How do I use an external application? Answered

Thejas Suvarna

After I build an external application, what are the next steps? How do I connect that to MyDataHelps?

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    Thejas Suvarna
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    Hosting

    CareEvolution is able to assist in creating a GitHub repo to store your code and hosting your external application on our servers. We would create an environment where your developers would be able to write code and utilize a branch based CI/CD pipeline to develop and maintain study dashboards independently of CareEvolution. The architecture of this pipeline is described below, although we strongly recommend utilizing a similar architecture even if you are hosting the external application yourself. If you are interested in this service, please reach out to cs@careevolution.com

    Architecture

    Below describes the architecture that would be implemented by CareEvolution if you utilize our hosting services. However, we recommend a similar architecture even if you are hosting the external application yourself to support healthy development practices and maintain study stability. 

    The GitHub repo has two branches that are intended to be used as testing (main) and production (prod) branches. The CI/CD pipeline utilizes the AWS Amplify service to build these branches into websites using automation.

    Any code that is on the main branch, the branch will be built and published to a dev dashboard site that we will share with your developer team. Anything pushed to the prod branch will be built and published to a production dashboard site that we will share your developer team. 

    After a commit, it usually takes less than 2 minutes to build and publish the site.

    Implementation

    We recommend utilizing two MyDataHelps projects to support healthy development, testing, and promotion to production. One will be a “Dry-run” project used for initial development and testing. This will be connected to the main branch above. One will be a “production” project that will contain real study participants and will be connected to the prod branch above. The production project can be created later. 

    Connecting the External Application to MyDataHelps

    MyDataHelps has an “App Layout” feature that can be used to control the participant tab bar when they are accessing your study. If you do not have this feature in your project, please reach out to cs@careevolution.com

    By going to the "App Layout" menu, you are able to create a tab (or edit an existing tab), to point at a URL of your choosing. You can use this to point a tab to the location of your external app once you have it built out. (i.e. https://externalapp.mystudy.dev/home.html

    Testing

    We recommend starting off with a "Dry-run" project that is used for testing. The dry-run study would only have test participants. 

    Once you are ready to create a production version of the study, you can copy the Dry-Run project using the project copy feature on the "Projects" page. The production project can then point to the prod url of your external app. You may need to reach out to cs@careevolution.com so that we can set up the security configuration for your new project.

    This architecture will also help you test other components of the study like surveys, schedules, and segments. It will also be very important if you need to make any changes to the study after it launches. Edits would be made to the dry-run project, tested internally, and then deployed to the production project. Otherwise, there is significant risk to the stability of the participant experience. 

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