ELMO

ELMO is a mobile data collection and analysis web application. Originally designed for the Carter Center for election observation missions, ELMO can be used in many different contexts for data collection.

Consider ELMO if you need:

• Integrated form design
• Standardized form sets
• Multiple data entry paths, including web, ODK Collect, and SMS
• Multiple mission/project management
• Advanced user management with multiple permission levels
• SMS broadcasting
• Custom, real-time reporting

To learn more about the history and goals of the project, visit the ELMO project site. You can also learn more about The Carter Center's Election Standards here.

Installation

For production scenarios, Sassafras Tech Collective offers managed production instances. Contact them for details. Or you can follow this guide to setup an instance on an Ubuntu server.

To setup a development environment, follow this guide.

How Do I Contribute to ELMO?

ELMO is 100% open-source. We would like you to be part of the ELMO community! We accept and encourage contributions from the public. You can start by filing a bug report or feature request using the 'Issues' feature on Github. Or contact Tom Smyth for more info.

ELMO Data Model

Contributors may find our auto-generated Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) useful. You can generate it by running rake db:migrate if adding new migrations or rake erd to run on its own. To skip running it when doing migrations run NO_DIAGRAM=1 rake db:migrate

Contributing

1. Clone the Repo

git clone https://github.com/thecartercenter/elmo.git

2. Create a New Branch

cd elmo
git checkout -b my_new_branch

3. Code

• Adhere to common conventions in the existing code
• Include tests and make sure they pass

4. Commit

• NEVER leave the commit message blank! Provide a detailed, clear, and complete description of your commit!
• If you have several commits, please make sure that they are squashed into one commit with a good summarizing commit message before pushing.

5. Update Your Branch

git checkout master
git pull --rebase

6. Fork

git remote add mine [email protected]:<username>/elmo.git

7. Push to Your Remote

git push mine new_elmo_branch

8. Issue a Pull Request

• Navigate to the ELMO repo you pushed to (e.g. https://github.com/username/elmo)
• Click "Pull Request"
• Write your branch name in the field (filled with "master" by default)
• Click "Update Commit Range"
• Verify the changes are included in the "Commits" tab
• Verify that the "Files Changed" include all your changes
• Enter details about your contribution with a meaningful title.
• Click "Send pull request"

9. Feedback

The ELMO team may request changes to your code. Learning and communication is part of the open source process!

Acknowledgements

Parts of this document are based on the Discourse Project contribution guide at https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md.