Ripple Science is excited to introduce the much-anticipated calendar sharing! In this beta release, users are able to sync and view Ripple Study Calendar events in external calendars, including Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook. This release also includes updates to the Comments Log, the introduction of the study "Short Name", the addition of customizable hover and event "Help Text", and improved usability of bulk tasks.

What’s New

Beta Calendar Sharing

Users now have the ability to share their Ripple Study Calendar to any external calendar which supports "iCalendar" format subscriptions (including Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and Apple's Calendar; find a full list here). This is just the first of improved calendar functionality, stay tuned for additional calendar features!

• Beta Calendar Features - Linked calendars are currently formatted in a read-only integration of de-identified data for expected and scheduled calendar events. Data exported from Ripple has been de-identified to keep your study information private. Outside calendar applications will automatically update to reflect changes made within Ripple, however, edits made to external calendars will not be reflected within the application. For the most current information users are encouraged to refer to the internal Ripple calendar as external calendar refreshes are determined by the service and may be delayed by up to 12 hours.

• Sharing with External Calendars - Users must subscribe to each study calendar individually. By default, calendar naming follows the format: "Ripple:" + "Study Name" (e.g., a study named "Big Study" would appear as "Ripple: Big Study"). Typically, it takes between 5-10 minutes for the default name to be set within your third-party calendar. Calendar names can be customized by users within the external calendar application.

Find detailed instructions for setting up an external calendar subscription here.

Comments Log

The styling of the Comments Log has been updated with new features and improved usability of comment tracking. Users should anticipate seeing further changes to the Comment Log user interface as additional features are added in the near future.

• Pinned Comments - The term "Sticky" has been updated to "Pin Comment". Pinned comments appear at the top of the comments section with a thumbtack icon next to them. Users may pin more than one comment; pinned comments appear in chronological order.

• Global Comments - Marking a comment as "Global" will now include the short title of the study in parentheses after the word Global.
• Hover Text - Hovering over the checkbox options listed next to "Mark Comment As:" now provides a detailed description of what selecting the checkbox does. Additionally, hovering over the initials box listed next to comments will display the first and last name of the user who entered the comment.

Learn more about using the Comments Log.

Short Names for Studies

Users may now assign a "Short Name" in addition to a full Study Name when creating studies in Ripple. A study's "Short Name" will be listed and referenced throughout the application.

• Current User Studies - For current users only, the existing study name becomes the study "Short Name" and is not subject to character limits. Once edited, the "Short Name" is subject to new character limits of 15 characters.
• New Studies - "Short Names" are limited to 15 characters. The Study Name (the full name field) will automatically be populated using the same name as listed in the "Short Name" field so that no user is left with blank spaces.

Find out more information about setting up studies, including a study's "Short Name".

What's Improved

Reordering Bulk Tasks

Users may now reorder bulk tasks within a bulk task group. Learn more about Bulk Tasks.

Event Help Text

"Help Text" applied when an event is created now shows when hovering over the event on the "Enrolled Participants" page. Learn how to create and edit event "Help Text".

What's Fixed

• The "Age" filter in the Registry has been fixed.
• Ripple logout due to inactivity has been updated to accurately reflect the time set by the Study Admin in Security Settings.
• We have updated some UX/UI interfaces so that Ripple looks more consistent across the platform.

Ripple v. 1.65.0

Released 2019-07-15