CommCare Fundamentals - CommCare Structure

1. CommCare Software

CommCare is a software program that allows people to create and manage mobile applications through the website, CommCareHQ. CommCare is the overall tool for building applications, making changes, downloading applications to phones, registering the application users, and viewing data submissions.

A CommCare application ("app") is the mobile phone-based tool which is used to submit data and track cases. An application can take many shapes and levels of complexity- there are CommCare apps for maternal and child health, for simple surveys, for agricultural extension agents, nutrition, education, and all sorts of programs where there is a need to help frontline workers do their jobs better and collect data digitally. To explore or try out some applications that have been made with CommCare, please visit the free CommCare Exchange. The CommCare Exchange is a part of CommCareHQ where anyone can share CommCare applications they have created or download and use applications that other people have developed.. There is additional information about the CommCare Exchange here.

Applications are built on the CommCareHQ website. It is not necessary to download any software; you can just create an account from any computer and start using CommCare.

2. CommCare Projects

Each program has its own project space on CommCareHQ with its own name. A project space is a secure web portal in the CommCare system that contains all data related to your CommCare applications, as well as tools that help you create, manage, and deploy your applications and mobile workers. Anyone can create their own project space, and can choose to let other people have access to their project space.

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

You will see all websites in CommCareHQ have a similar structure. Here are some of the key parts of each CommCareHQ Project Space:

• Dashboard - quickly access saved reports, applications, or other sections of CommCareHQ
• Reports - view and download worker activity, error reports, and individual form submissions
• Data - download raw data exports
• Users - manage the web and mobile users for the project
• Applications - create, update, and deploy applications

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

To have access to any project space, you must have a CommCareHQ account. 

As a CommCareHQ user, you can create or be invited to multiple project spaces. If you belong to multiple project spaces, after logging into CommCareHQ you will be able to choose which space you want to work in at that time. Data is not shared among project spaces, so unless you invite someone else to your project, no one else will be able to see your application or your data.

3. Forms

The basic unit of work in CommCare is called a form. It’s just like most paper-based systems- if you want to complete a task like registration, a transaction, or a updating information, you often have to fill out a form. Sometimes a project requires lots of forms.

For example, if you are monitoring the condition of a river, you might have to fill out one form the first time you visit the river to collect basic data about it. When you return to the river, you may have to take measurements that require filling out a different form. If there is a flood or an oil spill there is a third type of form you have to fill out. Your CommCare app would also have at least three forms which would update the record of the river.

A CommCare form is a group of questions and messages 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 useful features like multiple languages, skip logic, validation, and multimedia content.

A form can contain many types of questions. For example:

• Text
• Number
• Date
• Multiple Choice

There are also advanced question types like:

• GPS - geolocation
• Photo Capture
• Barcode Scanner

You can find a complete list of all supported question types here.

A form will usually contain a series of questions like this:

In CommCare, you can build all of the forms we need over the course of a particular project and link them together into one application.

4. Modules

CommCare also uses modules, which are groups of forms that are all related to the same type of thing.  A module can have one or many forms, and an application could have many modules; it is like a folder full of forms that are all about the same thing.  A module about pregnancy could contain a registration form, a home visit form, a pregnancy outcome, and a danger signs form. Each form has a different purpose but they are all related to the pregnancy.

For example, if we have an application for a community health worker, we could have a pregnancy module, a malaria module, and an HIV/AIDS module.

A single CommCare application can contain multiple modules. So here is what an application's structure might look like:

In the example above, Forms 1 and 2 are probably referring to the same type of individual, facility, or thing- maybe about a child- so they are grouped into the same module. Form 3 may refer to something or someone different- maybe a village- so it is in a different module. Sometimes two modules may be about the same type of person, facility, or thing, but it depends upon how the application is being used.

The key points to remember are:

• The unit of data submission and work is a form. Every time a mobile phone user fills out a form, it is marked as completed and sent over to the CommCareHQ server via an Internet connection, such as a mobile data network, or a WiFi network. 
• Forms can be grouped into modules and applications to match the overall workflow and responsibilities of the worker.

There are lots of tutorials on the CommCare Help Site to help you navigate the structure of an application, but now you know all of the basics!

The next piece of CommCare Fundamentals is to learn about Mobile and Web Users.

Go to the next section.