The Sample Reporting metadata source component (MDSC) is a read-only MDSC that reads a project's Sample and HistoryTable tables and creates derived categorical variables corresponding to the columns in those tables. You can use these variables with the Table Object Model (TOM) in UNICOM Intelligence Reporter to produce reports about calling on CATI projects.

The internal name of this DSC is mrSampleReportingMDSC.

The Sample Reporting MDSC is based on the ADO and Log DSCs, with extensions to convert selected columns into categorical variables. Columns that you might convert are typically Queue, UserName (that is, the interviewer's name), and ReturnCode (that is, the value that is returned to the Sample Management script when ReturnSampleRec is called).

The values in the columns of the sample and calling history tables are not standard categorical values (they are variable length Unicode strings) but many of them will be able to be mapped as categorical values. The MDSC performs this conversion so that TOM can process the data more efficiently.

The Sample Reporting MDSC generates the metadata directly from the selected table or view. The configuration file must specify the location and name of both the Sample table and the HistoryTable table in order to create the join for the full view of the data. The columns available via VDATA will be the union of the two tables.

The categorical variables that the MDSC creates are all of the single or exclusive type. This is because a sample record can only be in one queue; and at each stage of the history of the sample record there can only be one result; and only one interviewer can modify the sample record at a particular instance. The MDSC generates these categorical values dynamically from the data in the table that it creates.

For example, a query of the form SELECT DISTINCT(Queue) FROM MySample finds the current list of distinct queues. The MDSC then sets up the variable as type categorical and adds the separate values.

The UserName field might contain characters that cannot be used in the categorical name although they can be used in the Label. An example is test\dwilliams. In these instances the AliasMap is used to generate an acceptable name.

In some situations, you might find it useful to pre-define the category values that the Sample Reporting MDSC will generate for a column. For example, you might want your TOM report to list all possible call outcomes, even when sample records do not exist for every possible value of call outcome. For more information about pre‑defining category values, see Using the Sample Reporting MDSC.