September 2010 - EpiData-list - University of Manitoba Mailing Lists

Further on first public test of new Entry Client (xml file structure) - please test and comment
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 13 Sep '10

13 Sep '10

Users are urged to test as well data definition, change in definitions and entry in files. Also please comment the development on this list. You can see more about the testing in the announcement mail sent a few days ago. The following aspects will be fixed first: a. Handling of decimal point, date and time visually b. Autojump of a field in entry. E.g. in a one digit field move to next field after entry of one digit. c. Add to the help menu a "copy system & version to clipboard" d. Handling issues of varying size of length of texts in Linux versus Windows. To ensure cross-platform of files. further comments: re a: We attempt this strategy: The user will see according to local standard (. or , for numbers, /- for dates etc.). The physical epx file will contain a given specified standard. We never use thousands separator. re c: we need this since versions will change often, and a given problem might have been fixed. But the user have currently no way of easily copying this information. Regards to all Jens Lauritsen Initiator and coordinator of EpiData Software Denmark

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Entry/Manager test
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 12 Sep '10

12 Sep '10

I successfully loaded a moderately-sized .rec file (changing all booleans to 0-1 before loading into Manager--it should prompt to do that for us). Entry handled the existing and new data as expected. I would like to have the autojump to next field when all digits are filled. I assume that this is coming. I successfully loaded a fictitious file with just under 500,000 records and 12 fields (41.8 MB .epx from an 8 MB .rec). Given the capacity of removable memory today, size really isn't a problem. I cannot imagine ever having a real file that large. On my old Windows laptop, this file loaded/saved in 20-30 seconds, but GO TO any record in the file was instantaneous. Jamie

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First public test of new Entry Client (xml file structure) - please test and comment
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 11 Sep '10

11 Sep '10

Announcement: An important development step has been reached: The first public test release of the new EpiData Data Entry Client. Since the first release of EpiData software in 1999 focus has been on data quality, stability and simplicity seen from the end users point of view. This strategy has been extended with more functionality and release of Analysis some years ago. Following the large user base resulting in download counts in several thousands as documented on the download pages - and unknown dissemination of copies to other users - an important decision was made a few years back to rewrite the whole software for the next decade. This has resulted in change to a new development environment (freepascal and Lazarus - see lazarus.org), which allows for crossplatform development based on the same source code, but also a new file structure. The EpiData XML file format "EPX" combines and replaces the current qes, chk and rec files into on physical file. It will also allow for more extensive access control at section level and compliance with so-called GCP (Good Clinical Practice) principles. The specification of the EPX format takes place in discussions with The Danish Data Archives (http://samfund.dda.dk/default-en.asp) in relation to securing compatibility with the DDI formats (see http://www.ddialliance.org/) The file structure will be fully documented. Currently you can see the principles in http://www.epidata.org/dokuwiki/doku.php/documentation:datafileformat:xml_v0 The re-written software will consist of three parts - and possibly batch processors for repetitive tasks. a. EpiData Data Manager b. EpiData DataEntry Client c. EpiData Analysis Therefore it is a crucial step in the development that users having either Linux, Macintosh or Windows operating systems can now test the new software released in as well 32 and 64bit versions for as well Manager and Data Entry Client (a+b). Users are urged to test as well data definition, change in definitions and entry for files. Also please comment the development on this list. In particular test and discuss these aspects: a. can we define all structures we would like ? - notice that in definition of data paste of text and qes like structures is possible b. is the naming of structures and aspects correct ? c. is the "feel of the software" easy to adapt to from earlier versions ? d. Also test local language formulations of data forms and entered data. In particular point c is important. We have to renew the system and principles. but would not like to loose a large number of users. Notice that the current release is NOT containing the controls in check files, but this will come later. We have a detailed development plan, which has been discussed in previous mails on this list. In the sample data base we have included 12 different local language fonts, which we can see on our monitors here, including Danish, Asian and right-left such as Arabic. The text included should say "Sample text", which we translated with an automatic translator on the web. On linux the right-left or left-right is shown correctly, but in windows all local fonts are aligned to the left border of the text field. The current test release is not for production, but only for test. But we proceed to add further functionality and more introduction documents until most of what was contained previously is available. Programming is done by Torsten Christiansen here in Denmark and specification via current functionality in EpiData Entry and Analysis, plus the discussions on this list and with the "Friends of EpiData Group", see the credit page on epidata.dk. The test version is released as a combined package of Manager plus Entry Client, but also includes the "sample.epx" file and is found on: http://www.epidata.dk/testing.php As soon as stability has been secured via your tests we will change the status from test to release with limited functionality. The time for this is not defined, but some aspects are crucial before turning to first actual release, e.g. secured timed back-up or reading of EPX files into analysis. One major change for entry is that now all data resides in memory until saved, therefore the user is asked to save project when closing. This will result in longer load times at the initiation of entry, but allows for quicker search and moves between records. Regards to all Jens Lauritsen Initiator and coordinator of EpiData Software Denmark

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When do we have open source of EpiData?
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 09 Sep '10

09 Sep '10

Hello: I want to know when we have released for the public the source code of EpiData? I see on the web page of EpiData that this initiative is part of the interesting strategy. By the way I'm using EpiData because of that, along with other reasons like the low resources of hardware demanding to execute it. Regards, -- Omar Bautista González - Coordinador de Investigación para el Desarrollo, Diseño, Monitoreo y Evaluación Visión Mundial República Dominicana - Colaborador en investigación social del movimiento del software libre en República Dominicana

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Command that Can affect Two diffrent Records
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 08 Sep '10

08 Sep '10

Hello, I have a questionnaire that i got from interviewing household members. However i was making sure that from each household i interview a male and a female respondent. You realize that some of the questions here for a household have got have the same answers eg Number of persons in the household, number of mosquito nets in the household etc. So, am inquiring to know whether there is any command i can include in my chk file to identify error between two records. I badly need your help, otherwise its so tiresome to check over 1500 records pair by pair. Thank you and regards Edson B Statistician River Blindness Elimination Program, Uganda

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