We’re excited to announce the release of 5.3.0 of CHT Core Framework
See below for some highlights, read the release notes for full details.
5.3.0 Highlights
Archiving
Long running or very active deployments can be overwhelmed with huge document counts. CHT 5.3 introduces archiving as the first step to addressing these issues. A new API endpoint has been added which allows CHT administrators to provide a list of documents for the server to archive.
Reducing hosting total cost of ownership
Disk space remains one of the key pain points CHT administrators face when running CHT over longer periods. CHT 5.3 adds index improvements that reduce the time and extra disk space used during upgrades after upgrading to 5.3.
Contact card photos
The CHT can now be configured to display a small thumbnail for each contact. Seeing a face rather than just a name helps CHWs quickly recognize the people they serve, and photos also make it easier to distinguish between patients with similar or identical names.
External datasets in forms
Deployments that rely on large choice lists in their workflows previously had no way to reuse those lists across forms. A list with hundreds of options used in 10 forms meant CHWs had to download it 10 times, significantly increasing sync times whenever the list changed. Administrators faced a parallel burden: a single update had to be carefully propagated across all 10 copies. CHT 5.3 greatly simplifies this by enabling list reuse across forms.
Improved GPS data on contacts forms
CHT 5.3 adds a status widget that can be used in contact forms to capture the GPS location when a contact is created or edited. The widget handles the full capture experience automatically: it begins acquiring a position as soon as the form renders, displays progress, success, and failure states, and stores the result on the contact document.
CHT Conf complimentary upgrades
Upgrading CHT Conf to 6.6.0 or later is strongly recommended. This version includes fixes for bugs surfaced during CHT 5.3 development, particularly around new features such as photos on sub-contacts and complex forms. To upgrade, run npm update -g cht-conf, or see the CHT Conf docs for detailed instructions.
Increase recommended Android memory and CPU
The recommended Android specs have increased in CHT 5.3, reflecting suggestions from Google and the CHT Community. Minimum specs have not changed. See requirements for more info.
And more…
We’ve also implemented loads of other improvements and fixed a heap of bugs.