From Wiki

Contents 1 OpenMRS 1.1 OpenMRS Application Stack 1.2 OpenMRS Development Stack 1.2.1 Tools 2 Chisimba 2.1 Chisimba Application Stack 2.2 Chisimba Development Stack 3 DrumNet 3.1 Architecture 3.2 Chisimba Development Stack 4 Takeaways

OpenMRS

OpenMRS Application Stack

Conforms to the MVC pattern (Model-View-Controller)

- See attached application layers image -

Presentation Layer - jsp/html/javascript

Business Layer - OpenMRS Java API

Database Layer - Hibernate maps our API Java objects to the database tables

• Hibernate is used to insert/update data in the, say, Patient object, to the patient tables, similar to the functionality that MDB2 provides

• Apache Server is the frontend content web server. Traffic is redirect to the tomcat server
• Tomcat is the common j2ee servlet container.
• OpenMRS is packaged as a webapp in the servlet container. JSP is used as the front presentation layer language (equivalent to php served straight by a web server)
• OpenMRS has a modular architecture. Modules are written to include all of the java/jsp to add functionality to the core OpenMRS code
  • The module architecture is custom for OpenMRS
  • Modules can hook into certain parts of the core code whether those are display hooks or functionality hooks
  • OpenMRS has developed a "module repository" to aid people in searching/finding/using modules for their installation
  • OpenMRS's module architecture is very similar to Firefox and Eclipse extensions

OpenMRS Development Stack

Three types of requests

1. Project
   • Usually proposed by a developer. Large time requirements

1. Feature
   • Addition or enhancement, less time than a project
   • Posted to forum or mailing lists, moved to trac tickets

1. Bug
   • Small fixes to current code features
   • Posted to forum, mailing lists, or directly into trac tickets

Tools

• Trac
  • Project management
  • Bug tracking
  • Anybody can self-create an account and then create a ticket

• Mediawiki
  • Wiki
  • Documentation
  • Anybody can self-create an account and add/create/edit pages
  • A lot of discussion happens on user pages
    • A user talks about what he/she is working on currently
    • Discussions moved to trac tickets if features/bugs come up
  • Developers come to wiki first -- homepage of openmrs.org

• Subversion
  • code version control
  • Code is committed, shows changed files, increments build number of code
  • Accounts are linked to trac, users are given permission to commit to
  • Restrictions on commit locations are social only, not in the code
  • Some developers that request accounts are given ability to only commit to their module
  • Usually, they become a new developer and can submit small bug fixes to our alpha/trunk, but new features are developed in branches
  • Patches can be added to trac tickets and submitted by a "core" developer

• Eclipse
  • Code development environment
  • Just one of many options for java IDE
  • Chosen because of plugins for integration with trac, subversion, reporting
  • Test integration with junit

• Mylar
  • Plugin for eclipse
  • integrates trac into eclipse

• Forum
• Mailing lists
  • One for developer and one for implementers
• Weekly phone calls

• ANT
  • Automatic nightly builds
  • Periodic releases

• Testing
  • Junit
  • Very limited tests
  • Many implmentations running alpha code, bugs submitted often

OpenMRS uses the OpenMRS Public License -- its very similar to the Mozilla Public License.

OpenMRS is a customizable patient centric electronic medical record system. Forms are entered at each patient visit. Data is either entered by a physician during the visit or by data assistants after the fact.

Chisimba

(Malawi word for "framework")

Chisimba is a rewrite of the KINKY project

• A framework for building software and skills.
• Uses established design patterns
  • the MVC pattern
  • resuable objects
  • Modular architecture
  • Can build functionality totally independent of anything else
• Primarily a web framework

Chisimba Application Stack

Each module has its own model, view, controller objects The application can be thought of as building blocks (See attached image)

Completely skinnable

• content template
• layout template (one vs two, vs three layout)
• page template
• Each element has ids and classes for each css customization

Can run on any device, not necessarily just web. Could do an xml output, eg.

• The heart of Chisimba are the modules.
  • Modules have folders for classes, content, sql, and templates.
  • Modules have a text based module config file
  • Version numbers are input by the developer manually
  • Modules can require other modules
  • The online "module repository" is linked to Chisimba and automatic download/installation is available from within

• Scalable:
  • Caches read requests to the database
  • Allows for nodes to be added for faster processing

Chisimba Development Stack

• Eclipse
  • IDE, allows for plugins for code completion, integration
  • Built in cvs commands to allow commiting from within eclipse

• Mailing lists
  • Developer lists
  • Both questions from devs about access, development and posts from developers about new updates to modules
  • Implementers lists

• CVS
  • Code version control
  • Viewable online to see what is happening on different branches/modules
  • Command line acces available as well as within eclipse

• Build process
  • ANT for auto building
  • Nightly builds
  • Monthly releases

• ohloh
  • Shows stats and information about Chisimba
  • Automatically generated by scripts in on Ohloh

• Testing model
  • core tested with phpunittest, required for core, not required for modules.

• Documentation
  • troubles and adaptations in Africa:
    • People can't stay online long enough to edit the wiki
    • Documentation is done by committing docs to cvs
  • Have a master documentation document in cvs

• Mantis
  • Bugs added, tracked, committed, commented
  • Stats on who does what bugs, how many bugs, severity of bugs
  • New module requests go into a white paper first. Goes into cvs

DrumNet

• Supply chain communication platform
• Uses established design patterns
  • the MVC pattern
  • reusable objects
  • Modular architecture

Architecture

• Virtual machine
• Application server: tomcat
• Spring IOC
• MVC framework build around Spring
• Database component managed by Hibernate
• JSP for user presentation

• SMS Gateway
  • Generic communication module: messages in through mail server, out through http, if http fails use mail gateway to SMS

Chisimba Development Stack

• NetBeans
  • IDE, allows for plugins for code completion, integration

• Mailing lists
  • Developer list

• CVS
  • None

• Build process
  • ANT for auto building
  • Periodic builds
  • On demand releases

• Testing model
  • core tested with JUnit

• Documentation
  • User documentation in OpenOffice/PDF
  • JavaDoc for code documentation

• BugGenie
  • Bugs not currently tracked.

Takeaways

Aspect	OpenMRS	Chisimba	DrumNet
Wiki (document sharing)	mediawiki used extensively	Use openoffice docs in CVS to share knowledge	Documents via email and server
Version Control	Subversion	CVS	n/a
Mailing lists	yes, 2 main	yes, 2 main	1 developer mailing list
Forums	yes, used occasionally	Yes, rarely used	n/a
Bug tracking	trac, for openmrs specific problems, implementations have their own bug tracking, etc	mantis, for Chisimba specific problems. installations have separate locations	BugGenie
IDE	Eclipse	Eclipse	NetBeans
Modular architecture	yes	yes	no
Server	apache/tomcat or just tomcat	apache or litehttp	tomcat
Language	java/jsp	php	java/jsp
Testing	junit for both core and module, not required, not always done	core tested with phpunittest, required for core, not required for modules.	junit
Usability	working on it	Yes, had a lab for it. No progress recently (lost funding)	no
Load testing	No	Yes	no