General

When you go to the Survey Management > Overview menu command, the Overview page opens at the General tab - .

Note: Standard users have reduced Survey Management functionality.

Figure 1 - Example of the Survey Overview page, General tab

Note: If the survey you have selected is a Forsta Express survey, you will also have the Convert to Survey Designer button in the toolbar. If you have opened the survey as an Approver, then the toolbar will also include the Approve Survey and Deny Survey button.

The fields, links and other information presented on the General tab are described in the following pages.

A number of fields are displayed in the right column of the page.

Note: Click the Open in Survey Designer link to open Survey Designer in a new browser window and open the survey at the Survey Overview page. Refer to the separate Survey Designer documentation for information on this application.

Standard Users

Standard users have reduced Survey Management functionality, and see the Survey Details tab instead of the normal General tab - .

Figure 2 - Example of the Survey Overview page for a Standard user

The Survey Details tab allows the Standard user to change the name of the survey as required, and add a description. The URL Setup tab is the same as that available to Professional users. On this page you can also duplicate the survey (go to Duplicating a Survey for more information), and delete it (go to Deleting a Survey for more information).

Note that surveys created by Standard users will normally only have one survey language. A Multilingual permission is available as a chargeable extra for Standard users, and the language selection field on this tab will only be available if this permission is activated. The Language drop-down in the lower frame of the window will then also be available.

The procedure for launching a survey as a Standard user is different from that for a Professional user, (go to Survey Deployment by a Standard User for more information). Once the survey has been launched, the Survey Status field will be editable.

General Fields

The fields and other information on the General tab are as follows:

• Survey ID – system-generated unique identification number. This is created when the survey is created, and cannot be changed.
• Survey name – a title you choose for the survey. This will be the title of the browser window in a live WI survey, but it will be superseded by Survey Title if one is provided for the selected language.

Note: If you are creating a CATI survey (go to About CATI for more information) and you wish to create a duplicate version of the survey for testing or practice before you start collecting real data, you can add #Test to the survey name to automatically change the appearance of the interviewer UI. In Test mode the toolbars at the top and bottom of the screen are given a yellow background and the words ‘TEST MODE’ are included in the console window title.

• Company – your company’s name. This will be added automatically by the system when the survey is created.
• Description – here you can enter a more detailed description of the survey, so it is more easily identifiable when you (or someone else) returns to it at a later date.
• Languages – here you can select the working language(s) of your survey. The Available field contains all the languages that are supported in Authoring. The Selected field will contain the working languages of your survey. You highlight a language in the Available field and click the arrow button to add it to the Selected field. Once a language has been selected, you can edit the messages for that language to suit the particular survey (go to Editing a Survey Message for more information).
• Categories and Keywords – you can categorize surveys (give them tags) so you can then filter the survey list to find only surveys of particular categories. To filter, in the survey list toolbar click in the Survey Category selection field and select the category you are looking for, then click the Search button towards the right end of the header bar. Three categories are predefined; Template, Library, and Benchmark, and any survey with no specific category allocated will be "Normal".
• Template - The survey will be saved as a template. It will then be listed in the Select Template list that appears when you select “Make survey based on an existing template” whilst creating a survey. Note that a template cannot be used as a survey, it can only be used when creating a new survey (go to Creating a Survey Template for more information).
• Library - the surveys that are marked with category Library will usually be surveys that you wish to keep for later reference.
• Benchmark - surveys given the Benchmark category will usually be surveys that you set up for reporting purposes in Reportal. Refer to the separate Reportal documentation for further details.

Note: If you have the Professional Panel add-on, two additional Categories are available to you on the Survey Overview page. These allow you to categorize surveys that are “Registration Survey” (for panelists' initial registration to the panel) and “Update Profile Survey” (for existing panelists to update their profile).

• New Keyword - In addition to the predefined categories, you can add your own free text categories, for example "Demos", "E-SAT", "Brand recognition", etc. You will be able to use these categories when searching for surveys in all parts of the application (including Reportal).
• Creator - the name of the user who created the survey.
• Created - the date the survey was created.
• Last Modified - the date the survey was last edited.
• Status – the survey status
• Deployment – the survey type (Public/Limited/Pop-Up) Web Interview. The Open link to the survey is displayed next to the survey type, and this can be copied to your pc's clipboard so that it can be pasted into for example an email, a website etc.
• QR Code - click to generate a QR code for the survey. The QR code is a link to your survey. If it is printed, for example on receipts or posters, or embedded in presentations or advertisements, respondents can scan it using a QR reader, for example in a mobile app, to open the survey URL and respond to the survey. Click Download to create a .PNG file of the QR code and place a link to the file in the lower frame of the window. You can then open the file or copy it to a suitable archive location.
• Dashboard URL - the Survey Dashboard provides information about a survey to users without them having into log in to Authoring. In this initial release, some basic statistics can be accessed through a touch device and through a standalone browser (go to Survey Dashboard Overview for more information).
• Inline Survey Link - the Inline Survey functionality allows you to embed your survey into any web page without having to use iFrames. This is the link to the survey, to be copied into the web page (go to Inline Survey for more information).
• External Test URL - if the author has checked the Enable External Test option in the Launch Options dialog for the survey's test database, then this row will display the link to the test version of the survey (go to Enabling External Test Access for more information).
• Test / Prod. WI in sync - if the production and test databases are the same (both have the same "last modified" timestamp), then this line will read Yes. If the line reads No, then one of the databases has not been re-launched after changes have been made to the survey so the test and production databases are different. One of the databases will need to be re-launched.
• Panelist registration / update profile survey - check this box if the survey you are creating is to be used for panelist registration. Note that this box should only be checked for surveys used for panelists signing up for the panel or updating their profile. It must not be used for regular data collection surveys. If this box is checked for a survey, it will be registered in the survey log.
• Panel - Allow current survey to access - if the survey is to use a panel, browse to the panel here. Once a panel is selected, the "Hide survey from panelist" option (see below) and a "Go to panel" link become available. Click the link to open the panel in Authoring.
• Hide survey from panelist - if a panel is selected in Panel above, this option becomes available. If this option is selected, the project will not be listed in the user's survey list when accessed from a portal.
• Survey Router - if the survey has been registered in a Survey Router group, the router group name will be displayed here as a link. Click the link to go to the group's Group Details overlay (go to Group Details for more information).
• Enforce HTTPS in Advanced Reporting – check this option to enforce HTTPS use in Advanced Reporting, accessing reports via Enduser interface, for this survey.
• Email address to receive emails triggered by scripting errors in interview - use this field to specify the email address to which you wish survey error notifications to be sent.
• Data Storage - If you have administrator rights to this survey, and while the database has not yet been generated (launched), you can select the type of database that the survey is to use. The options are Legacy Format (the "old" format used until Authoring 12.5), and Optimized Format (available from Authoring 12.5) (go to Optimized Database Format for more information).
• Enable reusable database - check this box to specify support for multiple surveys stored in a single database. This enhances performance for surveys and support for new features that will not be supported by legacy surveys.
• Enable database encryption - if your company has the required add-on, you can select this option to encrypt the production database. The same option is available on the Launch Survey page (go to Enabling Database Encryption for more information). Note that test databases are not encrypted, and it is not possible to change the encryption state of a previously launched database; once a database is launched, if you wish to change the encryption state you must create a new database.
• Change tracking retention hours - Change tracking is enabled for all databases on launch because the functionality is required to update the hub variants used for the metrics shown in survey list/survey overview. This property allows you to specify how long the system will keep logged changes, for example 48 hours (the default value). If you have a task that runs an incremental update every hour based on the change tracking log (as for example hub loader or text analytics task does), you could reduce the setting to for example two hours to save space. Type the required number of hours into the field.
• Database deletion date - to assist you with complying with GDPR (the General Data Protection Regulations), you can set a date for when the database and data records (not the survey definition - this will be kept) will be deleted. By setting a Database deletion date, the system will automatically delete the survey database and all data records on the next recurrence of the archiving task after the specified date is reached. Note that the deletion of the data is irreversible. The survey owner will be notified before the deletion takes place.

If any Recurring tasks are set up for the survey, a Recurring tasks link will be displayed at the bottom of this page.

The Survey tasks link will be displayed to users with Administrate permissions to a survey. The link gives quick access to the Task Management page that will contain all tasks for the current survey.

Note: Only users with survey administrator access or those with access to a Designer can save changes on the Survey Overview page.

Email Address to Receive Emails Triggered by Scripting Errors in Interview

Use this field to specify the email address to which you wish survey error notifications to be sent. If an error should occur in the survey, the respondent will receive a general error message in the language he/she has selected for the survey.

Note: If you make any changes to this field, you must re-launch the survey for the changes to take effect.

The person to whom the email is sent will receive a detailed description of the error and its whereabouts, for example:

** Error info **

Date     : Fri Apr 28 01:06:58 UTC+0200 2000

Project   : pXXXXXXX (The Name of the Project)

Respondent: 1

 ** Error description **

Problem encountered while processing question 'q22':

Error in mask:

   f("q21").add("99")

Object doesn't support this property or method

The error message specifies the survey ID, the title of the survey, the question, and the error, that may be in the script, code mask, condition or expressions - . In Test mode, this specified error message will also be displayed in the survey, next to the general error message.

Figure 3 - Example of the Test Mode error message

Survey Titles and Info

These fields allow you to edit the survey titles in the various survey languages, and to set the survey start and end dates - . 

Figure 4 - The Survey Title and Info Fields

• Survey Title - The title of the survey in the various survey languages. When a Survey Title is supplied for a language, and that language is selected by the respondent, then the title will be displayed in the Survey Name visual component. Survey Title takes priority over Survey Name (go to General for more information) when Survey Title is provided for a language, but if no Survey Title is provided for a language then the Survey Name will be used.

• Start date - Information field stating the start date of a survey.
• End date - Information field stating the end date of a survey. Note that the survey will not close automatically on this date. You must close the survey manually in Survey Status .

Administrator Info

This field - displays read-only information on the current state of the survey and data.

Figure 5 - The Administrator Info details

The information provided is as follows:

• Complete responses - Number of complete responses in the survey.
• Incomplete responses - Number of incomplete responses in the survey.
• DB server name - the name of the server on which the database is stored.
• Size of DB data - Current size of database data.
• Size of DB log - Current size of database log.
• Survey last modified - Last time the Survey was modified.
• WI last generated - Last time the web interview was generated.
• DB last generated - Last time the database was generated.
• Last response - Last time a respondent accessed an element in the survey.
• Survey info last updated - The last time all the survey admin information fields were updated.
• Data growth last day - Growth in database data size during the last 24-hour period.
• Log growth last day - Growth in database log size during the last 24-hour period.
• Data growth last week - Growth in database data during the last week (7 days).
• Log growth last week - Growth in database log size during the last week (7 days).
• Data growth last month - Growth in database data size during the last month (same day last month).
• Log growth last month - Growth in database log size during the last month (same day last month).

Check Growth

This field - enables you to check the size and growth of your survey data.

Figure 6 - The Check Growth details

The information provided is as follows:

• From date - Use to specify the from date when checking the growth within a specified range.
• To date - Use to specify the to date when checking the growth within a specified range.
• Data size - The calculated database data growth from the range specified above.
• Log size - The calculated database log growth from the range specified above.
• # Complete - The calculated growth in complete responses from the range specified above.
• # Incomplete - The calculated growth in incomplete responses from the range specified above.
• Calculate - Perform the calculation and display the results on the page.

Survey Status

Use this tab - to set the survey status.

Figure 7 - The Survey Status tab

The tab has four options:

• Close survey at - you can set the survey to close at a specific time on a specific date. The "default" date and time will be one month from when you opened this tab. Adjust as necessary then re-launch the survey to activate the setting. If the survey is live then remember to ensure you update the existing database, not create a new database! Note that the date and time are "local" for the server on which you are running Authoring.
• Production - the survey is running.
• Closed - the survey is closed. Respondents will not be able to enter the survey, and a message, for example the one shown below, - will be displayed to them if they attempt to do so. The message that is displayed can be edited in the Survey Messages page (go to Survey Messages Overview for more information).

Figure 8 - Example of a "Survey Closed" message

• Maintenance Mode - select this mode to temporarily close the survey to respondents and display a "Survey under maintenance" message.

Imagine the situation; you have just sent your survey out to a huge number of respondents, and you notice it contains a glaring error. You have to correct the error before too many respondents see it, but you do not wish to close the survey as any respondents who attempt to enter it while it is closed will not return. Set the survey in Maintenance Mode while you are correcting the error. The message that is displayed can be edited in the Survey Messages page (go to Survey Messages Overview for more information). Note that if/when the survey is re-launched, the survey status will automatically be returned to it's previous state; Production or Closed.

You can reopen the survey at any time as necessary. This will not have any impact on the response data in the database, unless you recompile the survey and choose Create new database. This action will delete all response data.

Note: When a survey is closed, any recurring tasks that are still running will be disabled (go to Recurrence for more information). If the survey is later re-opened and the user wishes to re-start the tasks, the user must go to the tasks and re-start them as necessary. If the survey is set to Maintenance Mode, any recurring tasks will continue to run.

URL Setup

Use the options on this tab - to specify where the respondents are sent (which website) when they have completed the survey.

Figure 9 - The URL Setup tab

The fields and check-boxes are as follows:

• End links - enter the URL of the website you wish the respondents to be sent to after they have finished the survey. You can add one URL for each survey language, so you can send the respondents to, for example, websites in their local languages, or the website of your company's branch office in their country. The End link must be defined before you compile the survey database.
• Help links - enter a URL to a website you wish to use either for additional information or for other purposes in the Survey. If a respondent clicks on a link in a survey, a new browser window will open. Again, you can add one URL for each survey language.
• Text - this field controls the appearance of the Help link. You may substitute the address with another text.
• Link preview - this column displays a preview of the link.