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In this page we'll get to know the major features of the CommCare Application Builder.
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Welcome to CommCareHQ!
When you log in to CommCareHQ you will notice a number of different options. We are going to focus on Application Building, but let's at least get to know what everything does!
Along the top of the screen there are several big categories or pages in your project space.
Here is what each of them does:
- Dashboard - this is the "homepage" of your CommCareHQ Project Space - from here you can quickly access saved reports, specific applications, or navigate to other parts of CommCareHQ.
- Reports – this is where you view data submitted via CommCare Mobile, like worker activity reports and text message records
- Data – this is where you can download form or case data, or edit data for an ongoing project by executing tasks like moving cases from one worker to another, or updating cases through Excel
- Users– manage accounts for both mobile and web users:
- Add new mobile user accounts, put details about them like their name and phone number, and organize your users into groups
- Invite web users to join your CommCareHQ project space
- Applications – here is where we are going to be working in this tutorial- building, changing, and downloading CommCare applications
- CloudCare – CloudCare is like a website-based version of CommCare Mobile. It is useful for testing your forms and for doing data entry from a computer instead of a mobile device. Note that CloudCare for data entry is only available if you have software plan at the Pro level of higher. CloudCare is available to everyone for testing forms.
- Messaging – this is a tool for sending SMS/text messages to your mobile workers
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Application Builder
When you first visit your project space you will have three options:
- Survey: Select this option for a template application for one-time data collection
- Case Management: Select this option for a template case management application that allows you to track information about a specific case over time
- Blank Application: Select this option to build a new application from scratch
For now, select the "Start from scratch" option.
Getting to Know the CommCare Application Builder
- Click on "Build a new application" on the dashboard (or click on Applications at the top navigation bar and then choose "Create new application")
- If you do not have any applications yet, you can just click on "Create a Blank Application"
- If you already have an app, navigate in the Application Menu drop-down to "New Application" and choose "Blank Application"
Take a look at the left-hand menu. As shown, you are currently on the "Settings" screen.
Look back to the left hand menu. There are a number of different functions available, described in detail below. You can click on each one to get a better idea of its contents, though you can leave them unchanged at this time.
- Deploy - this is where you can make new versions of your application and download the files to phones.
- Settings - contains several options (in blue), that will configure your application: Basic; General Settings; Java Phone General Settings; Java Phone User Interface Settings; and Advanced. You can click on these various options to get acquainted. There is no need to change anything at this time. You can also change the application name and activate CloudCare or Case Sharing- to learn more about these, hover your mouse over the blue question mark bubbles.
- Multimedia - where you will add a finalized folder of all of your images, audio and video for your application.
- Languages - where you will add languages for your application. The default is now set as "en" for English. You can change this default as well as add more languages for your users. You would then enter these translations as you build your application.
- Application Structure - Features an outline of the form structure. By default a new application has one module and one form, with "+" buttons to add more.
- Actions - The last set of features is the ability to make a copy of an application or delete an application.
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If you would like more detail on forms and modules, please see CommCare Fundamentals. |
Setting up your Application
In these tutorials we are going to create an application for a community health worker to monitor pregnant women. Let's imagine that the Community Health Worker (CHW) finds out a woman is pregnant and registers her in CommCareOnce you are logged into your CommCare account and project, the first thing you will see is a blank application in the "application builder".
Take a look at the menu of your application. A number of different functions are available, described below. Feel free to click through to see what each is comprised of.
- App Preview: Allows you to move the mobile phone emulator on and off of your browser window.
- App Summary: Use this to view the contents of your entire application at-a-glance. Summaries can be viewed by form or by case. You can view app contents, and hide or unhide calculations, display conditions, or validation conditions.
- Publish: Enables you to make new versions of your application to download onto your Android device. This is accessible by clicking on the application name.
- Gear icon next to "Untitled Application": Allows you to navigate to the application's settings page, where you can enable more advanced features, languages, and multimedia.
Setting Up an Application
Now that we have a blank application, we can start building. But first, let's review what we're going to build.
Imagine that you work for an organization that coordinates a maternal and child health program in which community health workers (CHW) monitor and counsel pregnant women in their communities. When a CHW learns that a women is pregnant, she registers the woman into the program. Throughout the pregnancy, the worker visits the pregnant woman to collect data and provide counseling messages. At the end of the pregnancy the worker will start meeting monitoring , the CHW monitors the health of the newborn child as well. We will be building this application over time. The first thing we need to do is to create a registration form, which is what we are going to do in this tutorial.The first thing we want to do, now that we have our blank application, is to give it a name!. Currently, the program uses paper forms to support each interaction.
Using this information as a guide, let's build an app to replace the paper forms and support these workers. We will build this app step-by-step.
Let's start by giving our application a name.
1. Set the application name
- From the "settings" display of your application, click on the "form nameUntitled Application" box and type "Village Health"
- Click on "save"
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- the green checkbox to save.
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In the application builder, there is always a green save button. When you make a change it becomes bright green and you will need to push it to save your changes. While building applications, it is important to keep saving, though you will always get a warning message when you try to navigate away from a page without saving changes. |
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- Click on Untitled Module in the left navigation panel.
- Change the name to "Pregnancy" and save your changes.
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| title | What about case management and case list? |
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. Create a set of forms
Next, use the "+ Add..." button to select the kind of form structure you would like to use. The options are the following:
- Survey: Select this option for a template application for one-time data collection.
- Case List: Select this option for a template case management application that allows you to track information about a specific case over time.
By selecting one of these, you will begin the application building process. For this app, because the CHW will monitor pregnant women over time, select "Case List," which will create a "Register" form and a "Followup" form.
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By clicking on "Case List," you can update the name as well as configure a number of settings. Most of these settings have to do with case management and will be dealt with in which we will cover in subsequent tutorials. You For now, you can leave all of the settings as they are by default. |
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Begin editing your forms
After selecting, "Case List", you are now automatically entered into the "Register" form and can begin to add questions to your form. But don't add anything yet! We'll do this in the next module.
Remember, a form is one specific set of information within a modulecase list. For example, our "Register" form will be to register a pregnant woman and collect preliminary data. We could create a second form for used to collect registration information for a pregnant woman. We can edit our second form called "Followup" to capture information about the pregnancy during a follow-up during rainy season, and a third visit.
You can edit any form in the Case List by clicking on it.
4. Add more forms
For our application, we'll need a third form to enter data about incidences of malaria after a year. For now we'll stick with one form.
4. Create a new form
- Click on the "edit" button to open the Form Builder.
the health of the newborn child. To add another form, click on the green "+" next to the words, "Case List".
You're ready to start building your first form! Go on to Part 3!