dhis2-devs team mailing list archive

[Lars Helge Øverland <larshelge@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

DHIS version 2.6 is released. We have a long list of improvements:

1. A new Web API module which provides read access to most objects in
the system and read access to data values and messages: All resources
are uniquely identified by URLs and have a rich set of representation
formats; currently HTML, XML, JSON and JSONP. The resources are linked
and navigable meaning that you can easily move between related
resources using hyperlinks (for instance from the list of data sets to
one particular data set, then to one particular data element). Certain
resources (map, chart, report, report table and resource) have a
special view of the aggregate data (rather than the meta-data info)
which can be accessed by appending /data to the URL.

The primary purpose of the Web API is to make DHIS suitable as a
platform for third-party software clients and systems such as Web
portals, content management systems, dashboards and mobile device
clients. It provides a machine-readable API from where such clients
can retrieve the desired data over the well-known HTTP protocol,
without need for any knowledge of the DHIS internal technologies and
implementation. You can explored it here:

http://apps.dhis2.org/demo/api/resources
http://apps.dhis2.org/demo/api/charts/j1gNXBgwKVm
http://apps.dhis2.org/demo/api/maps/H6jRsZXfDAp

A small demo on how reports, charts and maps produced by DHIS can be
embedded in a Web portal can be found here:

http://dhis2.org/portal

A more detailed write-up of the purpose and context of the Web API can
be found here:

http://dhis2.org/doc/snapshot/en/implementer/html/full.html#d5e1545


2. Saved charts in data visualizer module: After creating a chart and
data table you can now save it as a favorite by clicking on the
"Favorites" button in the top menu, then on "Manage favorites". This
makes it easy to later reload your chart and also put it on your
personal dashboard in the dashboard module. Favorites can be saved as
personal or system views (if user is authorized). This means that
users can create their own personal charts without affecting the list
of charts for other users.

The old chart user interface in reporting module has been removed -
the data visualizer module is now the place to create charts. Please
note the new "Chart options" panel on the left menu - all options from
the old charts are there but at the moment only implemented in the
image  version of the charts (accessible from the dashboard). We will
soon implement these options in the client-side charts in data
visualizer module in order to make both versions compatible.

http://apps.dhis2.org/demo/dhis-web-visualizer/app/index.html

http://dhis2.org/doc/snapshot/en/user/html/full.html#d927e2985


3. Anonymous events: The beneficiary module now provides functionality
for registering anonymous events. Use-cases for such events are birth
certificates, nutrition surveys and inpatient morbidity/mortality
registries. Data for any number of data elements can be defined and
registered for a single event (no attributes).

Programs must be marked as "single event" and "anonymous" in
beneficiary module. Under "Event registration" in data records module
you can register the anonymous events. Start by clicking on "Create
new event", then fill the entry form before clicking "Complete data
entry".

http://apps.dhis2.org/demo/dhis-web-caseentry/anonymousRegistration.action

(Select e.g. the first facility in the tree, Ngelehun CHC.)


4. Organisation unit group set analysis in data mart and report table:
The data mart engine now produces two new data mart tables for data
element and indicator data aggregated by organisation unit groups. In
more detail, for all organisation units there are records for all
organisation unit groups. This feature has currently been implemented
in the report table tool. You can include groups by clicking on
"Toggle organisation unit groups" in the add new report table screen.
We will implement support for groups in most analysis tools for next
release. Please note that only groups which are members of a group set
will be included.

This feature is particular useful for doing analysis based on facility
classification such as type and ownership; for instance you can now
investigate the immunization rates in public, private and faith-based
facilities within a province and see how they compare. It can also
support scenarios where donors want to analyse and compare the
performance of their implementing partners.

http://apps.dhis2.org/demo/api/reports/KlcaBsIqTV4/data


5. I18n: The user interface is now completely translated into French.
This will be very useful for the upcoming DHIS implementations in West
Africa. Thanks to Jason Pickering for managing this process.

http://apps.dhis2.org/demo/dhis-web-maintenance-settings/userGeneralSettings.action


6. Image maps: Map views from the GIS module are rendered and served
as images (PNG fomat). This is useful when you want to easily embed
maps in external Web sites. These image maps can be retrieved through
the Web API.

http://apps.dhis2.org/demo/api/maps/Y8dSQ3fH0Xe


7. Chart download in data visualizer: Charts can now be downloaded as
image files in PNG format by clicking on the "Download as" button from
the top menu and selecting "Image (PNG)" from the menu.


8. Data table in data visualizer: Data for the selected indicators,
data elements etc can now be viewed in a data table (in addition to
the chart). Simply click on the "Data table" button on the top menu to
show the table, then click again to hide.

http://apps.dhis2.org/demo/dhis-web-visualizer/app/index.html


9. Stable object identifiers: We have introduced a stable unique
identifier (uid) for all objects in the system. This is useful and
required for robust data exchange (rather than relying on identifying
objects by names or other attributes which can be modified by the end
user). These uids are used in the URLs in the Web API to uniquely
identify all objects.


10. Scheduling: More options for scheduled tasks are now available.
First, you can set which period types to include in the data mart
tasks, which means you can now have e.g. bi-monthly and six-monthly
periods in the data mart tables. Second, you can set the data mart
export strategy, i.e. whether you want to have the system a) export
data for the last 12 months every night, or b) export data for the
last 6 months every night except Sunday then data for the last 6 to 12
months every Sunday. The latter strategy will double the aggregation
capacity of the deployment, given that the time lag is acceptable.
Third you can set the lowest organisation unit level of aggregation
for the organisation unit group based data marts - please note it is
pointless to export organisation unit group data for the
facility/lowest layer.

http://apps.dhis2.org/demo/dhis-web-maintenance-dataadmin/viewScheduledTasks.action


11. WMS support in GIS: A Web Map Service is a standard protocol for
serving georeferenced map images over the Internet. To create a WMS
layer, navigate to the GIS module and click the "WMS overlays" button
below the layer tree in the top right corner. In the URL textfield you
are supposed to enter the WMS resource url, e.g.
http://iridl.ldeo.columbia.edu/SOURCES/.IRI/.Analyses/.CSMT/.Annual_Sum/X/Y/fig-+colors+-fig//antialias+true+psdef+/wmsfigmap
. The layer textfield expects the title of the layer so look for the
<title> tag in the WMS xml file.

http://dhis2.org/sites/default/files/screenshots/wms.png

12. Performance improvements all over the system: The network usage
and load time for maps in the GIS module is down to approximately 1/3
compared to version 2.5. The number of database connections required
to retrieve reports and charts has been greatly reduced which means
that the system will handle high user-concurrency better. Data mart
generation time is down approximately 20 %.


13. Support for message notifications over SMS: Messages can now be
delivered to the users' mobile phones through SMS (in addition to the
DHIS inbox and e-mail). We will return with more info regarding
configuration later.


14. PDF download: Dynamic attributes are now included in the PDF
download for data elements, indicators and organisation units.


---

WAR file, Live package, source code and demo database can be downloaded here:

http://dhis2.org/downloads

Documentation and Javadocs are here:

http://dhis2.org/documentation

Source code branch page here:

https://code.launchpad.net/~dhis2-devs-core/dhis2/2.6




Happy new year and best regards,

the DHIS developer team