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Forsta Visualizations supports Triple-S data format. The Triple-S import requires two files, a XML file with meta data and a ACS file with case data, the files need to be compressed to one zip file (.rar is not supported). The same features and logic are applied when importing Triple-S data as are currently applied to SPSS (.sav) imports.
- Browse to search and select the file. New metadata and case data are selected by default.
- The data and metadata are imported when a user clicks the ‘Import’ button. The loading bar shows the progress on Importing data.
- The loading bar is shown while importing data and the Data is imported to the project. Once the process is completed you will then see there are two new options that are available, Import another file and Activate data. Once you select Import another file, then the import page will be show again. When you select ‘Activate data,’ you will be redirected to the activate data page.
Here are the data format requirements when using Triple S data file:
- The data file must be of “Fixed width”, Triple-s files in CSV format is not supported.
- Multiple choice questions can either be binary or categorical in the imported file.
- If the imported Triple-S file contains multiple languages the first language in the file will be used.
- In the Triple-S standard a third file showing hierarchical structure between groups exist, this file is not supported, instead the hierarchical structure is defined within Forsta Visualizations.
- In the Triple-S standard the values (answer alternative codes) can be alphanumeric, Forsta Visualizations only supports numeric values.
- All case data in categorical variables that have no corresponding value labels in the meta data will automatically be deleted during import and not considered in any calculations
- All variable texts, value label texts and variable type (Single choice, Multiple choice, Numeric and String) are picked from the imported XML file.
- Text can be updated within Forsta Visualizations
- Question type cannot be updated within Forsta Visualizations
- All values/value labels in the XML files will be imported to Forsta Visualizations, even the standard codes like 99999998 and 99999999 which are used as Missing values in Triple-S standard.
- On the import screen the user can select to exclude those variables in the import to get correct base sizes in the calculations if those values should not be considered.
In addition to the above requirements the imported file must contain three standards variables Respondent ID, Response date and Weight.
- A unique respondent ID (a Numeric variable with the Name “RespondentID”)
- A response date (a Date/Time variable with the Name “Responsedate”)
- A respondent weight (a Numeric variable with the Name “Weight”)
If the file does not contain one or several of the three variables above the Metadata Transformation Tool can be used for creating those variables. If the date/time variable is a string variable in the imported XML files a new feature in the Meta-data Transformation Tool can convert string to date. On the import screen you can select between SPSS or Triple-S import in the drop down list to the most left, default value is SPSS .SAV. The rest of the import works the same as when using .sav imports (browse, upload, import, confirm)