OpenMRS Platform Roadmap: 2025

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We’re excited to start planning the OpenMRS Platform 2025 roadmap. We’re currently focusing few key features

Enabling Horizontal Scaling in OpenMRS

Aiming to enhance the platform’s scalability to support large-scale implementations and growing workloads better.

  • Introducing a New Storage Service: Developing an abstract layer to provide a way for both the core platform and modules to manage files. This will replace the current practice of writing files directly to the application directory.

  • Make OpenMRS CORE and O3 modules use distributed caching.

  • Switch to Hibernate Search using OpenSearch as a backend instead of a local Lucene index.

Support for the Newer Java LTS Version

Support for Java 17 was introduced in Platform 2.7.0, we aim to ensure compatibility with Java 21 while continuing support for Java 11. However, support for Java 8 may be deprecated with these updates.

Archiving voided data:

OpenMRS uses voiding to mark data as invalid without deleting it, enabling easy restoration. However, this leads to tables becoming bloated with voided data over time. A proposed solution is to archive voided data while maintaining the option to restore it.

Improve support to Multitenancy

We currently use the Data Filter Module to support some multitenancy use cases. To enhance its capabilities, we should extend support for additional uncovered use cases. If you know any specific unmet requirements, please share them with us!

We’d love to hear your thoughts! Are there any features or enhancements you’d like to see included in the roadmap? Your feedback is invaluable in shaping the future of OpenMRS.

Thank you.

@Mekom @PIH @AMPATH @BandaHealth @OHRI @PalladiumKenya @ICRC @ICAPEthiopia @Intellisoft @Jembi @METS @SolDevelo @UCSF @UWash @Brown @dev3 @dev4 @dev5

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Thank you @wikumc . Could this be the best opportunity to design Offline Capability:

  • Objective: Enable OpenMRS to function in low-connectivity or no-connectivity environments.
  • Details:
    • Implement local storage solutions to allow data entry and retrieval offline.
    • Design automated synchronization mechanisms to merge offline data with the central server when connectivity is restored.
    • Ensure conflict resolution and data integrity during synchronization.
    • Build offline-compatible user workflows, including patient registration, visit notes, and reporting.
    • Leverage progressive web application (PWA) technology or mobile apps for enhanced offline capabilities.
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The roadmap is fantastic. I specifically like to idea to support horizontal scaling as that’s a real deal now that implementations have gone facility-wide. Support for newer java version is a great idea. We noted a greater perfomance boost when we upgraded to java 11 from java 8 and I am pretty sure the latest versions of java will provide even much more. Lastly, freeing of space by archiving voided data is a step in the right direction. Thanks so much team.

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I’d also like to suggest that we look into actually implementing the Time Zone Conventions from 2021.

I think concretely:

  • Migrate datetimes to timestamps
  • We should have a GP or runtime property that controls whether or not times existing times should be interpreted as UTC or local time.
  • We should update the REST and FHIR APIs to properly interpret dates and times based on that.
  • We should, wherever feasible, update the REST API to accept dates and times represented as ISO-8601 datetime stamps.
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Thank you so much @wikumc for kicking off this very important thread!

A frequent request we have is “My users really want to save their forms in Draft. It’s really upsetting for them when they lose their work when the connection goes down or if they need to switch to a different task when they were halfway through a massive form.”

Could Saving Forms in Draft be part of the 2025 Backend Roadmap?