Developer's Instrument Guide

This guide reflects a typical workflow and best practices used by Loris developers at the MNI. Some specifics such as git workflow steps may not apply to all projects and implementations.

##Should this instrument be coded?

1. An instrument should likely be coded manually in PHP if it involves:

• dependencies between fields (rules)
• special data formats or restricted types
• special scoring
• look-up tables (t-scores etc)
• age-dependencies in administering the instrument

2. Has it been coded before? [link to instruments list]

##Developer Workflow

1. Before getting started...
2. Get the entire PDF/paper copy, including any “lookup” tables used for scoring/normalization.
3. Clarify requirements: which sections of the questionnaire to include/omit. Typically, administrative details included on the original form can be ignored, but instructions that will be helpful for the examiner might be included.
4. How will all your fields map to the element types allowed by Loris form (beta!) (also see here for a list of allowed elements)
5. Does your instrument require certification? Are there certified examiners? Can/should users be certified as examiners for this instrument using the Training module?
6. Create a new git branch based off the up-to-date branch for your project-specific repo.
7. Create an instrument in the project/instruments/ directory.
8. Insert the Instrument.
9. Front end testing
10. Push branch and create pull request to your project-specific repo. Assign relevant tags and tester.
11. Update any management documents, add a category to your bug tracker utility.