VisualDTA Coding Help

 

File format

The file uploaded to the tool needs to be a TAB-delimited text file. The easiest way to create the file is to download the Excel template, add the coding, and save the file (Save As...) as TAB-delimited.

The first row of the file must contain the column names so the system knows what information is in what column. Each row below the title row will be a data row and each column must have a value. Enter a "NA" (without the quotes) if no data is available for that column.

 

File Columns

The file has four required columns ("Proposition", "Reponds To", "Relation Type", and "Distance") and three optional columns ("Speaker", "Dotted Line", and "Description"). Those seven columns will be recognized by the system and they are treated in special ways. See the descriptions below.

Additional columns may be added to code additional attributes, such as Gender, Role, etc. Any columns that are not recognized as one of the known seven options ( "Proposition", "Reponds To", "Relation Type", "Distance", "Speaker", "Dotted Line", and "Description") will be treated as attributes.

 

Proposition

This is the unique identifier for the proposition. The identifier may contain numbers or text. This is required and must not be a "NA".

 

Speaker

This is an identifier for the speaker. It may be any text or "NA". This column is optional.

 

Responds To

This is the proposition identifier that this proposition is in reply to. It may be a valid proposition identifier or "NA" if this proposition is not in reply to another proposition.

 

Relation Type

This is the relation type of the proposition. It may be "NA" for the first proposition or one of the following:

Type	Meaning
T	On Topic
P	Parallel Shift
B	Break
M	Meta Talk
E	Explanation

 

Distance

The distance is the semantic distance from the message replied to. On topic propositions are a distance of 0. Breaks are distance 4, and shifts are 1, 2, or 3. This is required to be a 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4.

 

Dotted line

This indicates whether or not the reply to line is drawn as a dotted line or a solid line. A dotted line would be used to indicate a tenuous relationship. A 1 indicates that the line back to the proposition replied to is dotted. A 0 indicates that the line should be solid. This is required to be a 1 or 0. If this column is not included then all lines will be solid.

 

Description

A text description used to reference back to the content of the proposition in the original message. May be a "NA". This column is optional.