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Event Arrays

For Workspace Management

An Event Array is one of nine types of Support Event (Guidance Events, Branching Point Event, Calendarize Event, Event Iterations, Event Array, Study Context Events, Unspecified Support Events, Randomized Event, and Goodbye Event.

An Event Array is a collection of ordered events under one label or name.  A useful analogy from computer programming is a "variable array" which is a collection or battery of variables under one name with a subscript indicating the position of each variable in the array.  

The primary functions of event arrays are to organize events, manage the working space of ProtoGenie pages, and to implement the option to present multiple events on a single Webpage rather than one event to a page (as in normal serial presentation).  See Form Formatting Option.  

Using Event Arrays to Organize Events and Manage Workspace
Obviously, a 100 question questionnaire would load up the Execution List of the Sequencing Page.  Situations requiring long lists of measurements are very common in research, as in a survey or in building the baseline measurements for a clinical trial, which could involve a number of arrays. 

To address this problem, ProtoGenie enables you to separately create all of the events that logically tend to go together, as in a questionnaire, and represent that collection by a single name.  That name rather than the names of every event in the array goes into the Execution List of the Sequencing Page.

To visualize this kind of situation, consider a posttest only control group design consisting of a treatment event "T", a blood pressure test "B," and a 100 question posttest "Q(K)".  Instead of 102 items in the Sequencing Window, there would be 3.  A design diagram of this would look like the following:

T B Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8   ... Q100 

Letting "AQ" represent the questionnaire array, we would have in the execution list of sequencing window:

T B AQ

The example above illustrates a Measurement Array.  However, there can be Treatment Arrays and Support Arrays.  For example, a treatment may consist of a whole battery of separate treatment events.  Support Arrays are probably required less frequently.  Conceivably, there also could be arrays that combine measurement, treatment, and support events.

Note that Event Arrays are events.  Like other events, you will enter the array name where you want them to be executed in the Execution List of the Sequencing Page.

Another important use of Event Arrays is to create ProtoGenie "Executable Forms" or more precisely, "Same-Page Multiple-Event Presentations."  See ProtoGenie Executable Forms.  

Using Arrays to Set Up a PG Executable Form
See PG Executable Forms.