Many implementers who have previously been using “O2”, also known as the OpenMRS 2 RefApp, have their previous forms encoded as HTML Form Entry (“HFE”) Forms.
This can feel intimidating especially if you have many (e.g. dozens!) of HTML-encoded forms which you need to move over to the O3 form schema, which is in JSON.
The good news is, implementers have several options to help them in their transition from HFE:
Schema Converter Script: This script contributed by community members helps you convert HTML forms into the O3 JSON schema, or at least gets you ~50% of the way there, so you at least have the skeleton of your usual HFE forms more automatically. Then from there you can finish filling them out using the O3 schema.
GitHub repo for the Conversion Tool: https://github.com/openmrs/hfe-o3-form-schema-converter
Video recording from 2023 with a helpful, early-days deep-dive into this HFE to O3 Schema migration tool:
https://iu.mediaspace.kaltura.com/media/t/1_vdwpylj0?st=371 ; and accompanying Talk thread here.
Note: this Conversion tool was originally written with a focus on converting forms to the early-days O3 Forms engine which was an Angular-based tool. The React Form Engine with O3 forms now use has a few specific schema deviations which as of July 2024 may not yet be 100% accounted for by the Conversion Tool.
Frankenstein Model: Since both O3 and O2 share the same database, you can actually allow your users to switch from the O3 interface to the O2 one. Some implementers do this to allow for a more gradual transition from O2 to O3, such as when a team in Kenya used the O3 Appointment and Queues features, but still used their previous O2 UI (with HFE forms) for patient care. This allowed them to get started with O3 without having to first transition all their forms.
Open HFE Forms in a new modal: Some work done by community members allows O3 systems to open forms in HFE view in a new tab, outside of the O3 UI. Read more here: https://talk.openmrs.org/t/o3-support-for-html-form-entry-in-3-x/35797/8