What is NLM Form Builder?

NLM Form Builder is an open source web application to create and edit a FHIR Questionnaire resource. The application creates input forms supporting medical terminologies such as LOINC and SNOMED. This tool is written in the Angular framework and is developed by the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications (LHNCBC), National Library of Medicine (NLM), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It includes a preview of the generated form using LHC-Forms widget.

Licensing and Copyright Notice

See LICENSE.md.

Customizing and Contributing

If you wish to revise this package, the following steps will allow you install and to make changes and test them.

Installation

Note: The application is developed on a Linux platform. Therefore, the following instructions are for those who are familiar with Linux systems.

1. Install Node.js:

• Ensure that you install a version of Node.js that is compatible with the application. You can check the required version in the bashrc.formbuilder file included in the root of the project folder.
• You can use a version manager like nvm (Node Version Manager) to install Node.js:

  curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.1/install.sh | bash
  source ~/.bashrc
  nvm install <version>
  nvm use <version>

2. Clone the repository:

• Clone the repository from GitHub and navigate to its directory:

  git clone https://github.com/LHNCBC/formbuilder-lhcforms.git
  cd formbuilder-lhcforms

3. Install dependencies:

• Run the following command to install the necessary dependencies:

  npm ci

4. Build the application:

• Run the build command to create the build files in the ./dist folder:

  npm run build

5. Start the development server:

• To start the development server, run:

  npm run start

• Navigate to the provided local development server URL (this is usually http://localhost:9030).

  OR

• If you need to access the dev server from a different machine, use:

  npm run start-public

6. Run tests:

• To run the unit tests and end-to-end (e2e) tests, use the following command:

  npm run test

Contributing

• If you plan to contribute new functionality, it is important to coordinate with the maintainers to ensure proper integration and to avoid duplicating efforts. Reach out to the maintainers for guidance on contributing.

If you encounter any issues during the installation or setup process, consult the project's documentation or reach out to the maintainers for further assistance.

Application Programming Interface (API)

The form builder is an application. However, it is possible to control it via JavaScript from another web page. Refer to API.md for documentation.