Processing a wave that requires coding
Each wave that requires coding is processed as follows:
▪IBM SPSS Text Analytics for Surveys or another coding tool is used to code open-ended responses into categories and export the coded data to IBM SPSS Statistics(.sav) file.
▪A data management script is used to merge the coded data with the original (live) UNICOM Intelligence Interviewer - Server data and create a separate database for reporting purposes. The data management script will also add weights to the merged data. The new database is called the Wave database, as it contains data for the current wave only.
There is an additional step if more than one coder is working on your survey: all coded data must be brought together into a single file (by running another data management script) before it is merged with the original UNICOM Intelligence Interviewer - Server data.
Depending on your reporting requirements, you can perform the process once at the end of each wave or, if your waves consist of more than one data collection, you can perform the process at the end of each data collection.
See:
Processing a wave using IBM SPSS Text Analytics for Surveys
2 When the IBM SPSS Text Analytics for Surveys “Select Variables” dialog opens, select Respondent.Serial as the Unique ID.
3 Select the open-ended texts that you want to code and create categories for them. Then export the coded data to a .sav file. For more information about these tasks, see the IBM SPSS Text Analytics for Surveys documentation.
If you select a text question that also includes special-response categories such as “Don't Know” and “Refuse to Answer”, the process of merging the coded data with the original text variable means that the case data for those special responses will be missing from the Wave and Report databases.
Processing a wave using other coding tools
1 To use an coding tool other than IBM SPSS Text Analytics for Surveys, see
Using other coding tools for more information about creating the required
.sav file.
Editing the files
1 If your coded data has been exported to more than one .sav file (because more than one coder is working on your survey), edit the data management script called TrackingStudy-MergeSAVFiles.dms so that it contains one InputDataSource section for each .sav file. Then run the script to merge the files into a single .sav file.
The default location for the scripts referred to in this section is this folder:
[INSTALL_FOLDER]\IBM\SPSS\DataCollection\7\DDL\Scripts\Data Management\DMS
2 Edit the #define statements in script TrackingStudy-Settings.mrs, as follows:
MyWaveNumber
The number of the current wave. You must set this to 1 for the first wave.
UsingSameLiveDatabase
If the current wave has been collected in the same UNICOM Intelligence Interviewer - Server database (that is, the same UNICOM Intelligence Interviewer - Server project) as the previous wave, set this to True. Otherwise, set this to False. This setting is ignored for the first wave.
INTDB
The name of the UNICOM Intelligence Interviewer - Server database that contains the live data.
INTDBMDD
The metadata document (.mdd) file associated with the UNICOM Intelligence Interviewer - Server database.
INTDBSRVR
The database server hosting the UNICOM Intelligence Interviewer - Server database.
SAVFILE
The name of the .sav file exported by IBM SPSS Text Analytics for Surveys or another coding tool, excluding the “.sav” extension. If you ran the script TrackingStudy-MergeSAVFiles.dms in step 4, enter the name of the .sav file output by that script.
WAVDB
The name of the Wave database.
WAVDBMDD
The metadata document (.mdd) file that will be associated with the Wave database.
WAVDBSRVR
The database server that will host the Wave database.
RPTDB
The name of the Report database.
RPTDBMDD
The metadata document (.mdd) file that will be associated with the Report database.
RPTDBSRVR
The database server that will host the Report database.
ISQLPATH
The location of isql.exe (the SQL Server command prompt utility) on your system. If your are using the SQL Server client tools, the location of sqlcmd.exe on your system.
3 Run the mrScriptBasic script called TrackingStudy-CreateMDD.mrs, which will create a metadata document (.mdd) file that will be used in the next step.
4 Edit the data management script called TrackingStudy-CreateWaveDB.dms and amend both the Metadata section and the OnJobEnd event section to set up weighting as required. Then run the script, which will drop the Wave database if it already exists and then merge the coded data in the .sav file with your original (live) UNICOM Intelligence Interviewer - Server data and output the merged data to a new Wave database. (The script also adds a categorical variable called Wave to each record on the Wave database; this is intended to be of use later when the data is copied to the Report database.)
The Wave database now contains the coded and weighted data for the current wave, which might be complete or still in the data collection phase if the wave consists of more than one data collection. You can tabulate the data using UNICOM Intelligence Reporter - Survey Tabulation.
See