Copyright 2004, SPSS Inc. 1 Using the SPSS MR Data Model Sam Winstanley Solution Architect - SPSS 21 st January 2004

Copyright 2004, SPSS Inc. 2 Why Develop the MR Data Model  Amalgamation of companies leads to the following  More file formats  More expertise  More arguments  As SPSS developers we needed a common way for our tools to communicate  Many tools had capabilities to export data to similar targets

Copyright 2004, SPSS Inc. 3 Why Develop the MR Data Model  Generally those who define a data-format understand it better than everybody else  Technology used in the MR industry was dated when compared with mainstream technology  MR tools were poorly integrated with mainstream tools

Copyright 2004, SPSS Inc. 4 A Designed Approach to Data Access SPSS MR Data Model Survey Authoring Data Collection Data Processing Data Analysis Metadata DSCs Case Data DSCs Function Libraries Metadata DSCs Metadata DSCs Case Data DSCs Function Libraries Metadata Storage Case Data Storage Data Storage A Data Storage B Data Storage C Data Storage D

Copyright 2004, SPSS Inc. 5 MR Data Model Version 1.0 Development started January 1999  Case data model was conceived to be a standard way of representing MR data via an OLE-DB interface  The concept of DSCs was invented  Writing DSCs was a complicated process that required extensive knowledge of C++  First implementation of mrRdb (SQL Server) DSC was written. We got most things wrong  Metadata model was conceived to be a rich COM based object model working over XML storage  Common metadata throughout authoring, collection, processing and analysis was the main priority

Copyright 2004, SPSS Inc. 6 MR Data Model Version 2.0 Development started mid 2000  CDSC Interface completely re-designed  A design guide of approximately 120 pages emerged  CDSC Implementation greatly simplified  Wide scale reuse of common code through shared components  Ability to write CDSCs in many languages  MDSC Interface conceived  Many performance and stability enhancements  Support for multiple versions of Metadata  Multi-language support enhanced

Copyright 2004, SPSS Inc. 7 Today – MR Data Model  Support for hierarchical data  Extended version of SQL for querying hierarchical data.  HDATA table exists and is defined as a table of tables of data.  10 DSCs included (9 Data Formats).  Many DSCs heavily optimised for performance.  > 80 Functions.  DDL contains >600 Data Model specific pages.  Script based metadata definition.  mrStudio development environment.

Copyright 2004, SPSS Inc. 8 Future – Data Model 3.x  Support for unbound hierarchical data via HDATA.  More DSCs.  Many new functions.  New interviewing system running directly from Metadata.

Copyright 2004, SPSS Inc. 9 Using the Data Model  Use existing tools e.g. Excel to access MR data  Purchase tools from SPSS and other suppliers  Write tools that use the Data Model to access data  Write DSCs to enable tools to access other types of data

Copyright 2004, SPSS Inc. 10 MR Data Model Benefits  Tools that utilise the MR Data Model for data access gain the following benefits  No custom data access code  Automatic access to data in many different formats  A rich set of functions for working with case data  A rich environment for working with metadata

Copyright 2004, SPSS Inc. 11 MR Data Model Benefits  Writing a DSC for your data format provides the following benefits  Cleaner integration with tools developed elsewhere  The ability to transfer your data into many other formats  Easier access to your own data!

Copyright 2004, SPSS Inc. 12 MR Data Model Benefits  Organisations who adopt the MR Data Model gain the following benefits  Modern and flexible skill sets  Develop product-specific tools and focus development on your domain expertise, not on reading and writing data files

Copyright 2004, SPSS Inc. 13 Closing Summary  The MR Data Model  Has been in development for 5 years over 25 releases  Not an emerging technology, it has arrived and is being used for production work every day  Is the basis for Dimensions  SPSS is committed to continued development