The District Health Information System (DHIS) is used in more than 60 countries around the world. DHIS is an open source software platform for reporting, analysis and dissemination of data.
The core development activities of the DHIS 2 platform are coordinated by the Department of Informatics at the University of Oslo, and supported by NORAD, PEPFAR, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, UNICEF and the University of Oslo.
Android Apps Current maintenance and development
From April 2017 to April 2018, EST has been in charge for stabilizing, debugging, maintaining and upgrading of the current UiO Official Apps.
These applications enables the user to register & read both aggregated and individual data stored in DHIS2 servers by using Android devices.
Development and architecture design for the new Official Android SDK
UiO is creating a new Android App aiming to substitute the current 4 apps that manage the interaction between Android devices and DHIS2 servers. The new App is composed by a front-end, that presents the information to the user, and a backend, that interacts with DHIS2 servers. That backend is the SDK (Software Development Kit), conceived as a separate product, so other developers will be able to build their own front-ends and forget about the DHIS2 interaction, that is implemented by the SDK. EST has created and evolved most of the initial architecture that is currently in use in the new SDK, and the testing standards as well.
Android demo server maintenance
While developing the Android apps and the new SDK, EyeSeeTea has also maintained the Android public server for testing purposes. This server hosts a set of DHIS2 instances. These instances offer a very useful platform to test the mobile application functionality and behaviour. A set of scripts and taylor-made tools allows us to upgrade these instances automatically (database and/or source code) and performed maintenance tasks.
Stress and performance tests for Android apps
In collaboration with the DHIS2 development team, EyeSeeTea performed stress and performance tests to the Android apps: four current applications plus the new under-development Android app which uses the SDK behind the scenes. These tests aimed to understand the limitations in terms of users and data for the Android applications and the DHIS2 servers. The outcome was a clear understanding of the maximum number of users/applications, several suggestions regarding the server configuration and Android development, server specification tips based on the expected number of users and different approaches and techniques to improve the performance server and client side.
Architecture and Coding advice new generation app
EyeSeeTea has also provided architecture and coding advice and auditing to the UiO Android development team. Advicing covers not only technical aspects and best practices such as repository management, source code quality assurance, continuous integration tools and user feedback platforms and strategies but also development methodologies (sprints, task priorities, development cycle, team management, etc.).
As part of this work we have helped with the design of DHIS2 specific strategies, concepts and interactions: How DHIS2-SDK can be designed to improve the interaction with android framework? What should be exposed to other android developers, so they can build their own apps based on the dhis2 data model? What is the best way to communicate to the external developers what is the status of the development of the SDK?
UiO CNM
The University of Oslo and the Clinton Health Access Initiative decided to contribute to our custom Apps in the Malaria Case Surveillance domain, by funding new functionalities and, hence, creating a new App for the Cambodian National Center For Parasitology Entomology and Malaria Control (CNM). Still in pilot phases, the CNM App is a picture-driven app, aiming to allow illiterate people to register malaria cases using an Android device. The survey is conducted by clicking on images and register the main information that the Cambodian CNM organism needs for the epidemiology analysis. CNM also manages the drugs issues and entries, generating a basic stock control that is centralized in the DHIS2 server the app is connected to. The app can work offline and it sends all the information to DHIS2 as soon as the device gets internet connexion. All the information from the app is represented in a simple Event-based program in DHIS2.
