The REDCap source code is actively updated and maintained by the REDCap Team at Vanderbilt University. This page details the features of the most recent versions of REDCap that have been installed at Fred Hutch by Collaborative Data Services (CDS).

Note that the most recent versions are on top! We have only included versions that are tested and installed at Fred Hutch (unless it says "coming soon").

Much of the text on this page has been derived (with permission) from the release notes for administrators created by Vanderbilt's Rob Taylor, as well as summarizations of those notes made by Rick Watts at the Women & Children's Health Research Institute at the University of Alberta. Thanks to Rob and Rick!

Version 13.10.2 (Installed 2023-09-28)

• Improvement: The MyCap Help document has been updated, and a new Transition Guide has been added to help inform users regarding the process of transitioning to the new MyCap mobile app from MyCap Classic (the guide is linked in the popup that notifies users about transitioning).
• New feature: Longitudinal functionality for MyCap-enabled projects - In previous versions, longitudinal projects could not utilize MyCap (the feature would be disabled automatically). Now with the release of the new MyCap mobile apps on Android and iOS, longitudinal functionality is possible and is supported in the new MyCap mobile app.
• Improvement: Enhancements to the Codebook page - For longitudinal projects, a table of all events names is displayed near the top of the page. If events and/or missing data codes exist, the table of them may be included in or excluded from the page printout via a checkbox at the top right corner of their table. Also, in the printout of the page, the time and project title are now displayed.
• New action tag: @MC-PARTICIPANT-CODE - This action tag is a MyCap annotation that can be used with Text fields. When using this action tag on a field, the field will capture the MyCap participant’s participant code whenever they join a project via the MyCap mobile app. NOTE: This is used only for the MyCap mobile app. The field’s value is not generated when viewing the data entry form but only when the MyCap app is making a call to REDCap when the participant joins the project. Additionally, while this action tag can be added to a new field in already-existing MyCap projects, a field with this action tag will be auto-added to any projects where MyCap is enabled in the project after the fact and for any new projects created using the MyCap project template.
• Improvement: When viewing the Survey Access Code dialog on the Public Survey Link page, users may now click a button to copy the QR code to their clipboard. Additionally, users may now click the QR code to download it or click a link below the QR code to download it in the higher resolution SVG format, if desired.
• Change/improvement: When executing Data Quality rules, the Logging page now lists the specific DQ rule by name that was executed in the logged event, whereas previous versions merely stated "Execute data quality rule(s)" generically in the Logging.
• Change/improvement: If a longitudinal project contains one or more records, and a user moves a field to a different instrument via the Online Designer, a warning will be displayed saying that moving fields to other instruments might potentially cause the orphaning of data, in which it tells the user to double-check their instrument-event mappings to ensure that no orphaning/data loss has occurred. And if it has, it tells the user that they can move the field back to its original instrument to restore any orphaned data.
• New text string functions
  • replace_text (haystack, search, replace) - Replaces parts of a text value with a specified replacement text value - Finds text ("search") inside another text ("haystack") and replaces all found occurrences with the given text ("replace").
  • concat_ws (separator, text, text, ...) - Joins the text from multiple text strings with a separator - This works exactly like concat but inserts the separator in between each concatenated item. For example, concat_ws(" and ", [veggie1], [veggie2], "Tomatoes") might result in "Peas and Carrots and Tomatoes".
• New math functions
  • mod (dividend,divisor) - Modulo - Returns the remainder of the (integer) division (modulo) dividend/divisor. Both values must be integers. E.g. mod(10,4) will result in 2 because 2 is the remainder of 10 divided by 4.
  • exponential (number) - Exponential of e - Returns "e" (Euler's Number) raised to the power of a number: e^x. Note: The value of the exponent x must be a number. E.g. exponential(1) will return 2.718281828459045.
• New action tag: @MC-PARTICIPANT-JOINDATE - This action tag is a MyCap annotation that can be used with Text fields with date/time validation. When using this action tag on a field, the field will capture the install date/time of the MyCap participant whenever the participant joins a project via the MyCap mobile app. NOTE: This is used only for the MyCap mobile app. The field’s value is not generated when viewing the data entry form but only when the MyCap app is making a call to REDCap when the participant joins the project. Additionally, while this action tag can be added to a new field in already-existing MyCap projects, a field with this action tag will be auto-added to any projects where MyCap is enabled in the project after the fact and for any new projects created using the MyCap project template.
• Improvement: The Data Import Tool page now provides options in Step 1 to download the Data Import Template with alternative delimiters, such as tabs and semicolons.

Version 13.8.1 (Installed 2023-07-10)

• New feature: Background Data Import
  
  • In the Data Import Tool, users may now alternatively import data using an asynchronous background process (as opposed to the existing real-time process). The background process is better for large data files. The background process will email the user after the data file has been fully imported, and the email will note any errors that may have occurred during the import process.
  • If the background data import has begun, the user who initiated the import (or an administrator) can cancel the import process at any time. However, any data that was imported by the import process prior to it being canceled will not be undone after it is canceled. All changes made by the process up until cancellation are permanent.
• New feature: New Multi-Language Management workflow for adding new languages to projects, plus many other improvements.
  • Improved workflow and user interface for adding new languages to projects.
• New feature: @INLINE-PREVIEW action tag - When this action tag is added to File Upload fields or Description Text fields, a preview button will be displayed next to the field on survey pages and data entry forms if the uploaded file is an image or PDF file. Clicking the preview button will immediately display the image/PDF inline on the page, after which it can be closed again, if desired. This allows users/participants to view the file without having to download it to their local device.
• Improvement: Inline image support (via Descriptive Text field, INLINE or INLINE-PREVIEW action tag, or the “:inline” piping parameter) now works for SVG and WEBP image files.
• Improvement: When viewing an inline PDF (whether via Descriptive Text field, INLINE or INLINE-PREVIEW action tag, or the “:inline” piping parameter), a PDF resizer option will appear immediately below the embedded PDF, allowing users to adjust the vertical size of the PDF displayed on the page. Clicking the center button on the resizer will set the PDF to be the full height of the browser.
• Security and bug fixes

Version 13.4.12 (Installed 2023-05-03)

• Critical security fix
• Bug fixes

Version 13.4.11 (Installed 2023-04-27)

• Critical security fix
• Bug fixes

Version 13.4.10 (Installed 2023-04-20)

• Bug fixes

Version 13.4.9 (Installed 2023-04-19)

• Critical security fixes
• Bug fixes

Version 13.4.2 (Installed 2023-03-28)

• Improvement: New option for Form Display Logic: “Hide forms that are disabled”. When enabled, all forms that are disabled will also be hidden (not visible) on the Data Collection menu and on the Record Home Page.
• Bug fixes

Version 13.4.0 (Installed 2023-03-12)

• Addition of Mosio SMS Services as an option for sending SMS messages.

Version 13.2.1 (Installed 2023-01-05)

Version 12.5.16 (Installed 2022-11-07)

• New feature: Download all files on a report - When viewing a report (including public reports) that contains one or more File Upload fields or Signature fields, a “Download Files (zip)” button will appear on the page to allow users to easily download all the report’s uploaded files into a single zip file for those fields for the records in the report.
• Bug fixes

Version 12.5.9 (Installed 2022-09-13)

• Bug fixes

Version 12.5.8 (Installed 2022-09-09)

• Improvement: When utilizing Multi-Language Management in a project, the Field Finder on the Codebook page now supports searching in translated field labels.
• New feature: Repeating Automated Survey Invitations (ASIs)
  • Users can now set ASIs to send multiple times on a recurring basis for any repeating survey in a project. If the survey is a repeating instrument or if it exists on a repeating event, then users will see a new section "How many times to send it" in the ASI setup popup in the Online Designer. There users may set the ASI to send survey invitations repeatedly at a regular interval, in which it can repeat forever or a set number of times. This new repeating ASI feature works similarly to how recurring alerts have always worked for Alerts & Notifications.
  • When an ASI is set up to recur for a repeating survey, the [survey-link] Smart Variable in the invitation text will always point to a different repeating instance of the survey for each time the invitation is sent. For example, if the ASI is set to recur daily, then the first day’s invitation will have a link pointing to instance #1 of the survey, the next day’s invitation will point to instance #2, then the next to #3, and so on.
• New Smart Variable: [new-instance]: This new Smart Variable [new-instance] can be appended to [survey-link], [survey-url], [form-link], and [form-url] to create a URL that points to a new, not-yet-created repeating instance for the current record. In this way, [new-instance] functions essentially as [last-instance]+1. This new Smart Variable works for repeating instruments and also for instruments on repeating events.
• New feature: Embedding images in text & emails: Users may now embed one or more inline images into the text of a survey invitation, an alert, or a field label on a form/survey, among other things, by clicking the image icon in the rich text editor and then by uploading an image from their local device. Anywhere that the rich text editor is used, users may embed an image into its text (with one exception: the @RICHTEXT action tag on public surveys).
• Improvement: When setting up an ASI, the sub-section “When to send invitations AFTER conditions are met” now contains the new drop-down choice "the same day (beginning at midnight) that the automated invitation was triggered" in the sub-option “Send the invitation X days Y hours Z minutes before/after [drop-down]”. This new choice in the drop-down allows users to schedule the invitation based on the day the ASI was triggered and provides greater control and precision with regard to when exactly the invitation will be sent. For example, if this new drop-down option is selected along with setting it to “send the invitation 1 day 8 hours after…”, this will cause the invitation to be scheduled to be sent at exactly 8:00am the next morning. In previous versions, it was not possible to get this level of precision for the invitation send-time based upon ASI trigger-time unless you used a date field’s value as a reference.
• Improvement: The Multi-Language Management setup page now has an option to “Export or import general settings”. This includes which languages are set as active, default, or fallback, which fields and survey settings are excluded, as well as the settings on the Alerts tabs and Settings tab. Note: The export/import option will appear when at least one language has been created in the project. This option is available as a JSON file only for import/export.

Version 12.4.0 (Installed 2022-05-25)

• New feature: SendGrid Dynamic Templates for Alerts & Notifications SendGrid Dynamic Templates give users significantly more control over the style and design of emails when compared to the standard email alert type. Enabling this feature on the Project Setup page will give users another alert type to choose from on the Alerts & Notifications page called “SendGrid Template”. Thus, similar to Twilio, this feature is a project-level feature that users may enable on individual projects (or users can have administrators enable it for them). SETUP & CONFIGURATION: This integration requires that you have an account setup on sendgrid.com. After creating a SendGrid account, you'll need to configure senders for the account, create the dynamic templates you wish to use for REDCap alerts, and generate an API Key with appropriate permissions for REDCap to use. When configuring senders on your SendGrid account, you may specify individual senders, authenticate an entire domain so that any email address associated with that domain may be a sender, or both. Please refer to SendGrid's documentation on how to set up Domain Authentication and how to add individual Verified Senders. To create a dynamic template in your SendGrid account, login to your SendGrid account and use the sidebar to navigate to Email API→Dynamic Templates. Here you can create a dynamic template, give it a name, and associate an email design with it. Please reference SendGrid's documentation on Dynamic Templates and Handlebars to learn more about creating templates in your SendGrid account. Lastly, to create an API Key for REDCap, login to your SendGrid account and use the sidebar to navigate to Settings→API Keys. Here you can create a new API Key and specify its permissions. It is recommended that you create a Restricted Access API Key and only give the API Key the permissions REDCap needs to function. REDCap will need Full Access to Mail Send, Read Access to Sender Authentication, and Read Access to Template Engine. Once you have your API Key, you may use it to configure SendGrid Template email services for alerts & notifications through the REDCap Project Setup page.
  
• Improvement: On the Survey Settings page, the setting “For Required fields, display the red 'must provide value' text on the survey page?” now has a new option: "Display only the red asterisk". This provides an additional option rather than having to choose between the binary options to hide or not hide the text.
• Improvement: When taking a survey while on a mobile device, the survey page will auto-scroll whenever selecting a value for a drop-down or radio button field to help the participant scroll down the page more easily.
• Improvement: New survey setting allows users to set a custom width of the survey displayed on the page between 50% and 100%. The default value for the setting is “Fixed width (default)”.
• Improvement: New survey setting allows users to show or hide the Submit buttons displayed at the bottom of every survey page (including the 'Next Page' and 'Previous Page' buttons).
• Improvement: New survey setting allows users to provide alternative text for the 'Submit', 'Next Page', and 'Previous Page' buttons displayed at the bottom of every survey page.
• Improvement/change: If any suspended users have access to a project, the User Rights page will display a button to easily show/hide suspended users on the User Rights page. Initially, all suspended users will be displayed, but if the button is clicked, then all suspended users will remain hidden on the User Rights page of *any* project until the button is clicked again. (Ticket #75652)
• Improvement: The Codebook now contains a “Field Finder” to allow users to quickly search for a field by keyword or phrase in the field label or by variable name. Also, the gray "Instrument Name" rows in the table will float at the top of the page while scrolling so that it is always apparent the instrument to which a field belongs. Additionally, when scrolling down the page, an up-arrow image will appear at the bottom right of the page that (when clicked) will quickly scroll the page back to the top.
• Improvement: Piping can now be performed inside the value of the @PLACEHOLDER action tag - e.g., @PLACEHOLDER="[first_name] [last_name]".

Version 12.2.1 (Installed 2022-02-09)

Version 11.2.2 (Installed 2021-07-24)

• Improvement: New piping parameter “:ampm” 
• Improvement: Ability for admins to configure the required password length and password complexity for user accounts when using Table-based authentication. 
• New feature: Ability to make reports accessible at a public link
  • Summary: When editing a report, users can now set a report as “public” and can obtain a public link to the report if they have User Rights privileges in the project. When a report is public, this means that all data in the report will be fully accessible (with no authentication required) to anyone with the public link to the report.
  • In order to make a report public, all the following must be true:
    • The user must have User Rights privileges in the project or be a REDCap administrator.
    • The report cannot have any Identifier fields in it.
    • The user is required to view the report during their current REDCap session.
    • The user must agree to and check off the following statements: 1) I understand that making this report "public" means that all data in the report will be fully accessible to anyone with the public link to the report, and 2) I understand that I am responsible if any private, sensitive, or identifying data in the report is exposed to persons who should not have access to such data.
• New Smart Variables
  • [event-id] - (longitudinal only) The event id number of the current event.
  • [survey-access-code:instrument] - The Survey Access Code of the specified survey for a given record/event/instance. The format must be [survey-access-code] or [survey-access-code:instrument], in which 'instrument' is the unique form name of the desired instrument. This can be used simply as [survey-access-code] inside the content of a survey invitation, in which 'instrument' is assumed to be the current survey instrument.
  • [survey-return-code:instrument] - The Survey Return Code of the specified survey for a given record/event/instance in order to allow a participant to return to a completed or partially completed survey response when using the 'Save & Return Later' survey feature. The format must be [survey-return-code] or [survey-return-code:instrument], in which 'instrument' is the unique form name of the desired instrument. This can be used simply as [survey-return-code] inside the content of a survey invitation, in which 'instrument' is assumed to be the current survey instrument.
  • [user-role-id] - The Role ID of the user role to which the current user is assigned (blank if not assigned to any user role). This value is auto-generated for each user role. NOTE: This value is not just unique for all roles within the project but is also unique across all REDCap projects. Thus, if the project and its user roles are copied, the Role IDs of the user roles in the resulting copy will be different from the ones in the original project.
  • [user-role-name] - The unique role name of the user role to which the current user is assigned (blank if not assigned to any user role). This value is auto-generated for each user role. NOTE: This value is only unique for roles within the project. Thus, if the project and its roles are copied, the new project will retain the same unique role names, which allows you to utilize the unique role names in conditional logic, calculations, branching logic, etc. that will not break when the project is copied.
  • [user-role-label] - The name/label of the user role to which the current user is assigned (blank if not assigned to any user role). This value is defined by the user that creates the user role.
• New Action Tag: @MAXCHOICE-SURVEY-COMPLETE - Similar to @MAXCHOICE but only counts choices on completed survey responses (does not count data entered as data entry only or on partial responses). Causes one or more specified choices to be disabled (i.e., displayed but not usable) for a checkbox, radio button, or drop-down field after a specified amount of records have been saved with that choice for completed survey responses only.
• New feature: Tableau Data Export- Extract all records into Tableau via the REDCap API.
  • This feature enables Tableau (v10.0+) users to connect Tableau to a REDCap project using an API token. Project data can be exported on demand and be available for use within Tableau to produce summaries and visualizations. The Other Export Option page in any given project has instructions to export project data into Tableau.
  • NOTICE: It is required for a user to have an API token generated for the project in order to use this feature.
• New feature: Project-level setting “Prevent branching logic from hiding fields that have values”
  • This setting can be enabled by any project user with Project Setup/Design privileges in the Additional Customizations popup on the Project Setup page.
  • This setting affects both data entry forms and surveys. If it is not enabled (default), then whenever a field is to be hidden by branching logic on a data entry form, it will always ask the user if they wish to hide the field and erase its value, whereas on survey pages it will automatically erase the value of the field being hidden without displaying the confirmation prompt, which has always been the default behavior for surveys. If this setting is enabled, the branching logic behavior will change so that fields with values will not cause the 'Erase the Value of the Field?' confirmation prompt to ask the user if they wish to keep the value or hide the field, and instead fields with values will not be hidden by branching logic and will stay visible. Thus they will be exempt from branching logic. This will prevent data from being erased as it normally does if fields are hidden by branching logic.
  • When a field should be hidden by branching logic but is not hidden because it has a value, an icon will be displayed on the field to indicate this to the user.
  • This project-level setting is included in the API Export Project Info method as “bypass_branching_erase_field_prompt”. The REDCap Mobile App will soon have this same functionality, but it will only work if the REDCap server is on REDCap 11.2.0 or higher.
  • The name of Data Quality rule F has been slightly changed when this setting is enabled from “Hidden fields that contain values” to “Fields that contain values that should be hidden”.
• Improvements for report display and/or data exports- When creating/editing a report, the “Additional report options” section in Step 2 now contains the new options below:
  • For projects that have repeating instruments and/or repeating events, the repeating fields that are automatically added (e.g., redcap_repeat_instrument and redcap_repeat_instance) can now be excluded from the report and data export. These fields are displayed by default in reports/exports.
  • Users may choose to display the field label, variable name, or both (default) in the header of a report. Note: This is only used when viewing reports and thus is not applicable for exports since there already exist options for choosing raw vs label format in data exports.
  • Users may choose to display the field label, raw data value, or both (default) for multiple choice fields in the data displayed in a report. Note: This is only used when viewing reports and thus is not applicable for exports since there already exist options for choosing raw vs label format in data exports.
• Improvement: If the value of a Text field or Notes field contains a URL or email address, the URL or email address will be converted into clickable link and mailto link, respectively, when viewing the data in a report.
• Improvement: More detailed logging descriptions on the Logging page for report-related logged events, such as mentioning the report name and report ID.
• Improvement: When users download an Instrument ZIP file for a given instrument in the Online Designer, the zip file now includes all survey settings for the instrument if the instrument has been enabled as a survey, including various files (e.g., survey logo, confirmation email attachment). The downloaded Instrument ZIP can then be uploaded into any project to transfer both the fields and all the survey settings.
• Improvement: In the Online Designer, the "Custom text to display at top of survey queue" now utilizes the rich text editor to make it easier to style the custom text.

Version 11.1.3 

• Improvement: Reports A and B now have built-in Live Filters: 1) the record ID field, 2) a list of all events (if the project is longitudinal), and 3) a list of all Data Access Groups (if the project contains DAGs and the current user is not assigned to a DAG).

Version 11.1.2 (Installed 2021-06-13)

• Improvement: New alternative PDF print option in the "Download PDF" drop-down at the top of data entry forms.

Version 11.1.0 (Installed 2021-06-01)

• New feature: More clinical data available via FHIR R4 endpoints for CDIS
• Improvements: Other FHIR/CDIS additions
• New feature: Fields that are "sql" field type (Dynamic Query - SQL field) now work in the REDCap Mobile App. 
• New feature: Import/export alerts via CSV file on Alerts & Notifications page
• New feature: Reorder alerts on Alerts & Notifications page

Version 11.0.1 (Installed 2021-05-09)

• Improvement: The Smart Charts [pie-chart] and [donut-chart] now display the percentage value on top of each colored slice in the chart.
• Improvement: On the Calendar page when viewing the "View/Edit Calendar Event" popup for a calendar event that is attached to a record, the popup now displays a "View Record Home Page" link next to the record name to allow the user to easily navigate to the record.

Version 11.0.0 (Installed 2021-05-02)

• New feature: Project Dashboards
• New feature: Smart Functions
• New feature: Smart Tables
• New feature: Smart Charts
• New feature: CSV Delimiter as a user-level preference 

Version 10.9.4 (Installed 2021-04-26)

•  Bug fixes
• Improvement: When viewing files in the File Repository that are archived from a data export, it now displays the data export details.
• Change: The @PREFILL action tag has been renamed to @SETVALUE, which more accurately captures how it behaves. Some confusion had occurred regarding this action tag's behavior simply because of its name. 
• Change: Any fields using the @PREFILL/@SETVALUE action tag will no longer be read-only/disabled on survey pages and data entry forms but will be editable. 

Version 10.9.2 (Installed 2021-04-10)

• Improvement: Assign a user to a DAG at the same time as adding the user to the project - Whenever a user is being added to a project via the User Rights page, if Data Access Groups are being utilized in the project, a new option will appear (whether if adding the user with custom rights or if assigning them to a user role) that allows you to assign the user to a DAG at the same time as adding them to the project.
• Improvement: When exporting a PDF of all record data via the "Other Export Options" page, a copy of the downloaded PDF will now be archived and stored in the File Repository, similar to how other data exports (i.e., CSV, SPSS) are archived. 
• Improvement: The project logging page now displays more information for PDF Exports that contain data, such as displaying the record name, event, and instrument for the downloaded PDF.
• Improvement: Further performance gains for projects with lots of records (25K+), especially during the process of creating new records via data entry forms and via data imports, which have been known to be slow in the past for large projects.
• Change/improvement: The "Phone (North America)" field validation now allows phone numbers that begin with "800" and “811”.
• New feature: Field that maps to a participant’s Twilio delivery preference - When using Twilio for surveys, users can control each participant's invitation preference automatically using a multiple choice field. 
• New feature: Custom offline message for surveys in offline status
• New feature: Survey-level Stop Action controls(new section on Survey Settings page)
• Improvement: New project-level option for importing email addresses for patients from an EHR via REDCap’s Clinical Data Interoperability Services (CDIS).    
• Improvement: If a project contains more than 25,000 records, the Logging page will no longer display the record filtering drop-down at the top of the page but instead will display an auto-complete text box to allow the user to enter the record name if they wish to filter the logging by record.    
• Improvement: The upload max file size for File Upload fields and general file attachments can now be increased or decreased on a per-project basis if needing to be different from the system-level settings as defined on the "File Upload Settings" page in the Control Center. This can be changed at the bottom of the Control Center's "Edit a Project's Settings" page for any given project.
• Change/improvement: The institution name is now included in the email subject for all emails sent regarding user expiration and account suspension due to inactivity. This is done to provide greater clarity to the user regarding which REDCap installation is being referenced in the email.

Version 10.8.3 (installed 02/20/2021)

• Major Bug fix: When using advanced filter logic, the logic would not get interpreted correctly
• Improvement: Custom ranges (min/max) for slider fields
• New feature: New API “Export Logging” method
• New feature: Ability to import/export user rights via a CSV file on the User Rights page

Version 10.7.1 (installed 01/23/2021)

• New feature: New “:link” piping option for File Upload fields

Version 10.6.3 (installed 01/05/2021)

• New feature: Field Bank - When adding new fields via the Online Designer, users will see an "Import from Field Bank" button, which will allow them to search different standardized catalogs of commonly used fields
• New feature: @INLINE action tag - Allows a PDF file or image file (JPG, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIF, BMP) that is uploaded to a File Upload field to be displayed in an inline manner on the survey page or data entry form so that the PDF/image can be viewed by the user or survey participant without having to download it.
• New feature: New “:inline” piping option for File Upload fields
• Improvement: Fields that have action tags will have those action tags listed below the field
• Improvement: Field variables and Smart Variables can now be piped into the "src" attribute of HTML image tags ("img")
  New feature: New editor for conditional logic, branching logic, calculations, report filters, etc.
• New feature: Auto-numbering of repeating instances for data imports - When performing a data import now for a repeating event/instrument, users may use the literal value “new” as the value for the “redcap_repeat_instance” field in their data import.
• New feature: New survey option “Save a PDF of completed survey response to a File Upload field” - On the Survey Settings page in the Online Designer, users may select a File Upload field in the project where a static PDF file of a participant’s survey response will be stored immediately after they complete the survey.

For information on older versions of REDCap, see the REDCAP OLDER VERSIONS page.