The Aim of This Short Document Is Not to Provide a Complete Description of the Software

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Demetra+

Quick start

The aim of this short document is not to provide a complete description of the software but to give a first overview of the tool and of its main functionalities.

Demetra+ is designed as an open andflexible software, which allows various uses. Instead of describing the different functions and presentation tools of the application, we prefer, in this first document, to describe step by step the way to solve some very basic tasks.

It is clear that such a non systematic approach is not sufficient to understand completely the software. However, we think that it is the easiestand the most stimulating way to get some feeling of this new product.

In a first stage, we just consider the way to visualize the data provided with the software and to import new series from Excel.

In a second stage, we explain how we can adjust a single series.

In a third stage, we consider the processing of many series.

In a last stage, we discuss the way to save and to refresh a previous work.

Visualizing the data

First overview of the software

When it is launched for the first time, Demetra+ appears with the following layout

The main parts of the application are:

• The browsers panel (left panel), which presents the available time series
• The workspace panel (right panel), which shows information used or generated by the software
• A central empty zone that will contain the actual analyses
• Two auxiliary panels at the bottom of the application; the left, one (TSProperties) contains the current time series (from the browsers panel) and the right one (Logs) contains logging information.

The different panels can be moved, resized, superposed, closed[1]... following the needs or the preferences of the user. The presentation is saved between different sessions of Demetra+.

The application can contain multiple documents. Following the needs, you can present them in different tabs taking the full space (default) or in floating windows (choose this one to follow the different steps). The main menu item "Window->Floating/Tabbed..." gives access to that functionality.

Browsing the data

The browsers panel presents the series available in the software. Different "time series providers" are considered: Xml (specific schema), Excel, TSW, USCB, Text, ODBC...

The installation procedure has copied several files in different formats in the subfolders of "My Documents\Data". We explain below the way to open Excel workbooks. The procedure is similar for the other providers.

1. Click on the Excel tab of the browsers panel.
2. Click on the left button (see below)
3. Choose an Excel workbook (for instance "insee.xlsx") in the folder "My Documents\Data\Excel"

The different browsers show the data in trees that can be expanded by double-clicks on their nodes (or single clicks on the +/- signs)

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The final nodes of the trees represent time series and their parents represent collections of time series.

Displaying the data

To display the data, open one of the available containers of Demetra+ (charts, grids or tables, lists...)

The user can take any series or group of series in one of the browsers and drop it in a container.

Drag and drop is everywhere in Demetra+. It is the usual way to move information between different components. The objects that can be moved (time series, collection of time series...) can take different forms: nodes in trees, labels in lists, headers in tables, lines in charts...

When a drag/drop operation is started (which means that an object is indeed "moveable"), the cursor of the mouse changes to either a "no parking sign" or to a "+ sign", which indicates an acceptable drop zone.

Information can also be moved by drag and drop or copy/paste to external software (for instance Excel).

Importing data from Excel

Time series from Excel can easily be integrated in Demetra+. The series must be formatted in Excel as follows:

• True dates in the first copied column/row
• Titles of the series in the first copied row/column
• Empty top-left cell
• Empty cells in the data zone correspond to missing values (except at the beginning and at the end of the series)

That format corresponds to the format used by the Excel browser (which also requires that the input zone starts at the beginning of the sheet [A1]).

After they have been copied in Excel, the data can be integrated in Demetra+ as follows:

1. Select the xml panel in the browsers
2. Paste the data (they appear in the tree)
3. Change the names of the series/collection in the tree (click twice on the item you would like to modify)
4. Save the file (if need be).

Single seasonal adjustment

The seasonal adjustment of a single series can be done using different ways. We present below the simplest solution (called the short way).

The short way

The first step to produce a fast seasonal adjustment consists in choosing a specification in the list displayed in the workspace panel. They correspond to the terminology used in TSW.

Name / Content
RSA1 / log/level, outliers detection, airline model
RSA2 / log/level, working days, Easter , outliers detection, airline model
RSA3 / log/level, outliers detection, automatic model identification
RSA4 / log/level, working days, Easter , outliers detection, automatic model identification
RSA5 / log/level, trading days, Easter , outliers detection, automatic model identification

That specification, called active specification, will be used to generate the processing. It can be changed at any time.

Once the active specification is chosen, the user has just to make a double click on the seriesin the browsers panel that he wants to adjust. The processing is immediately launched, with the selected specification and the chosen series.

The user can inspect the different facets of the results by means of the exploring tree displayed in the left panel of the output window.

He can also change the series and/or the specification by importing new elements[2] by drag and drop (in the exploring tree).

Changing the specification

The user is then able to modify the used specification and to see immediately the result of his changes.

The specification is edited through the main menu: TramoSeatsDocxxx / X12Docxxx -> Specification... It is possible to edit the specification used to generate the processing (current specification) or the specification that correspond to the results (result specification).

Multi-processing

The seasonal adjustment of many series can also be done using various ways. The short way is explained below.

The short way

Multi-processing needs the following steps:

1. Create a new multi-processing window, through the main menu (Seasonal adjustment -> Multi-processing -> New)
2. Choose an active specification (see above)
3. Import by drag and drop the series (or collection of series) you want to process; they can come from different providers.
4. If you want to mix different specifications (from TramoSeats and X12), you can change at any time the active specification; the series added after that change will be associated with the new active specification.
5. Start the processing (through the main menu "SAProcessing XXX-> Start"); it should be noted that the processing runs in a multi-threaded environment; so, the user can continue his work without waiting for the end of the action.

Editing and modifying the results

It is possible to edit any item of the processing by a double click.

The complete output, with the used specification is displayed. The user can modify it, apply the new specification to see its effects and save the results to the multi-processing window, if need be.

It is not necessary to close the details window to get information on another series; that window is updated by a simple click on another series of the multi-processing view.

Sending the results to external devices

When the processing is finished, it is possible to generate several outputs (Excel workbook, csv files...), through the main menu command: "SAProcessingXXX -> Generate output...". It should be noted that Excel and .csv outputs will be put in the temporary folder if their target folders are not specified

Saving and refreshing workspaces

By default, single and multi-processing generated through the so-called "short-ways" are not put in the current workspace. To be able to save and to refresh them, the user must first add them to the workspace. That can be done, for instance, by means of the main menu "SAProcessingXXX -> Add to Workspace".

The user still has to save the workspace, using the usual menu command (Save / Save as).

When Demetra+ is re-opened, it will automatically launch the last used workspace. The software also maintains a list of the most recently used workspace, which can be easily accessed.

A saved item of a workspace can be opened by a double click or by its local menu. It is then showed in its previous state. Demetra+ proposes several options to refresh it[3]:

Parameters / Only the parameters are refreshed. The structure of the model is unchanged
Outliers (+ params) / Outliers (and of course parameters) are re-estimated
Arima and outliers (+params) / Stochastic component, outliers (and of course parameters) are re-estimated
Complete / The model is completely re-estimated

Of course, other options could be added in the future (for instance, identification of new outliers on the last period(s)).

When the refresh option has been selected, Demetra+ automatically goes to the suitable time series provider(s) to ask for the updated observations; the new estimations are done on those series (using the previous models, modified by the chosen option).

In next papers, we will describe in details and in a more formal way all the features of Demetra+.

NORMAL.DOT

[1]Closed panels can be re-opened through the main menu commands: workspace->View->...

[2]It is not possible to drop a TramoSeats specification in an X12 output and vice versa.

[3] For the moment, those options are only available for multi-processing.