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Automate /Command Line

Automate using command line

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    How to Automate Exports

    Automating exports by using AskiaTools via batch scripts can be a very useful process and save you a lot of time. Here are a few steps that will explain how this can be done . . .

    Firstly create a batch (text ansi) file with the extension .bat (eg ''myjob.bat").

    1. Reference the AskiaTools executable

    Insert an initial command line with:

    Tools.exe     (or)   "C:\Program Files (x86)\Askia\tools.exe"

    2. Add the metadata source path

    "C:\my directory\My Qes File.qes"

    3. Add the connection mode

    • Using ccawebapi / live surveys  (from 5.4.9)
    /url:"https://MyServer/CcaWebAPI" 
    /username:"Supervisor"               (Supervisor askiafield username)
    /password:"Supervisor pwd"           (Supervisor askiafield password) 
    /surveyid:xxx                        (xxx => Askiafield ID survey)
    • Use a SQL query string
    /surveyconnection:"Provider=SQLOLEDB.1;Data Source=127.0.0.1;Initial Catalog=Surveys;Persist Security Info=False;UID=XXX;PWD=xxx" 
    /surveyid:xxx

    4. Add the case data source path

    /type:0                               (qes)
    /type:1                               (SQL legacy format)
    /type:2                               (inverted data format)
    /type:3                               (SQL new format)
    /type:4                               (data stored in webinterviews SQL database)
    /type:5                               (ccawebapi)

    Add the webinterviews SQL table used when exporting data from Webinterviews, if

    /type:4 /webtable:"Surveyname in askiafield"

    5. Add the export format

    At least one of the following  options is required 

    /completes                          (To export all completed interviews)
    /incompletes                            (To export incompleted intrerviews also)
    • To fixed length ASCII data 
     /Exportfixedlength /completes /incompletes /datafile:"c:\my directory\File.asc"

    NB: this format requires to set first a data map definition:mceclip1.png

    • To delimited ASCII data

    We recommend that you specify the /closedtype export and /reapeatmultipleseparator , if you want to export the same number of multiple response separators . . .

    /closetype:1 (order)
    /closetype:2 (caption)
    /closetype:3 (entry codes)
    /closetype:4 (entry codes as numeric) and/ Reape
    /exportdelimited /sepquestion:; /sepresponse:, /closedtype:3 /repeatmultipleseparator /completes /incompletes /datafile:"c:\my directory\File.txt"
    • To SPSS .SAV
    /exportsav /completes /incompletes /datafile:"c:\my directory\File.sav"
    • To Triple-S 
    /exporttriples /generate /completes /incompletes /datafile:"c:\my directory\File.sss"
    • To multimedia files
    /exportmultimedia /completes /incompletes /datafile:"??shortcut????id??" /directory:"c:\my directory" /questions:"q1;q2"

    . . .  where "q1;q2" are the open-ended questions, where the multimedia files are stored/

     

    6. Add selected questions

    Select questions using their shortcut

    /questions:"^i2_Age^;^i1_gender^"

     Select questions based on their properties

    • Using /questionselection (from v 5.6.0)
    /questionselection:"(CurrentQuestion.Type has {\"open\";\"datetime\"} )"
    • Using tags "Demog" + "LifeStyle" and open-ended with anonymised question
    /questionselection:"(CurrentQuestion.Tags Has {\"Demog\";\"LifeStyle\"} or CurrentQuestion.Type = \"open\") And (CurrentQuestion.IsAnonymised = False)"
    • Add a filter 
    /additionalfilter:"i1_Gender = 1"
    • Add a new data column on-the-fly (from 5.4.9.4)

    You can add as many columns as you wish using the following syntax.

    /addcolumn:"Male:^i1_Gender^ has {1}" /addcolumn:"Female:^i1_Gender^ has {2}"

    7. Examples

    • Export fixed length ASCII data from a QES file
    Tools.exe "C:\my directory\My Qes File.qes" /Exportfixedlength /completes /incompletes /datafile:"c:\my directory\File.asc"
    • Export delimited ASCII data from a QES file
    Tools.exe "C:\my directory\My Qes File.qes" /exportdelimited /completes /sepquestion:; /sepresponse:, /datafile:"c:\my directory\File.asc"
    • Export delimited ASCII data stored in SQL
    Tools.exe "C:\my directory\My Qes File.qes" /exportdelimited /completes /sepquestion:; /sepresponse:, /type:1 /surveyconnection:"Provider=SQLOLEDB.1;Data Source=127.0.0.1;Initial Catalog=Surveys;Persist Security Info=False;UID=XXX;PWD=xxx" /surveyid:xxx  /datafile:"c:\folder\data.txt" /logfile:"c:\folder\log.txt"
    • Export delimited ASCII data stored in inverted files
    Tools.exe "C:\my directory\My Qes File.qes" /type:2 /exportdelimited /completes /sepquestion:; /sepresponse:, /datafile:"c:\my directory\File.asc"
    • Export .SAV from a QES
    Tools.exe "C:\my directory\My Qes File.qes" /exportsav /completes /datafile:"c:\my directory\File.sav"
    • Export Triple-S from a QES
    Tools.exe "C:\my directory\My Qes File.qes" /exporttriples /generate /completes /datafile:"c:\my directory\File.sss"
    • Export multimedia files 
    Tools.exe "C:\my directory\My Qes File.qes" /exportmultimedia /completes /datafile:"??shortcut????id??" /directory:"c:\my directory" /questions:"q1;q2"

    • Export .SAV excluding questions (from version 5.4.8)  
    Tools.exe "C:\my directory\My Qes File.qes" /exportsav /datafile:"C:\my directory\Output.sav /excludequestions:"Q1;Q2;Q3"
    • Export delimited ASCII from a live survey (from version 5.4.9)
    Tools.exe /url:"http://ServerName/CcaWebApi" /username:"Supervisor" /password:"pwd" /surveyId:11 /exportdelimited /datafile:"c:\Qes\IhisOut.txt" /completes

    To discover more options for the AskiaTools command line, see here.

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