Naming the database server, sample database, and sample table

Use the Upload tab to name the text file, the sample database and table in which the sample should be placed, and the name of the server on which the database is located. The UNICOM Intelligence Interviewer installation procedure creates an empty Participants database that you can use if you want, or you can create a new database for this project or a group of projects. Once you have chosen the database, you can either select an existing table in that database or create a new one.

You can also use the Upload tab to specify that the Participants activity will assign a random number to each participant record, so that for telephone interviewing projects the sample management system will select the records in random order.

You cannot use a non-printing character such as a tab character as a field delimiter.

Do not store your text file in your user’s folder for the UNICOM Intelligence Interviewer project. When you load your file, Participants uses that location to save a temporary copy of your file, with the same name as your file. For security reasons, Participants later deletes the temporary copy.

4 In “Server to upload to” select the server that contains the database of participant records or on which you want to create a new database. The selection list shows the names of servers that are accessible from your current server.

If the server’s name does not appear in the list, click Enter name and enter the name of the server when prompted to do so.

5 In “Database on server for storing participant records”, select the name of the database you want to use. Participants defaults to using the same database as you used before

If you want to create a new database, click New and enter the database name. You can create a new database only if you have been assigned the Participants activity feature “Can create databases”; for more information, see Controlling access to data and features.

If you created a new database manually before opening Participants, you must give the UNICOM Intelligence Interviewer Anonymous User permission to access that database, otherwise the Participants activity can not load records into it.

Participants defaults to using a table with the same name as the project, and creates it if it does not exist. To use or create a table with a different name, click New, and then enter the table name.

If possible, create a separate table for each project. You can create a sample table that is shared by a number of projects, but you might overwrite a project’s data due to the interview serial number field being populated on one project and then being used in the second project. For example, if a record is used on project A and generates an interview with serial number 100, the number 100 is written into the Serial field. If the record is then used on Project B, the interviewing program reads the serial number for the new interview from the sample record and then creates an interview with that serial number. If there is already an interview with that serial number, its data is overwritten. To avoid this, always prepopulate the Serial field in shared sample tables.

7 To populate the SortId column on the sample table with random values, select Re-randomize all participant records. This enables the sample management system to select the records in random order. Alternatively, if your participants text file includes your own values for SortId, or you want the participant records to be selected in ID column order, or you will not be using this project for telephone interviewing, clear this checkbox. For more information, see the entry for SortId in Mapping fields to required columns in the sample table.