About hotlinks

1. Select the Hotlink shortcut button from the tool bar at the top of the Study Design screen.  

2. Click on the eForm where you want the hotlink to appear. The Hotlink Definition window is displayed.

3. Enter a caption:  this is the text that will appear underlined on your form as the hotlink. You may use up to 255 characters, including any letters or numbers  You may not use the characters  ~ | ` "
   Use the caption to explain clearly where the user will go if they click it, especially if it is a dynamic link that will take the user to another subject or study as there are no inbuilt warnings about switching subjects.

4. For a static hotlink, select the target visit and eForm.
   The "Visit" list contains the names of all the defined visits in the study. When you select a named visit, the eForm drop down list shows the names of eForms in that visit. Selecting the keyword "visit" specifies the current visit; selecting the keyword "form" specifies the current eForm.
   You can also specify the relative visit and/or eForm cycles, if applicable, by clicking the appropriate selection button. If you want to specify absolute cycles, create a dynamic hotlink instead using an expression that evaluates to a string in this format:
   Visit(VCycle):eForm(FCycle)

5. Or for a dynamic hotlink, click the Dynamic Hotlink button.
   Enter an Arezzo expression in the Dynamic Hotlink Expression box to create the hotlink target. You can type directly into the box or use the Expression Editor to construct the expression but it must evaluate to a string in one of these formats
   

   Study/Site/SubjectId/Visit(VCycle):eForm(FCycle)
   Study/Site/{SubjectLabel}/Visit(VCycle):eForm(FCycle)
   Study/{SubjectLabel}/Visit(VCycle):eForm(FCycle)
   Visit(VCycle):eForm(FCycle)

    

   The visit and eForm cycles are optional and can be specified as absolute cycles.

    

   An example of the simplest type of expression:

   'screening:cover'

    

   An example of a conditional expression:

   if(screening:cover:sex = 1, 'screening:preg', 'screening:ecg')

    

   You can use Arezzo study terms such as person:clinicaltrialname (the current study name) and person:trialsite (the current site):

    

   person:clinicaltrialname & '/' & person:trialsite & '/' & '{ABC 123}/screening:cover'

    

6. Click OK to insert the hotlink.

The hotlink will appear on the data entry eForm as an underlined label, with the text you specified.

Right click on the hotlink and select Edit Hotlink from the popup menu. The Hotlink Definition window is displayed allowing you to edit the target.

Hotlinks may be dragged around in the same way as other eForm items.

Hotlinks may also be lassoed, copied and pasted in the same way as other eForm items.

Help on moving items around the eForm...

Right click on the hotlink and select Delete Hotlink from the popup menu. The hotlink will be removed.

You can edit the font and colour of a hotlink in the same way as for questions. Help on this...

Note: You can change the size, font face and colour of the hotlink, but it will always appear on the eForm as underlined.

If a data entry user clicks on an unavailable hotlink, the hotlink will not work and the current eForm will be re-loaded. Here are some reasons why a hotlink might be unavailable:

• If either type of hotlink specifies an eForm that is not active. Hotlinks are re-evaluated after an eForm is saved so as long as the target eForm becomes active on saving the source eForm, the hotlink will work.

• If a static hotlink specifies the next cycle of the current eForm and the data entry user is already on the final cycle of the form.

• If a static hotlink refers to the current eForm itself (e.g. if you had simply specified visit and form).

• If a dynamic hotlink is defined by an invalid Arezzo expression.

• If a dynamic hotlink evaluates to a study, site, subject, visit or eForm that does not exist.