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import/export QDC and QDPX files for Qualitative Data Analysis (CAQDAS) Software, conforming to the XML-based REFI-QDA Standard (https://www.qdasoftware.org)

Project description

portableQDA

portableQDA is package for import/export of information according to REFI-QDA Standard:

  • Codebooks (QDC files)
  • Projects (QDPX files, not yet implemented)

Exchange formats QDC and QDPX are:

  • suitable for structured archiving of any kind of files, including:
    • personal corpus of information analysis (coding, cites, comments)
    • the source documents themselves (any arbitrary format, including office docs, PDF, html, audio)
  • well-defined and maintained by the REF-QDA working group
  • supported and developed by a growing number of participants

QDA stands for Qualitative Data Analysis, as known in social sciences. Related Wikipedia article states: “Qualitative research relies on data obtained by the researcher by first-hand observation, interviews, recordings, […]. The data are generally non-numerical. Qualitative methods include ethnography, grounded theory, discourse analysis […]. These methods have been used in sociology, anthropology, and educational research.”

Installation

# pip install portableqda

Basic usage

testing the output format

# python -m portableqda

produces an empty codebook file in your home directory, should be suitable for import by your CAQDAS software.

testing the input format

  • export a codebook from the QDA software of your choise
  • run the following script:
import portableqda
codebook = portableqda.codebookCls(output=None) #create a codebook, will export to the screen
codebook.readQdcFile(input="/path/to/your/exported.qdc")
codebook.writeQdcFile()
  • no errors should ocurr, check the output for completeness

developing

import portableqda
#look for output in system logging

codebook = portableqda.codebookCls(output="codebook_example.qdc") #create a codebook

# create 3 codes and group them in two sets
for number in range(3):
    error,errorDesc,code = codebook.createElement(elementCls=portableqda.codeCls,
                                                name=f"code{number}",
                                                sets=["set1","set2"])

codebook.writeQdcFile() # export the codebook as a REFI-QDA 1.5 compatible QDC file

Look for the file codebook_example.qdc at your home directory. You can see more of what's happening (portableQDA is a library thus not intended for direct use), inserting the following code where the comment "look for output in system logging" is, right after the import portableqda statement:

import logging
handler = logging.StreamHandler(sys.stdout)
handler.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
formatter = logging.Formatter('%(name)s - %(levelname)s - %(message)s')
handler.setFormatter(formatter)
portableqda.log.addHandler(handler)
portableqda.log.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)

Something like this will be shown:

portableqda.refi_qda - DEBUG - tree created, root node: 'CodeBook'. see REFI-QDA 1.5
portableqda.refi_qda - INFO - output is C:\Users\X\codebook_example.qdc
portableqda.refi_qda - DEBUG - added code code0 to set set1 
portableqda.refi_qda - DEBUG - added code code0 to set set2 
portableqda.refi_qda - DEBUG - added code code1 to set set1 
portableqda.refi_qda - DEBUG - added code code1 to set set2 
portableqda.refi_qda - DEBUG - added code code2 to set set1 
portableqda.refi_qda - DEBUG - added code code2 to set set2 
portableqda.refi_qda - INFO - exporting as REFI-QDC  codebook to file: C:\Users\X\codebook_example.qdc

Documentation

Contributing

Acknowledges

LMXL: portableQDA relies on the excellent lxml package for the underlying tree data structure and XML handling REFI-QDA: working group pushing interoperability and open standards

License

GNU Lesser General Public License v3 (LGPLv3)

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