Page Comparison

Web apps can be used for:

• Testing CommCare applications or forms

• A data entry person who needs to be able to modify a mobile users case list or add additional data

• Cases from mobile applications that are shared with a web app- for example, allowing a nurse at a clinic to update cases when patients visit. A Community Health Worker with a mobile handset is then able to view the updates from the clinic and see what instructions the patient was given.

Using Web Apps: A quick introduction to setting up and using web apps

Web Apps is the web version of CommCare.  There are two ways you can use Web Apps:

1. To test forms (using the “App Preview” feature) - you can preview your form in a virtual device that appears on the right hand side of the screen in App Manager or Form Builder.

2. To submit data -  mobile workers can log into Web Apps on a computer just like they would log into a CommCare mobile application. Web Users can also use Web Apps, but data is treated differently for a web user. More information on this point below.
   

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First, are Web Apps Right For Me?

We recommend you use the Google Chrome web browser.

• Other browsers may work, but are not fully supported.

How is Web Apps different than Mobile Apps?

• Case sharing as a web user is not supported.

• No mobile-specific user interface settings (e.g. Sense mode) are honored.

• The time portion of 'format-date' does not work well. Time portion always shows up as 00:00:00 in Web Apps.

• The "default language" setting is not honored for applications. User-specific language setting is used instead for both Web and Mobile users. 

• Groups that contain only hidden values will be shown as empty groups in Web Apps if the display condition of the group is met.

• Case List Menu Item setting for a module.

• Alternative calendar formats are not supported.

• Multimedia upload and capture (Image, Video, Audio) are not supported.

• Most advanced Android formatting options are not respected.

• Audio files on multiple choice question choices will not show or play.

• Images on multiple choice question choices will not show or play.

• Images and audio files on buttons will not show or play.

• Incomplete Forms are available if at least one application in the project space has them enabled.

• Incomplete forms on Web Apps are deleted automatically after 7 days.

• User controlled repeat groups don't get rendered when mixed with repeat group of other types in the same form. To work around this issue , it is possible to ask the user how many repeats they require. 

• Having multiple tabs open on your browser with Web Apps is known to have caused some performance issues in the past. We'd generally recommend not opening Web Apps for data collection in multiple tabs / groups.

• 'Phone Number' format in case list in not supported on Web Apps. The phone number will not be displayed in the case list as highlighted. 

• End of Form Navigation using Home screen is not supported on Web Apps. When utilizing End of Form Navigation, Web Apps users wishing to return to the list of menus/modules should use 'First Menu' and not 'Home Screen.'

• Web Apps supports the here()  function expression in persistent entity views, which are unsupported on the Android platform

Application Preview

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You can also choose to display your application as if it were on a phone or a tablet by selecting the image of a device on the app preview. Selecting the device button will toggle between a mobile phone or tablet:

Phone

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Tablet

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There are a few things that you should know when using the app preview feature. When testing your application, the app preview will always use the most recent version of your application, regardless of what the latest release version is. Basically, you will always see a version of your application based on the last time you selected the ‘Save’ button in the application manager or form builder.

In order to ensure you are using the latest version of your application, you will need to select the refresh button on the app preview feature. You will need to press this button after you make any changes that you would like to review. Please note that if you select the refresh button while you are in a form in app preview, you will be returned to the home screen and will need to navigate back to the form that you were in:

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General Tips:

• While this feature allows you to test the most recent version of your application without having to deploy any changes, we do recommend deploying new versions of your application occasionally. This will allow you to have checkpoints to revert your application to in case you make a change that you cannot fix or breaks your application.

• We recommend using the 1 question per screen setting, as multiple questions per screen can cause some slowness and performance issues. To enable this, select the ‘Settings’ button from the home screen of ‘Live Preview’ and select enable for this setting.

• You can view any other languages you might have configured for your application by proceeding the ‘Settings’ page of Live Preview.

• Be sure to sync to receive the latest data for your application, especially when using the 'Login As' functionality.

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Limitations:

• Same limitations as Web Apps..

• User-controlled repeat groups (i.e. Repeat groups where the user defines how many repeats to input) do not currently work. Repeat groups where the repeat count is pre-defined should work.

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CommCare for Web Users

Web Apps

Users can access web apps by clicking on "Web Apps" at the top of the page. Note that the apps that appear here are the latest released version of the application, to ensure that your latest test changes don't affect current web apps users! This allows for more robust testing and use of the application, as it allows you to preview more than just the form as described in the section above.

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To enable the Login As feature, you need be logged in as a Web User with certain permissions. The user’s Web User Role will need to have permission to do the following in your project space:

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With these permissions enabled, you should see a 'Login As' button when using App Preview or Web Apps:

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Limitations:

• Any data submitted this way will be done so as if you were that mobile worker. The data will appear in exports and reports as such.

• Any limitations that would apply to a mobile worker in Web Apps. 

• The only way to confirm a form was submitted on behalf of a mobile worker by a Web User, is to find the specific form itself. You can do this by searching for submissions in the Submit History. Once you find the form in the submit history, there will be a note at the top that states 'Submitted by Web User <name> on behalf of Mobile Worker <name>':Image Removed

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For more information on the Login As feature, please see this document.

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CommCare for Mobile Workers

Lastly, you can also use your mobile username to view your case list and fill out forms on the web just as you would on a mobile phone.

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NOTE: The language will not switch if you use "login as" to log in as the mobile worker. You will have to separately log in using the username and password of the mobile worker to be able to see the app display in the desired language for the mobile worker.

For more information, please see the Login As Feature

Custom Logo

You can upload an image in Application Settings to use as the logo of your app on the main Web Apps page, in place of the CommCare logo.

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The table below is true for all projects created after March 2014; for projects before that, the default for Clicking on the Web Apps button and for accessing Web Apps as a mobile worker was always to use the most recent version, regardless of whether it was starred. If you have specific questions please "report an issue" and the support team will follow up with you.

New App Version Prompt

For projects that have shortened inactivity timeout functionality, when a new version of an app is released, users will see a pop up message allowing them to either update to the latest version now or later.

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The screenshot below shows what the pagination would look like if the case list had over 520 cases, with 10 cases to a page.

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Navigating to all required questions 

When a form is long and has multiple required questions or questions with validation errors spread across the form, it is useful to be able to navigate to all these questions one by one to fix them before submitting the form. For this reason, once you click "Submit," a message box with links to any questions with errors, and a handy navigation button is displayed at the bottom of Web Apps. Clicking on the button will scroll to the next required question or question with validated errors. Once all errors are addressed, the button disappears and the Submit button is enabled. Below is a screenshot.

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Successful form submission messaging

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