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Thread: On-line Ratings - Ending the Item?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
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    3

    On-line Ratings - Ending the Item?

    I would really love to be able to use the continuous on-line ratings feature on medialab v2006. However, I cannot get even just the measure to come up, let alone anything else (movie, sound, picture) with it. When I try run anything, I get an error that reads "Run-time error '13': Type mismatch. Once I got the screen to come up, but it froze and I had to force quit out of it.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
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    401
    That's peculiar --
    Have you tried creating a questionnaire with only a single continuous on-line rating item (and nothing else)?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
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    3

    New Problem

    I actually figured out the cause of the error above (one too many parentheses in the parameters).

    Now that I can get it to run though, when the online rating item comes up, the computer freezes on that screen. I cannot continue in the experiment and sometimes, cannot even force quit the program. I literally have to shut down the computer. I tried it on a few different computers to make sure it wasn't a computer problem. There was another thread that mentioned this problem, but they did not post a solution.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
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    3,328
    Do you happen to know the link to that thread (so I can add a redirect from there to this thread)?

    Does it freeze if you simplify the que--using just say an instruction item, the online item, followed by a simple image item (for example), and then a final instruction item? This is a quick way to troubleshoot, because it tests the functions while ruling out many other potential explanations. If it still freezes using an example like this, please post that simple version of the que and I'll take a look at it and see if I can tell what's up with it.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Posts
    3
    Sure, here is the link to the other thread.

    http://www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?t=1031

    I also attached a simple file with an image. Can't get this to work either. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
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    Attached Files Attached Files

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Mopobg View Post
    Now that I can get it to run though, when the online rating item comes up, the computer freezes on that screen. I cannot continue in the experiment and sometimes, cannot even force quit the program. I literally have to shut down the computer. I tried it on a few different computers to make sure it wasn't a computer problem. There was another thread that mentioned this problem, but they did not post a solution.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

    This exact same thing is happening to me. Very frustrating. I am running v2008.1.33, and am using a *very* simple questionnaire.

    Whenever I get to the on-line rating item, the questionnaire ends, *then* the on-line rating slider appears. The slider works if you use the arrow keys, but nothing else does and MediaLab is otherwise unresponsive. And, I can't force-quit MediaLab through the Task Manager.

    What do I do? I would LOVE to be able to use the on-line rating feature.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Posts
    3,328
    Check the attached image--it's a quick sample to illustrate what the options might look like when creating an online rating item. Try creating options similar to these (e.g., using the p parameter to define the number of rating points) and then re-run the que. It may be a lack of options like this that could be causing a hold-up while the session is running. If so, let me know and I'll look into this further as a potential bug.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by jarvis24 View Post
    Check the attached image--it's a quick sample to illustrate what the options might look like when creating an online rating item. Try creating options similar to these (e.g., using the p parameter to define the number of rating points) and then re-run the que. It may be a lack of options like this that could be causing a hold-up while the session is running. If so, let me know and I'll look into this further as a potential bug.
    That's how I've had my options set up, but I still get the freezing problem.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Posts
    3,328
    What version of Windows? Can you zip and post your que and whatever other files would be necessary to replicate the problem? If it's Windows 7 or Vista, is it possible for you to try it on an XP machine to see if it's an OS related issue?

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by jarvis24 View Post
    What version of Windows? Can you zip and post your que and whatever other files would be necessary to replicate the problem? If it's Windows 7 or Vista, is it possible for you to try it on an XP machine to see if it's an OS related issue?

    Using Windows XP. I discovered today that if I have an item after the on-line rating item, the program doesn't appear to end (as it did before), but instead freezes on the on-line item.

    I'm attaching my que. It is super simple - just trying to get the on-line rating feature to work before I invest any more effort in programming.

    Do you think it would be fruitful for me to try older builds or versions? Was the on-line rating available as an item in the 2006 version?
    Attached Files Attached Files

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Posts
    3,328
    OK, I think I have some answers now. I tried one of the samples posted above (online rating of an image) and found the same result on my Windows 7 system. Then it occurred to me that the online rating was traditionally used for video files when the feature was first developed. One problem with Windows 7 though is that it created a bug for MediaLab in that movie files would not automatically go on to the next item when they finished. So we fixed that bug yesterday in a new release 2008.1.33e. In so doing, voila! using an online rating with a video works great--*because* when the video ends, ML continues on.

    So all of this is what clued me in to what's going on here in general (at least I think!). In order for the online rating feature to work, the subsequent item in the questionnaire must have some way of ending and allowing MediaLab to continue. It's at THAT point, the online rating will end. No, end to the item, no end to the rating.

    And SO, if an image (or in the case of the last post, an essay) is being used, then there must be a duration set to the item in order to end it and the rating. And this is just the way the feature works--doesn't matter if it's Windows 7 or, Vista, or XP. So if you have an image as the subsequent item, try setting a parameter value on the IMAGE item of, say (d20) and you should see the continuation automatically after 20 seconds.

    The only issue that is specific to Windows 7 is in the case that you are trying to play a video. In this case, it won't work unless you have the newest build of MediaLab (v2008.1.33e or later). This is the case where an experiment may have worked fine in XP but not on Windows 7 even though nothing was changed.

    Anyways, hope that all makes sense. I'm attaching 2 revisions of one of the sample posted above. The image file is included here but the video is not. The video comes with Windows 7 and can be searched for and copied into the same folder as the que file. Please let me know ifyou run into any trouble or if I've missed anything.

    If you'd like to download the 2008.1.33e revision, it's located on the main download page (www.empirisoft.com/download.aspx).
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  12. #12
    Excellent! That appears to have been exactly the problem! Things seem to be working now.

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