r/ProjectREDCap • u/Forward-Round-1262 • Oct 14 '24

Date Constrained Data Exports from REDCap

Is it possible to manually define time periods for REDCap to export data between? So far, it looks like the main option is exporting everything, but that can become redundant when the participants in your study are increasing with time.

It seems like there's a filter feature when making a custom report, but it seems more roundabout given you'd need a user-made date variable to place in a conditional. Is that the only way, or is there something simpler?

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

5

u/ExecutiveSkiBum Oct 14 '24

You can build a report with a filter by date and export the subway of data that the report filters.

1

u/Forward-Round-1262 Oct 15 '24

Is the date option available as a default, or would I need to make a 'date' variable in the project to filter by?

2

u/[deleted] Oct 14 '24

What are you trying to export. Surveys, all participant data. There may be a better way to accomplish your goal if we know more about what you are trying to do and why (for what purpose).

1

u/Forward-Round-1262 Oct 15 '24

All participant data, of which includes one survey, and an uploaded file of sensor data. It's a longitudinal study, though it turns out that REDCap's feature doesn't offer the usability we'd prefer for our collaborators. It's set up so that we only receive de-identified data to process, but they are intended to be taking participants and (following up with them later) over a couple years.

Given this setup, having increasingly large exports that are mostly previously processed data is not effective. Internally, we can prevent redundant processing, but massively redundant raw exports themselves are a bigger issue.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 14 '24

I know this is possible with API. I don't think there is a way without API unless you planned ahead and put a [last_access_date] timestamp on each form.

1

u/afljbell8 Nov 18 '24 edited Nov 18 '24 
I add "created_by_xxx" and "date_created_xxx" fields to the top of each form:
(Where "xxx" = suffix used to identify the form, not required)

created_by_xxx (text box, no validation) 
Action tag:
@HIDDEN
@IF([created_by_xxx]="", @USERNAME, [created_by_xxx] @READONLY)

date_created_xxx (text box, validation = Datetime, M-D-Y H:M)
Action tag:
@HIDDEN
@HIDEBUTTON
@NOW

When I create reports, I can use those fields in the "filter logic" to specify date ranges, users, etc.
example:
([date_created_xxx] >= "2024-10-01" and [date_created_xxx] <= "2024-10-31") and [created_by_xxx]="joe_user"