Features

This page provides an overview of the main features in hroot, comparing legacy workflows with the new system capabilities, and highlights the major features introduced recently.

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Table of Contents

1. Comparative Features Matrix
2. Major Recent Features

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1. Comparative Features Matrix

Area / Goal	Old (hroot 3.1)	New (hroot 4 and higher)	Advantage
Speed & Online Studies	Rigid scheduling with fixed laboratory appointments.	Direct Survey Integration: Optional immediate, asynchronous online participation. Automated checks: Track participation status, payments & backfill sessions autonomously.	Dramatically faster data collection and higher participant reach.
Payouts & Documentation	Manual Excel sheets and disconnected tracking of payments.	Banking Integration: Optional bank data storage, payment tracking, and banking software export. Cash registers: Keep track of cash payments being made in the lab.	Secure, error-free accounting and fast bulk payouts.
Multi-Channel Communication	Email-only communication.	Multi-Channel: Email, Web Push Notifications, and SMS integration.	Higher read-rates and significantly reduced no-show rates.
Budget & Cost Control	Isolated, static cost tables.	Kimai Integration & Workflows: Real-time budget tracking of Payouts and personnel costs and reporting. Budgeting: Use centralized research budgets to keep track of costs.	Full financial transparency and automated accounting preparation.
Team Organization	External coordination via emails or third-party tools.	Integrated Shift Planning: Staff availability polling, Kimai integration for Absences / Holidays, Shift Plan mailing. Integrated Task Management: Create and assign tasks to team members (optionally experiment-specific, recurring and due dates).	Seamless team coordination and responsibility tracking directly within the workspace.
Data Quality & Verification	Basic email confirmation loops with manual document verification.	Shibboleth SSO & Document Uploads: Optional Institutional login and ID verification.	Reliable prevention of fake accounts and AI-generated participants.
Centralized Administration	Scattered email threads to clarify experiment details.	Messaging History & Task Hub: Centralized notes, tasks, and participant communication logs.	A single source of truth for the entire research team.
Field Reporting	Keep track of numbers of collected participants/treatments manually (e.g. in Excel) and special occasions / anonymities. Collect additional participant data manually.	Centralized reporting: Overview of all sessions, costs, remarks, recruitment history.	Better overview, precise planning, and fewer assignment errors.
Participant Recruitment	Sending invitations manually (one per experiment).	Invitation hub: Centralized planning of invitations for multiple experiments, automatic sending. Invite for multiple experiments in one invitation at once.	Fast, streamlined scheduling.
Scalability	Manual, individual creation of sessions and payouts. Manual assignment of eligible participants to the experiment.	Batch Operations: Bulk creation of sessions and CSV-based status/payment updates. Central Dashboard: Keep track of running experiments with filling status, last invitations, Budgets, open tasks. Auto-assignment: Optional auto-assignment of new participants into experiments.	Massive time savings when managing large-scale experiments, reducing manual labor to the minimum.
Customization	Customizations made in codebase.	Extended "Settings": Customize the system according to your needs right from the interface: Custom Fields, Translations, Lab Procedures, Project Steps, Data Exports defined centrally.	Easily adapt hroot to local needs without coding.
Deployment & Tech	Manual, somewhat lengthy server setup.	Docker Environments: Fully preconfigured containers with centralized .env management.	Fast installation, easy system backups, and modern security (Rails 8).

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2. Major Recent Features

A. Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) for Admins

To protect sensitive administration panels and participant databases, hroot features administrative Two-Factor Authentication:

• Device Trust: Once verified, admins can mark their device as trusted for 90 days, eliminating the need for repeated code entries on secure machines.
• Admin Reset Utility: If an administrator is locked out (e.g., due to a lost authenticator device), other administrators can reset their 2FA settings directly from the user administration panel.

B. Comprehensive Audit Logging & Action History

Powered by the paper_trail system, hroot tracks all structural and configuration changes:

• Global Audit Trail: Accessible under System Check at /options/check, letting administrators review changes made across the system, filtered by Actor (Whodunnit) and Change Type (Item Type).
• User Detail Logs: An "Audit Log" tab is embedded in the user details page to audit participant profile edits.
• Unified Action History: The experiment message history has been expanded into the Message and Action History to record both communication logs (Email, SMS, Push) and system events.

C. Advanced Entrance Procedures

To accommodate different laboratory protocols, hroot provides unified admission methods:

1. QR-Code Admission (Check-In):
   • Participants receive QR check-in instructions.
   • Admission scanner interface handles automated check-ins and seat assignments.
   • Collects and confirms Privacy Consent at the door.
   • Automatic Push/SMS reminders are sent to participants prior to session start.
2. Online Waiting Room & Lounge:
   • Specifically built for online experiments to prevent over-recruitment issues.
   • Participants join a virtual lounge before the session starts, verify their phone/matriculation details, and confirm consent.
   • At session start, the system executes an automated, randomized draw (incorporating quota rules if enabled) to select active players.
   • Selected players swap tokens and are redirected to the external experiment platform.
   • Unselected players are marked as Showup-only (#E and #R checked) and receive the show-up fee.

D. Interactive Task Board & Timeline Views

Improving team scheduling and lab management:

• Kanban Board: Drag-and-drop workflow for staff tasks, sorted by phases, with filtering by assignee and status.
• Gantt & Timeline View: Shows experiment session ranges alongside staff task deadlines to keep the research team aligned.
• Multi-Assignee Support: The StaffTaskAssignment model allows assigning multiple personnel members to a single task.

E. Survey Sets & Participant Surveys

Streamlining online studies and participant profiling:

• Survey Sets: Administrative groups of survey questions associated with specific pools.
• Profile & Screening Surveys: Seamlessly integrated into user accounts, enrollment flows, and completion views.
• Token Lists & Resolved URLs: Allows experimenters to review tracking tokens and generated redirect links directly in enrollment and completion reports.

F. Flexible Quota Logic & Multi-Currency Support

• Flexible Comparison Operators: Quotas can now use comparison operators (=, !=, >, <, >=, <=) rather than simple equality checks, enabling complex demographic rules.
• Quota Panel & Overrides: Includes inline javascript quota row editors, quota overrides in reports, and a live quota status panel on the participant listing view.
• Multi-Currency: Central budgets and cashiers now support adjusting and defining distinct currency symbols (e.g. €, $, £) per payment type.

G. Feature Switches

To keep the administration panel clean and avoid confusion, hroot allows toggling system features globally via the Feature Switches settings tab under System & Plugins:

• Staff Tasks & Availabilities: Activates the internal shift planning, helper availability registration, and task assignment boards.
• Kimai Integration: Enables syncing project budgets and laboratory assistant timesheets with Kimai.
• Usability Status (V-Status): Adds scientific usability flags to participants' session records.
• Cash Registers: Enables physical cash boxes, denominations counting, and daily close deviation checks.
• Banking & Advances: Activates SEPA XML exporting and cash advances tracking.
• Matriculation Verification: Enables student enrollment document uploads and verification workflows.
• Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): Enforces TOTP-based multi-factor authentication for administrators and banking admins.

Disabling any of these switches automatically hides their associated navigation links, tabs, and widgets across the entire system.