Overview

Introduction

The RIOS specification describe a collection of configuration files that are used to define the process of data collection in an open and transportable way.

Major Components

Instrument

Instrument Definition are the base of the RIOS specification. They contain the definition of what data is to be collected. At its heart, it is a list of field definitions that specify the name, data type, and type constraints. There is no information or instruments on how the data is to be retrieved or collected – only what data needs to be collected.

Assessment

Assessment Documents are individual units of collected data that satisfy the rules defined in an Instrument. They are a field-for-field listing of each data point, and can optionally contain metadata about the data or the means that were used to collect it.

Calculation Set

Calculation Set Definitions are a means of augmenting an Instrument with additional fields that can be programmatically calculated using the data collected in an Assessment. These calculated values are then stored in their corresponding Assessment Document as metadata.

Web Form

Web Form Configurations are a generic way of describing how the data described by an Instrument should be collected when the desired tool is a Web-based form. It describes what order the questions are presented in, how they’re paginated, what text is used to guide or prompt the user, and what web components are used to enter the data.

SMS Interaction

In much the same way that Web Form Configurations describe how to collect an Instrument’s data via a web page, SMS Interaction Configurations describe how to collect the data via an interactive SMS text message exchange. It describes what order the questions are presented in and what text is used to guide or prompt the user.