NomadForms

Open-source, offline-capable survey platform for field research in Low and Middle Income Countries

🌍 Vision

Create a survey platform that rivals REDCap and SurveyCTO while being:

• Open Source: Free forever, MIT licensed
• Offline-First: Works 7+ days without internet
• Mobile-Ready: Optimized for tablets and phones
• LMIC-Friendly: Low bandwidth, budget devices, multi-language

🎯 Key Features (Planned)

For Field Workers

• 📱 Mobile app (Progressive Web App)
• 🔌 Offline data collection (7+ days)
• 📸 Camera, GPS, QR code integration
• 🌐 Multi-language interface

For Researchers

• 🎨 Visual survey builder (no coding required)
• 📊 Export to Stata, SPSS, R, Excel, CSV (with labels)
• 📝 Import REDCap codebooks
• 🔄 Skip logic and calculated fields

For Organizations

• 🏠 Self-hostable
• 🔒 Secure (encryption, audit trails)
• 💾 PostgreSQL backend (Supabase supported)
• 🆓 Cost-effective (<$30/month or free)

🏗️ Architecture

Built on surveydown foundation:

Visual Builder (React) → Generates Code (Quarto + R)
                              ↓
                    Shiny App + PWA (offline)
                              ↓
              IndexedDB (local) + PostgreSQL (cloud)
                              ↓
                    Rich Exports (Stata, SPSS, R)

🚀 Current Status

Phase: Active Development 🔨

• Architecture design
• Technical specifications
• Core survey engine (in progress)
• Visual builder
• Offline capabilities
• Mobile optimization

🛠️ Tech Stack

Backend: R, Quarto, Shiny, PostgreSQL
Frontend: React, TypeScript
Mobile: Progressive Web App (PWA)
Database: PostgreSQL (Supabase or self-hosted)

📦 Quick Start

Try the Demo (5 minutes)

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/gondamol/nomadforms.git
cd nomadforms

# 2. Install R packages
R -e 'install.packages(c("shiny", "DBI", "RPostgres", "jsonlite", "htmltools"))'

# 3. Run the demo
cd examples/demo-survey
quarto preview survey.qmd

See: TESTING.md for detailed testing instructions including mobile testing.

Current Features (Phase 1 - 40% Complete)

✅ Working Now:

• 7 question types (text, numeric, radio, checkbox, select, slider, textarea)
• Mobile-responsive design (works on phones, tablets, desktops)
• Touch-optimized controls (44px minimum touch targets)
• Field validation (required fields, ranges, types)
• Success/error notifications
• Session tracking

⏸️ Coming Soon:

• Database persistence (PostgreSQL/Supabase)
• Offline capability (PWA + IndexedDB)
• Visual survey builder
• REDCap codebook import
• Data export (Stata, SPSS, R)

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! This project is in early development.

Interested in:

• Beta Testing: Try early versions
• Development: R/Shiny, React/TypeScript, PostgreSQL
• Documentation: Translations, tutorials
• Funding: Support development

Contact: [your-email@example.com]

📖 Documentation

Documentation will be added as features are implemented

🎓 Based On

Built on surveydown by Pingfan Hu, Bogdan Bunea, and John Paul Helveston.

Hu P, Bunea B, Helveston J (2025). "surveydown: An open-source, markdown-based platform for programmable and reproducible surveys." PLOS One, 20(8). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0331002

📄 License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details

🔗 Links

• GitHub: https://github.com/gondamol/nomadforms
• Surveydown: https://surveydown.org

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Status: 🔨 Active Development
Next Milestone: Core survey engine
Target Launch: Q4 2026

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Mobile-first surveys for researchers on the move 📱🌍