quickstart.md

Quickstart

PyCap makes it very simple to interact with the data stored in your REDCap projects

First, install python-dotenv (pip install python-dotenv or poetry add python-dotenv) and create a .env file in your project root with your REDCap credentials:

REDCAP_API_URL=https://redcap.example.edu/api/
REDCAP_API_KEY=SomeSuperSecretAPIKeyThatNobodyElseShouldHave

Then update your code to load the values from the environment:

from dotenv import load_dotenv
import os
from redcap import Project

load_dotenv()  # Load variables from .env file

api_url = os.getenv('REDCAP_API_URL')
api_key = os.getenv('REDCAP_API_KEY')
project = Project(api_url, api_key)

Export all the data

data = project.export_records()

Import all the data

to_import = [{'record': 'foo', 'test_score': 'bar'}]
response = project.import_records(to_import)

Import a file

fname = 'something_to_upload.txt'
with open(fname, 'r') as fobj:
    project.import_file('1', 'file', fname, fobj)

Export a file

content, headers = project.export_file('1', 'file')
with open(headers['name'], 'wb') as fobj:
    fobj.write(content)

Delete a file

try:
    project.delete_file('1', 'file')
except redcap.RedcapError:
    # Throws this if file wasn't successfully deleted
    pass
except ValueError:
    # You screwed up and gave it a bad field name, etc
    pass

Export a PDF file of all instruments (blank)

content, _headers = project.export_pdf()
with open('all_instruments_blank.pdf', 'wb') as fobj:
    fobj.write(content)