20240513 - Where is my new instrument?!
- Christopher Sorensen
Hello Wash U REDCap Community,
We looked back at the first 70 tickets closed out in our new ticketing system* and by far the most common question we received was “where is the new instrument I just created?” We created three new Frequently Asked Questions to address this issue:
I added a new instrument to a project in production mode but it is hidden.
Why can no one on our project see the new instrument we just created?
If you clicked any of the links and read the first line you know, “Newly created instruments to projects in production mode are hidden from users by default.” You might be wondering why REDCap does this given it is incredibly tedious to give each user on the project viewing and exporting rights to each new instrument added when a project is in production mode.
The short answer is data privacy. The long answer is that a security feature in REDCap is that User Rights, or what each user on a project can and cannot do, are controlled at the user level. This means that each user added to a project has a defined set of privileges that determine what they can and cannot do for that specific project (note that “rights” and “privileges” may be used interchangeably when referring to REDCap User Rights). When a project is created, only one user is on the project with a default set of User Rights. The project creator has the “User Rights” rights so actually can 1) adjust their own User Rights 2) add other users to the project, and 3) adjust the User Rights of other users (this sentence is confusing but accurate). From that point on, each time a new user is added, the person adding them to the project defines the new study team member’s User Rights for that project. Any user on the project with the User Rights privilege can add new users.
Included in these User Rights are Privileges for Viewing and Exporting Data which are handled at the instrument level. When a new instrument is created, REDCap by default assumes it is collecting sensitive information and therefore gives no viewing and exporting rights to any users on the project. So, these rights have to be updated before the specific user is able to see the new instrument in the Record Status Dashboard or export data from fields on the new instrument.
If you are currently thinking about that project with 50 users on it and wondering if there is a way to avoid updating rights for all of them every time you add a new instrument, you are in luck! You can create user roles for standard sets of User Rights! See this aptly named User Guide titled: Create Roles for standard sets of User Rights.
We encourage all users to check to out the self-service support materials, such as these FAQs, contained in our REDCap Confluence Space when you have a question or want to improve your REDCap knowledge.
Thank you,
Wash U REDCap Support
*More information about the ticketing system coming soon!