A major part of the Akaza mission is to make OpenClinica more flexible and customizable. Having a code base that is open source is a great place to start. But not everybody wants to develop Java code to meet their own requirements. We aim wherever possible to add configuration options and easy-to-use design tools within the user interface, but not all problems are a good fit for that approach. The solution is a series of “plug-in” interfaces that allow users to add their own capabilities and configurations, or interact with other applications. Some of these interfaces, such as loading of spreadsheet-based CRF definitions, are a critical part of OpenClinica, without which the system would not be functional. Other interfaces include CDISC ODM data import, job scheduler for import and export, SOAP-based web services, and the HTML5 popup interface that allows 3rd party applications to enter CRF data. Along the way community members have improved these interfaces and taught us a lot about how to design them better.
OpenClinica 3.1 will include a completely rewritten version of Extract Data based around a plug-in architecture that increases flexibility and functionality. We’ve learned that user requirements for organizing, formatting, and presenting data are tremendously diverse (and often conflicting), depending on the user, the intended purpose, the study, and the organization. Our old Extract Data architecture made it difficult to add new output formats or tweak the ones already there. The new functionality provides a highly extensible, easily configurable means to get data formats that meet a user’s precise requirements. It does this by:

  • Using XSL stylesheet transformations to read native CDISC ODM XML and output the data in a transformed format.
  • Specifying available formats, their associated stylesheets, and associated properties (like filename, archival settings, and whether to compress the file) in a properties file (the extract.properties file)
  • Optionally, enabling postprocessing of the transformed data to output to certain non-text file formats and destinations

We started out with a desire to simplify the native output of the OpenClinica Extract Data java application, in a way that increased quality, stability, completeness, and performance. From now on, the OpenClinica core application will only produce CDISC ODM (version 1.3, with OpenClinica Extensions) as the natively supported format. With only one native format, we’re better able to test, document, and guarantee the output. All other output formats generated are transformations from this native ODM 1.3 w/extensions format. We made sure (via the OpenClinica vendor extensions) that we can export all possible data related to a study and its clinical data in this format. In 3.1, this also includes export of audit trail, discrepancy, and electronic signature information.

After we devised a way to improve the quality, stability, and performance of the data coming out of the core, we needed to provide a way to execute the data transformations, into any of a wide variety of outputs. It was important for us to adopt standard, widely used formats and open source technologies as the basis for these transformations. We selected the XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) language because of its applicability to CDISC ODM XML, extensive features, and reasonably simple learning curve. The implementation of these transformations is powered by a widely used open source engine, the Saxon XSLT and XQuery processor. The behavior of Export Data is determined by the extract.properties configuration file and the XSL stylesheets. The extract.properties file specifies the available data formats available in the system, each with a corresponding XSL stylesheet. OpenClinica 3.1 by default includes a set of XML stylesheet transformations for commonly used formats, such as HTML, Tab-delimited Text, and SPSS. The OpenClinica Enterprise Edition will include additional new formats including SAS, annotated CRFs, printable PDF casebooks with integrated audit trail and discrepancy notes, and a SQL-based data marts with normalized CRF-based table structure for ad-hoc reporting.

At this point, we can now reproduce the extract functionality available in OpenClinica 3.0, at a higher level of quality and stability. The stylesheets replicate the HTML, SPSS, tab-delimited, and multiple CDISC XML formats that were available in 3.0, and the framework will make it much easier to add new formats. However all of these data output formats are some type of text or XML based file. Users have also voiced the need to do things that XSLT cannot do by itself, like produce PDF files or load the data into external relational databases for ad-hoc reporting. The solution was implementation of a postprocessor framework that allows more sophisticated functionality. With postprocessing we can do things like generate binary output formats or send data to a target destination. Two postprocessors are included in 3.1 by default: output to a database using JDBC connectivity and generating PDF files using XSL-FO. The postprocessing step is transparent to end-users; they simply get their files for download or alternatively receive a message that the data has been loaded into the database. And the framework exists to add additional postprocessors via the addition of Java classes with references to those class names in the extract.properties file.

Execution of data export occurs when a user or job initiates a request for data. The request includes the active study or site, the dataset id, and the requested format. The end user will notice only minor differences in how they use the Extract Module. The process of creating datasets has not changed. The Extract can be still initiated from the ‘Download Data’ screen or via a job by selecting the desired output format. At this point however, rather than waiting for the download page to load, the user will be told that their extract is in queue, and receive an email and on-screen notification when the extract is complete. Execution follows a four step process:

Step 1.   Generate native CDISC ODM XML version 1.3 with OpenClinica Extensions

Step 2.   Apply XSL transformation and generate output file according to the settings in extract.properties for the specified format

Step 3.   Optionally, if postprocessing is enabled for the requested format, run the post processing action according to the settings in extract.properties.

Step 4.   Provide user notification with success or failure message.

We’ve also improved the logging and messaging surrounding extracts, which will be crucial for anyone developing, customizing, or debugging XSL stylesheets. As always, full internationalization is supported – if you want a value to be internationalized, it should be prefaced with an & (ampersand) symbol in the extract.properties file, and the corresponding text placed in the notes.properties i18n files.

As is common with software, we didn’t get to do everything we wanted in the first release of these capabilities. Some future features include:

  • Allow extract formats to be restricted to specific users, studies/sites, and/or datasets.
  • Allow loading and validation of formats within the web UI or via web services rather than via the extract.properites config file.
  • Create an exchange for XSL formats similar to the CRF Library.

Other than that we think we’ve thought of everything :-). Have we?

– Cal Collins

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