Saving a Draft version of a Recode
mTABWeb fully supports workgroup sharing of mTAB resources such as saved tabs, user defined questions and recodes. To augment this functionality, mTABWeb provides for saving a "draft" or working version of a recode. If you are responsible for maintaining recodes that are used by others within your organization, pay close attention to the remainder of this page!
Why save a draft recode?
If you are making changes to an existing recode that may take some time and require checking, then you will want to save a draft version of the recode. Saving a draft version will allow you to take your time and make the changes to the recode while the existing recode remains unchanged and accessible to your mTAB workgroup teammates.
Imagine that you are tasked with updating a complicated product segmentation recode for a new mTAB database release. Even with mTAB's automap feature MORE>>>, it may take a few hours to categorize the new products exposed by the new database into the appropriate (new label) segments. By using a draft recode, you can save and develop a working or draft version of the recode while the original version remains "on line". Once you have completed editing the draft version, you can commit the draft version as the master version, thereby updating the original recode in a single step.
Saving the Draft Recode
If the shared recode was saved with a password you will be prompted to supply the password before you can edit the recode. Please note that it is a good idea to use a password when saving an important recode that will be shared by a large workgroup as this will ensure that the recode can be edited by a few. The password can be set using the mTAB recode editor Options, Password menu items, or by using the toolbar tool with the padlock icon.
Upon editing the group recode, immediately save a draft version of the recode using the mTAB recode editor File, Save As Draft menu items as shown in the image below.
You can now take your time and edit the recode as required. For example, you can save a partially completed draft recode and complete the remaining work at a later time. As you save your work, you will be prompted to save the recode privately or to your workgroup, just as you would with any recode. If you are solely responsible for maintaining this recode, save the draft version privately to avoid one of your workgroup teammates from accidentally selecting the draft version of the recode.
Once you have saved your draft recode, the recode editor will signify the DRAFT version by including the word DRAFT in red letters within the recode editor dialog. Further, as shown in the image below, the question selection view and Topics/Questions menu will add the suffix text "(Draft)" to your recode question text to allow you to distinquish between the original and draft versions of the recode.
A convenient way to check recodes
After finalizing the recode, you can conveniently check your recode mappings using the recode editor's File Export to Spreadsheet (XLS) menu items. Selecting these options will produce an Excel spreadsheet file of the new labels and each table and question that the recode's new labels are "mapped" to. Use Excel's sorting to reorder the question mappings to simplify checking. If changes are required, you will need to make the changes using mTAB's recode editor.
Finalizing or "promoting" the draft recode back to the master copy
Once you have completed editing the recode and checking the mappings, you can now save the draft recode as the master copy, which will immediately make the new recode definition available to everyone within your workgroup by using the File, Save As Master Copy menu commands. The Save As Master Copy step will immediately remove the draft version of the recode. Please note the addition of the red "DRAFT" designation as shown above, signifying that we are currently working with the draft version of the recode, which would be displayed just prior to selecting the menu commands File, Save As Master Copy.
