Extended REDCap Outage 06-27-2025 to 06-30-2025
Hello WashU REDCap Community,
REDCap will be offline from Friday, June 27, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. CDT to Monday, June 30, 2025, at 8 a.m. We have created FAQs specific to this extended outage.
Most concerns are centered around Automated Survey Invitations, Alerts & Notifications, or any other automated tasks that occur in REDCap. Most automated tasks will run automatically as soon as REDCap is back online as the Cron job that completes these tasks runs every minute. Please see the FAQs below for specific situations that will be affected and Submit a REDCap Ticket if you have questions that are not covered below:
Extended REDCap Outage FAQs
- 1 1. What will survey respondents see if they try to open a survey from a flyer?
- 2 2. When will Automated Survey Invitations, Alerts & Notifications, or any other automated tasks happen following the outing?
- 3 3. I have an ASI scheduled to go out 5 minutes before the outage begins. Will it go out?
- 4 4. I have weekly surveys that are sent when survey queue logic is within 7 days of the target (e.g., >=5 and <12 days). Will these be affected?
- 5 5. I may need to access data from my project within the window of the outage. Is this possible?
- 6 6. We are planning a data collection that weekend. Can we enter data directly to REDCap?
1. What will survey respondents see if they try to open a survey from a flyer?
REDCap allows us to display an offline message that survey respondents and REDCap users will see during the outage. The planned language for the outage on June 27-30 will be:
“WashU REDCap is unavailable due to system maintenance from Friday, June 27, 2025, at 5 p.m. CDT to Monday, June 30, 2025, at 8 a.m. CDT
If you are trying to complete a survey, please save the survey link or QR code that you used to access the survey and return after Monday, June 30th at 8 a.m. CDT. If you have contact information for the survey administrator (for example, a study coordinator), you may reach out to them directly with specific questions regarding the survey.
Please email redcap_helpdesk@wustl.edu with all other questions during this outage period.
Thank you for your patience as we work to improve WashU REDCap!”
2. When will Automated Survey Invitations, Alerts & Notifications, or any other automated tasks happen following the outing?
Many Automated Survey Invitations (ASIs), Alerts & Notifications, or any other automated tasks will happen automatically as soon as REDCap is back online. There are some specific situations, however, that will cause invitations to not be sent or sent too late. If you fall into one of the categories below, please Submit a REDCap Ticket.
2a. Sending Daily Surveys During Outage Period
Daily surveys that are expected to be sent and completed during the outage will be affected. For example, a longitudinal project where the events are set up as Day 1, Day 2…, Day 50 with a survey to be sent each day at 9 a.m., surveys to be sent on Saturday, June 28 and Sunday June 29 at 9 a.m. will not be sent. or completed on time. This would be the case with repeating instruments that have ASIs set to send daily that cross over the outage period.
2b. Conditional Logic Only True during Outage Period
Any invitations that have conditional logic that is only true during the outage period will not be sent. This will primarily happen when 1) the units of a datediff statement are days, hours, or minutes, 2) a datediff is set equal to a specific number of days, hours, or minutes, or 3) a datediff has a range of days, hours, or minutes that will only be true during the outage.
2c. Send Surveys on Exact Date During Outage Period
ASIs and Alerts & Notifications that have the option “Send at exact date/time:” set for a date and time during the outage will not be sent. Avoid scheduling on the exact date or time
3. I have an ASI scheduled to go out 5 minutes before the outage begins. Will it go out?
Yes, the cron job that evaluates ASIs and other automations runs minute to evaluate settings and conditional logic. So, if logic becomes true 5 minutes within shutdown it will be sent. However, if an ASI becomes true within one minute of shutdown, it may not be sent before shutdown, but the logic is automatically re-evaluated when it comes back online.
4. I have weekly surveys that are sent when survey queue logic is within 7 days of the target (e.g., >=5 and <12 days). Will these be affected?
Since the window will exceed the outage, the invitations will be sent within one minute of when REDCap is turned back online.
5. I may need to access data from my project within the window of the outage. Is this possible?
Ideally, you can export any data you need to use the weekend of the outage in advance. If this is not an options, please Submit a REDCap Ticket.
6. We are planning a data collection that weekend. Can we enter data directly to REDCap?
Ideally, you can either use paper forms or reschedule the data collection. If these are not options, please Submit a REDCap Ticket.
If you believe there are other situations that may lead to invitations not being sent following the outage, please Submit a REDCap Ticket.
Thank you,
Chris Sorensen
Christopher J. Sorensen, PhD, MSCI, MS
Medical Informaticist II
WashU REDCap Administrator
Institute for Informatics, Data Science & Biostatistics
Washington University School of Medicine
Pronouns: He/Him/His (What is this?)
Submit a REDCap Ticket for faster resonses to REDCap requests!