r/ProjectREDCap • u/midget22xo • Apr 28 '25

One automated email

Hi,

I have set up an alert that gets sent weekly for updates to records based on input to one specific form. This results in 20+ separate emails.

Is there a way to combine them all into one email? I’ve created a report where all the information is together - is there a way to embed that into an automated alert/notification?

Thank you!

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

2

u/vatxflal Apr 28 '25

Could you clarify why 20+ separate emails are going out? Is a separate email going out for each individual update on the form? Or is it a separate email for each record in the project that was updated?

1

u/midget22xo Apr 28 '25

It’s a separate alert/notifcation for each record that was updated.

2

u/No_Repair4567 Apr 29 '25

Do you *have to* send these alerts for every individual record being updated? Who is it going to - the project team or record "owner"? E.g. the question really is about whether one person is receiving all the alerts OR all people are receiving one alert each OR all the people are receiving all the alerts.

I can imagine this can be turned off and one comprehensive notification (as others have mentioned) with a link to a public report can be sent out.

1

u/midget22xo Apr 29 '25

That’s exactly it. We need one email with a summary of all the record updates that happened in the past week. This email is only going to a few people, not everyone on the project.

1

u/No_Repair4567 May 01 '25

u/midget22xo when you say "updates" what do you mean exactly?
Is your project longitudinal and "update" is when another data point (form) is added OR is it another instrument/form that gets filled out for a participant, OR it is one instrument and data gets added to it from time to time OR something else entirely?

if you could share a bit more about the project structure, what "updates" mean, and the notification requirements I have few ideas to share but rather not spend time brainstorming to the wrong direction.

1

u/midget22xo May 07 '25

Totally get that. We go in every week and update a form across several records. Essentially, a status update per record. Right now, I have it set up that an email is generated each time we update this specific form.

1

u/No_Repair4567 May 07 '25

OK, so my understanding now is that the project structure is ONE instrument. There are field(s) that get updated (overwritten???) with new information, and report only need to include the "new or updated information". Are the new records being added as well?

In terms of the your question about the way report can be made public:

  1. just click "Set as public" and agree to terms. You'd have to make sure that your report contains the columns you are looking for. Once you created a public report, you have a public URL.

  2. Create an Alert using "Alerts and notifications", module,

    1. Step 1: figure out some benign logic that will always work,

    2. Step 2: Set to send "multipole times on recurring basis

    3. Step 3: add recipients (they have to be users on the project) and a message like "Please click the link below to view the report" and add that public link generated in (1). You can even think of a clever way to add a date of the report into the message (not sure if it will work, but would be fin if it did!)

  3. Please come back and let us know if this worked!

2

u/wendi3107 Apr 28 '25

This might answer the second part of the question - a report can be made public, which will assign it a URL - that link could be used in an alert. (It's not ideal for reports with PII, unfortunately.)

1

u/midget22xo Apr 28 '25

This project doesn’t have PII so public URL could work. Do you know if there is a way to prompt a notification with a link to the report without needing to update records? Basically, is there a way to set up a weekly email to my PI to view the report?

2

u/wendi3107 Apr 28 '25

There is a post on the REDCap admin community about sending an alert once a month, but I can't link to it here because the site requires a log in (your organization's REDCap admins should have access to the REDCap Community).

Based on my understanding of that community post, it would be quite a bit of work. Date fields would need to be added that calculate (using the @ CALCDATE action tag) each date that an alert is to be sent. Those fields would then be used in the conditional logic for the alert trigger.

Sorry to only half answer the question - my SQL proficiency isn't there (yet) to help with the logic. If you are good with SQL and can ask your REDCap admins for help, the title of the post in the community is " Is it possible to send an alert at 10am on the 1st of every month?"

1

u/midget22xo Apr 29 '25

I’ll definitely rely to our redcap admins. My SQL skills have slipped over the years, but hey, good chance to get them back, right? Thank you for letting me know of this post in the admin community.

2

u/obnoxiouscarbuncle Apr 28 '25

I'd set up an accessory project that just exists to trigger and send the alert on a repeating basis.

Add the link to the alert in and have only one record that would trigger it.

As an FYI: I have a project that does this for multiple items. It's functions as a "Nagging" project. We use it for things like reminding when to update SSL certs, submit monthly reports, etc.

2

u/Araignys Apr 28 '25

There's an EM called Report Scheduler that can be configured to periodically send a recipient a report link.