Over the past couple of years, the implementation team at HISP Centre has built a set of small tools for DHIS2 system administrators. Each one does a specific maintenance job that is tedious or hard to do in the core apps. Examples are finding data dimensions nobody uses, cleaning stray spaces out of metadata names, disabling accounts of users who have been inactive for a long time, cleaning up duplicate translations and validating program rules.
Starting today, we will introduce one tool per week here on the CoP. Each post explains the problem the tool addresses, shows how it works, and links to the download.
The first one that was out was: the Data Dimension Disabler Tool helps you find data dimensions nobody uses and disable them, so they stop taking up time and space in every analytics run.
You can find the full list in the replies below or by checking the tag page: admin-tool-weekly
Who these are for
These tools are meant for the handful of people who administer a DHIS2 instance, not for end users. That is also why we call them tools rather than apps, and why they are not on the App Hub:
- They are installed like any other app, from a
.zipin the App Management app. - They have not been through the same testing as the core apps.
- Several of them change metadata in bulk, which is the whole point, but it also means they can do a lot of damage if used carelessly.
Always try these tools in a test or staging instance of DHIS2 first, and make sure you have a recent backup first if using one in production.
Where to find them
All tools are open source and live in the dhis2-utils organisation on GitHub. Each repository has a README that explains what the tool does, which DHIS2 versions it supports and which authorities it needs. Releases are on each repository’s Releases page.
Follow the series
Each weekly post will be tagged admin-tool-weekly. To get a notification when an admin tool is published, click the subscribe link below. We will also add a link to each new post as a reply to this topic, so following this topic works too.
Click here to receive notifications for #admin-tool-weekly topics: 
We would love to hear how you use the tools, what does not work in your setup, and what other admin tasks you would like help with. Reply here or in the weekly topics.
