The REDCap project uses PHP + JavaScript programming languages and a MySQL database engine for data storage and manipulation.(6;7) Hardware and software requirements are modest and the system runs in Windows/IIS and Linux/Apache web server environments. In keeping with the goal of creating a rapid development methodology and easily maintainable resource for multiple concurrent studies, we devised a set of similar database tables for use in each study. The standard REDCap project requires five distinct tables stored in a single MySQL database: 1) a METADATA table containing all study data pertaining to database storage (data field types and naming used for automatic creation of separate data storage table) and CRF presentation (form names and security levels, field-specific display and validation rules); 2) a LOGGING table used to store all information about data changes and exports; 3) a DOCS table used to store uploaded (ex. consent forms, analysis code) or generated export files (SAS, SPSS, R, Stata, Excel); 4) a RIGHTS table containing specific researcher rights and expiration settings; and 5) a flat DATA table used to store all collected data
