECKED=3 will allow a maximum of 3 checkbox choices to be checked. NOTE: This action tag can only be utilized by Checkbox fields, and it does not get enforced during data imports.
New feature: New option to allow respondents to return to a partially completed or fully completed survey response without needing a return code. When enabling "Save & Return Later" for a survey on the Survey Settings page, it will still default to requiring a return code in order for a respondent to continue the survey where they left off. But a user may opt to allow respondents to return to and continue their survey with only the survey link (i.e., without needing a return code in addition to the link) to view and modify their previous responses on that survey. Note: A warning exists in bold text in the informational popup for this feature that states the following: "If you are collecting identifying information (e.g., PII, PHI), for privacy reasons it is HIGHLY recommended that you leave the option unchecked so as to enforce a return code."

New feature: External Modules - External Modules are individual packages of software that can be downloaded and installed by a REDCap administrator. Modules can extend REDCap's current functionality, and can also provide customizations and enhancements for REDCap's existing behavior and appearance at the system level or project level. Modules can utilize REDCap hooks and also can have REDCap plugin pages as part of them.
Improvement: On the Public Survey Link page in a project, a new button "Open Public Survey + Logout" has been added to increase security in case users want to open the public survey while ensuring that the participant cannot access their REDCap account in the other browser tab.
Improvement: Thedatediff() function can now utilize the “now” variable as one of the two date/time parameters (in a similar way as the “today” variable). This is not only true for calc fields, but also for ASI logic, DQ rules, report filters, etc. You may use a time, date,datetime, or datetime_seconds field with the “now” parameter indatediff. Note: If using a date field with “now”, it will assume midnight (00:00) for the time component for the date field.
Improvement: Fields whose values have numbers with a comma as the decimal mark (e.g., "3,14" - European number format) now work in calculated fields.

New action tags. See the REDCap help text for a current list of actiontags.
Change/improvement: The "Require Reason for Change" feature, which can be enabled in the Additional Customizations popup on the Project Setup page, no longer requires a reason when adding data to an empty data entry form (i.e., having a gray status icon).
Improvement: When adding new choices for a multiple choice field in the Online Designer, it will now display an error message if any choices have duplicate codings (e.g., two choices both coded as "4" - "4, Pink" and "4, 4"), thus letting the user know that they should remove any duplicates because duplicates will be automatically removed when saving the field
Improvement: Attach PDF of responses in confirmation email - When using the “Send confirmation email” option on the Survey Settings page for a survey, that section now contains an additional option to “Include PDF of completed survey as attachment”, which will add the PDF of their responses sent to the participant in their confirmation email. This new option contains the following warning as a reminder to users: “WARNING: Since email is not considered a secure form of communication, the PDF attachment option is NOT recommended if the survey contains questions asking for identifying information (e.g., PHI).”.
Improvement: When a calc field's value is changed, it will now display a red border on the right edge of the calc field's text box to subtly indicate that the displayed value is different from the stored value in the database. And if the calculated value gets changed so that its value matches the stored value again, the red border will disappear. This will help users make note of when calculations have been triggered and if there is any disparity between the displayed value and the stored value.
Improvement: Emails sent from REDCap now follow a more standardized format by including both HTML text and plain text in each email, thus making emails a bit more likely to be received by their recipients without them getting flagged as spam.

New feature: PDF download for survey respondents - On an instrument's survey settings page, a user may enable the option "Allow participants to download a PDF of their responses at end of survey?". This option will display a button for the survey participant to download a PDF file of their responses for the survey they just completed. Users may also download this same copy of the PDF since it has been added as a new PDF download option at the top of data entry forms.

New feature: REDCap Messenger
- REDCap Messenger is a communication platform built directly into REDCap. It allows REDCap users to communicate easily and efficiently with each other in a secure manner. At its core, REDCap Messenger is a chat application that enables REDCap users to send one-on-one direct messages or to organize group conversations with other REDCap users. REDCap Messenger is also the best and easiest way to share documents with other REDCap users, in which you can upload documents and embed pictures inside any given conversation.

New feature: Response Limit for surveys - Users may set a response limit for any given survey to prevent respondents from starting the survey once a set number of responses have been collected. Note: It can be set so that the response count included either completed responses only or both partial and completed responses. Users may also set custom text to be displayed to respondents on the survey page when the response limit has been reached.
New feature: Time Limit for Survey Completion – Users may set the amount of time (in days, hours, and/or minutes) that each respondent has to complete a given survey based on when they were initially sent the survey invitation. Note: This feature excludes public survey links. When enabled, a new column is displayed on the Participant List where it denotes if a participant’s survey link has expired and also displays the expiration time if you hover over the icon. If the icon is clicked, the user can permanently override the link expiration time by setting it further in the future (to give the respondent more time), or else to expire the link sooner (or even immediately).
Improvement: The survey options at the top of a data entry form now include a new option “Log out + Open suvey”, which will simultaneously open the survey in a new browser tab while logging out the REDCap user in the current tab. This makes it easier for users to log out of their REDCap session in case they walk away from the computer while a participant takes the survey, thus ensuring that the participant is not able to go into the first tab and access the user’s REDCap account and projects.
Improvement/change: Better protection against accidentally overwriting survey responses when opening surveys from a data entry form. When clicking the "Open survey" option at the top of a data entry form, it will display a popup on the data entry form to inform the user that it is recommended that they leave the page without saving it in order to avoid overwriting or erasing the survey responses that had been collected in another browser tab on the survey page.

New feature: Custom Record Status Dashboards
- Users can build and save custom versions of the Record Status Dashboard to customize the dashboard to their liking.
- Custom dashboards have many configuration options. Users can give each dashboard a title and a description/instructions, and can choose the instruments to include or exclude in the dashboard's display. Similar to building reports in REDCap, Custom Record Status Dashboards allow users to sort the records in the dashboard by another field's value, and one can set filter logic to filter the records displayed in the dashboard to a specific subset of the total records (e.g. [age] > 30 and [diabetes] = "1"). There are aesthetic controls as well, such as being able to display the dashboard headers vertically, which will transpose them 90 degrees for a more compact display on the page.
- Only users with Project Setup/Design privileges may create custom dashboards. Once a custom dashboard has been created, it will be viewable and usable by all users in the project. Users may create as many custom dashboards as they like in a project. To create a custom dashboard, navigate to the Record Status Dashboard in a project, and click the blue "Create custom dashboard" button to get started. New feature: Text searching and ordering on reports – Users now have a search box displayed at the top of every report where they can type text to search the report, in which it will only show the rows in the currently viewed report that match the search string that is typed. Additionally, any column in a report can have its column header clicked to sort the table according to the values in that column (in ascending or descending order).
New feature: Text searching and ordering on reports
- Users now have a search box displayed at the top of every report where they can type text to search the report, in which it will only show the rows in the currently viewed report that match the search string that is typed. Additionally, any column in a report can have its column header clicked to sort the table according to the values in that column (in ascending or descending order).

New feature: Better device management for the REDCap Mobile App – The Mobile App page in a project now contains better methods for keeping track of the activity of the mobile app used on many devices at a time for a single project.

New Feature: Repeating Instruments and Events. REDCap has the ability to repeat a data collection instrument or an entire event of instruments an unlimited number of times without having to specify the amount needed. This is sometimes called one-to-many data collection, in which a project can have one or more repeating parts. The repeating instruments/events feature can be enabled and set up by clicking the Enable button in the Optional Modules section on the Project Setup page.
Enabling Surveys for Repeating Instruments: If one wishes to allow survey respondents to enter their responses in a repeating fashion in survey mode alone, one must enable an optional setting near the bottom of the Survey Settings page (in the survey termination options section) *after* an instrument has been set as a repeating instrument. So it is one additional step to do after enabling the instrument itself as a repeating instrument. When the repeat survey setting is enabled, it will display a button at the end of the survey so that the respondent can choose to enter another response for the survey, thus essentially allowing them to take the survey multiple times in a row. In this way, they will be able to enter as many responses for that same survey as they need.
Reports and Data Exports with Repeating Instruments and Events: If one creates a report that contains data from a repeating instrument or repeating event, a field named 'redcap_repeat_instance' will be included that represents the instance number, which is an auto-numbered value (starting with '1') that gets incremented each time the instrument/event is repeated. And if the report contains data specifically from a repeating instrument (as opposed to a repeating event), then a field named 'redcap_repeat_instrument' will additionally be included that represents the instrument name that denotes to which instrument the row of data belongs. These two fields will only be included automatically in the report or data export if data originates from a repeating instrument or event. Note: Each repeated instance of an instrument or event will be displayed as a new row in the report or export file.
Note: Double Data Entry: While repeating instruments/events are fully supported when using Double Data Entry with regard to data entry workflow, please see the following notice for the Data Comparison Tool: “The Data Comparison Tool does not *fully* support the Repeating Instruments and Events feature, which appears to be enabled in this project. Data can be compared (and even merged if using Double Data Entry), but it will only allow comparison and merging of Instance #1 of a repeating instrument or repeating event. Thus all other repeating data will be ignored on this page. Also, all non-repeating data can still be compared and merged.”
Improvement: New interface for Home/My Projects/Control Center pages.
Improvement: New font “Open Sans” is available to use for the font on surveys.
Improvement: The Project Revision History page is now much faster to load for production projects.
Improvement: The results displayed from executed rules on the Data Quality page now display the field label above the variable name and value. This provides better context for users who might not know the variable names.
Improvement: Execution of Data Quality rules should now be less intensive on the database server, especially when running them on larger data sets.
Improvement: A PDF of record data for all instruments/events for a given record can now be downloaded from the "Choose action for record" drop-down on the Record Home Page if the user has Data Export privileges.
Improvement: A zip file containing all uploaded documents (or signature files) for an individual record can now be downloaded from the "Choose action for record" drop-down on the Record Home Page if the user has Data Export privileges.
Improvement: File Upload fields that are displayed on reports will no longer display the text "[document]", but will instead provide a "Download" button so that the user can actually download the file from the report.
Improvement: When the user clicks the "Save & Stay" button (formerly the "Save and Continue button) on a data entry form, it now says "Record XXXX was successfully edited" at the top of the page to denote that the form was saved.
Improvement/change: Assigning a record to a Data Access Group (or unassigning/reassigning a record) is now performed on the Record Home page using the "Choose action for record" drop-down list rather than on the data entry form. The only exception for this is when a record is being created on a data entry form (when the record does not yet exist), in which it will allow the user to set the Data Access Group using the drop-down list at the top right of the form. This is so a record can be assigned to a DAG at the moment of its creation.
Improvement: For records that have been assigned to a Data Access Group, it will now display their Data Access Group assignment under the recod name on the Record Home Page.

New feature: Field name (variable) auto-suggest when typing branching logic, calculations, or general conditional logic (Survey Queue, Automated Survey Invitation, Data Quality rule, report filter’s advanced logic). While typing logic/calculations into the text box, it will auto-suggest a REDCap variable name from your project that is clickable to inject into the text box. If the project is longitudinal, it will also suggest event names to inject unique event names.
New feature: Real-time validator for branching logic, calculations, or general conditional logic (Survey Queue, Automated Survey Invitation) that allows you to run your logic/calculation on a specific record in the project, and it returns the result. For example, if typing branching logic in the
Add/Edit Branching Logic popup in the Online Designer, you can select a record, and it will tell you if the field will be displayed or hidden for that record based upon the record’s currently saved values. When typing calculations, it will return the actually calculated value of the field for a selected record. This makes it easier to formulate your logic and calculations so that you get them right the first time.
New Action Tag: @PLACEHOLDER - Is used to specify a short hint that describes the expected value of a Text field or Notes field (e.g. a sample value or a short description of the expected format). The placeholder is displayed inside the field before a value is entered. The format must follow the pattern @PLACEHOLDER='????', in which the text to be displayed should be inside single or double quotes. This action tag is compatible with all browsers, including Internet Explorer 8 and 9.
New Action Tag: @SYNC-APP - Can be used only for File Upload and Signature fields. If the project is initialized in the REDCap Mobile App, this will cause any image files uploaded to a record to be sent to the app so that they are viewable in the app when editing the record. NOTE: For use only in the REDCap Mobile App.
New API method: Generate Next Record Name (content=generateNextRecordName) - To be used by projects with record auto-numbering enabled, this method exports the next potential record ID for a project. It generates the next record name by determining the current maximum numerical record ID and then incrementing it by one. Note: This method does not create a new record, but merely determines what the next record name would be. If using Data Access Groups (DAGs) in the project, this method accounts for the special formatting of the record name for users in DAGs (e.g., DAG-ID); in this case, it only assigns the next value for ID for all numbers inside a DAG.
Improvement: PDF exports of instruments are now able to display inline BMP image attachments for Descriptive fields. In previous versions, it would simply omit the image in the resulting PDF file.

New feature: Data dictionary snapshot - Users can now click a button on the Online Designer to create a snapshot of their instruments (i.e., CSV data dictionary) that gets stored on the Project Revision History page. Additionally, a data dictionary snapshot is also created automatically whenever a data dictionary is uploaded on the Data Dictionary Upload page or via the API metadata import.
Improvement: The Data Search feature on data entry forms can now be used to search data over all fields in the project (excluding multiple choice fields). This is now the default option, although users may still choose a specific field to further narrow down their search.
Improvement: Data entry forms behave slightly differently when two users are accessing the same record-event-form in the same project. In previous versions, it would completely prevent a user from viewing the form if another user (excluding super users) were already viewing it (note: super users were able to view the page at the same time as any user). However, this has been changed so that it will allow the user to view the form at the same time as another user, but it will make the form read-only/disabled if another user (including a super user) is already viewing it. This is an improvement since it actually lets the user view the form and its data, whereas previously they could not even view it.
New feature: Custom Event Labels Custom Event Labels can now be optionally added for any event in a longitudinal project when adding/editing events on the Define Events page. These custom labels can be used for piping data from a given event into the event's table header on the Record Home Page (i.e., Event Grid). For example, if each event represents a single visit of a person, then if you are collecting the date in a field called 'visit_date' on each event, then you can set the Custom Event Label as '[visit_date]' for all those visit events. This will provide useful context for each event when viewing all the events of the record. You can also get more advanced with the piping by using multiple fields and even static text. For example, '[visit_date], [weight] lbs'.
Change: When copying a project that utilizes surveys and Automated Survey Invitations, any ASIs that are copied are now set to "Not Active" by default in the new project. A note was added regarding this on the Copy Project page. The reason for this change is because so many users would copy the project with records and begin testing the new project via data entry, which would mistakenly trigger the ASIs to send emails to real participants copied from the original project. So the change was made to prevent this undesirable situation from happening. So now when copying a project, all ASIs will need to be set as Active individually after the project is copied.
Change: When editing the choices of a multiple choice field in the Online Designer, the auto-coding behavior is now slightly different when projects are in Development status when replacing the existing choices with brand new ones that do not have explicit coding. In previous versions, if existing choices were completely replaced with non-coded choices (i.e., just the choice labels), it would auto-code the new choices beginning with one number higher than the highest-numbered of the previously existing choices, whereas now (in development only) it will auto-code the choices to begin with "1" if all the choices are replaced. Note: This change is for development status only because it could have disastrous effects on data for projects in production when performing real data collection.
Improvement: When reviewing drafted changes in a production project, if any fields are being deleted and those fields contain data, it will note how many records will be affected for each field deleted. Also, if fields are being added and those fields previously existed in the project, in which they had data saved or them but then the fields were deleted, then it will note how many records have orphaned data for those fields (because that data will be restored if the fields are re-added - this is sometimes undesirable).

New API methods. See the API documentation for details.
Improvement: Slider fields can be displayed as vertical by setting their Custom Alignment to right-vertical (RV) or left-vertical (LV). Note: Any already-existing slider fields will automatically be converted to RH and LH alignment during the upgrade process if they previously had RV and LV alignment, respectively (this is because in previous versions there was no difference between the vertical and horizontal alignments for slider fields).

New feature: Enhanced radio buttons and checkboxes for surveys - A new survey option "enhanced radio buttons and checkboxes" can be found on the Survey Settings page in the Online Designer in which a user can enable the feature so that radio buttons and checkboxes are displayed differently on the survey page, in which they appear as large animated buttons that look more modern and stylish than traditional radios and checkboxes. This new feature can be enabled for any given survey in a project where it will transform *all* radios and checkboxes on the survey into the enhanced version. Note: This feature does not work for radios and checkboxes in a matrix.
New feature: Create custom public survey link - On the "Public Survey Link" page in a project that utilizes surveys, users now have the option to create their own custom public survey link that begins with "http://is.gd" (e.g.,http://is.gd/diabeticsurvey), in which the custom URL will simply redirect to the public survey in their project. They may enter a desired URL, and it will check if the URL has already been taken. If not, it will store that custom URL in the project so that it is always able to be obtained on the Public Survey Link page.
New Action Tags:
- @HIDEBUTTON - Hides the 'Now' or 'Today' button that is typically displayed to the right of date, time, and date/time fields.
- @APPUSERNAME-APP - In the REDCap Mobile App, this action tag sets a field's value to the app username of the current mobile app user
Improvement: Updated "Help & FAQ" page. Has better navigation and is easier to read.
Improvement: Users can now only send the request one time for moving a project to production or requesting that a production project be deleted.

New action tags
- @USERNAME - Sets a field's value to the username of the current REDCap user
- @DEFAULT - Sets a field's initial value.
- @HIDEBUTTON - Hides the 'Now' or 'Today' button
- @APPUSERNAME-APP - In the REDCap Mobile App, this action tag sets a field's value to the app username of the current mobile app user
Improvement: When in production, users can now request that a project be deleted by an administrator. The request will be added to the To-Do List in the Control Center, and the administrator will be emailed.
Improvement: A field's Section Header and Field Annotation are now displayed in the Codebook for the project.

New feature: Responsive design of REDCap web pages Now has a more flexible and responsive user interface to conform to and fit screens on devices of all sizes. Major improvement for how surveys and data entry forms look on mobile devices (i.e., phones), including automatic font increase and forced left-alignment of questions for better user experience when screen real estate is limited.
Improvement: Slider fields on surveys and data entry forms are now much easier to use on mobile/touch devices.

Improvement: New option to download charts displayed on the "Stats & Charts" tab of the "Data Exports, Reports, and Stats" module. The charts will download as PNG image files.
New feature: Users may now export a project’s data in CDISC ODM format. This new option is found on the “Data Exports, Reports, and Stats” page in the data export popup when selecting export format.
New feature: An entire REDCap project can now be exported as a single XML file (which happens to be in CDISC ODM format). The file includes events, arms, instruments, fields, and project attributes – even Descriptive field attachments. If the project contains data, then the user can also optionally export the project data (including uploaded files) in the same XML file. This XML file can serve as a snapshot or backup copy of the project, and can even be imported on the Create New Project page to create a clone (more or less) of the project.
New feature: Create a new project from a REDCap XML file (or other XML file containing metadata in CDISC ODM format). This is a new option on the Create New Project page, which allows the user to optionally upload their XML file rather than choosing a project template or creating the project from scratch.
New feature: Live Filters for reports Any report can now have up to 3 fields that can be designated as a Live Filter. The Live Filters are displayed as drop-downs when viewing a report at the top-right of the page, and selecting a Live Filter will cause the report to be re-run in real time using the Live Filter value as a filter. If exporting a report that has a Live Filter selected, the export popup window will provide an extra choice to allow the user to export the full report data set or to apply the currently selected Live Filter to the report when exporting. Note: Currently only multiple choice fields can be used as Live Filters (as well as Events, if longitudinal, and Data Access Groups, if any exist).
Improvement: The left-hand menu of each project now has collapsible sections so that a user may collapse the section for easier navigation or to have a more compact page. The collapsed state of each section in each project is remembered using a cookie on the user's device so that when a user returns to the project in the future, the menu section remains in the same collapsed/non-collapsed state as the last time they viewed it on that device.
Improvement: Performing data exports or viewing reports for projects containing very large amounts records, especially in conjunction with lots of events and/or fields, should not halt the export process very often anymore. In the past this might cause REDCap to display an error message saying "the data export is not able to complete" due to the large amount of data being exported or viewed. In the case when too much web server memory is used during the data export process, REDCap will now invisibly revert to a backup process that utilizes a local temp file on the server for temporarily storing data during the export process (rather than relying on server memory solely for this). This will allow the export process to complete successfully; however, the process will take several times longer to complete than if simply using server memory.
Change: When exporting an entire project as a REDCap Project XML file, it now provides the option "Include all uploaded files and signatures?", which is unchecked by default. In previous versions, it automatically included all uploaded files and signatures in the resulting XML file, but this often caused the export to fail due to the project either containing many files or containing very large files.

Change/improvement: When users are being assigned to a role while being granted access to a project on the User Rights page, it now displays a checkbox option to have the user emailed in order to notify them of having been granted access to the project. In previous versions, there was no way to notify a user when being added to a project via role assignment.
Improvement: Users may now download and upload arms and events as a CSV file on the “Define My Events” page, as well as download and upload the instrument-event designations as a CSV file on the “Designate Instruments for My Events” page. Using these methods, users can now fully reconstruct the structure of a project if they wish to copy it, in which they could download the data dictionary file, arms file, events file, event mappings file, and data export file, and then upload all of them into a new project to recreate it. In previous versions, this could only be done for classic projects, but this now allows it to be done for longitudinal projects. When uploading the CSV file for arms, events, or event mappings, it will display a preview to the user to show what changes will be made, such as which things may be added, modified, deleted, or stay the same.
Improvement: “select all” and “deselect all” links were added to the “Designate Instruments for My Events” page to allow users to more easily check off the checkboxes if many instruments and/or events exist in the project.
Improvement: When assigning projects to Project Folders, there is now a checkbox option to hide archived projects in the project list. This should make it easier for users to ignore those projects during the folder assignment process.

New feature: Project Folders
- Project Folders are a way for users to organize the projects on their My Projects page by putting them into groups. The folder can be given a name and can be color-coded (by setting a text color and background color) so that it displays boldly in the My Projects page.
- Once a folder has been created, the user can assign any number of projects to a folder (and can even assign a single project to multiple folders). This allows the projects to be grouped together under that folder when displayed on the user’s My Projects page.
- Project Folders are for personel organization, so no one else can see a user’s folders (except for REDCap administrators when viewing the user’s projects on the Browse Projects page in the Control Center).
New feature: Survey themes
- 3 new options were added to the Survey Settings page for any given survey (accessed via the Online Designer):
  - Size of survey text – Set the survey text to a bigger font size (Normal, Large, or Very Large).
  - Font of survey text – Set the font family of all the text displayed on the survey (Arial, Georgia, Tahoma, and more).
  - Survey theme – Set the color scheme for the survey. There are 10 predefined themes available that users may use, but if they do not prefer them, users can easily click the Customize button to customize the color scheme of the survey any way they want, in which it will open up 8 different options for modifying the colors of various elements in the survey. Also, users may create their own custom survey theme to save the theme with a specified name, after which they may easily use it their saved theme in the future for another survey.
- A “survey design preview” box is displayed on the Survey Settings page so that the user can see how their survey design choices will make their survey look to respondents.
- Create institution-specific themes: REDCap administrators with access to their MySQL database can create their own installation-specific themes by adding them to the redcap_surveys_themes database table (add new row to the table with NULL value for “ui_id” field). The easiest way to do this is to create a new theme on the Survey Settings page in a project and save that customized theme, and then find that theme in the redcap_surveys_themes database table and set its ui_id value as NULL, after which it will appear for all users as an official REDCap survey theme in the theme drop-down list.
New feature: A project's Survey Invitation Log is now downloadable in CSV format.
Improvement: On the Define My Events page in a longitudinal project, it no longer displays the Days Offset and Offset Range columns in the events table if the Scheduling module is not enabled for the project. Since those columns are only utilized during scheduling, this provides a simpler and less confusing interface for users when scheduling is not being used. When creating a new event in this case, the event name is the only thing that needs to be provided, after which the order of that event or any event in the current arm can be change using drag-n-drop by dragging that event's row in the table.
Improvement: New styling options were added to the rich text editor for survey instructions and survey completion text, such as setting text color and background color, inserting tables, copy-paste options, and indentation options.
Change: Updated the Help & FAQ page

New hook function: redcap_project_home_page - Allows custom actions to be performed on the "Project Home" page in a project
New feature: API Playground - The API Playground is an interface that allows experimentation with the REDCap API without actually writing any code. Users can explore all the different API methods and their various options to customize a given API request. Users may even execute a real API request and see the exact response that REDCap returns from the request.
New action tags
- @LATITUDE - Allows a Text field to capture the latitude of the user, in which the user will be prompted on the webpage to allow or deny this. Once the value is captured, it will not be changed when visiting the page at a later time.
- @LONGITUDE - Allows a Text field to capture the longitude of the user, in which the user will be prompted on the webpage to allow or deny this. Once the value is captured, it will not be changed when visiting the page at a later time.
- @PASSWORDMASK - Masks the value of a Text field so that the true value is not visible on the webpage after it has been entered (like password fields on login pages).
- @HIDDEN-APP - Hides the field only on the form ONLY on the REDCap Mobile App. Field will stay hidden even if branching logic attempts to make it visible.
- @READONLY-APP - Makes the field read-only (i.e., disabled) on the form ONLY on the REDCap Mobile App so that its value cannot be changed.
- @NOW - Automatically provides the user's current time as the value of a Text when the page is loaded. Once the value is captured, it will not be changed when visiting the page at a later time. If the field has validation, the value will conform to the date/time format of the field.
- @TODAY - Automatically provides the user's current date as the value of a Text when the page is loaded. Once the value is captured, it will not be changed when visiting the page at a later time. If the field has validation, the value will conform to the date/time format of the field.
Improvement: New look for API Documentation
Improvement: Numbered lists and bullet lists (i.e., <ol>, <ul>, and <li> tags) can now be used in field labels, survey instructions, etc.
Improvement: Much better search utility on Browse Users page in the user list popup to allow administrators to search a user by a specific user attribute or by all user attributes. Also, the list is now exportable in CSV format. Additionally, columns for the time of suspension and expiration date are now listed in the user list.
Change: Replaced TTS-API.com as the third-party service used for the text-to-speech feature on surveys since that service has ceased to function for unknown reasons, thus making it no longer viable for use in REDCap. It has now been replaced by a service hosted by Vanderbilt at https://redcap.vanderbilt.edu, which utilizes the AT&T Text To Speech API service. Note: This service hosted by Vanderbilt does not store any of the text sent to it in any way.

New feature: Two-factor Authentication
- This feature is optional and can be enabled on the "Security & Authentication" page in the Control Center. Enabling two-factor authentication (also known as 2-step login) can provide greater security with regard to users logging in to the system. While the standard login process consists of entering a username and password, two-factor authentication provides a second step after the initial login, such as entering a 6-digit verification code received via SMS text message, via email, or generated using the Google Authenticator app on their mobile device, or responding to a phone call or a push notification (for Duo app only).
- The REDCap support team at the University of Alberta plans on implementing Two-factor Authentication at a later date. Details will be made available beforehand.
New developer methods for plugins/hooks
- REDCap::saveData - Saves record data for a project. Accepts data in the following formats: "csv", "json", "xml", and "array" (same array format as received from getData method with record name as 1st key, event_id as 2nd key, and field_name as 3rd key)
- REDCap::getDataDictionary - Returns a project's data dictionary in any of the following formats: "csv", "json", "xml", and "array"
New hook functions
- redcap_survey_page_top — Allows custom actions to be performed at the top of a survey page - exactly like redcap_survey_page but executed in a different location
- redcap_data_entry_form_top — Allows custom actions to be performed at the top of a data entry form (excludes survey pages) - exactly like redcap_data_entry_form but executed in a different location
- redcap_add_edit_records_page — Allows custom actions to be performed on the "Add/Edit Records" page in a project
Improvement: The Data Import Tool now has a new option "Allow blank values to overwrite existing saved values?" that allows users to choose if they want to perform a mass overwrite of saved values with blank values when importing data. By default, it will ignore all blank values in the uploaded CSV file (as it has always done).
Improvement: If using the Twilio telephony services in a project, it will now detect (with fairly good accuracy) if a phone call is made to a survey participant in which an answering machine or voicemail answers the call instead of a person. In such a case, it will not begin speaking the survey text as it would to a person, but will instead leave the following message for the participant: "To take the survey, please call back at this phone number: XXX-XXX-XXXX."

New feature: Text-to-speech functionality for surveys
- Can be enabled on the Survey Settings page for any given survey. Once enabled for a survey, it will display a "speaker" icon next to all visible text. When the icon is clicked, it will audibly speak that text to the survey participant in their web browser. Participants can click the "Disable speech" button at the top of the survey to remove the icons if they do not wish to use the text-to-speech functionality, in which it will remember that preference if they return to another survey on that REDCap server in the future.
- Many different languages are supported, in which the text-to-speech service is capable of reading text in various languages. For example, if all the survey questions are in Spanish, you can choose Spanish to be the text-to-speech language, which will allow the service to read the text more accurately for that language. (Note: This feature does *not* perform translation.) The language setting is also on the Survey Settings page.
- Works on mobile devices when viewing the survey webpage in the mobile web view. However, the text-to-speech functionality is currently not supported in the REDCap Mobile App.
New feature: Embedded videos for Descriptive fields - Users can embed an externally hosted video (e.g., YouTube, Vimeo) on a data entry form or survey page by simply providing the video URL (web address). The video can be displayed inline on the page, or it can instead be initially hidden but displayed after clicking a button. Any video can be set to full-screen mode, if desired.
- Works when viewed in a web browser on mobile devices.
- This feature can be disabled at the system level on the Modules Configuration page in the Control Center.
- Note: Video embedding is not currently supported in the REDCap Mobile App.
New feature: Embedded audio for Descriptive fields - New option that will take an attached audio file (e.g., MP3, WAV) on a Descriptive field and display it in an embedded audio player on the data entry form or survey page.
- Works when viewed in a web browser on mobile devices.
- Note: Audio file embedding is not currently supported in the REDCap Mobile App.
New feature: Action Tags
- Action Tags are special terms that begin with the '@' sign that can be placed inside a field's Field Annotation. Each action tag has a corresponding action that is performed for the field when displayed on data entry forms and survey pages. Such actions may include hiding or disabling a given field (either on a survey, data entry form, or both).
- Full list of all available action tags:
  - @HIDDEN - Hides the field on both the survey page and the data entry form. Field will stay hidden even if branching logic attempts to make it visible.
  - @HIDDEN-FORM - Hides the field only on the data entry form (i.e., not on the survey page). Field will stay hidden even if branching logic attempts to make it visible.
  - @HIDDEN-SURVEY - Hides the field only on the survey page (i.e., not on the data entry form). Field will stay hidden even if branching logic attempts to make it visible.
  - @READONLY - Makes the field read-only (i.e., disabled) on both the survey page and the data entry form so that its value cannot be changed.
  - @ READONLY-FORM - Makes the field read-only (i.e., disabled) only on the data entry form (i.e., not on the survey page) so that its value cannot be changed.
  - @ READONLY-SURVEY - Makes the field read-only (i.e., disabled) only on the survey page (i.e., not on the data entry form) so that its value cannot be changed.
New feature: New auto-complete feature for drop-down fields and "sql" fields
- Users can enable the auto-complete feature in the Online Designer for drop-down fields. (Note: Super users can also enable auto-complete for "sql" fields.) Auto-complete can also be enabled via the Data Dictionary by entering "autocomplete" in the validation column for "dropdown" and "sql" fields.
- The auto-complete feature transforms the drop-down into a combobox that still functions as a normal drop-down list but has the additional capability of employing a text search on the options in the drop-down in order to find an option much more quickly. Enabling the auto-complete feature is most useful when a drop-down list is very long with lots of options.
- Note: Even though users are able to hand-enter text into the text field when searching the autocomplete drop-down, it will not allow saving the value unless it is a valid option in the drop-down list.
New feature: Enable searching within a biomedical ontology for text fields on a survey or data entry form
- An ordinary text field on a survey or data entry form can have a special feature enabled that provides auto-complete functionality for real-time searching within biomedical ontologies, such as RxNorm, ICD-9, ICD-10, Snomed CT, LOINC, etc. There are over 400 ontologies available from which users may choose.
- This feature can be enabled for any given Text field in the Add/Edit? Field popup in the Online Designer by simply choosing an ontology in the ontology drop-down list in the popup.
- More details are here.
New feature: Auto-continue to next survey - Automatically start the next survey instrument after completing a survey.
- On the Survey Settings page for any survey instrument listed on the Online Designer, under the "Survey Termination Options" section, the user can enable the survey auto-continue setting so that when that survey has been completed, the participant will automatically be redirected to the next survey instrument (if any exist after that survey). If the next instrument is a data entry form that has not been enabled as a survey, then it will be skipped during this process.
- Linking surveys together is only supported inside the same event and must be enabled for each survey a user wishes to link. This feature allows users to have separate survey instruments strung together to appear as though they were a single survey to the participant. This is especially useful for complex longitudinal projects where different combinations of instruments are given in separate events. If enabled and this is the last survey, the selected termination option below will be used.
- NOTE: If users wish to utilize more advanced conditional logic to control which survey that the participant goes to next, they should use the Survey Queue feature, which can be enabled in the Online Designer.

New feature - Twilio telephony/IVR services (SMS surveys and phone surveys)
- This feature provides the following:
- Survey invitations (containing a link to the survey) can now be sent by text messages (SMS) as well as by email.
- Surveys can be performed via SMS messaging. (The questions are texted to the participant who replies with the response)
- Surveys can be performed via voice. (Participant receives a phone call during which questions are "dictated" by REDCap. The participant responds using the telephone keypad).
- It should be noted that this feature does not support all question types. For example free test.

New feature: REDCap Mobile App for iOS and Android - The REDCap mobile app is an app that can be installed on a tablet or mobile device so that data may then be collected in an offline fashion on that device, after which it may then be synced back to this project on the REDCap server. The app is most useful when data collection will be performed where there is no internet service (e.g., no WiFi or cellular service) or where there is unreliable internet service. Once a user is given 'REDCap Mobile App' privileges in a project, they can navigate to the mobile app page on the left-hand menu and set up the project inside the mobile app on their device. Once the mobile project is set up on the device, the user can collect data (which is stored locally on the device), and then at some point sync that data back to their project on the REDCap server.
- Documentation:
  - iOS app: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/redcap-mobile-app/id972760478
  - Android app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=edu.vanderbilt.redcap
  - About the REDCap Mobile App (PDF): http://projectredcap.org/app/about.pdf
  - Security in the REDCap Mobile App (PDF): http://projectredcap.org/app/security.pdf
- Before users can use the mobile app for a project, they must first be given "Mobile App" user privileges, after which they will be able to see the "REDCap Mobile App" link on the project's left-hand menu and then be able to access that page, which will provide links to download the Android and iOS app and instructions for initializing that project in the app on their mobile device. Note: When a user creates a new project, they will automatically be given "Mobile App" privileges by default.
- There is an additional user privilege "Allow user to download data for all records to the app?" that specifically governs whether or not the user is allowed to download records from the server to the app. This may be done to prevent users from unwittingly (or wittingly) downloading lots of sensitive data to their mobile device. If a user is given this privilege, then when they initialize the project in the app and the project contains at least one record, then the app will prompt the user to choose if they wish to download all the records to the app or not.
- Syncing data back to the REDCap server: When the user has collected some data in the app and now wishes to send the data back to the server, they will go to the "Send data to server" page in the app. If there are any possible issues that might arise when sending the data to the server, the app will prompt the user to make a decision before sending the data. For instance, if the project uses record auto-numbering, and a record already exists on the server with the same record name, then it will let the user know that it will rename the record accordingly during the sync process in order to prevent any overwriting of the record already on the server. There are many different scenarios that can occur in which a user might be prompted to make a decision, and the app is fully capable of providing the user with just the right amount of guidance so that they feel confident sending their data to the server with no issues.
- Remote lockout: If a user sets up a REDCap project on the mobile app, and then another user revokes their "REDCap Mobile App" user privileges on the User Rights page in that project, then it will prevent them from accessing it on their mobile device by locking them out of that particular project. In this way, you may perform "remote lockout" to further protect data stored on mobile devices. Additionally, a user can revoke/delete their API token for the project, which will also cause a remote lockout, although the lockout will be permanent and will cause all data currently stored in the app to be lost.
- Admins: If you do not want your REDcap end-users to be able to use the mobile app at all, the mobile app can be disabled at the system level, if desired. When disabled, it will hide all information and all pages that mention the mobile app as if it does not exist. This setting is located on the Control Center's Modules Configuration page.
New feature: Copy Instrument - On the Online Designer, users can click the "Choose action" drop-down next to a given instrument to copy the instrument. They will be given the choice to name the new instrument and to also provide the suffix text that gets appended to each variable name to prevent duplication of variable names.
New features: Instrument ZIP Upload and External Instrument Libraries
- In the Online Designer, if a user clicks the "Choose action" button in the Instruction Actions column and selects "Download Instrument ZIP", they can download a zip file of that data collection instrument, which also includes any attachment files for descriptive fields in the instrument. Using this feature makes it easy to share in individual instrument with colleagues or to keep for yourself if you want to re-use it and re-upload it into another REDCap project.
- If user has obtained an instrument zip file from another project, from another user, from an institutional library of recommended zips, or from an External Instrument Library, they may upload the instrument on the Online Designer using the "Upload" button to add the instrument to the list of data collection instruments in the project.
- External Instrument Libraries now exist in which REDCap users can navigate to an external website that can provide them with an instrument in the REDCap instrument zip format so that they can then take that zip file and upload the instrument into their REDCap project. It is somewhat similar to how the Shared Library works, except these external libraries are not associated with the REDCap consortium but are advertised as REDCap-friendly libraries or tools for creating instruments. The Online Designer contains a link to the current list of recommended external libraries where instrument zip files can be downloaded by users.
New feature: Auto-scoring Instruments - A new class of instruments called "auto-scoring instruments" were recently added to the REDCap Shared Library. They cannot be used by previous REDCap versions but only by v6.5.0 and later. An auto-scoring instrument is a type of survey that contains scoring that is automatically performed and saved once the survey has been completed. Most of them are referred to as "short forms". An auto-scoring instrument is static (not adaptive), and can only be implemented in survey format as one question at a time. Similar to CATs (computer adaptive tests) downloaded from the Shared Library, users will not be able to modify any fields on the instrument at any time. This auto-scoring instrument can only be taken in survey form. If the data entry form is viewed for this instrument, all fields will be displayed as read-only. Also similar to CATs, auto-scoring instruments utilize the external CAT server hosted by Vanderbilt University. The external server provides the auto-scoring functionality once the survey has been completed. Users can find these auto-scoring instruments by searcing the REDCap Shared Library.
New feature: Field Annotation - Can be used to add explanatory notes or commentary about a given field. An annotation can be added to any field via the Online Designer or Data Dictionary (column R). It can be used for several purposes, such as for the bookkeeping of a project's field structure (as metadata about the given field) for reference purposes regarding what the field represents or how it should be used (during data entry, analysis, etc.). Field annotations are not displayed on any page but are merely for reference. Field annotations can also be used to map the field to various standards (e.g., CDISC, SNOMED, LOINC) using whatever notation the user sees fit (e.g., using a simple ID code for the standard or a complex XML structure containing information about how to transform the data to the standard). Since it is just an annotation for reference purposes, REDCap will not do anything with the field annotation text on its own, but the annotation can be obtained by users at any time for any purpose (typically accessed via the Data Dictionary download or via the API metadata export). Summarily, field annotations are essentially open-ended, so users may use them in whatever way they so choose.
New feature: Project Notes - When creating a new project, users may optionally provide project notes, which are comments describing the project's use or purpose for documentation purposes. Once a project has been created, its project notes can be edited in the "Modify project title…" popup on the Project Setup page. Also, any projects having project notes will have a small icon displayed next to the project title on the My Projects page, and if a user moves their cursor over the project title, it will display the project notes in a hovering tooltip so that it can be quickly viewed. The project notes text can also be useful for other things, such as if someone is utilizing the Field Annotation attributes of fields in the project for standards mapping, in which the project notes fields could be used as a way to store project-level metadata about how the Field Annotation is being used (e.g., what type of standard is being used).
New feature: New delete buttons at the bottom of data entry forms allow users to delete all data on the current form of a given record and also (for longitudinal projects) to delete all data on the current event of a given record. The user must have "Delete records" user privileges in order for these buttons to be displayed and utilized.

New features for system administrators and developers.

New feature: In the Add/Edit Field popup on the Online Designer page, there is a new "Choose existing choices" link for multiple choice fields that will display a popup containing the options of all other multiple choice fields in the project to allow the user to quickly choose one set of options to use for a new field. This can make the process of creating fields quicker if there happen to be several fields that will have the same multiple choice options.
New feature: Auto-calculations - When performing a data import (via Data Import Tool or API), REDCap will now perform the calculations for any calculated fields that are triggered by the values being imported. For example, if you have a BMI field whose calculation is based off of a height field and a weight field, then if you perform a data import of height and weight values, it will automatically calculate the BMI for each record that is imported and also save those calculations (and thus log them too on the Logging page). Auto-calculations are now also triggered when using cross-form calculations in the case where the calculated field exists on a different instrument than the fields being entered that are used in the calculation. So while in previous versions users would have to go to the instrument where the calculated field existed and would have to click Save to store the calculation, users now no longer have to do that because the calculation is performed and saved automatically at the time when the trigger fields are initially entered or changed. So essentially, users never have to worry that calculations are not being performed or saved in certain situations. They should expect that calculations are now always being saved silently in the background.
New feature: New data quality rule to fix all incorrect values for calculated fields - New Data Quality rule (rule H) will help users find and fix all incorrect values for calculated fields in a project. If any calc fields have ended up with incorrect values (whether due to field changes in the project or due to previous data imports), users can now run rule H not only to find any incorrect calculated values, but it will additionally display a button that, when clicked, will auto-fix ALL of them for the user. This is very powerful, and we have made it as easy as the single click of a button to fix all calculations in an entire project.
New feature: Filter data quality rules by a specific record - In the Data Quality module, users can now choose to execute a data quality rule for only a specific record in the project (rather than for all records) by selecting the record from a drop-down list.

New feature: Survey Invitation Reminders - In addition to sending or scheduling survey invitations, users may now set reminders for a given invitation to help remind respondents that they need to complete a survey if it has not been completed by a specified time. A single reminder may be sent at an exact date/time, or a user may schedule up to 5 reminders to be sent according to a set time schedule, such as a recurring time lapse (e.g. every 12 hours after the original invitation) or on a recurring day/time (e.g., every day at 10:00AM after the original invitation; every Monday at 4:00PM). If the survey is completed, then any unsent reminders will be erased and will not be sent. Survey invitation reminders can be set in the Compose Survey Invitations popup on the Participant List page, as well as in the Automated Survey Invitations popup on the Online Designer.
New feature: Survey Confirmation Email - On the Survey Settings page in the Online Designer, a survey administrator can now set up an email that will automatically be sent to the respondent when they complete the survey. They may optionally add one attachment to the email, if they wish. Also, piping can be used in the email's subject and message to help personalize the email. If the respondent's email address is not on file and thus the confirmation email cannot be sent automatically, then when displaying the survey acknowledgement text at the end of survey, it will display an option for the respondent to enter their email address so that they may receive the confirmation email.
New feature: The red Required field text (i.e., "*must provide value") can now be hidden on survey pages, if desired. So if you would rather your respondents not see that red text beneath all your required fields on the survey page, then you may use this setting to hide it. This setting can be found on the Survey Settings page in the Online Designer.
New feature: The "Previous Page" button (i.e. Back button) on multi-page surveys can now be hidden, if desired. Hiding this button may be useful if you wish to prevent respondents from going back to previous pages in the survey. The setting to enable this can be found on the Survey Settings page in the Online Designer.
New feature: "Signature" field type - Allows a person to draw their signature on a survey or data entry form using a mouse, pen, or finger (depending on whether using a desktop computer or mobile device). Once captured, the signature will be displayed as an inline image on the survey page or data entry form. While this option appears as a "Signature" field type in the Online Designer, it is specified in the Data Dictionary as a "file" type field with validation type of "signature". Thus, it is essentially a special type of File Upload field. Note: The signature image for Signature fields cannot be imported via the API, although they can be downloaded or deleted via the API using the "Export a File" and "Delete a File" API methods, respectively.

New feature: "Data Exports, Reports, and Stats" module - This single module now replaces the old Report Builder, reports, Data Export Tool, and Graphical Data View & Stats page, so that all their functionality now exist in this new module, including even more new features and functionality.
- This new module allows users to create or edit reports, view reports, export all data in the project, export data for a given report, view the descriptive statistics and data plots for a given report, and perform other kinds of exports (e.g., PDF export of all records/all fields, ZIP file export of all uploaded files for all records). Please note that user privileges are applied appropriately throughout this module. For example, if a user has "No Access" data export rights, they will not be given any options to export data, and similarly if they do not have "Add/Edit Reports" privileges, then they will not be given the ability to create, edit, delete, copy, or reorder any reports on the page. Thus the things they are able to do and see in this module depends completely on what their user privileges are.
- When performing a data export, users must now choose up front in which format they wish to export their data (e.g. Raw CSV, SPSS, R). This is different from the old Data Export Tool, in which you would choose the format/files *after* the export had completed.
- Improvements when creating/editing reports:
  - Each report now has its own user access setting so that users may choose specific users, User Roles, and/or Data Access Groups that can view that specific report. If a user does not have access to a specific report, then that report will not appear on their left-hand menu in the project. Note: This user access setting does not alter in any way the user's ability to see certain data in the report. It merely gives them access to view the report as a whole, although their user rights might limit the data in the report that they are able to see. For example, if the user is in a DAG, they will only see records assigned to their DAG in the report. And if they do not have form-level access to certain instruments, then they will not be able to view data for fields from those instruments. Thus, reports will not allow users to view data to which they do not already have access.
  - "Limiters" in reports will now be called "filters" in REDCap version 6.0 and higher.
  - Filters in a report now do not have to be included as a field in the report itself, and they can be set up using complex AND/OR logic. There is even an advanced filter logic format that allows users to hand-type the logic to make it as complex as they wish if the simple format is not powerful enough for what they desire (similar to advanced branching logic syntax).
  - In the list of projects on the "Data Exports, Reports, and Stats" page, reports can now be easily reordered in a project using drag-n-drop functionality.
  - Fields included in a report can now be easily reordered within the report using drag-n-drop functionality.
  - The Data Access Group name and/or the survey identifier and survey timestamp fields can now be displayed in the report, which was not possible in previous versions.
  - All fields from a whole data collection instrument can be easily added at once to a report by selecting the instrument from a drop-down list. This makes it much faster to add a lot of fields to the report very quickly.
  - New "Additional Filters" section allows reports to be easily filtered so that they only return records assigned to specific Data Access Groups and/or data from specific events (in longitudinal projects) by allowing the user to select one or more DAGs and/or events from a multi-select drop-down list.
  - The data displayed in reports can now be ordered by third field, whereas previous versions only allowed sorting by two fields.
- Change: In previous versions, if a user was viewing a report that contained one or more fields that existed on a data collection instrument to which they did not have form-level privileges, then it would simply not show any of the report and display an error message. This was a bit heavy handed. It will now display the report for them, but for any fields that they do not have form-level access to, it will gray those columns out and not display their data. This is much better because it allows the users to view the data to which they do have access.
- Improvement: Double Data Entry users will now be able to fully utilize the new "Data Exports, Reports, and Stats" module, whereas in previous versions, they were not able to access reports or the Data Export Tool. (Note: If data is exported, records will still end with --# in the resulting export file, but reports will display the records without the --# when viewing the report on the webpage in order to maintain consistency in the user interface.)
- New user rights privilege for Data Export rights: "Remove all tagged Identifier fields" - If a user is given this data export privilege setting, then it will be applied to *all* data export files in all modules where data is exported (e.g., PDFs, reports, API). In reports and in API data exports, any fields that have been tagged as Identifier fields will simply be removed from the export file. However, in PDF exports, it will include the Identifier fields in the PDF, but it will remove and replace any saved data values with the text [*DATA REMOVED*] for such fields.
New feature: Survey Access Code and Short Code for surveys
- When email is not an option, Survey Access Codes can be used to get a respondent started quickly on a survey. They are especially useful if sending a survey invitation to a physical mailing address, or if the respondent is sitting nearby and needs to start the survey on another device.
- There will be a Survey Access Code for every survey link in a project that utilzes surveys, so users will see a button or icon to retrieve a Survey Access Code on the Public Survey Link page, on the Participant List, and in the survey options at the top of data entry forms that are enabled as surveys.
- To get a quick, temporary access code (just 5 characters long), there is an option to generate a Short Code to make it even faster to start a survey.
New feature: QR Code for surveys
- As an alternative to Survey Access Codes, users can get a respondent navigated to a survey page quickly by using a QR code. If the respondent is physically nearby and has a QR code scanner app on their device, they can quickly scan the QR code for any survey link, which will immediately open the survey webpage on their device.
- The QR code option is found alongside the Survey Access Code option on the Public Survey Link page, on the Participant List, and other places. If the user or respondent is familiar with using QR codes, QR codes make it very easy to quickly get to a survey page on another device.
New feature: Survey Login
- Survey administrators can now provide improved security their surveys with a survey login form, in which respondents will be required to enter some login credentials in order to begin a survey or (if the "Save & Return Later" feature is enabled) to return to a previously entered survey response.
- To enable the Survey Login feature, there is a new button at the top of the instrument list on the Online Designer that will open up the Survey Login settings popup. Users who wish to enable Survey Login may choose one, two, or three fields in their project to be used as the login credential fields for surveys in their project.
- The Survey Login can be enabled for ALL surveys in a project or just selected surveys (in which it can be enabled for each on their Survey Settings page). There are also several other features to allow users to customize the behavior of the Survey Login feature.
- Note: If a survey has the "Save & Return Later" feature enabled, Return Codes will not be used to return to the survey, but it will use the Survey Login's login credentials instead.
New feature: Ability for survey respondents to return and modify *completed* responses
- In previous versions, once a survey was fully completed, the respondent could not return to make any further edits. (Although users could modify the response on a data entry form if they have appropriate user privileges, but the respondents could not make modifications *on the survey page*.) But now, this new survey option will allow respondents to return after they have fully completed the survey.
- This feature can be enabled on the Survey Settings page under the "Save & Return Later" section for a given instrument in the Online Designer. Once enabled, a respondent will be able to return to their response and make any edits to it even if they have fully completed the survey.
- As part of the "Save & Return Later" feature, respondents will need to provide a Return Code in order to make edits (as is the case in previous versions when returning to partially completed responses). When the feature is enabled, they will be given their Return Code when they finish the survey, after which they may return to that survey link at any time in the future to make edits to their response. If the Survey Login feature is enabled for the survey, then instead of using a Return Code, they will use their login credentials to return to the survey.
- If enabled, participants who have completed the survey will still appear in the Participant List in the Compose Survey Invitations popup to allow them to be invited again to edit their completed response. Additionally, their survey link and survey access code will also remain in the Participant List for this same purpose.
- Note: If Survey Notifications have been enabled for a survey that has the "Edit Completed Responses" option enabled, then whenever the respondent returns to the survey again and completes the survey again, it will again trigger the Survey Notifications to send an email to those users selected.

For information on newer versions of REDCap, see the REDCap Newer Versions page.

REDCap Archive

Version 10.9.4 (Installed 2021-04-26)

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