dhis2-users team mailing list archive

[Ola Hodne Titlestad <olati@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Dave,

I recommend reading the following parts of the user manual:

- chapter 4 on Data Elements
- chapter 5 on Data Sets and Forms
- chapter 19 - Data Dimensions in DHIS 2, especially sections 19.2 The data
element dimension, and section 19.8 "From paper forms to multidimensional
data sets - lessons learned"

Just to add to what Jason wrote:

Category combinations are linked to individual data elements, not data sets
or sections.
If your forms consists of multiple tables (with or without different column
headings) you can split a data set into multiple sections with _1_ category
combination (and a subset of the dataset's data elements - all sharing the
same category combo) for each section. Then your section form design will
automatically reflect the tables/sections in your paper form (given that the
category options are on columns and data elements on rows).

If you need to design an electronic form that e.g. has data elements on
columns and category options on rows or combining multiple category
combinations on columns in the same table you need to go for custom forms.

Although the category combinations simplifies how you design forms I
recommend thinking about how the data will be used in analysis and
presentation after the data has been collected, e.g. how aggregation will
take place,  and let that guide how you design data elements and categories,
and not let  the data entry form structure control that. The total and
subtotal of data elements are used in many data analysis components (such as
validation rules, indicators, reports, pivot tables) and it is definitely an
advantage if the total of the data element's category options add up to
something meaningful and is not just picked to mimic column headings in a
form.  Many more thoughts and examples on this in section 19.8 in the
manual.

We also have some very fresh material on this topic from a recent workshop,
which you can find here (look under Tuesday and the session called "Design
of data elements and data sets"):
http://www.hisp.uio.no/events/201102-impl-workshop/programme2.html

Ola
---------



----------------------------------
Ola Hodne Titlestad (Mr)
HISP
Department of Informatics
University of Oslo

Mobile: +47 48069736
Home address: Vetlandsvn. 95B, 0685 Oslo, Norway. Googlemaps
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On 18 February 2011 18:02, Jason Pickering <jason.p.pickering@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> Hi Dave,
> Welcome!
>
> Its is a bit confusing to me as well. Let me try and explain as best
> as I can. Others that understand the model may correct me.
>
>
> You need to create a "Concept". In this case, it would probably
> "Phase" as well.
>
>  You need to create categories. In your case this would be a "Phase".
>
> You need to create category options, "Phase A" and "Phase B" for the
> category "Phase".
>
> You need a "Data element category combination" as well. In your case,
> it would be "Phases" perhaps. If the data elements is further
> disaggregated by categories "Age" and "Gender" you could add these
> categories as well.
>
> Finally , you need a data element "Number of patients testing positive
> for disease X"  assigned tp "Combination of categories"
>
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Regards,
> Jason
>
> On Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 5:25 PM, Dave Trombley <dave.trombley@xxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> >
> >    Hi all
> >
> >      I'm new to DHIS2, and going through the process of migrating a paper
> > HMIS to a DHIS2 data schema.
> >
> >      I have a tabular data structure where I can identify the data
> elements,
> > and the categories/dimensions of those elements.  Data elements are such
> as
> > "Number of patients testing positive for disease X" and categories are
> such
> > as "in phase A", "in Phase B", etc.
> >
> >      I'd like the data entry form to show up with different cells to
> enter
> > "Number of patients testing positive (in phase A)" and "Number of
> patients
> > testing positive (in phase B)", as it seems they should if the categories
> > are defined.  However, I'm having trouble making this happen.
> >
> >      The documentation at several points makes references to "assigning a
> > category to a data element" but I cannot find any place where it
> described
> > how this is done, nor can I seem to make it happen after playing with the
> > interface for about an hour.  This is all very confusing, and I'm hoping
> > someone can explain how it works?
> >
> >     Do I need to create a category combo?  Why are category combos I
> create
> > not showing up in the dataset section form's "category combo" dropdown,
> > ever?   Do categories associate with data elements or with (groups, sets,
> > datasets, dataset sections), etc?  How do all of these entities relate?
> >
> >
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> >
>
>
>
> --
> Jason P. Pickering
> email: jason.p.pickering@xxxxxxxxx
> tel:+260974901293
>
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