research_package 0.0.3

A Flutter framework for obtaining informed consent, showing surveys and collecting results.

Research Package

This is a Flutter package implementing support for surveys like ResearchStack and ResearchKit.

The main modules of the above mentioned libraries are:

• Consent - How it's done in ResearchKit - Implemented

• Survey - How it's done in ResearchKit - Implemented

• Active Task - How it's done in ResearchKit - Can be implemented later with the help of flutter plugins by CACHET.

  The package tries to follow the ResearchStack and ResearchKit patterns and namings.

Current stage

The project is work in progress. New Answer Formats are being added to the survey modul of the framework constanly. The available Answer Formats are the following at the moment:

• Single Choice
• Multiple Choice
• Integer

Use Cases

One of the goals for the package was to make it capable of handling a WHO5 survey. As an example at this point Research Package can obtain the informed consent from the participant, show the WHO5 survey questions and collect the results.

Getting Started

In order to use Research Package, you have to clone this repo and add it manually to your pubspec.yaml file

  research_package:
    path: *PATH*/research.package

After you run the flutter packages get command you are able to import and start using Research Package. With the following line you have access both to the Model and the UI part of the package.

import 'package:research_package/model.dart';
import 'package:research_package/ui.dart';

Remember, that objects starting with RP are part of the Model (like RPConsentDocument) while those which start with RPUI are part of the UI library (like RPUIVisualConsentStep).

Naming

We are following Apple's pattern when it comes to naming. There's a prefix ORK (Open Research Kit) before the names of classes, types etc. in ResearchKit, so our names are starting with the RP prefix which stands for Research Package.

For UI widgets we are using the RPUI (Research Package UI) prefix.

Useful Links

• ResearchKit

  • Official Tutorial on how to use ResearchKit in ObjectiveC You can get a good understading of the flow and the basic concepts. Also there's a useful presentation of the different AnswerFormats.
  • Hierarchy of objects in ResearchKit This is a good representation of a possible file/class hierarchy for ResearchPackage.
  • Tutorial on how to use ResearchKit in Swift
  • Sample Apps for ResearchKit in Swift

• ResearchStack

  • Sample App for ResearchStack
  • Tutorial on how to use ResearchStack in Java

Challenges

ResearchStack and ResearchKit are built on native iOS and Android which have totally different architecture than the Widget-based Flutter. It hopefully doesn't affect the domain model but for wiring up the model to the UI, we should definitely implement a different approach from ResearchKit and Stack.