Hi Folks,
I'm working on a data collection / analysis application. I need some advice.
I'm pretty sure I can use normal Drupal forms to collect the data, but when it comes to analyzing, I'm not sure that normal forms is the way to go. I have NO idea how that data would be structured in the database.
So, am I better off figuring out how:
1. to explore the data as stored by Drupal 2. to make Drupal store the data in the form I like
It will not be simply statistics; the questions will be part of what is collected; questions will be posed by participants and answers given and we need to make sense of all of it. We will need to record who poses which questions, and we are interested in comparing profiles of both posed questions and answers, so you can see it can't be reduced to summary math like averages and standard deviations.
How should I approach this?
Chris.
916.799.9461
If you are a planning to do custom programming on your own then I think that custom database tables and custom queries and views integration would be the way to go.
If you are not planning to do custom programming on your own then content types, node references, views and views export should work for you.
I am assuming that you are going to do the analysis outside of the system in say libreoffice spreadsheets.
Thanks
*Anoop John* Chief Technology Officer
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On Fri, Nov 15, 2013 at 4:24 AM, Chris Miller cjm@tryx.org wrote:
Hi Folks,
I'm working on a data collection / analysis application. I need some advice.
I'm pretty sure I can use normal Drupal forms to collect the data, but when it comes to analyzing, I'm not sure that normal forms is the way to go. I have NO idea how that data would be structured in the database.
So, am I better off figuring out how:
- to explore the data as stored by Drupal
- to make Drupal store the data in the form I like
It will not be simply statistics; the questions will be part of what is collected; questions will be posed by participants and answers given and we need to make sense of all of it. We will need to record who poses which questions, and we are interested in comparing profiles of both posed questions and answers, so you can see it can't be reduced to summary math like averages and standard deviations.
How should I approach this?
Chris.
916.799.9461
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From: "Anoop John" anoop.john@zyxware.com To: support@drupal.org Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2013 3:06:56 PM Subject: Re: [support] Data collection and analysis
If you are a planning to do custom programming on your own then I think that custom database tables and custom queries and views integration would be the way to go.
Yes. I write code, so this confirms that there is reason to investigate this approach further.
I am assuming that you are going to do the analysis outside of the system in say libreoffice spreadsheets.
There will not be "spreadsheet" kinds of analysis. The problem is to analyze the questions and compare the answer profile of one group with the answer profile of another. We're interested in presenting how A compared with B in five categories {A posed, B answered}, {A answered, B posed}, {A answered, B answered}, {A answered, B ignored}, {A ignored, B answered}, so you see it is messy stuff. The first problem is to identify the five sets of questions. There is also a question authoring component which seeks to identify and match duplicates. It just gets messier and messier. I'm trying to reduce the messiness as much as I can, so using the least messy design in Drupal is important.
Thanks for the help,
Chris.
I have a report writing module that might be of interest to your project:
http://drupal.org/project/forena
If your SQL skills are up to snuff, then it might make some of the work lighter for you.
I have done some of this in the past using web forms, including some fairly complicated analysis, but it sounds like you want more than web forms will realistically offer. Building a custom app with a custom data structure seems most straightforward, along with some statistical tables.
From: support-bounces@drupal.org [mailto:support-bounces@drupal.org] On Behalf Of Chris Miller Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2013 3:27 PM To: support@drupal.org Subject: Re: [support] Data collection and analysis
From: "Anoop John" <anoop.john@zyxware.commailto:anoop.john@zyxware.com> To: support@drupal.orgmailto:support@drupal.org Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2013 3:06:56 PM Subject: Re: [support] Data collection and analysis
If you are a planning to do custom programming on your own then I think that custom database tables and custom queries and views integration would be the way to go. Yes. I write code, so this confirms that there is reason to investigate this approach further.
I am assuming that you are going to do the analysis outside of the system in say libreoffice spreadsheets. There will not be "spreadsheet" kinds of analysis. The problem is to analyze the questions and compare the answer profile of one group with the answer profile of another. We're interested in presenting how A compared with B in five categories {A posed, B answered}, {A answered, B posed}, {A answered, B answered}, {A answered, B ignored}, {A ignored, B answered}, so you see it is messy stuff. The first problem is to identify the five sets of questions. There is also a question authoring component which seeks to identify and match duplicates. It just gets messier and messier. I'm trying to reduce the messiness as much as I can, so using the least messy design in Drupal is important.
Thanks for the help,
Chris.
-
Anoop John -
Chris Miller -
Metzler, David