+------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | QUESTIONNAIRE PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE | | Version 4.1 | | Kevin Dooley | | | | U.S General Accounting Office | | February 2, 2000 | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ QPL VERSION 4.1 UPDATE This version of the Questionnaire Programming Language (QPL) has been modified to correct Y2K-related issues. No new features have been added. While it remains an MS-DOS, character-based system, the programs will run under the Windows 95, 98, or NT4 operating systems. The QPL programs do not, however, recognize the long file names that can be used with these new operating systems. You must continue to use the short (i.e., "8.3") filenames when launching the programs from a "MS-DOS Window" command line or from a Windows desktop shortcut "Target" command line. The programs also do not respond to mouse clicks. XDATE Question Type Increased From 6 to 8-Digit Field The XDATE question type automatically stores the current date in a field without showing the question to the interviewer. Previously, it stored the date in YYMMDD format. The QPL programs would automatically insert the leading "19" when performing internal date arithmetic. Now, the current date is stored in YYYYMMDD format so no conversions are necessary. (Note: The Windows 95, 98, and NT4 operating systems all return the date on the computer's clock using the full four digits for the year. Earlier versions of the MS-DOS operating system have not been tested.) Existing QPL Questionnaires Must Be Recompiled Changing the field size of the XDATE question also causes an incompatibility between the data records produced with an earlier QPL version and this version. Since the record layouts produced by the different versions will not be the same (if they used any XDATE questions), existing questionnaires must be recompiled before they will run with the new programs. Existing data sets also will not be compatible with the new compiled programs (if an XDATE question was used) because of the record layout change. You should be careful to keep the old and new data sets separate and then later use SPSS or SAS to concatenate the system files together (after doing some programming to "correct" the old XDATE formats). Use LDATE Question Type to Enter Dates The DATE question type, which is displayed to the interviewer, still stores dates in YYMMDD format and automatically inserts the century "19" when performing internal date arithmetic. You should instead use the LDATE question type, which is also displayed to the interviewer but stores a date in YYYYMMDD format. (Note: The LDATE question type existed in Version 4.0.) CONVERT SPSS Date Field Correction The CONVERT Version 4.1 program was re-released on January 27, 2000 to correct an error that occurs when creating SPSS files with date components (i.e., the year, month, and day) defined as separate fields. Previously, CONVERT would not define the column location for the year field for XDATE and LDATE questions. This problem has been corrected. QPL VERSION 4.0 UPDATE (April 1996) This version of the Questionnaire Programming Language (QPL) software corrects a number of minor errors in the Version 3.x software and manuals, improves some functions, and updates the data conversions. It also adds a network version of the COLLECT program, called NCOLLECT, and a program called MONITOR that you can use with NCOLLECT to remotely monitor your interviewers' progress. The QPL language also has been expanded. Several new keywords have been added to support the new network capabilities. Because of this, you MUST recompile your Version 3.x QPL source programs with the Version 4.0 COMPILE program before using any of the other QPL programs. Your 3.x programs should recompile without any changes. Your data files will not be affected by this change. You may use the same data files with 3.x and 4.0 programs without any changes. See appendix II, QPL Reference Manual, for a complete list of all of these changes. USING QPL ON A LOCAL AREA NETWORK The new QPL program, NCOLLECT, allows you to let two or more interviewers use the same QPL questionnaire, data file, and control list file at the same time. The ability to share these files can greatly simplify the setup and administration of telephone interviews when many interviewers are being used. In the discussion of the program below, the term "interviewer" has been used generically to describe the person who uses your finished questionnaire program. In your actual situation, you may have "respondents" acting as their own interviewer if they use the software themselves, or a "keypuncher" may be the interviewer if they are using your program to enter information from written documents. The NCOLLECT program only differs from the COLLECT program by being specially designed to allow simultaneous access to the same data files. (Note: The descriptions of the COLLECT program in the "QPL Reference Manual" and the "QPL Data Collection" manuals also now apply to the new NCOLLECT program.) If you are using a control file list, for example, the NCOLLECT program allows you to keep the list in one file in a central location on the network rather than splitting it up on different disks for each interviewer. It also keeps track of which interviews are being conducted by each interviewer, insuring that two different interviewers do not attempt to make the same call. You do not have to do anything special in your QPL questionnaire program to use the NCOLLECT program. In fact, you may perform some interviews on a non-LAN PC using the COLLECT program while doing others on a LAN PC with NCOLLECT without changing your QPL program. The data files created by both programs are compatible and may be merged together later using the DOS COPY command. YOU SHOULD NOT USE ANY OF THE OTHER QPL PROGRAMS TO ACCESS THE DATA FILE WHILE IT IS IN A SHARED DIRECTORY ON YOUR NETWORK FILE SERVER. The other programs are not designed to share files. Using one of these programs while interviewers are using the NCOLLECT program could prevent them from being able to save their data. You should, for example, copy the data files to another non-shared directory before using the KEYPUNCH program to edit or print the contents of an interview or before using SPSS software to analyze the data. See chapter 10 in the QPL Reference Manual for information on how to install the NCOLLECT program for multiple-users on a network. NCOLLECT Command Line Options Usage: NCOLLECT filename[.QPL] [/B] [/C] [/D#] [/E] [/H] [/O#] [/P#] [/R] [/T] [/U] [/Wname] [/X#] [/Z] Options: /B Set screen colors to black and white /C Use first available control file case /D Maximum control cases to display (def. 50) /E Set error beep off /H Display command line options /O# Set OPTION keyword number /P# Enter password number (range 1 to 32767) /Q Do not display question number line /R Do not restart interview /T Do not show program title /U Set uppercase control off /Wname Set workstation name /X# Set file access retry time (default 10 sec.) /Z Do not ask network for workstation name Notes: The QPL file name must be specified at the command line. Do not type the brackets. They only indicate optional information. How NCOLLECT Keeps Track of Which Interviews Are Being Conducted The NCOLLECT program keeps track of which interviewer is working on which case by using catalog and journal files. These files are created automatically by the NCOLLECT program. They will have the same name as your questionnaire program, but will have CAT and JRN extensions to identify them. The catalog file is checked each time an interviewer starts a new interview. It is used to make sure that a particular case is not currently being worked on by another interviewer (if a control list file is being used) or that the same interviewer already has a case checked out (according the interviewer's workstation identification name). If a case is not already checked out, the NCOLLECT program will make an entry in the file to indicate that this interviewer will be using it. When an interviewer finishes working on a case, the NCOLLECT program will remove this entry from the catalog file. If you are using a control file list to keep track of what cases the interviews may enter, the NCOLLECT program will also check to see which cases have not been completed, according to how you programmed the SHOWIF command. The journal file lists every instance that an interviewer checked a case in and out. It lists the interviewer's workstation ID, the control file case number (if used), and the starting and ending time for each interview. The journal file is not used to control which cases the interviewers may use. Its only purpose is let you use this information to trace any problems that may occur during the administration of a survey. (The JRN file may be safely deleted at any time without affecting the operation of your project. You may also want to delete when it becomes very large in order to speed up the time it takes the NCOLLECT program to check in cases.) Viewing the Contents of the Catalog and Journal Files Using the MONITOR Program Both the catalog and journal files are in a binary format, which means that you should not attempt to view their contents using the DOS TYPE or EDIT commands, or by loading the files into your word processor. (Doing so may also cause file sharing problems for interviewers who are currently working on cases.) You may, however, view the contents using the MONITOR.EXE utility program that has been included on the QPL Master Program Disk. Usage: MONITOR filename[.QPL] [/B] [/D#] [/H] [/T] Options: /B Set screen to black and white /D# Maximum number cases displayed (default 100) /H Display command line options /T Do not show program title The MONITOR program is interactive, using menus similar to the KEYPUNCH and CONVERT programs. The main screen displays all of your interviewers' attempts to complete cases. Each line indicates the name of the interviewer, the case they are working on, and when they started and finished. The cases are listed beginning with the most recent cases. Any cases listed in bold at the top of the screen are currently in progress. Analyzing or Editing the Data Collected in the Shared Directory YOU SHOULD NOT ATTEMPT TO EDIT OR ANALYZE THE DATA FILES IN YOUR SHARED DIRECTORY. The QPL KEYPUNCH and CONVERT programs are not designed to share files. Using them while your interviewers are still adding records to the data files could cause file sharing errors and the possible loss of data. Instead, you should copy the data (DAT) and QPL questionnaire files to another non-shared directory. Then you may safely edit this copy or analyze it using SPSS or SAS. You should always check the status of the catalog file (CAT) before copying data files to and from the shared directory. If the CAT file has a file size of zero, then no cases are currently in use. You should not change the data files when any cases are being used. Trouble Shooting See chapter 10, QPL Reference Manual. Also, enclosed is a short program called SQUASH.EXE, which can be useful when moving the data file from a shared directory on a server to a private directory for analysis. Often you will want to delete the data file on the shared directory to prevent accidentally duplicating cases on your private analysis directory. Instead of actually deleting the data file (using the DEL or ERASE DOS commands), you can use the SQUASH program to reduce the data file's size to zero bytes. This is handy because SQUASHing will preserve the file attributes you set using the Novell FLAG command. That is, if you delete a file, you will need to reFLAG the file SRW after it has been recreated when a new interview has been saved. SQUASHing, on the other hand, preserves these attributes while still "deleting" the data.