Product Updates

Owned by Gillian Javetski
Last updated: Nov 08, 2024 by Gillian Javetski
62 min read

Check out what's new in CommCare, from new features to the latest resources to support you.

For a full list of all updates to the CommCare platform, please visit the CommCare GitHub repository. In addition to features listed here, clients working with Dimagi’s professional services teams may have access to other features that are not yet available in the general CommCare platform.

Learn how to stay up to date with CommCare here!

 

July - September 2024

We are excited to announce some big updates to CommCare HQ and CommCare Mobile this past quarter. These updates range from stability and security improvements to CommCare Mobile, brand new APIs on our Enterprise Console, further integrating the Data Dictionary and Case Exports, and more!

Product Updates ✨

Below is a list of our newest product releases in CommCare from this past quarter.

A More Stable and Secure CommCare Mobile with Version 2.54.0

Available to users on all software plans

We have released a new mobile version for CommCare (version 2.54.0). There are some exciting updates included in this version, such as:

  • Support for Android 13

  • Added support for fullscreen mode for a better video viewing experience when playing inline videos

  • Added background sync capabilities

  • Enhanced audio recording widget to handle situations when users need to record audio recordings between different applications in the same session

  • Enhanced security measures to protect sensitive data collected in CommCare in line with CommCare’s industry-leading secure mobile application practices

  • Fixed various rendering issues for large images and grids

  • … and much more!

We recommend following the steps outlined here to update your CommCare application version.

Enterprise Console Updates for Better Visibility and Reporting

Available to users on the Enterprise software plan

For those users on an Enterprise software plan, we’ve made some great updates to the Enterprise Console to help give you a high-level overview of all of your connected project spaces.

Connected OData Feeds

You are now able to access reports on the Enterprise Console as OData feeds, allowing you to connect them directly into your PowerBI dashboards with a click of a button! Each report now has their own API and can be accessed via the browser or any tool that can consume OData feeds. You can find a comprehensive guide on our brand new Enterprise Console OData feeds here.

Flexible Date Ranges

We released an update which allows you to configure the date ranges you’d like to pull data for in the Mobile Submissions Report on the Enterprise Console. You can find more information about this here.

Data Dictionary Improvements to Manage Case Properties More Easily

Available to users on the Advanced and Enterprise software plans.

The Data Dictionary is now even more useful! Case Exports now respect the case property groups and the ordering of case properties as defined by you in the Data Dictionary. This allows you to organize large groups of case properties in a standardized way across all your users and makes finding case properties that much easier!

For more information on the Data Dictionary feature, please see our guide here. For more information on Case Exports, please view our guide here.

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API Upgrades for Flexible Location Assignment

Available to users on Pro, Advanced, Enterprise software plans

We have improved our Create and Edit Mobile User APIs to allow for the programmatic changing of mobile user location assignments. This enables our customers who rely on more complex, API-based workflows with frequently changing location assignments to update locations without having to go into the CommCare HQ user interface.

For more information, please refer to the detailed API guides here and here.

And more….

To view all other bugs, performance enhancements, and updates made to CommCare, please visit our Github repository here.

Tell us what you think! 📫

We’re excited to be putting out these product release notes as a way to keep CommCare users better informed.

  • If you’re interested in receiving a demo on any of the product updates, please feel free to email info@dimagi.com

  • If you have any feedback on the above features, please feel free to leave it on the CommCare Forum.

 

April - June 2024

We are thrilled to announce key updates to CommCare released this past quarter. These updates encompass a range of improvements, including significant enhancements to our Single Sign On feature, a streamlined process to renew annual plans, upgrades to our powerful Data Export Tool, and the ability to incrementally refresh CommCare data in Power BI.

We look forward to hearing your feedback!

Product Updates ✨

Below is a list of our newest product releases in CommCare from this past quarter.

Single Sign On (SSO) Improvements

Available to users on Enterprise software plans

We are excited to announce the latest enhancements to our Single Sign-On (SSO) capabilities. These updates are designed to not only bolster the security of SSO but also streamline the integration process with other systems, making it more efficient and user-friendly.

  • Manage Users Remotely: Now, users can effortlessly control their list of users in CommCare HQ via Entra ID. This feature enables seamless management of user access, ensuring a smooth and secure experience. Learn more about how to leverage this functionality here.

  • Control API Key Settings: Enhance your user management capabilities by allowing multiple views of your users' API keys. This empowers administrators to efficiently monitor and manage API access, promoting better control and security. Dive deeper into this feature here.

  • Enforce API Key Expiration: With this new feature, users can enforce API key expiration, adding an extra layer of security to their systems. By setting expiration dates for API keys, organizations can mitigate risks and ensure data protection. Learn more about this functionality here.

Enhancements to CommCare Data Pipelines

Available to users on Pro, Advanced, Enterprise software plans

For our data users, the CommCare Data Export Tool (DET) has been given some love with some new features to make running sophisticated data exports even easier.

  • Executable File for Windows: The DET now offers an executable file for Windows, making it more accessible for users. You can download the DET executable here.

  • Log Files for DET Runs: All DET runs now generate log files, providing users with detailed information to review and analyze their data export processes effectively.

  • Enhanced Error Messaging: We have significantly improved the error messaging in DET. Users can now benefit from clearer and more informative error messages, helping them troubleshoot and resolve issues more efficiently.

For more information and to stay updated on the latest enhancements, visit our GitHub repository.

Faster Loading Time with PowerBI

Available to users on Advanced, Enterprise software plans

Many organizations use OData feeds to connect data from CommCare to data visualization systems for important analysis and visualization. For our Power BI users, OData feeds from CommCare can now be incrementally refreshed on Power BI! This ensures that Power BI reports remain up-to-date with the latest information from CommCare by only refreshing the data that has changed since the last update. Users can experience faster data loading times - ensuring up-to-date information and optimizing decision-making processes for users.

For more information, please refer to the detailed guide here.

Self-Service Subscription Renewal

Available to users on all software plans.

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Annual renewals are now self-service! Say goodbye to complex renewal procedures. Now you can update your plan in just a few clicks. If you are currently on an annual plan, renewing your subscription is now as simple as if you were on a monthly plan.

For more detailed information on how to renew your subscription, check out our Renewing Your Subscription Guide.

And more….

To view all other bugs, performance enhancements, and updates made to CommCare, please visit our Github repository here.

What else is new? 🔍

In addition to product updates, we’ve also been hard at work at making improvements in resources that can help our users. See a few updates below!

Power Automate, Twilio Studio, and Azure Data Factory Integrations

Available to users on Pro, Advanced, Enterprise software plans

In addition to the product updates listed above, we’ve also been hard at work in improving guidance for how to integrate CommCare with third-party tools. Below is some new documentation we’ve put together about integrating with Power Automate, Twilio Studio, and Azure Data Factory.

  • Power Automate Integration: CommCare now has a fluid integration with Power Automate, enhancing workflow efficiency and automation capabilities. With Power Automate, automated workflows can be created to connect CommCare with various applications and services, ensuring smooth information exchange and personalized automation solutions.

  • Twilio Studio Integration: Twilio Studio enables the creation of messaging workflows, such as SMS surveys and IVR surveys. By integrating Twilio Studio with CommCare using Power Automate, you can trigger Twilio Studio flows directly from CommCare. Once the flow is executed in Twilio, the resulting data can be seamlessly copied back into CommCare, creating an efficient and automated process.

  • Azure Data Factory Integration: We have developed a guide which provides a comprehensive overview of establishing a robust data pipeline to extract, transform, and load (ETL) data from CommCare into the Azure ecosystem. This setup leverages various Azure services to ensure seamless data integration, transformation, and storage for enhanced data management and analytics.

Revamped CommCare Documentation

Available to everyone!

Our team has been hard at work at updating the CommCare Help Site, our main source for CommCare Technical documentation. In addition to a revamped Home Page, we’ve reorganized information to make it more intuitive for people to find what they are looking for.

Next up, we’re looking into ways that we can translate the Help Site into multiple languages. Stay tuned!

Tell us what you think! 📫

We’re excited to be putting out these product release notes as a way to keep CommCare users better informed.

  • If you’re interested in receiving a demo on any of the product updates, please feel free to email info@dimagi.com

  • If you have any feedback on the above features, please feel free to leave it on the CommCare Forum.

 

January - March 2024

Our biggest highlight of this quarter is our new Case Deduplication tool, saving our users' significant time in managing their workloads and data.

Product Updates ✨

We are very excited to announce some new features in CommCare, including the ability to automatically deduplicate cases,

Case Deduplication

Available to users on Advanced, Enterprise software plans

We heard loud and clear from our users that the process of cleaning data for duplicates takes a lot, lot of time. That’s why we built Case Deduplication, a new feature in CommCare designed to help you quickly identify and address duplicate cases. Having a clean data pipeline empowers you to make more informed decisions with greater confidence.

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General Improvements

  • [Advanced Plan Only] When a user adds, updates, or deletes a case property in the Data Dictionary, the updated case properties will be displayed on the Case List Explorer

  • Implemented bulk create and update functionality in the Location API, maintaining the existing data format used for individual location create/update. This enhancement enables users to create and update multiple locations through the Locations API.

  • The deprecate and restore icons in the Data Dictionary have been replaced with buttons to align better with the overall UI. Additionally, the confirmation modal for deleting a case property has been adjusted to make it clearer that the property is only being marked for deletion, not immediately removed upon confirmation.

  • The delete case property button has been redesigned to be more distinguishable from the deprecate action. This change aims to reduce confusion and help users differentiate between the two actions more easily.

  • We've updated the UI in several areas (Mobile Worker edit using info view, pop-up when clicking the re-verify button, help button next to the verify numbers button, and after clicking "publish" on a build) to include a notification about SMS charges when verifying phone numbers.

And More….

To view all other bugs, performance enhancements, and updates made to CommCare, please visit our Github repository here.

What else is new? 🔍

New Playbook for Monitoring & Evaluation Professionals

For Monitoring & Evaluation professionals, establishing a centralized digital tool across an entire organization can feel daunting.

That’s why we created the M&E playbook; a 4-step process and change management guide curated by industry leaders who've successfully made the transition to a centralized approach. Their feedback? While it required a significant effort, the cost savings, improved quality, increased efficiencies and tighter security made the shift well worth it. Discover practical strategies and valuable insights into how to accomplish an undertaking of this magnitude.

Spotlight on the API Explorer

Available to users on Pro, Advanced, Enterprise software plans

We are excited to spotlight the API Explorer tool, designed to simplify the process of interacting with our APIs. Here's why the API Explorer is a beneficial tool for developers:

  1. Effortless API Interaction: With the API Explorer, developers can easily explore and interact with our APIs in a user-friendly interface, reducing the learning curve and accelerating development.

  2. Real-time Testing: Developers can test API endpoints in real-time, allowing for quick validation of requests and responses without the need for external tools.

Try it out by reviewing our documentation here and enjoy the power of API exploration!

Tell us what you think! 📫

We’re excited to be putting out these product release notes as a way to keep CommCare users better informed.

  • If you’re interested in receiving a demo on any of the product updates, please feel free to email info@dimagi.com

  • If you have any feedback on the above features, please feel free to leave it on the CommCare Forum.

 

2023

October - December 2023

  1. The issue with saving a form as incomplete on Web Apps and encountering a hang when accessing incomplete forms has been resolved. Users can now navigate to incomplete forms without experiencing any webpage delays.

  2. The alignment issue with user input boxes for numeric and text questions, where they were displaying lower than other items in the row, has been successfully resolved on Web Apps. Users can now input data more efficiently with all questions vertically aligned.

  3. The background colour of nested group question headers has been updated, transitioning from a darker to lighter shade and now featuring shades of CommCare Blue. Additionally, the ">" symbol has been changed to white for improved contrast.

  4. Consistent with other sections of CommCare, the 'Find Data by ID' functionality will now treat soft deleted cases and forms as if they were permanently deleted, resulting in a 'Could not find case/form' error message.

  5. The issue affecting project spaces with user names mistaken for dates, causing failures in "date formatting" and preventing access to applications, has been successfully resolved. Users with such names can now access applications without any hindrance.

  6. Previously in Web Apps, labels at the top level of the form were shown within a border, contrasting with those in groups lacking a border. Additionally, in collapsible sections, label text misalignment occurred with other question text. The issue is now resolved, with top-level form labels no longer having borders, and labels within collapsible sections displaying proper alignment with other question labels.

  7. To enhance user experience, when individuals click on an invitation they've already accepted, they will now be seamlessly redirected without encountering a red error message indicating the invitation has been used up. The redirection will occur unless the user is logged in as a different invitee.

  8. We have improved the UI on Web Apps by removing question type text, adjusting the control height for questions, tweaking the size and color of input text, and reducing padding between questions. These changes aim to enhance the overall visual appeal and user experience.

July - September 2023

  1. When viewing a case list on Web Apps, you can now click the "scroll to bottom" button which takes you to the bottom of the case list on that page.

  2. Added a hamburger menu for case list results. The print view is modified to only show case list results and not maps or the search sidebar (in the case of Split Screen Case Search).

  3. A new project setting is added to display a warning message on the mobile worker location edit page about locations that own cases and only have one assigned mobile worker. Note that the setting is disabled by default. The user will be notified of this setting on the Organization Levels page when they have an organization level that can own cases.

  4. The Application Error Report feature has been made available for projects on the Enterprise plan. 

  5. Fixed a bug within the conditional alerts & case updates rule, where the rule/alert always fires when the "ANY" option is chosen for the rule. 

  6. On the Data Dictionary admin page, users attempting to input a case property name or case property group name that already exists for the case type will now be met with a error message “A case property/group with this name already exists.” (Note: Data Dictionary is available for those on the Advanced and Enterprise Plans)

  7. Users are able to deprecate and restore case types in the Data Dictionary. (Note: Data Dictionary is available for those on the Advanced and Enterprise Plans)

  8. Added a validation for attachments that comes through App Preview just as they are validated coming from Web Apps or Mobile.

  9. In Web Apps, language selection has been added to the hamburger menu.

  10. In Web Apps, UI improvements have been made to backgrounds, borders, and buttons.

  11. Updates to error messages to provide more accurate information.

April - June 2023

  1. Users now have the ability to set Form Forwarders to only forward specific forms. Forms are identified by their XMLNS. This change preserves current behaviour: If no forms are specified, all form submissions are forwarded.

  2. Implemented a UI change in the case history table, replacing "System" in the "User Type" column. This change adds more specific names for system updates.

  3. The Export Case Data menu has been modified to include a percentage indicator of the progress made when populating tables for the Bulk Case Export.

  4. Users now have the ability to bulk import all case types concurrently. 

  5. Users are now able to prepare a bulk case export which includes every case type in a project space by selecting “Any Application” & “All Case Types” when preparing the export. However, if the project has more than 30 case types or 20 applications, then the user will be unable to create a bulk case export config, and will be met with an error message. 

  6. It is now possible to assign user location based on domain during the creation of a new mobile worker.

  7. The process of viewing repeat record attempts has been updated.
    Instead of the ellipsis, there's a new "Responses" button. When clicked, this button gathers and showcases each attempt in its own row below the original repeat record entry.

  8. 2FA is disabled for a newly created account on HQ unless the new user is a part of an active domain.

  9. Implemented a restriction on uploaded files to be less than 15MB as a logo under Project Settings.

  10. Icons have been added to the bulk action buttons to improve the UI.

  11. Enhanced Privacy and Security for filtered URLs on case list and case list explorer pages.

  12. UI improvements were made to the Case List Explorer.

  13. Errors for DHIS2 have been improved to include a diagnosis message.

  14. In addition to text, App Preview Help will now allow images, audio, and video.

  15. Filters for Export Case Data have been changed so that all case types are available at the domain level. Previously, it was necessary to select an App first.

  16. In Case Tiles, a message will be shown when the case list is empty.

January - March 2023

  1. Fixed 500 error when bulk archiving forms in Manage Forms.

  2. Fixed form print layout in the UI.

  3. Fixed bug that discarded manually entered dates with two-digit year format.

  4. Fixed the previously null  "next" URL in the web user API.

  5. Implemented bulk case reassignment.
    - This passes report-filters as a request.POST to the new render_as=bulk endpoint , which utilizes the report's query and results to obtain the list of cases that require reassignment.

  6. Created Django migration for deleted apps. 

  7. Removed advanced query search functionality.
    - Removes the advanced query search function from the Mobile Workers page's search bar, as well as from other places where it was not intended (web app's mobile worker search, app builder's app build search, web user search, drop-down menus for certain reports, etc.).

  8. Fixed a bug reported that resulted in inconsistent Download and Email Reports permission display.

  9. Added last_used  property to HQApiKey.

  10. Implemented support for range for form attachment downloads.

  11. Added conditional case update status to app summary.

  12. Updated the copy for the repeater deletion pop-up.

  13. Added form session ID to URL in webapps.

  14. Accessibility: Added label for tabular checkboxes in apps.

  15. Change communication sent out: The Incomplete Forms setting default is off  and incomplete forms are hidden unless the setting is enabled.

  16. Updated text for the button on the modal to delete repeater configuration.

  17. Implemented a UI change to Mobile Worker Bulk Download.

  18. Added email address validation in email messaging content.

  19. Implemented a change to prevent the creation of a commcare-user  case when a mobile worker is deleted.

  20. The repeater name was made configurable.

  21. Enabled Incomplete Forms in all production domains.

  22. Updated SQLRepeater model to allow names to be 255 characters. 

  23. Updated the UI to display the date format to the user.

  24. Implemented a one-time email notice when the mobile worker count exceeds 90% or 100% of the domain's plan's limit.

  25. Implemented Release Mode toggle on the application release page.

  26. Removed the _entered convention  wrap functions.

2022