Looking for DHIS2 + CommCare information -- Who uses it?

[Eric Stephan]

Hello all--

I am realizing that I should learn more about how well DHIS2 can work with CommCare.  It might prove to be a valuable tool for our analysis needs that are stemming from our HIV outreach/referrals app... these analysis needs get quite complex, involving tracing of individuals across various levels of referrals; calculation of complex indicators; and accounting and tracing client recruitment coupons... and also with our needs to possibly "segregate" sections of our data so that some organizations can log in and only see data related to their own organization.

My questions are:

-- Who among us has connected CommCare with DHIS2, and who can tell me that the connection process was complex and disappointing, or smooth and rewarding?

-- What are the strongest online user groups for DHIS2? I've been searching for online DHIS2 forums, and haven't found one central one... the DHIS2 folks don't see to be as strong on the community side as I'm used to over here :)

-- I'm not super impressed by the tutorials/learning materials I've found so far on the DHIS2 site -- so if you know a learning resource other than those, please tell me!

Thanks folks!

Eric

[Jonathan Jackson]

Hi Eric - 

We've been increasing our work on DHIS2 integration.  Sheel Shah manages our overall work on MOTECH which acts as the integration layer.  We have it live in a few countries and are adding it more.  Since its been mostly Dimagi or Grameen staff who have done the mapping/configuration to date, my guess is your experience if you tried it would be closer to complex than smooth - though I hope rewarding in any case!.  

That said, we are getting it easier and easier with each release of MOTECH.  The document is going to be coming out over the next few weeks/months as we get all the kinks worked out.  We can offline if you want to setup a sandbox and play with it, would be great to get your feedback.  Ping me if that's something you want to look in to.

I don't know good answers to the questions on the DHIS2 Forum or Tutorials.  I know DHIS2 does a lot of in person capacity building so that may be an avenue if it works with your schedule.

Regards,

Jonathan

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[duncan....@vaxtrac.com]

Hi Eric,

At VaxTrac we're successfully forwarding CommCare data to MoTech and DHIS2.  Our engineer Samantha can tell you a lot more and commiserate with your experience.

You're welcome to reach out to her at sam.rab...@vaxtrac.com or myself at duncan....@vaxtrac.com

[Eric Stephan]

Thank you to everyone that has replied to me in this thread and offline -- Sorry for the delay.

It is great to hear that an "official route" is emerging. Gives me the sense that there is a correct path to take in this challenge.

(I also sense that a strongly combined CommCare plus DHIS2 would be an incredible thing to work with. If I can simply find the time to learn it.)

I will follow up with Sheel and also in the Vaxtrac guys that you were so great to refer me to.

Thanks again!
Eric

[Taylor Downs]

Hey Eric, I *think* I got a hold of you offline, but wanted to follow up here just in case.

At OpenFn.org we've got an open-source CommCare to DHIS2 integration. It relies on CommCare's JSON data forwarding, and lets a user define a "job" that pushes CommCare cases or forms to DHIS2 using the Events API and DataValues API in real-time. Solid error handling and even source data manipulation if you've got data entry or validation mismatch problems. (It's like Zapier, but allows you to manipulate data after it's submitted, performs updates using external IDs, and will store new submissions from CommCare even if you exceed your monthly limit.) Let me know if you want to check it out!

Best,

Taylor

[Jonathan Jackson]

Ah yes, also another great option.  Another plug for Taylor and team: I believe they also have CommCare->SalesForce integration as well.  

thanks,

Jonathan

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[Eric Stephan]

This thread has really allowed me to start the process of orienting myself on this kind of integration.

The various discussions I have had have pointed at a few avenues...  I may not be accurate in my comments below...

-- integrate by means of the MOTECH app that creates a connecting application to direct commcare data automatically to DHIS2.  A strength seems to be that it can even create more than 1-on-1 connections among apps... could even be bringing four apps into sync on an ongoing basis.  (a bit too much for me to comprehend now)

-- integrate via OpenFN, which appears possibly a bit less complex in its setup and function, but might be more 1-on-1

-- Also I learned that an alternative to DHIS2 itself could be in fact using Salesforce as a data analysis repository. hadn't thought of that. I was used to thinking of Salesforce as something used by big for-profit companies... not by HIV programs like mine...

will keep learning more. Wish I could put the world on pause and simply sit down and train myself, over unlimited time, on a few of these apps.

[YAW ANTWI-ADJEI]

Hi Taylor

I am interested in knowing more about the Commcare to DHIS2 integration at OpenFn.org

Yaw

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[Taylor Downs]

Hey Yaw,

Are you free for a quick call so I can walk you through our tools?

CommCare provides a data forwarding service that pushes forms and/or cases as JSON to a secure URL. We then manipulate this source data and send messages to DHIS2, using either the Events API or the DataValueSets API. (Could add more of DHIS2's apis, but that's all we've plugged in for now.)

This whole process can be done from a command line using fn-lang, language-common, and language-DHIS2*, or via our hosted service, which you can check out here. (See the screenshots for an idea of the flow, and look at the sample "expressions" here to see what the data transformation looks like.)

Hope this is a good start. Feel free to reach out to me on email (tay...@openfn.org) or Skype (taylor.downs) if you're up for a quick walk through!

Taylor

*Note that since CommCare delivers valid JSON, we don't need a special "source adaptor" to set up a CommCare to DHIS2 integration. Open Data Kit, Ona.io, and plenty of other applications can deliver valid JSON to a URL when something happens (a form submission, for example) so all of these tools can be integrated to DHIS2 in a matter of minutes.