Hi Michael,
I presume you mean how each question in each survey gets a new number
restarting from zero? or how does the question in the response link up the
question wording?
I thought point out that I used simple ::IN numbering fields, on each of the
panels except the Response Instance panel, just to make it quicker and more
obvious. Normally I would use the Ralph Alvy autonumbering system of which I
am greatly indebted...
In the STR on each child panel I have a G9::H field initialised to the value
"1" for each record on create. That Keeps a Total back to a counter on the
parent panel. from the counter I have a Panel Link pointing back the other
way. On the child record add "1" to the value in the Keep a Total Target to
get the next question number, in either the creation of the question
wording, or in the user responding to the survey.
I start with a Parent SurveyMaster table with a Survey ID.
Then on the survey creation side I have a Question Wording Table which
includes includes the SurveyID and Question Number, plus the above numbering
to generate each question number.
On filling in side I have a Response Table, with its own ID, and a child of
that being the Response Instance panel. In the Response instance I use the
Survey ID, and another instance of the above numbering system. So for each
question the user is answering the Survey ID and a question number exist.
From this I can have a DataLink bypassing the parent, directly to the
Question Wording Panel, and then displayed the Question Wording using
SurveyID-QuestionNumber data link When the questions run out, ie their is no
more question wordings to link it displays a message thanking them for
completing the the survey and asks them press F7 to exit.
That structure is pretty basic, but the real value comes into the fact that
during analysis, you do not have the to worry about the hundreds of fields
used in the cross tabulation for results that have been suggest you watch
out for. You can do any analysis, with a very simple report, and the survey
can be from one to any number of questions, without making the report any
more complex. Since DP has Average and StdDev formula, you can provide
numerical weighting for question, eg 0 for no, 1 for yes, 5-for Strongly
agree, 1-for strongly Disagree for Likert scaling, or for reverse Likert (ie
5 for Strongly Disagree to 1 for Strongly Agree)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Likert and create an averaging, which together
with tabulations, and StdDev will give you details about the spread of the
results. By the way a tip for the simple cross tabbing, is to create a
virtual subreport link to each question, and doing the cross tabs average
and standard deviation, separately for each question.
(As an aside, the reason you would use both likert and reverse likert, is so
that you can group opposites, for instance I could ask agreement with the
statement, "I liked xyz", and then later you could ask as a control the
opposite, "I disliked xyz", as a reverse likert, so you can group them
together as an average value rather and know that your
It may seem unwieldy having each response to each question as a separate
record, because when you do the maths it can look bad. I know when I first
wrote my first surveying module, I tried the multiple question per record, a
panel-ful of questions, and although easy to code, was totally inflexible
and hard to report from. When I looked that each survey might be of 2000 or
so students, and there might be 25 questions, on each, the thought that I
would have 50,000 response instance records,(if I broke it up to such
granularity; this seemed daunting, but ultimate very fast and very easy.
That database was written first in Access 97 and then Access 2000, and
performed over 10000 surveys (each with different question wording) of an
average of 14 question, responded to by an average of 120 students, (ie over
15 million instance records), and the reporting of anyone of survey in
single user mode (including generating of graphics) takes less than 5
seconds.
Other than the control of the interface the same methodology could be used
with DP.
Good luck
Brian
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Iannantuoni" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Dataperfect Mailing List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 9:19 PM
Subject: [Dataperf] Questionnaire/Survey with DataPerfect
Hi Brian,
I am obviously missing something but I can't quite figure out how your
question numbering system works in the STR you sent me - any further
explanation appreciated.
Best wishes,
Michael
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