REDCap 15.5.x: What are the new features and changes?

Answer

The list below is an abridged version of the REDCap Change Log Summary for the LTS 15.5.x branch, focusing on the end user impact at BILH.

  • Improvement:: REDCap now supports the "ruby" HTML tag so that it may be utilized in user input (e.g., field labels, survey instructions).
  • Improvement/change: Updated the Font Awesome library from v6.7.2 to v7.0.0.

  • Change/improvement: For the repeating instrument tables displayed at the bottom of the Record Home Page, any status filters (but not keyword search) that are set for a repeating table will now persist for the user (remembered at the user-level) if they leave the page and then return later. Note: The filter state only persists for the tables at the bottom of the Record Home Page but not for the floating/popup tables that appear in various places (e.g., Record Status Dashboard, left-hand form menu) when clicking the stack status icon of a repeating instrument.

  • Change/improvement: Some performance improvements when evaluating logic for the same record repeatedly during a given request.

  • Various bug fixes and improvements for the External Module Framework, including new API endpoints for External Modules. Please see the EM Framework documentation for me info.

  • Improvement/change: When creating a new project that initially contains one or more records, whether the project is created using the Copy Project page or by uploading a Project XML (metadata+data) file, the new project will have the data values for all initial records appropriately logged on the Logging page. This will help with transparency regarding when a data value was entered (e.g., when viewing the Data History popup) if a record was added during the project creation process. In previous versions, the logging of initial records in the project was not performed for various intentional reasons. (Ticket #258165)

  • Improvement: In connection with the new "Quick Set" feature used when adding fields to a report, a new link exists next to that button to allow users to copy the field names of all current fields in the report to the user's clipboard.

  • Improvement: MLM manuals (PDF) for admins and end users are now included for download in REDCap.

  • Security improvement: REDCap now sets a Content Security Policy (CSP) header to meet minimum security requirements while still being flexible with regard to not breaking External Modules and legacy code in REDCap's codebase. Note: If a CSP header has already been set by the web server, then REDCap will not override that header as a means of allowing an institution to provide a more strict CSP header (if they desire) to meet higher security requirements.

  • Change: The wording for the "Language preference field" on the Multi-Language Management setup page has been updated to better reflect its function.

  • New feature: Custom CSS styling for individual forms and surveys. Users may now optionally define custom CSS styling for an individual survey on the Survey Settings page, and on the field-level Online Designer page they may define custom CSS styling for that data entry form. The form and survey CSS are separate controls that are only applied on a data entry form and survey page, respectively.

    The form-level CSS setting (but not the survey CSS setting) is subject to draft mode when in production status, and if a change is made to the form-level custom CSS, a side-by-side comparison of the changes can be seen on the draft mode project modifications review page before the drafted changes are approved.

    The survey-level custom CSS setting on a given survey can be easily copied to other surveys in the project using the ""Copy design to other surveys"" button on the Survey Settings page.

    Note: There is a warning on both the form and survey custom CSS settings that informs users of the following things: "Use with caution. Please note that targeting internal REDCap elements (e.g., specific classes or IDs) may break without notice, as updates to REDCap can change or remove these elements at any time. Stability of these selectors across versions is not guaranteed, and any changes to them will not be announced in advance."

  • Improvement: On the Edit Report page, Step 2 now has a "Quick Set" feature that allows users to add or replace report fields by pasting field names from the clipboard or by entering manually. Additionally, the existing "Quick Add" feature now has links to copy all or selected field names to the clipboard.

  • Change: When performing a data export in a project that has Randomization enabled and fully set up, the data export dialog now mentions the Randomization publication (https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5261054) that might need to be cited in published manuscripts relating to the current REDCap project.

  • Change: When performing a data export in a project that has one or more External Modules enabled, the data export dialog now mentions the External Module Framework publication (https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocaf073) that might need to be cited in published manuscripts relating to the current REDCap project.

  • Improvement: Icons/indicators for repeating instruments and repeating events have been added on several project pages (Define My Events, Designate Forms, Online Designer) in order to create more awareness for users with Setup/Design rights regarding which instruments or events are set as repeating. (Ticket #258435)

  • Improvement: REDCap now supports the "wbr" HTML tag so that it may be utilized in user input (e.g., field labels, survey instructions).

  • Change: For improved compatibility purposes, the "includeSubDomains" attribute was added to REDCap's "Strict-Transport-Security" HTTP header.

  • Change: The MLM Snapshot facility on the MLM setup page has been moved from the Settings tab to the Languages tab and slightly updated (visual, explanatory text).

  • Change: The text displayed underneath the "Save & Return Later" option where a participant can enter their email address (in order to receive the survey link via email) has been modified slightly to indicate that while the participant's email address will not be stored with their survey responses, it will be stored in the system's email logs. This change is to improve transparency to the participant. (Ticket #244381)

  • Improvement: The "Help & FAQ" page has been updated with new content (thanks to the FAQ Committee).

  • Change/improvement: When a project has a large number of users and/or surveys, the Survey Notifications setup dialog in the Online Designer might become very large and might crash in certain cases. Now, if it is detected that the dialog content will be very large, the user interface will change slightly into a two-step process to allow the user to select the survey first and then the users second, which is more user friendly in this situation and prevents the dialog from crashing or timing out.

  • Improvement: Users can now specify the custom paging size for the repeating instrument popups/tables seen on the Record Home Page, Record Status Dashboard, and left-hand project menu. This will allow users to control the size of the instance tables in case they want to see more instances all at once on the page. (Ticket #256910)

  • Improvement: The Codebook page now displays the event IDs in the Events table. (Ticket #256003, #256082)

  • Change/improvement: A helpful warning is displayed in the Online Designer to remind users to enable the designated email field in their project if they are using Automated Survey Invitations in certain situations. The warning is displayed next to a survey/ASI button if 1) the designated email field is not enabled (in the project or for the survey), 2) the project is not using Twilio/Mosio for surveys, and 3) no participants have had their email address manually added to an initial survey via the Participant List page.

  • Change/improvement: Hitting the ESC key when viewing REDCap dialogs should now only close the (topmost) dialog if multiple dialogs are visible on the page. (Note: This should work in 95% of places in REDCap but may not work in all cases depending on how the dialog is invoked in the REDCap code.)

  • Change: In the recent change of repeating tables display, the custom label was rendered as a link. This has been reverted to not conflict with some use cases (such as copying parts of the label, having links in the label, etc). Note that it is still possible to get to an instance by clicking the form status icon and also by double-clicking anywhere in its row.

  • New feature: Pause Recurring Alerts setting - For alerts that are triggered by conditional logic, in which the alert has the "Ensure logic is still true..." checkbox checked, users can now utilize a new checkbox option titled "Allow pausing of recurrences? (Existing interval will continue if the logic becomes true again after becoming false.)". This setting is optional for Alerts & Notifications. When enabled together with the 'Ensure logic is still true...' setting, REDCap will pause (instead of deleting) any already-scheduled recurrences of this alert when the alert's logic becomes false. This is useful if you expect the logic to become true again in the future. This may be the case specifically with time-based logic, such as datediff().

  • Change: The links in the "Project Home and Design" section of the left-hand project menu have been relocated slightly to be more consistent with where they were in pre-15.3.3 versions. Their recent change of location had caused some frustration for users.

  • Change: The warning text in the Control Center to warn administrators of REDCap's temp directory being publicly accessible has been modified for clarity since some found it to be confusing.

  • Improvement: For longitudinal projects, there is now a direct link to the "Define My Events" page in the "Project Home and Design" section of the left-hand project menu.

  • Change: Small clarification to some text in the dialog for enabling the Twilio feature on the Project Setup page. (Ticket #254938b)

  • Change: The new user interface for the repeating instrument tables (added in the previous version) has been slightly improved. (Ticket #255504)

  • Improvement: For longitudinal projects with repeating events, Form Display Logic (FDL) can now be utilized within a specific repeating event. For example, if the FDL references a field inside a repeating event, that field can be used to reference a value in a specific repeating instance of the event, including the current instance (e.g., keep form X enabled if [field][previous-instance] = "1" or [field2][current-instance] > 30). This provides more flexibility so that forms within individual instances of a repeating event can be enabled/disabled via FDL at the instance level. In previous versions, FDL could not work at the instance level but merely applied the FDL to all repeating instances of a given repeating event as a whole. Note: This improvement only applies to repeating events and not to repeating instruments.

  • Improvement: Improved user interface for repeating instrument data as tables/popups on the Record Status Dashboard, Record Home Page, and at the top of data entry forms that are repeating instruments. Repeating instrument tables/popups now have a fresh look with options to filter by a word/phrase or by form status (with a clickable status icon interface above the table). Also, when a record is being viewed on a data entry form, clicking the stack of icons or form name on the left-hand menu for a specific repeating instrument will now display the popup of the repeating instrument table. Additionally, if a repeating event contains more than one instance for a record, the Record Status Dashboard will now display every instrument on the event as a stack icon for the record, whereas in previous versions it would sometimes inconsistently display some instruments' icons as if they had one instance, which could be confusing to users.

  • Security improvement: For increased security, REDCap now recommends that its local "temp" directory not be publicly accessible to the web. If using IIS or Apache, REDCap will attempt to automatically store a web.config file and htaccess file in the temp directory. If REDCap is not able to automatically prevent public access to the temp directory (or if NGINX is used as the web server), the Control Center will provide a recommendation for how to implement this via server configuration changes.

  • Change: Small clarification to some text in the dialog for enabling the Twilio feature on the Project Setup page. (Ticket #254938)

  • Improvement: When a PROMIS battery of instruments has been downloaded from the REDCap Shared Library, if the first instrument in the battery is designated to an event on the "Designate Instruments for My Events" page, it will auto-check all subsequent instruments in the battery series for that same event.

  • Improvement: In longitudinal projects, the Online Designer now shows a warning next to any instruments that are not designated for any events. Additionally, it provides a link to navigate to the Designate Instruments page if the user has Project Design privileges.

  • Change: If Two-Factor Authentication is enabled while using an "X & Table-based" authentication (excluding "LDAP & Table-based"), the text displayed in the E-signature dialog on a data entry form has been changed to be more understandable and more straight-forward for non-Table-based users.

  • Improvement/bug fix: In the "Compose Survey Invitations" dialog, when selecting a previously sent email, hardcoded links in the email would remain in the template. This only affects REDCap installations with a dedicated Survey Base URL. When selecting a previously sent email, the subject will be restored as well (only when empty in the "Compose message" section). The drop-down now shows up to 20 chars of the subject and "(not sent yet)" as the timestamp for scheduled messages.

  • Improvement: A notice has been added to the MLM setup page to remind users to preserve any embedded fields in the translation when the default text contains an embedded field.
    Improvement: When updating the branching logic of several fields at once in the Online Designer, the dialog now shows the number of fields that will be updated. (Ticket #251392, #251677)

  • Improvement/change: When exporting the query results of a custom/saved query in the Database Query Tool, the resulting CSV file now includes the title of the custom query as part of its file name.

  • New action tag @SAVE-PROMPT-EXEMPT - This action tag is useful for preventing the "Save your changes?" warning prompt under certain conditions when navigating away from a data entry form or survey page. Adding this to a field will prevent any changes to the field's value from individually triggering the "Save your changes?" prompt when someone navigates away from the page without clicking the Save button. Please note that when using this action tag, if another field's value is also modified on the page, the "Save your changes?" prompt will be displayed to the user because this action tag only affects the individual field's ability to trigger the warning prompt. This would typically be used on fields where the value of the field being saved is not important unless other field data is also entered - e.g., when prefilling a "Last modified by" field that has both @READONLY and @SETVALUE="[user-name]". Warning: Use with care, as inadvertent data loss could occur ONLY for fields in which this action tag is implemented if a user navigates off the page without clicking Save.

  • New action tag @SAVE-PROMPT-EXEMPT-WHEN-AUTOSET - This action tag is similar to the @SAVE-PROMPT-EXEMPT action tag, but its effect is limited to the initial setting of a field's value when the value is blank at the time the form/survey page is loaded. Use this action tag to prevent action tags such as @DEFAULT, @SETVALUE, @TODAY, or @NOW from triggering the "Save your changes?" prompt when someone navigates away from the page without clicking the Save button. Please note that when using this action tag, if this or another field's value is later modified on the page, the "Save your changes?" prompt will be displayed to the user because this action tag only affects the individual field's ability to trigger the warning prompt and only during the initial setting of the field's value. Warning: Use with care, as inadvertent data loss could occur ONLY for fields in which this action tag is implemented if a user navigates off the page without clicking Save.

  • New API method: "Export a Survey Access Code for a Participant" - Obtains the survey access code for a specific record on a specific survey instrument (and for a specific event, if a longitudinal project) - assumes the record already exists. The record and instrument parameters must be provided. If longitudinal, the event_id must be provided. If a repeating instrument/event, the instance number must be provided. If the user making the API call does not have 'Survey Distribution Tools' privileges, they will not be able to use this method, and an error will be returned. If the specified data collection instrument has not been enabled as a survey in the project, an error will be returned.

  • New developer method: REDCap::getSurveyAccesCode() - Obtains the survey access code for a specific record on a specific survey instrument (and for a specific event, if a longitudinal project) - assumes the record already exists. The record and instrument parameters must be provided. If longitudinal, the event_id must be provided. If a repeating instrument/event, the instance number must be provided.

  • Improvement: More survey-specific status indicators, specifically icons for Stop Actions, have been added to the "Enabled as survey" table column in the instrument-view of the Online Designer to denote that the survey has Stop Actions in the survey. Additionally, the other status indicators (i.e., for Survey Auto-Continue and Repeating Surveys) have been made slightly smaller to accommodate space for the newer icons in that column.

  • Improvement: New methods exist in the Online Designer for modifying an instrument's label and unique instrument name. In the field-view page in the Online Designer, the form name is displayed and clickable at the top of the page, and when clicked, it displays a popup to allow a user to modify the instrument label and/or the unique instrument name. Additionally, clicking the Rename option from the "Choose action" drop-down list next to an instrument in the instrument-view page of the Online Designer will display the popup with the same options. This allows users the ability to modify both or either attribute independently of each other and prevents REDCap from automatically changing the unique instrument name whenever modifying the instrument label while in development status.

  • Change/improvement: Various additional optimizations were made to the randomization process to make it quicker and less intensive on the database.

  • Change/improvement: When randomizing a record, in which the "redcap_module_randomize_record" is being called by an External Module and returning a non-null value, the validation process of the hook results was not very efficient and could cause the randomization process to be somewhat slow for certain projects. The randomization process has been optimized to be faster. (Ticket #248452)

See also: Upgrade Notes