QualCoder is a qualitative data analysis application written in python3 (python 3.6 or newer versions) and pyqt5.
QualCoder projects are stored in a Sqlite database. Text files can be typed in manually or loaded from txt, odt, docx, html, htm, epub and pdf files. Images, video and audio can also be imported for coding. Codes can be assigned to text, images and a/v selections and grouped into categories in hierarchical fashion. Various types of reports can be produced including visual coding graphs, coder comparisons and coding frequencies.
This project has been tested under Ubuntu 20.04 and Windows 10. It has been used on Linux Mint 18.04 Lubuntu 18.04, Mac OS. Instructions and other information are available here: https://qualcoder.wordpress.com/ and on the Github Wiki.
You will need to have a python3.6 or newer version installed.
You will also need to have a vlc player installed - for audio and video.
You can install the latest debian package from https://github.com/ccbogel/QualCoder-Debians
You may need to add unstable repos as described at https://www.binarytides.com/enable-testing-repo-debian/
Install these modules from the command line
sudo apt install python3-lxml python3-ply python3-six python3-chardet python3-qt5 python3-pillow
On some Linux versions you will need to install pip
sudo apt install python3-pip
You also need to run this command from the terminal for pdf importing:
sudo python3 -m pip install pdfminer.six openpyxl ebooklib
If not using the debian package:
Make the install.sh executable and run the install.sh script from the terminal. Make sure the qualcoder folder is in the same directory as the install.sh script (i.e. as it appears when you download the QualCoder-master folder).
Retrieve the current package code from this repository
git clone https://github.com/ccbogel/QualCoder.git
Install dependencies
sudo dnf install python3-pip python3-lxml python3-ply python3-six python3-chardet python3-qt5 python3-pillow
QualCoder uses an Ebook library that you can currently install via a work-around, specified at ccbogel#72 (comment)
The UNTESTED install_fedora.sh should install the dependencies fand a desktop start icon for Fedora. The script is for python verrsion 3.8.
./install.sh
The qualcoder folder should be in the same directory as the install.sh script.
This will install QualCoder in the /usr/share directory and create a launcher. Alternatively go to the qualcoder directory and run the qualcoder.py file in a terminal: python3 qualcoder.py
Install Python3 and VLC or from the Windows Store. On Windows, the bit version of VLC, 32 or 64 must match the bit version of python 3. Minumum version python 3.6.
Install dependencies in the command prompt:
python -m pip install pyqt5 lxml Pillow ebooklib ply chardet pdfminer.six openpyxl
or:
py -m pip install pyqt5 lxml Pillow ebooklib ply chardet pdfminer.six openpyxl
To launch, you can create a shortcut to the qualcoder.py file to start QualCoder.
Alternatively move to the qualcoder directory and run the qualcoder.py file in from command prompt:
python qualcoder.py or py qualcoder.py
you might need to install modules and run the program by typing python3 rather than python or py, it seems different on different Winows versions.
Run QualCoder and hide the black DOS box:
C:\Windows\pyw.exe "C:\the location of your Qualcoder folder\QualCoder-master\qualcoder\qualcoder.py"
Sometimes there are problems recognising the audio/video VLC library file: libvlc.dll
Some solutions are to add the path of the file here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42045887/python-vlc-install-problems?noredirect=1
The log file on Windows does not make use of the rotating file handler, so the log file may become large. If so, delete the log file. It will be re-created automatically.
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Download the latest release "Source code" version in ZIP format, from the releases section of the project here on Github: https://github.com/ccbogel/QualCoder/releasesDownload and extract it into /Applications
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Open the Terminal app (or any other command shell)
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Install PIP (if not yet installed, try typing
pip3 --versionand hit ENTER)
curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py -o get-pip.py
python3 get-pip.py-> You should now be able to run pip3 as above.
- Install Python dependency modules using
pip:
(you might already have them, don't do this again if you just update QualCoder to a newer version)
pip install pyqt5 lxml pillow six ebooklib ply chardet pdfminer.six openpyxl- Install system dependencies using Homebrew (aka
brew)
6.1) Install brew if do not already have it (try typing brew and hit ENTER):
- Follow instructions here about installing Homebrew on your macOS: https://brew.sh/
6.2) Install QPDF package (needed to deal with PDF files) using Homebrew package manager:
brew install qpdfAssuming you downloaded the2.4 version. You can now run with:
python3 /applications/QualCoder-2.4/qualcoder/qualcoder.py
You can install QualCoder anywhere you want, so the path above depends on where you extracted the archive.
Another option to run Qualcoder is shown here: https://www.maketecheasier.com/run-python-script-in-mac/. This means you can right-click on the qualcoder.py file and open with --> python launcher. You can make an alias to the file and place it on your desktop.
Another option to install on Mac:
Open the Terminal App and move to the unzipped Qualcoder-Master directory, then run the following commands:
pip install -U py2app or for a system installation of python sudo pip install -U py2app
python3 setup.py py2app
Required:
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Python 3.x version
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PyQt5
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lxml
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Pillow
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six (Mac OS)
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ebooklib
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ply
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chardet
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pdfminer.six
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openpyxl
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qpdf (Linux for programatically applying pdf decryption for pdfs with blank password)
- Improve packaging for easier installation: currently investigating use of pyinstaller - without success so far.
- Change from pdfminer.six to pdfminer3
- Possibly look at use with R.
- Reports: Word count report maybe
- Text mining - maybe
- word cloud, word visualisations - maybe
- General
- Translations for GUI.
QualCoder is distributed under the MIT LICENSE.
Curtain, C. (2021) QualCoder 2.4 [Computer software]. Retrieved from https://github.com/ccbogel/QualCoder/releases/tag/2.4
If you like QualCoder and found it useful for your work. Please leave a review on these sites:
https://www.saashub.com/qualcoder-alternatives
https://alternativeto.net/software/qualcoder
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