README.md
In REDCapCAST: REDCap Metadata Casting and Castellated Data Handling

REDCapCAST package

Casting metadata for REDCap database creation and handling of castellated data using repeated instruments and longitudinal projects in REDCap.

This is implemented with

An app-interface for easy database creation accessible here or available to run locally with shiny_cast() allowing you to easily create a REDCap database based on an existing spreadsheet.
Export data from REDCap in different formats handling castellated data, and on default only export requested data, this is mainly through read_redcap_tables().

REDCapCAST was initially build on, and still includes code from pegeler/REDCapRITS, and relies on functions from the REDCapR-project

This package was originally forked from pegeler/REDCapRITS. The REDCapRITS represents great and extensive work to handle castellated REDCap data in different programming languages. REDCapCAST has evolved into much more than just handling castellated data and so has been detatched from the original project while still relying on the main REDCap_split function. All access to the REDCap database is build on the outstanding work in REDCapR.

This package really started out of frustration during my PhD in health science hearing colleagues complaining about that "castellated" data formatting of REDCap exports when doing longitudinal projects and being used to wide data. This led to some bad decisions in building databases avoiding repeated instruments. This package solves these challenges, but solutions are also implemented else where like the redcapAPI or REDCapTidieR packages, which are bigger project.

To help new PhD students and other researchers, I have also worked on creating a few helper/wrapper-functions to ease data access. Documentation is on it's way.

For any more advanced uses, consider using the redcapAPI or REDCapR packages.

The plan with this package is to be bundled with a Handbook on working with REDCap from R. This work is in progress but is limited by the time available. Please feel free to contact me or create and issue with ideas for future additions.

The package is available on CRAN. Install the latest version:

install.packages("REDCapCAST")

Install the latest version directly from GitHub:

require("remotes")
remotes::install_github("agdamsbo/REDCapCAST")

Launch the REDCapCAST app interface directly on your own machine:

REDCapCAST::shiny_cast()

Please note that the REDCapCAST project is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By contributing to this project, you agree to abide by its terms.