At HISP Centre, we've been engineering numerous run-of-the-mill integration projects where data is exchanged back and forth with DHIS2 through its Web API. Typically, this data is filtered, mapped, transformed, enriched, and routed to or from an application which could be the same DHIS2 instance, a different instance, or even a distinct application altogether.
DHIS-to-RapidPro in the Field
The general availability of DHIS-to-RapidPro was announced in the DHIS 2.39 release. Funded by UNICEF, DHIS-to-RapidPro provides connectivity between DHIS2 and an open-source workflow engine geared towards mobile-based services called RapidPro.
DHIS-to-RapidPro is a reliable, extensible, operations-friendly Java solution, powered by Apache Camel, that offers:
- Routine synchronisation of RapidPro contacts with DHIS2 users.
- Aggregate report transfer from RapidPro to DHIS2 via polling or webhook messaging.
- Automated reminders to RapidPro contacts when their aggregate reports are overdue.
App-platform v10
We have just released a new major version of the app-platform: version 10. Upgrading to version 10 should be relatively easy for all apps currently using version 9 of cli-app-scripts
. In this post we'll walk you through the most important change for this release.
Speeding up your Program Indicators with Tracker-to-Aggregate
Tracker-to-Aggregate, or T2A for short, is a pattern that has been used with great success when improving the performance of program indicators in DHIS2. Program indicators are expressions based on data elements and attributes of tracked entities which can be used to calculate values based on a formula. T2A can solve the problem where it’s computationally expensive to calculate program indicators in real-time. A common symptom to this recurring problem is an endless spinning circle when opening a dashboard that computes a program indicator over millions of tracked entity instances:
Automating tests for DHIS2 integrations with JUnit 5
DHIS2 is a platform that can receive and host data from different sources, while it can also share data with other systems and reporting mechanisms. Integrating with DHIS2, or building any integration for that matter, requires manual or automated testing of the integration itself. The growth of container technology, and in particular Docker, has reduced the pain of automating the testing of integrations. By automating, I mean self-contained integration test suites that run out-of-the-box and require no manual setup of their external runtime dependencies (Docker Engine is assumed to be installed on the machine running the tests).
Introducing PWA in the App Platform
The DHIS2 App Platform now supports PWA capabilities in apps made with the platform! The Dashboard App will be the first core app to take advantage of these features to enable offline capability, and it will be used as an example in this article to describe the details of these features.
This article will give a brief overview of the new features available and some examples that illustrate how they can be used. A future article will go into detail about the technical decisions behind these features and their designs.
App Platform v8
The App Platform 8.x
series has been released, and is ready for general
use. Let's take a minute to walk through some of the changes and new
functionality.
Hacktoberfest 2021 - Contribute to DHIS2 and win a t-shirt (or plant a tree)
Every year, DigitalOcean and other partners sponsor Hacktoberfest to encourage open-source contributions. Contributors who make 4 or more useful pull-requests will be eligible to receive a free Hacktoberfest t-shirt. We also encourage you to consider the environmentally-conscious option of planting trees instead 🌳🎉
If you contribute (by opening a pull request which gets approved) to any open-source DHIS2 repository during the month of October, your contribution will count towards the 4 pull-request minimum required to claim your reward. Get hacking!
Design System Figma library available now
The DHIS2 Design System is now available as a Figma Community library.
Revamped Developer Portal
We're excited to announce that the revamped DHIS2 Developer Portal is live! 🎊
The portal serves as a single hub for all developer-focused content, features several improvements on documentation, and offers a better user interface to the growing developer community.