Calendar - Introduction

Types of Scheduling and Notification Rules

The Study Calendar supports several approaches to scheduling and notifications:

Basic Calendaring

Create scheduling and notification rules directly in the Study Designer interface. This option is recommended for straightforward scheduling needs.

For details, see Basic Calendaring.

Advanced Calendaring

Define complex scheduling and notification rules using JSON in the Rules Management interface. Advanced Calendaring supports:

• Conditional logic based on items, form statuses, and event statuses.
• Scheduling Events or changing their status.
• Making forms conditionally visible, editable, or required.
• Sending email and/or SMS notifications.
• Defining participant attributes (such as epoch or calendar) to run distinct rules for various participants or cohorts at specific times in the study.
• Triggering rules based on time of day, Event or Form updates, Participant creation, or data entry on a form.

Note: Advanced calendaring scenarios are not fully validated and require study-specific functional validation as part of each implementation.

Rules

The Rules feature automates study tasks using logical expressions and represents a legacy configuration approach that may be present in older studies. For new or updated studies, the more current configuration methods described above are recommended. This documentation applies only to studies that already use Rules, and Rules should not be used in conjunction with Calendaring. Rules can:

• Schedule Events (EventAction)
• Send Notifications (NotificationAction)

Rules are created and managed through XML templates in the Manage Rules interface. Options are available to test, view, or remove rules. Rules based on the legacy data model (legacy rules) continue to be supported.

For details, see Rules.

Tip: Use Basic Calendaring for most scheduling and notifications. For advanced scenarios, contact your OpenClinica representative about Advanced Calendaring.