Advanced Application Settings

Owned by Amelia Sagoff (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Apr 21, 2024 by Gillian Javetski
4 min read

On the "Settings" page (accessed by clicking the gear icon  and selecting the Advanced Settings tab) in the app builder, you will see a variety of advanced settings. Many of them are only accessible through clicking the list icon button to the right of the "saved"/"save" button at the top of the page. Each setting configures the mobile application in a different way. After you update settings for your app, you have to make a new version, for the settings to take effect.  Please note that with the exception of "Android Settings / Web Apps Logo", only "Basic" settings apply to Web Apps.

Data and Sharing (Basic)

Case Sharing

Whether to enable the sharing of cases between groups of users. Learn more at

Web App 

Whether to enable the web-based version of the application. Learn more at

Build Settings

CommCare Version

The minimum CommCare version mobile users are required to have on their devices to be able to install the application. This is also true for application updates, user’s won’t be able to update any apps if the app update targets a higher CommCare version then what is already installed on their mobile device; they will need to update CommCare via the Google Play store first in order to update the app. The setting is especially useful when your application starts using a recently released CommCare feature and you want your users to be able to use said feature.  This setting can also act as a great forcing function for users to update CommCare to the latest version.

Auto Update Frequency

How frequently the app should check for updates made to the applications.  It will look for the latest released version of your application.

Unsent Form Limit

The number of unsent forms you can have on the phone before highlighting the number of unsent forms in red warning text 

Multimedia Validation

Whether to require that all multimedia files be present on the phone before starting a newly-installed application.  Note that this validation will not run if the application remotely updates. 

Auto-Sync Frequency

How often the application should automatically sync with the server.

Unsynced Time Limit

How long the application can go without syncing with the server before highlighting the sync message in red warning text 

Android Settings

Days for Review

For how long completed forms remain in the Saved menu before they are erased from the phone.

Saved Forms

Enable / Disable the setting for saved forms. Once a form has been completed CommCare, it is then saved on the device in an encrypted format so it can be reviewed in a read only format in the future.

Incomplete Forms

Enable / Disable the settings for incomplete forms, which are forms that have been started but not finished. Note: If a project space uses Web Apps, enabling Incomplete Forms for any application will also enable it for Web Apps.

Auto-resize Images

Several different options for how CommCare resizes images to fit on the device screen

Auto Capture Location

Application will automatically capture GPS coordinates in forms without the user having to do anything. More info here:

Login Duration

Length of time after which you will be logged out automatically

Home Screen & Logo Settings

Allows you to upload your own image to be displayed across the top of the Home Screen

Allows you to upload your own image to be displayed across the login screen

Allows you to upload your own image to be displayed on the home screen of Web Apps

Fuzzy search is an improved case list search tool. It can help find cases based on the values of properties that are close to, but do not exactly match the search terms. For example, if you are searching for Christy, you could type Chrsty, or Kristy, or Christine and still find Christy. 

When a field in the Case List is included in the list of Sort Fields in the case list in CommCare HQ, fuzzy matching is enabled.  For more information on setting up fields to sort by see Case List and Case Detail Configuration.

You should expect that in CommCare mobile when you have a field that is applicable for fuzzy matching that after you type more than 3 characters CommCare should identify words that are very close to whatever is typed into the search box. Exact matches are shown in green, while fuzzy matches are in yellow.

How to Configure Fuzzy Search

It is active by default and can be turned off by going to Application Settings → Advanced Settings → Android Settings section. Fuzzy search is available in CommCare for Android on versions 2.15 and higher, for applications built in CommCare version 2.15 or higher.

As noted above you must include the case property you want to use fuzzy search for in your Case List and Case Detail Configuration.

Notes

  • This feature works for multiple languages, including those in non-Roman scripts like Hindi.

  • The fuzzy search match algorithm incorporates industry standard methods such as Levenshtein distance and diacritic normalization