All data that has changed since the previous transfer will be sent to the central server and any updates are downloaded from the central server.
Data downloaded from the server:
Updated study definitions
Updated laboratory definitions
New/changed DCRs, SDVs, notes and lock/freeze messages
System messages
Data transferred to the central server:
Changed subject data
Updated laboratory definitions
DCRs, SDVs, note and lock/freeze messages
System messages
On launching the Data Transfer (DT) module, user details are synchronised with the server machine before the login screen is presented. This means that any changes such as password resets, account locking/unlocking, account disabling/enabling or changes to the password policy that have occurred on the server since the last transfer are updated on the remote machine before you log in. If conflicting actions have been performed on the server AND at the remote site, the server activity takes precedence.
When you click the Start Transfer button in the DT module, the following occurs:
The connection to the server is tested.
If the connection test is successful,
the following data is downloaded from the server:
- Any study definition updates are automatically imported and saved
in a specified secure HTML folder on the remote machine.
- Any laboratory updates are automatically imported and saved in a
specified secure HTML folder on the remote machine.
- Any new/changed DCRs, SDVs and notes.
- Any new/changed Lock/Freeze messages. In the event of any Lock/Freeze
clashes (if an action at the site overwrites an action on the server),
then a Rollback message will be created, ready to send to back to
the server later.
If no errors occur in step 2 then changed subject data is sent to the server. Data is transferred one subject at a time in timestamp order. If the connection fails between the time of export and the time of transfer, the exported file remains on the remote machine. Another transfer attempt will not be made until a new transfer session is initiated and no more data exports will be created for this subject until all existing exported files have been successfully transferred. This step is repeated for the next subject until an attempt has been made for all new subject data.
Any changed laboratory definitions are sent to the server.
DCRs, SDVs and notes are sent to the server.
Lock/Freeze messages are sent to the server (including any Rollback messages created earlier).
System Messages are sent to the
server. This includes things like:
- Trial status changes
- User detail changes
- Password changes
- System logs
- User logs
New System Messages are downloaded from the server.
Details of each transfer session are saved to a log file on the remote machine, named log_datatransfer_timestamp.txt
The default location is the Out Folder in the MACRO application folder but can be changed in the configuration settings for the Data transfer module.
Please note that the Database Timestamp for each question response refers to the local database used by the remote machine and not the central database server. More on timestamps...
DCRs, SDVs and notes entered at a remote site for newly entered subject data and then transferred to the server will appear immediately in the Web Data Entry module on the server, but you should not attempt to access them until the associated subject data has been imported via Auto Import. Attempting to view or edit a DCR, SDV or note on a server where the associated subject data is unavailable can cause errors in Web Data Entry.
It is not yet possible to restore a site database by sending the entire database from the server to the site
It is not yet possible to reset the transfer history in order to re-send all patient records from the start
Communication steps are not yet logged in a communication log