dhis2-users team mailing list archive

[Lars Helge Øverland <larshelge@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,


we have made a preview of DHIS version 2.4 available here:

http://demo.dhis2.org

Username and password is admin/district. You can download the WAR file
from here:

http://dhis2.org/download/dhis-2.4-beta.war


There are two features we would like to get feedback on in particular:


1. Offline data entry:

Data can now be entered while being disconnected from the Internet.
You need to be online while logging onto the data entry module - the
very first time this will take a few extra seconds (7+ depending on
the connection) since all meta-data are downloaded and stored in your
browser in the background. Its cool, try it out yourself:

- Open the data entry module, select an organisation unit, data set
and period. Punch in a few data values. (Use your local IP address if
testing locally.)

- Disconnect yourself from the Internet. Notice how the system detects
your offline status and displays a notification.

- See how everything works as before: You can continue to expand,
collapse and select organisation units from the tree. You can select
data sets and periods. Forms are loaded as usual. You can continue to
enter data values and mark data sets as complete for as long as you
want.

- Re-connect to the Internet. See the notification from the system
explaining that you have locally stored data, and click "upload" to
send the data to the server. If you have been disconnected long enough
for the session to time out you will be asked to log in again (without
leaving the page).

o Nice additional benefits are that everything is a lot more
responsive and that bandwidth usage is greatly reduced as most data is
now loaded locally.

o There are currently a few limitations in offline mode: Data values,
completeness registrations and min-max values on the server are not
displayed in the forms and the validation and history functions are
disabled.

o Firefox will ask for your permission for DHIS 2 to store data
locally, please allow this.


All this hopefully has the potential to make the online deployment
strategy, with all its benefits, feasible for areas with patchy
Internet connectivity and power supply. Given a latop or generator,
this means that record officers can continue their data entry work
throughout the day even if Internet connectivity or power supply have
gone down temporarily. Using the myDatamart tool she can also do
offline data analysis.



2. GIS symbol layer:

1. The menu system has had an overhaul: The left-side menu is gone and
the layer and map-view information has been put on the top bar to make
it more accessible and give more space for the map itself. Information
about the current selection for each layer is displayed in the
right-side menu. Map-views can be loaded into specific layers, making
it possible to load different map-views into multiple layers at the
same time.

2. A new "Symbol layer" is available. (Sorry for the confusion - the
current symbol layer has been renamed to "Facility layer".) This makes
it possible to do thematic mapping where images/symbols represent the
values rather than colors. One use case for this is displaying weather
data relevant for Malaria outbreak monitoring on the maps - think
weather forecast with suns and rain clouds.

- Define symbols/images as regular "Predefined legend sets", make sure
you select "Image" as symbolizer rather than "Color" (we will add more
symbols later).

- Open "Symbol layer" from the top bar, layer section (4th icon from
the left). Select indicator, period and organisation units as usual.
Select your preferred legend set and click "Update".





We are hoping for your participation and feedback. The final 2.4
release will be on Friday 26.



best regards,


the DHIS 2 development team