Merge Tags

Summary

This article contains information about merge tags and their use in label template designs for ClinSpark.

What is a Merge Tag?

A merge tag is a script used to obtain data from various places in the application, for the purposes of generating that data onto a printed label.

Can I add my own Merge Tag?

Foundry Health ‘Superadmin’ users are able to add & modify merge tags. That said, ClinSpark comes pre-loaded with a default set of merge tags that should cover most needs.

If a new or updated merge tag is needed, customers need to open a ticket on the service desk with a specification for change. The following information must be provided in the ticket for the ‘specification’ to be provided to engineering.

Annotated screenshot of the data in ClinSpark - a full context screenshot must be provided that highlights and/or annotates the specific data in ClinSpark. Foundry Health must be able to identify which component the data is in. At a minimum, all of the following are required to engineering for implementation:
ClinSpark component - where in the application does this data live, how do we find it? (e.g. Study > Subjects or Administration > General Settings > Specimen Containers)
Datafield name - what is the prompt text for the variable of interest? (e.g. “Volunteer Details - Health - Substance use” or provide the item reference)
Datafield definition - what does the data represent? (e.g. “subject identifier”)
Full URL to data - if available, please provide the link that contains the unique identifier for the data you’re interested in pulling. To do this, locate the data and, if it is clickable, right click and copy the link address.

If you’re able to provide a link like this one, it implicitly contains all the previous information.

Any conditional logic required - merge tags are scripts, so it’s possible to use conditions (e.g. “Return the Screening Number if one exists, and if not return the volunteer’s upcoming Appointment Number if it exists, else return nothing”)

Note: if conditional logic is required, please include all of the information above for each datafield you’d like to include in the conditional statement. Screenshots of everything along with the URLs is best.

Which Merge Tags are already available in my environment?

You can download a list of all existing and available merge tags in ClinSpark from Barcode Printing > Manage > Actions > Reference.

Why are there different template types?

Label template types define which objects are available to the template on the back-end. This translates to defining what information is accessible by the merge tags. For example, Item type templates have direct access to different parts of the application than User type templates do.

The naming convention for merge tags is to have the template type prefix the merge tag (e.g. there are DEVICE_BARCODE, SUBJECT_BARCODE, ITEM_BARCODE).

If you do not select the correct label template type upon importing into ClinSpark, the merge tags will fail to grab data and ClinSpark will think you’ve used an unsupported merge tag. The template type is the context in which the merge tags function. If you have questions about which type is appropriate for the template you’re designing, please open a service desk ticket for assistance.

Merge tags not yet supported

For now, the ‘SubjectVolImage’ merge tag is not yet supported for use. It’s purpose is to provide the ability to for designers to place a dynamic image of the volunteer onto a label template, for example a subject wristband.

On our development roadmap is a request to fully support dynamic volunteer images to be included as part of label designs. However, this will likely require an update to the ClinSpark Agent. Once implemented and supported, this page will be updated with further details. If there are questions about this merge tag or designing labels with dynamic volunteer images, customers should reach out via service desk ticket.