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In Forsta Plus, you can build a library of panelist interfaces, called Panel Portals, through which your panelists and potential panelists can read about your panels and register themselves as new panelists. Those who are already panelists (members) can log into the Panel Portal to answer new or previously started surveys, view their survey list, update their profile, view their points etc. All these actions are conducted via the same interface (go to About Basic Panels for more information).
To access the portals currently connected to a panel, go to the Panel Utilities > Panel Portals menu command whilst in the panel.
A panel functions in the same way as a normal survey. Typically, a panel consists of mapping and profiling questions, and other categories such as work-related and household questions. The panelists register themselves in your panel, or you can import people directly into your panel if you already have their information. Based on the panelist information stored in the panel, you can select appropriate respondents to answer surveys.
A Panel Portal is the interface (homepage) through which the panelists log in to participate in surveys, update their profile, etc. - .
A Panel can also be used by a company to hold information about its employees and/or customers. You can then send specific people surveys based on the information in the Panel. For example, if you want to send a seminar registration survey to all employees working in a particular city and a particular department, and who have not already attended that seminar, then the panel will give you a sample containing the people matching these criteria, and upload the list to the seminar registration survey.
Figure 1 - Example of a Panel Portal
Panel Portals can only be used together with Forsta Panels. For further details on Panels, see the Forsta Professional Panels User Guide.
Panel Portal List
From the list of available portals you have direct access to the Panel Portals.
Click the arrow symbol to the right of the portal name - to open a drop-down menu. From here you can:
- Access the Portal Designer for the portal specified. Here you can edit the portal, optimizing it for the current panel.
- View the published version of that Portal as a panelist.
- Make a Duplicate of the portal. You would often do this if you wanted to create a new portal that was similar to an older one, then you would only have to edit the new portal rather than creating one from the beginning.
- Export the Panel Portal to transfer it across to other Forsta Installations or for offline storage.
You also have two buttons available here; for importing existing portals and creating new.
Figure 2 - Accessing a Panel Portal