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Notes


Attendees:
Mark DeZalia (SGAC)
Michael Mwebaze (JSI/MEASURE EVal)
Jamie Thomas (Regenstrief)
Lon Gowen (USAID/M/CIO)
Rachel Lucas (USAID/GH/OHA)
Jacob Buehler (USAID/GH/OHA)
Chris Williams (USAID/GH/OHA)
Torey Vanek (ICF)
Manish Kumar (MEASURE Evaluation)
Vlad Shioshvili (Measure Evaluation)
Jason Knueppel (CDC Moz)
Agnaldo Guambe (CDC Moz)
Alex Cox (OGAC SI Adv)
Charlotte Hill (PCO Moz)
Elizabeth Meacham (I-TECH)
Josephine Mungurere-Baker (BAO)
James Kariuki (CDC)
Annah Ngaruro (MeasureEval)
Steven Verner (Northrop Grumman)
Jason Pickering (HISP/UiO)
Kimberly Boer (S/GAC - ICPI)
Stacey Berlow (MEASURE Evaluation)
Mark Wilson (CDC/Northrop Grumman)
Mike Gehron (SGAC)
Aaron Aranas (CDC)
Alejandra Covarrubias (SGAC)
Dana Juthe (S/GAC - PwC)
Andreea Bealle (CDC)
Agenda/Notes:
  • Update on the MER Indicator Revision Process  (Kimberly Boer)
  • Inital requirments document on Feb 9 was full elements of requirements. The document sent out yesterday to data exchange countries was more stream lined and that is what Kimberly will talk about today, hope to have in place March 15 - APril 1 at the latest.
  • Updated Feb 9 document will be sent out shortly with some clarifying information.
  • HTC_TST
  • MER indicators are required if you have funds. Conditionals DREAMs and disaggs.
  • Modified list of service delivery points, went down from 16.
  • This year asking for courser disggs for different service points under tst.
  • Mark - Do people have any general reactions to this?
  • removed???
  • PMCT_STAT
  • finer diaggs
  • PMCT_ART - no changes
  • Jason - It would be helpful to have each data element on a single row. 
  • Mark - This is why we added the yellow disclaimer. Will be working on data elements and then updating information for people.
  • Please listen to the first 20 min of the call recording to get more specifics on highlighted indicator codes and changes.
  • For newer indicators added can we add a geography column? Yes will have facility community, national, etc.
  • SIMS FAQ Document;  Answers to questions related  to Data Import, Dev-DE Environment and General information (Jason Pickering)
  • Will be moving this docuemnt into a central location
  • HRSA expressed that they had some questions and so we thought it would be good to talk about on this call
  • Please feel free to send any addtional questions you may have or add them to the notes.
  • TODO: Alejandra will draft email to SIMS group with training videos
  • Jason is working on data import guide that lays out high-level process
  • some of those questions and additional questions are noted below
  • Dev-DE Environment 
  • Data Entry page was reflecting SIMS 1.0 elements? What is this page for?  
  • Dev-DE environment is a server set up for data importers to test their import files. To see if what you think your are importing is happening.
  • Our assumption is that external system generates the csv file and using the Import/Export button, the file must be uploaded. Is that correct?
  • Q - Ran into issues with scripts. 
  • Jason - If scripts are not working please file issue on GitHub repository. Jason is not using a WIndows machince and some issues may be occuring becasue of this. 
  • Jason - Have developed these scripts but it is the approach that is taken.
  • Jason - Dev-DE is for the data exchange team any other dev environemets are for the development teams.
  • Q - Trying to create samples without data, not real data. WIll this be okay?
  • Yes. Ever Saturday it is refrreshed and nothing is permentate.
  • Q - Run tests to make sure construction is correct. When ready to import sites into production create helpdesk tickets for moving into production. Provide as much detail as possible up front like Dev-DE expected results and expectations of why it doesn't conform to data validation rules - there may be some MER examples.
  • Q - validation script available on help support site?
  • Jason - available in documentation - download R
  • Q - Is there a schedule on timing on when production will be ready for SIMS data?
  • Working with a timline to have production testing in March. Will send out a more detialed timeline later this week and then we will send notification when that is available.
  • Data Import
  • Is there a file naming convention?
  • No. Only the contents of the file must be correct. Specific details of each format (CSV, XML, JSON, ADX) are found in the DHIS2 developer manual reference.
  • Is there any restriction on the file size?
  • Yes. This currently about 20 MB, which can be a zip file. The actual payload can be much larger, but should be zipped prior to transmission. 
  • We tried to upload the sample file available on the dev-de site but import log didn’t show up immediately, .is this an asynchronous process? Does it mean data upload and data validation happen at the same time?
  • Imports can be uploaded asynchronously, but typically, when there is no response from the server, it may correspond to a fatal error which is not returned to the browser. It is recommended to validate the file format prior to importing and use curl to debug these issues, as the actual error may be returned.
  • Q - When will ADX automated uploads be available?
  • Jason - 2.21 running in Dev-DE.
  • Vlad - ADX is in 2.20
  • Mark - For the unforseeable furture importing SIMS data for what we documented for MER. Automated exchange has run into issues but we are cotinuing to work on this.
  • Q - When will the uploaded data be available for viewing?
  • Use API for retriving data. Raw data will be available immediatly. Recommend using DHIS2 docuemntation.
  • Data entry will only occur thru SIMS applictions made by the ??. Ther is a form in the dev environment for facilities.
  • When it comes to specific characters in comments field we have seen invisible characters so look for these when exporting data. everything is UTF encoded.
  • What if there is no mechanism ID? Can HRSA come up with their own format and use code/name for data transfer? If not, is there any specific format required?
  • No. Mechanism information is derived from FACTS. If the mechanism is not present or not active in FACTS, data for this "mechanism" will be declared to be not valid, and will not be imported. Attempts to import data with invalid mechanisms will result in (significant) delays in your imports.
  • Q - What is the proper channel to send a csv file we have questions on?
  • Jason - First I would make sure you can import file into Dev-De environment. Then if you can not look at DHIS2 docuemntation in regards to csv. If it can be uploaded then use helpdesk for further assistance. 
  • Q - CSV is the recommended approach. Should we try csd?
  • Jason - data import side it does not matter so think it is up to the teams to decide
  • We received other questions on the code list and will be getting responses to theose out shortly.
We would like to ask that people send in there questions so we can get them answered and include them in the FAQ to help others as well.

 

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