Summary
What is REDCap?
Research Electronic Data Capture, or REDCap is an application developed by Vanderbilt University for standardizing medical data collected through patient-focused surveys. Over 7000 institutions in 160 countries utilize REDCap for research programs, administrative tasks, and more.
What are External Modules?
While REDCap was developed to solve a particular problem, systems were put in place to allow the app to be expanded upon to include more specific tools for projects using the External Modules framework. This is a way to load plugins that offer specific functionality from the REDCap Repo, a curated and vetted series of projects developed by REDCap users. Projects submitted to the Repo pass an automated and manual human security check before being admitted for wide usage in REDCap.
Anyone can develop External Modules, and loading vetted Modules is as easy as a few button clicks in the administration panel of REDCap. When Modules are greenlit by the institutional REDCap admin, a project owner can enable those Modules on their own project.
What can External Modules do?
The only limitations for External Modules are those inherent to REDCap and your level of access to the system and data. Modules do NOT edit the underlying code of REDCap and only add additional functionality to the base. Modules are typically best used to interact with data, format surveys dynamically, and connect external resources.
Demo
How are External Modules Developed?
External Modules are stored in the “modules” folder in REDCap’s file structure following the provided formatting requirements. These requirements are provided in the External Modules walkthrough which has been provided by Vanderbilt.
A text guide is available here:
https://ctsit.github.io/redcap_external_module_development_guide/guide_for_admins_and_devs.html
And a repository of introductory module projects are available here:
https://github.com/vanderbilt-redcap/external-module-framework-docs
Modules are developed using PHP, JavaScript, CSS, and HTML, just like the rest of REDCap. Additionally, MySQL can be used to interface directly with the underlying database of REDCap.
Datasets
For examples of Modules currently in use, you can view the repositories linked with the REDCap Repo.
For specific instances of UK developed REDCap external modules, you can check our other posts:
CLASSify Connect
Note that the above repositories are in current development and may not yet be available for use. If you are interested in using those packages, reach out using the CAAI collaboration request form. If you are interested in development of REDCap External Modules for your project, or consultation relating to existing modules or how to solve problems you are experiencing with expanding REDCap functionality, contact noah.perry@uky.edu