Application with many records/items

Discussions about CSEntry
Forum rules
New release: CSPro 8.0
sergiofurtado
Posts: 29
Joined: October 5th, 2019, 1:43 pm

Application with many records/items

Post by sergiofurtado »

Hello everyone!

In a preliminary study of an application where there is information about the house and its residents, containing approximately 250 records and 3,000 items, I was curious if it has any implications as to its execution, since these numbers are quite significant, although the processes (logic) are relatively simple.

Do these numbers imply functionality and application execution?

More than 90% of these items and records will be intended for some household residents. In this particular case, there will be many items with notappl values. Assuming Path Type is Operator controlled, there is a better strategy than allocating notappl values individually for each record and item - it will be very tiring - so that the operator returning a record does not trash the items it will have to fill again?

Thank you very much in advance!
josh
Posts: 2399
Joined: May 5th, 2014, 12:49 pm
Location: Washington DC

Re: Application with many records/items

Post by josh »

I haven't ever seen a CSPro application with that many records or items but we work mainly on population censuses which tend to have relatively short questionnaires. Maybe some other people on the forum have created applications of a similar size.

You can use skip to skip over parts of the questionnaire that do not apply.
sergiofurtado
Posts: 29
Joined: October 5th, 2019, 1:43 pm

Re: Application with many records/items

Post by sergiofurtado »

Hi Josh,

I understand that an application with both records and items is not common, but does CSPro have any caveats about this situation when running this application?

Regarding the use of skip, the problem is that if the user enters an item and decides to return to another record already entered previously, according to the logic of the process he can enter data of items already filled, so I considered that assigning to For these items the notappl value would be a strategy to prevent the user from coming across the values of items that have already been populated.
htuser
Posts: 631
Joined: December 19th, 2011, 6:26 pm
Location: Silver Spring Area, MD, USA

Re: Application with many records/items

Post by htuser »

Dear Sergio,
More than five years ago, we worked successfully on a very long survey : 56 pages in 8.5*14 MS Word format. Please here's an old version of the dictionary.
ECVN_PHASE_3.txt
(404.14 KiB) Downloaded 183 times
Right now, our dictionaries and programming are more standardized: Using of CAPI mode, numeric code and multilingual label etc.

So last year, when worked in a larger questionnaire (87 pages 8.5*11 in MS Word format), i was able to design an application with a menu for driven sub parts of the questionnaire as separate applications, each storing data in his CSDB files according of the logic of the main questionnaire.
a) Pregnant women;
b) Husband or male support of pregnant women;
c) Male teenager;
d) Female teenager.
e) Health facilities informations.

Supporting multiple level (more than two) applications would allow using a single data file and application...

CSPro support very long and complicated questionnaires. But until now, we're waiting for roster support on Android for better user experience (For Example, Survey Solutions support roster on Android...).

In the meantime, if Josh and Greg allow us to use block in a more convenient way: give us an option to use block as a roster
so allow block item logic to be executed normally so do reenter focus it will facilitate Roster on Android. I already discussed a lot with the Developer Team
about...

Since it was impossible to attach dcf, file, i changed the extension to txt, after downloading, you can change extension to dcf and open in the Designer.

Hope this help you,
G.VOLNY, a CSProuser from Haiti, since 2004
sergiofurtado
Posts: 29
Joined: October 5th, 2019, 1:43 pm

Re: Application with many records/items

Post by sergiofurtado »

Hello Htuser,

Thanks for sharing the experience and it sure helped me a lot.

I believe your strategy of “to design an application with a menu for driven sub parts of the questionnaire as separate application, each storing data in your CSDB files according to the logic of the questionnaire” is very interesting and I will consider it during the application development.

The questionnaire is very long but not that complicated. Many records (for example, types of food) have several repeating items that target 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 residents of a home.
josh
Posts: 2399
Joined: May 5th, 2014, 12:49 pm
Location: Washington DC

Re: Application with many records/items

Post by josh »

Regarding the use of skip, the problem is that if the user enters an item and decides to return to another record already entered previously, according to the logic of the process he can enter data of items already filled, so I considered that assigning to For these items the notappl value would be a strategy to prevent the user from coming across the values of items that have already been populated.
I'm not sure I understand what you are doing here. Are you saying that you are setting the values of fields that have data in them to notappl when the user goes back? That will delete the data in them.
sergiofurtado
Posts: 29
Joined: October 5th, 2019, 1:43 pm

Re: Application with many records/items

Post by sergiofurtado »

Hi Josh

Considering the hypothetical situation with 2 records illustrated in the figure:

1) Initially the user enters the data from registers 1 and 2 (Situation 1). (If item 1 = 4 skip item4)

2) The user then decides to return to record 1 and change item 1 from resident 1 from 1 to 4 (situation 2). In this case, using skip, items 2 and 3 are left with the values previously entered in situation 1, which is not desired (notappl).

Using code:

If item1 = 4 then
item2 = notappl;
item3 = notappl;
skip item4;
endif;

would solve the problem of items 2 and 3 when item1 = 4.

I had consulted before if there is any more practical alternative to solve this problem, especially with an application with many records and items.
Attachments
hypothetical situation
hypothetical situation
Records.JPG (62.38 KiB) Viewed 3628 times
htuser
Posts: 631
Joined: December 19th, 2011, 6:26 pm
Location: Silver Spring Area, MD, USA

Re: Application with many records/items

Post by htuser »

Hi Sergio,
In the event of pictures you have just posted, i would merge them by adding record 2 to record 1. In PDF or MS Word format, sometimes there's a limitation in a length of a roster.
CSPro Designer records doesn't have such limitations.
G.VOLNY, a CSProuser from Haiti, since 2004
josh
Posts: 2399
Joined: May 5th, 2014, 12:49 pm
Location: Washington DC

Re: Application with many records/items

Post by josh »

If you use system control mode instead of operator control mode then CSPro will automatically set all skipped items to blank (notappl) when the case is saved.

We recommend using system control mode for all CAPI applications. Operator control mode was designed for key from paper and does not give the control needed for computer aided interviews.
sergiofurtado
Posts: 29
Joined: October 5th, 2019, 1:43 pm

Re: Application with many records/items

Post by sergiofurtado »

Hi htuser

The example in the figure is illustrative only. There are numerous records and each of them has an average of 13 items.
Post Reply