Dimensions Component Pack 3.

5 ReadMe

Last update 25th July 2006, for SPSS 15.

Installing Dimensions Component Pack 3.5

For information about installing the Dimensions Component Pack 3.5, see the Dimensions
Component Pack Installation Instructions. You can view these by selecting Installation
Instructions from the Dimensions Component Pack Installer window.
If the Dimensions Component Pack Installer window does not open automatically when you insert
the CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, you can open it manually. There are two ways to do this.
Browse the CD-ROM using Windows Explorer and double click the autoplay.exe file. Alternatively,
choose Run from the Windows Start menu, and then enter d:\autoplay in the Run dialog box,
where d:\ is the CD-ROM drive.

Documentation
The documentation for the Dimensions Component Pack is provided in the Dimensions
Development Library (DDL) 3.5, which is available on the Dimensions Component Pack CD-ROM
and as a free download from http://www.spss.com/DDL/. You may want to check the download
site from time to time, because a new version of the DDL sometimes becomes available between
releases of the Dimensions Component Pack itself. The DDL includes information on using the
Dimensions Component Pack, a Getting Started guide for data management scripting, table
scripting tutorials, and numerous sample scripts.
Viewing Documentation on a Remote Server
Recent security updates for Microsoft Windows may prevent you from viewing the Dimensions
Component Pack Installation Instructions or the DDL if they are located on a remote server. You
may find that the help window opens with an empty topic pane or that the topic pane contains the
message “The page cannot be displayed”. To resolve this problem, copy the files
DCP_Installation_Guide.chm and DDL.chm to the local machine and open the files from
there. For more information about this issue, see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/892675/ and
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896054/.

Issues Resolved by Dimensions Component Pack 3.5

This section lists all issues resolved since the release of Dimensions 3.1 Patch 1. For information
about the issues that were resolved by Dimensions 3.1 patch 1, see the ReadMe.doc file that was
distributed with the patch.
Data Management Scripting
31728
Versions were being removed from the input metadata document (.mdd) file when using the
UseInputAsOutput option in a DMS script. After running the script, the updated metadata
document no longer contained any versions. This has now been resolved.
33314
The time taken to access items in the Questions collection has been significantly reduced.
35420
A Debug.Log() statement has been added to the error handler of 21 sample DMS scripts in the

Page 1 of 9
DDL. This is to ensure that error messages are displayed in the mrStudio Output pane or in the
console when using mrScriptCL.
35621
Instead of displaying an error message, the Question.Response.Coded property now returns Null
if the question does not have a codes list.
35799
Data management scripts no longer fail when the input data source contains an unbounded loop
or a flattened loop that is not expanded. However, these types of loops are excluded from the
Questions collection.
Table Scripting Option
9833, 32284, 34188
You can now add an effective base element to a variable's axis expression, using the
effectivebase() syntax.
19666
The PowerPoint export now has the option to attach a different template to your PowerPoint
slides as you export them.
21078, 31801
You can now display the column IDs shown in statistical test results when you export charts to
PowerPoint and Word.
21453
It is now possible to create an axis based on all cases in the variable. This enables you to create
an axis expression that is not based on an existing variable.
23462, 27841, 30136
You can now add mode, median and percentile elements to a table.
26226
You can now request an additional statistical test, the net difference test, using mrStudio Tables
option.
32719
Error messages now include both line and column information to make it easier to find an error in
axis expressions that continue over multiple lines. Together with the support for breaking scripts
across multiple lines added to the Data Model in release 3.1, this means that you can now create
script lines that split an axis expression across multiple lines.
33294
You can now display the series bases in the chart legend when you export charts to Excel, HTML,
PowerPoint, or Word.
34218, 34264
You can now sort tables in ascending as well as descending order using the Table Scripting
option.
34255, 34256
You can now request an additional statistical test, Fisher’s Exact test, using the Table Scripting
option.

Page 2 of 9
34257, 34258
When you apply a column proportions or column means test to a table, you can now optionally
display a column showing the lowest p value found for each row using the Table Scripting option.
34259, 34260
You can now hide rows or columns on tables based on the value of a single row or column using
the Table Scripting option.
34261, 34262
When you apply a column means test to a table, you can now add a least significant difference
column to the table to indicate the smallest difference between columns that would be significant
in a group of columns using the Table Scripting option.
34343
The Table Object Model now works without a CDSC and supports use of the null CDSC. If no
CDSC is specified then TOM uses the datasource specified in the metadata by the
MdmDoc.DataSources.Current property.
34658
It is now possible to display annotations on a chart in the PowerPoint export.
35317
It is now possible to create a TOM element from an MDM element, using the syntax: Set Element
= Elements.AddNewFromMdmVariable(NewElementName, MdmVariableName,
MdmElementName).
35327
When exporting to HTML using the interactive option, choosing No at the prompt to overwrite an
existing document was ignored and the existing document was overwritten. This has now been
resolved.
36002
In the previous release, incorrect column percentages were displayed for derived elements if
absolutes were not printed before the percentages. This has now been resolved.To be completed.
Dimensions Data Model
26375
MDM2Quantum now exports factor values to Quantum specifications.
28089
In the Format function, rounding problems that were affecting numeric style codes such as
Currency, Percent, and ScientificUpper, have been resolved.
33107
MDM2Quantum now correctly allocates Punch and Col Offset values when you set a starting
column for a multiple response question and have selected the setting to explode multipunched
questions.
34048
The Quanvert DSC no longer reads as NULL the data of a variable defined in a Quantum
specification as a weight matrix with factors and that includes varname (for example, "wm1
q1;varname=Sex;factor;50;50").

Page 3 of 9
34579
The Replace function now accepts a text response as the Val, Key or Replacement argument.
Previously, text responses had to be converted to text (using the CText function) to be accepted.
34605
For single-response and non-categorical variables, MDM2Quantum no longer checks that the
punch values assigned to categories are included in the punch mask. This change has been
made to support metadata generated by the QDI/DRS DSC, which for special responses, may
contain the punches “&”, “-“, and “{“.
34799
The Quanvert DSC now issues an informative error message when loading a Quanvert levels
project that contains a variable with the same name as one of the sub-levels.
34811
MDM2Quantum no longer issues a “Type mismatch” error message when exporting a quantum
specification for metadata that contains a grid.
34876
The problem that caused the In2data DSC to read only part of the metadata in some In2data
databases has been resolved.
34941
The metadata model (MDM) now correctly processes the values of the RepeatHeader and
RepeatSideHeader style properties when both are specified for a question in mrScriptMetadata.
34995
The MDM now returns the correct range expression for a superversion of a single-response and
multiple-response categorical variable when the range expression for the multiple-response
categorical variable contained an undefined minimum or maximum value.
35097
A Debug.Log() statement has been added to the error handler of 21 sample .mrs scripts in the
DDL. This is to ensure that error messages are displayed in the mrStudio Output pane or in the
console when using mrScriptCL.
35123
The DataCollection.MetadataVersion system variable is now returning sub versions correctly.
35207, 35389
Translations of system variable category labels for some languages have been corrected.

Known Problems
Installation
30192
The Interview Option in mrStudio no longer works after installing DCP on the same
computer. The DCP installation overwrites the Windows registry entry that contains the location
of the mrStudio license folder with the location of the DCP license folder. This means that
mrStudio can no longer locate the license information for the Interview Option. To resolve this
problem, modify the registry entry
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SPSS\mrStudio\<versionnumber>\mrStudioLicens
eDir so that the value is the path to the mrStudio 3.1 installation folder, which by default is
C:\Documents and Settings\<your Windows user name>\Application

Page 4 of 9
Data\SPSS\mrStudio\<versionnumber>. Then restart mrStudio.

Data Management Scripting

(no reference number)
Data Link Properties dialog box sometimes creates the “mrOleDB.Provider.2” Provider
connection property without the trailing ".2". When using the Data Link Properties dialog box
to select data sources and generate a connection string, either by double-clicking on a .udl file, or
from within WinDMSRun, the Provider connection property may sometimes be created as
mrOleDB.Provider instead of mrOleDB.Provider.2. However, this does not appear to lead to
any problems.
(no reference number)
Working with SPSS .sav files. mrStudio 3.1 provides only limited support for running multiple
exports to the same .sav file and for .sav files that contain Japanese characters. For further
information, please refer to the topics entitled “Transferring Data From SPSS” and “Transferring
Data To SPSS” in the mrStudio Data Management Scripting section of the Dimensions
Development Library.
11800, 12832
Empty Metadata and Event sections. Running a DMS file that contains an empty Metadata or
Event section leads to the error "Error extracting section body, section is empty". To avoid this
problem, do not create empty sections.
12785
No records selected for a transfer. If there are no rows selected by the WHERE clause in the
input select query, the following unhelpful message is generated: "Error: Rowset.Read -
MoveFirst, Message: Either BOF or EOF is True, or the current record has been deleted.
Requested operation requires a current record."
13121
Logging fails when the logging folder contains Japanese characters. If the folder specified
for the log file contains Japanese characters, the folder is created but the log file is not created.
However, this problem does not occur if you are using a Japanese version of Windows. To avoid
this problem, do not use Japanese characters in the logging folder if you are not using a
Japanese version of Windows.
23599, 23719
The MsPowerPointChartsFromQuanvert.dms sample script fails to run. The error message
is “Execute Error(8): The 'Presentations' type does not support the 'Add' method and a function of
the same name does not exist”. To avoid this problem, do not run this script on a computer with
less than 256Mb of memory.
27144
The message “Undefined variable, ‘_’ ” is displayed when using line-continuation
characters. This may indicate that you have one or more spaces following a line-continuation
character (_). Ensure that you have no spaces after line-continuation characters.
27243
Double quotation marks within connection strings are ignored when the script is run. An
error will occur if a parameter value quoted by double quotation marks contains semicolons. This
bug does not apply to mrScriptBasic scripts as they correctly handle double quotation marks
within connection strings. To resolve this problem, use single quotation marks to quote parameter
values in connection strings.

Page 5 of 9
31249
When debugging a DMS script that contains an Include file, mrStudio stops at lines in the
Include file that don’t have breakpoints. This may happen if you have set breakpoints in the
main file. To resolve this problem, press Ctrl+Shift+F9 to clear all breakpoints in the script and
then press F5 to continue execution.
Table Scripting Option
Exporting Charts to Word
When you use the option to export charts to Word, the Word Export component creates the charts
using Excel. This requires that Word has been installed with the option to embed Excel charts
enabled. If this option is not enabled, exports of charts to Word will fail.
You can tell whether this option is enabled as follows:
1. Open a new document in Word.
2. From the Insert menu, choose Object.
3. From the list of object types, select Microsoft Excel Chart.
4. Click OK.
If this fails, it generally means that the option is not enabled and you will need to install the option
before you can export charts to Word.
Other Export Problems
16249
Limitations in Internet Explorer 6 mean that the HTML Export component cannot handle any
tables that have more than 1000 columns.
18681
In the table of contents created by the HTML Export component, the Filter column does not
indicate the level of the filters.
20078
Unfortunately, Studio does not supply a suitable filename extension for the exported output when
the user does not specify one.
20323
Exports to Word will fail if the specified output file is open. This problem is most likely to arise if
you attempt to repeat an export to the same output file without closing it first.
23599, 23719
The MsPowerPointChartsFromQuanvert.dms export sample will not work on a computer with less
than 256MB of RAM.
General Tables Problems
11653, 15373, 16882
Text-only elements on the top axis. When text-only elements are used on the top axis of a
table, they are displayed as an empty column. You can work around this problem by not using
text-only elements on the top of the table. When variables have these elements built in, you can
remove them from the table specification when necessary.
18219
When rules are defined to hide rows or columns in a table that contains nesting, the rules for
hiding entire columns and rows are applied to the sections of the table formed from the element

Page 6 of 9
of the outermost variable. Suppose you have a rule to hide all columns in which all of the values
are zero in a table of counts that has Gender nested within Age on the top axis. If there are no
female respondents for any of the age groups, the nested Female column will not be hidden if
there are any Male respondents for that age group. If there are no respondents of either gender in
an age group, the entire age group will be hidden.
18298, 18307
Problems sorting a nested table. This problem has been seen in a table that has nesting on the
top axis and in which sorting has been requested on a row. The table was not sorted and no error
message was issues to alert you to this.
18732, 19132
Hide rule problems. When a hide rule results in the first cell of a column being hidden, the entire
column is always hidden. Sometimes this may apply to all of the non-base columns in a table,
and then all of those columns will be hidden.
18939
Annotations for the statistical tests. The annotations for the column means and column
proportions statistical tests do not include information about whether the effective base and/or the
overlap adjustment have been used.
19405
Unweighted base elements not removed when weighting is removed. By default, an
unweighted base element is added to all weighted tables. However, if you subsequently remove
the weighting from the tables these unweighted base elements are not removed.

Dimensions Data Model

28537, 34061, 35843
When writing to a .sav file, the SPSS SAV DSC does not correctly handle accented or
multibyte characters in field names. This problem will be fixed in a future version of the Data
Model.
32992
The QDI/DRS DSC reads .qdi files as lines instead of tokens. For .qdi files that contain split
lines, this may result in missing metadata.
32650, 35915, 35935, 35936
Using custom connection properties and .ini file settings with the QDI/DRS DSC. You may
find that these settings do not work as described in the DDL topic “Custom Connection Properties
Used by QDI/DRS DSC”. Please follow this advice:
 Always specify properties in upper case. For example, the BaseLang property must be
specified as BASELANG.
 The IgnoreBlankResps and IncludeNoData properties do not work as described and
should not be used.
 The CodedSize property will work as described only if specified in a .ini file.
33238, 33683, 35835
DM Query does not display multibyte category names correctly. This problem will be fixed in
a future version of the Data Model.
33320
Wordcapture accepts fraction symbols in question names. Fraction symbols such as ½ are

Page 7 of 9
accepted by Wordcapture, but these characters do not comply with the rules for fields names in
the Data Model. In your Word document, make sure that question names do not contain fraction
symbols.
33485, 33798
Unmodified .mdd file increases in size each time it is saved. For example, a .mdd file created
by WordCapture, used in mrPaper, and opened in mrStudio to add a Web routing context will
increase in size by 100 to 200 Kb each time that it is saved. To resolve this problem, use MDM
Explorer to clone the .mdd file and use the clone file instead of the original file.
34940
The superversion of a categorical question is incorrect when the categories are replaced
with a defined list. A problem can occur when a question’s categories are replaced with a
defined list whose categories have the same names as the question’s original categories. When
any version or superversion of the metadata is used for the connection, the case data returned for
this question may be incomplete.

Page 8 of 9
Third Party Agreements
Legal Notice
Boost Software License - Version 1.0 - August 17th, 2003
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person or organization obtaining a copy of
the software and accompanying documentation covered by this license (the "Software") to use,
reproduce, display, distribute, execute, and transmit the Software, and to prepare derivative
works of the Software, and to permit third-parties to whom the Software is furnished to do so, all
subject to the following: The copyright notices in the Software and this entire statement, including
the above license grant, this restriction and the following disclaimer, must be included in all copies
of the Software, in whole or in part, and all derivative works of the Software, unless such copies
or derivative works are solely in the form of machine-executable object code generated by a
source language processor.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT
SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS OR ANYONE DISTRIBUTING THE SOFTWARE BE
LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT OR
OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR
THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Copyright © 2004–2006 SPSS Ltd. All rights reserved.

Page 9 of 9