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Open Data Capture

How to Create an Instrument

There are two ways to create and test an instrument:

  • Instrument Playground: create, validate, and upload your instrument in the browser.
  • Local Development (CLI): run an instrument folder on your machine using @opendatacapture/serve-instrument.

Steps

  1. Open Instrument Playground

    First, navigate to the Instrument Playground and create your instrument. You can verify that your instrument works as expected in the right panel.

  2. Select the Upload Bundle Button

    Once you are satisfied with your instrument, click the menu button on the top right corner and then select the “Upload Bundle” tab.

  3. Complete the Upload Bundle Form

    Finally, fill out the required form and click submit to upload your instrument.

Local Development (CLI)

To use the CLI you must have Node.js installed on your machine.

Install the CLI globally:

Terminal window
npm install -g @opendatacapture/serve-instrument

Then run it against your instrument folder containing an entrypoint (index.tsx, index.jsx, index.ts, index.js):

Terminal window
serve-instrument ./path/to/instrument

The server watches the instrument directory and rebuilds automatically when files change (refresh the browser to load the latest bundle).