Depending on what type of Project we will be working on, we can change the parameters to customize the Form Builder to fit our needs. The types of specialized projects that are supported on Dharma are: single point, hierarchical, and longitudinal projects.
Beginning from the organization home, select or create a project you will be working on. For now, let's select Supplies Request to see how parameters should look for a basic form:
We'll then be taken to the project home, where we can click on Project Settings which will automatically bring us to the Parameters page:
Now, let's dive into changing parameters for different project types:
Single Point Projects
There are also simple forms collected at a single point in time at one level, where parameters will not need to be modified. A newly created project will by default be set as a Single Point structure.
Longitudinal Projects
Longitudinal projects are needed when there are repeated observations made of a subject(i.e people, facilities) over time. In Longitudinal Projects we make a project named Facilities Management. There are two levels and types of forms. The first level has the enrollment form, which is the intake form taken only once, then there is the longitudinal form. This form at the second level that will be taken several time over the course of a given period.
To change parameters to fit a longitudinal project, Click on Longitudinal. After reading the warning message, click on Proceed.
This is how the parameter settings should look for a longitudinal project:
Hierarchical Projects
We may need a hierarchical project in instances where data needs to be collected in different levels of hierarchy, where lower-level units can be organized under higher-level units. A common example of this can be Household Surveys, where data is first collected at a household level, then at an individual level for each member within a specific household. You can find more information regarding hierarchical projects in the Hierarchical Data Collection article.
To modify parameters for hierarchical projects, click on Hierarchical. After reading the warning message, click on Proceed.
We will then see two lines appear, signifying the different levels of data collection. The first level will automatically be named the project title. However, we can always edit the name by selecting the pencil icon to the right. Let's write Individuals for the second level. Once you are done, click Save, and we are done! We can also select the + icon to create more levels of data collection as needed.
Viewing data as a Time Series
Time series projects are simply Single Point or Hierarchical projects where you would like to see trends over time. Let's look back to our Political Polling project we created on our Time Series Projects article.
At the bottom of the page, there is a toggle button for Track Data Over Time. Enable the toggle button. We'll see more options appear below and can also make a preference on how often we would like to collect data: daily, weekly, or monthly.
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