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Welcome to CommCare Fundamentals- an overview to of what CommCare is and how it works!

If you are new to CommCare, this should also give you a good understanding of how CommCare works. In order to become receive any type of CommCare certification, you must demonstrate an understanding of the learning objectives in this section. is a great place to start.

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CommCare- What is it?

1- Explore this: You can get a good overview of what CommCare is by reading through the public CommCare site.

2- Watch this:

3- Read this:

CommCare is a mobile case management tool for tracking clients through a continuum of care. It aims to help frontline workers more accurately track and support the registration, follow-up, and completion of care for clients in their communities. It runs as a mobile application on a mobile phone and is built on a decision & logic-processing platform that can support workers to deliver care, as well as provide critical data-quality checks at the point of service.

There are two pieces to CommCare:

1. CommCareMobile is the mobile-device part of CommCare. This could be a phone, tablet, or someone entering data using a computer.
2. CommCareHQ is the website/portal where data can be accessed and workers managed.

CommCare can be used for a number or purposes or combination of purposes. The main uses include:

• Data collection
• Decision support
• Job aid
• Counseling tool

One other important thing to know is that CommCare is developed by a company called Dimagi.  CommCare is Dimagi's flagship project, but Dimagi also works on a number of other mobile-based technologies.

CommCare Structure

CommCare is structured in several different levels, as far as applications are concerned.

Workspaces

Each project has its own Workspace on CommCareHQ with its own name. A workspace is a secure web portal into your CommCare project. It contains all form submissions from your CommCare applications, as well as tools that help you create, manage, and deploy your applications and workers.

For example, there is a workspace called “helpsite” where we keep applications that used on the help site. We decided on the workspace it helpsite because it is simple and easy to remember. Whenever I visit a page in my workspace I can see “helpsite” in the address. For example, reports from the helpsite workspace are located here:

www.commcarehq.org/a/helpsite/reports

You will see all websites in CommCareHQ have a similar structure.

A workspace can have one application or many applications. Those applications can all be separate, or they can communicate with each other using “case management,” which we will discuss later. 

To have access to a workspace, you must have a CommCareHQ/web user account (more about web users later in this module)

As a web user, if you create, or are invited to, multiple project spaces, after logging into CommCareHQ you will be able to choose which space you want to work in. Data are not shared among project spaces, so unless you invite someone else to your workspace, no one will be able to see your application or your data.

Applications

An application can be very simple, or extremely complicated.

The basic unit of data collection in CommCare is called a “Form.” It’s just like most paper-based system- if you want to complete something, you have to fill out a form!  Sometimes a project requires lots of forms. If you are monitoring a river you might have to fill out one form the first time you visit the river, to collect basic data, and then when you go to make visits and measurements you have to fill out a different form. Perhaps if there is a flood or an oil spill there is a third type of form you have to fill out.

Forms and Modules

A CommCare Form is a group of questions and prompts that the user views sequentially on the phone. This is the core content of CommCare applications. When users submit data, they submit completed forms. They are fully customizable and support all kinds of handy things, like multiple languages, skip logic, and multimedia content. Forms are based on the XForms standard.

In CommCare, forms that are all related to the same type of thing are grouped together in Modules.  A module can have one or many forms. 

Modules, in turn are grouped into Applications. So here is what an application might look like:

This may seem confusing now, but the main thing to remember is this:

• The unit of data submission is a form.
• Forms can be grouped into modules and applications.

Case Management

(link to prezi)

Data in CommCare?

(insert image)

In CommCare, the general flow of data is from a mobile user to CommCareHQ. From CommCareHQ it is visible to any CommCareHQ/web user with permission to view it. It some cases, where mobile users are sharing the same case list, another mobile worker may be able to see data that was submitted by another mobile worker. However, case sharing is an advanced concept; you can learn more about it here.

In general there are two levels of data in CommCare:

1. Raw Data – this is data from the questions contained in a form. For example, if you have a question “what is the patient’s birthday,” that data is then visible in CommCareHQ as raw or key indicator data.
2. Worker Activity – this is data about how and when mobile workers are submitting forms. The technically inclined can think of this as “metadata.” This may be information like “yesterday mobile user Samantha submitted 10 forms”

What happens to data collected on a phone when there is no signal? It stays on the phone until there is signal! CommCare was designed to function in places where there is not always consistent access to network.

In addition, on CommCareHQ you can view lots of important data about a form:

• Which mobile user submitted it?
• How long did it take to complete the form?
• When was the form sent to the CommCareHQ server over the cellular or WiFi network?
• What are the answers to the questions in the form (raw data)?
• Who or what was the form related (see case management)

There is a lot more detail about CommCare Data in this section of the Help Site.

Mobile and Web Users

In CommCare there are two types of users:

• Mobile Users- these are the accounts for using CommCare on a phone or tablet (or, for using CloudCare- see box)
• Web (CommCareHQ) Users – these are the accounts for accessing the CommCareHQ website, where you can build applications, manage users/settings, and view data

Let’s dive into the difference between these two users a little more.

CommCareHQ/Web Users

CommCare web users are the people have access to the CommCareHQ website. Most of the information on the help site is directed at CommCareHQ/Web users- people who log into CommCareHQ using their email addresses. In a given work space, you might have a number of people with access to CommCareHQ. The main tasks that people with access to a workspace can do include the following:

• Create, modify, and download/deploy CommCare applications
• Create, manage, and delete mobile user accounts
• View and export data submitted by mobile workers
• Send text messages to mobile workers
• Manage workspace settings

By exploring the Help Site you should be able to understand the many important tasks that a CommCareHQ user can do! There is one important thing that a Web user cannot do (in general) and that is submit data; for that they need a mobile user account or use of an advanced CommCare tool.

CommCare Mobile Users

CommCare mobile user accounts give people access to a set of data on a CommCare mobile device or CloudCare. When you open a CommCare application on any mobile device you have two options for viewing the application:

• Demo User
• Log In

Each mobile user has their own username and password. In most projects, mobile users are the people who go out into the field or work in an office to collect data, follow up with patients/clients, or otherwise use CommCare mobile as part of their work.

When someone has a mobile user account, they can create and modify their own “case list.” When they submit a form via CommCare, that form will have their username on it so if a web user views that form submission, they can see which mobile user sent in the data. The concept of a mobile user is central to CommCare.

Getting Started

Congratulations, you've completed CommCare Fundamentals! Now that you understand the core concepts of CommCare, it's time to Get Started.

The learning objectives covered in CommCare Fundamentals are recommended or required for everyone working on a CommCare project.

Topics

Review each of the following sections to learn more about the main features and principles of CommCare:

1. CommCare Overview
2. CommCare Structure
3. Case Management
4. Data in CommCare
5. Mobile and Web Users
6. Project Roles and Implementation

It is critical that you understand all of the material in these sections before going on to other CommCare tutorials.

GET STARTED!

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Next Steps

After completing CommCare Fundamentals we recommend you do the following:

CommCare Fundamentals Test: Visit this page to learn more about the CommCare Fundamentals test.

App Building: Once you've completed CommCare Fundamentals, you're ready to get started with CommCare app building!

CommCare Fundamentals - last revised 24 October 2014