MediaLab Version 2006.1

[jarvis24]

Two minor tweaks re custom items. Some code will generate "%26" as the delimiter for posted data which is a fancy (hex value) way of saying "&" which is what MediaLab expects. MediaLab will now accept "%26" as well. Nobody is going to care about this but I'm saying it anyways.

Also, in cases where multiple values are passed through a post command, the variable names can simply be listed in any questionnaire as a custom item with no filename. MediaLab will automatically skip such items but will write the data from a posted variable to that item's spot in the data file.

Documentation on preparing custom items is almost ready--it's really easy now to create almost any kind of custom item.

[jarvis24]

Added departmental site licensing for University College Utrecht.

[jarvis24]

variables into question wording

enabled the inserting of variables into response options the same way you can insert them into question wording. e.g., if you have prior responses called "friend1" and "friend2" you could have response options later on like:

1. I would pick <friend1>
2. I would pick <friend2>

This will work to insert prior responses from fill-in-the-blank items, scale responses, multiple responses, and any response.xls variables you have calculated. These values can be inserted into the response options of any item that allows response options.

allow "+" to be contained in numeric responses
when using a numeric range on a fill in the blank (e.g., r-100-100), subjects would be scolded if they used a "+" symbol as the first character (e.g., +37), even though a "-" would be just fine. This is fixed and now "+" is ok.

[jarvis24]

Fixed a rounding error which would occur sometimes on timed trials that use the delay (D) parameter. Results in more accurate timing now.

Improved skip functionality. Instead of having to explicitly name the variable you want to skip to, you can simply enter +1, +2, +3, +n, etc. items. MediaLab will automatically skip that many items without needing to know the name of a "skipto" variable--it will simply resume wherever it ends up. This is especially nice when the item being skipped to might be randomly determined.

[jarvis24]

Fixed a bug in the WebTracker item type. If the subject clicks on a link or does anything else that causes web form data to be posted then the web tracking item will end and MediaLab will continue on to the next item. This is fixed.

[jarvis24]

added site licensing for Nanyang School of Business, Singapore

fixed bug where on custom HTML items, letter case of question wording was sometimes converted to all lower.

[jarvis24]

Modified custom items so that MediaLab variables can be quickly and easily substituted into any custom HTML page. For example, ml.varname will be replaced with the actual MediaLab variable name. ml.wording will be replaced with the contents of the question wording field. See example here: http://www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?t=222