Products
Contact Support Additional Learning Monthly Product Updates
Menu

Forsta Professional Authoring Support

All the topics, resources needed for Forsta Professional Authoring.

Generating the Response Databases

  • Last updated:

Articles in this section

In this article

    When you have finished constructing your survey and you want to test it, you must first prepare a response database. This process is called compilation. Note that every time you make changes in the survey, you must update the database.

    Note: The system maintains two separate databases for your survey; one test database, and one production database. These databases must be compiled separately. To switch between databases, either for general use or for compiling, use the Database drop-down in the lower right corner of the window - .

    Figure 1 - The global database switch

    1. To generate the databases for a survey, go to the Designer > Launch Survey menu command.

    The options page opens - .

    Figure 2 - Launching a survey

    Note: CATI and CAPI are both add-ons and subject to payment. The options will only be available in the tab if your company has purchased the appropriate licenses. In the event you are creating a CATI interview, then the Generate Web Interview option is not available; it is selected by default and cannot be deselected.

    The active database (in this case Production) and the data storage format are indicated towards the top of the page.

    Note: The Test database has an additional option - Enable External Test. When selected, this allows external access to the Test database to perform test interviews (go to Enabling External Test Access for more information).

    1. Select whether you wish to generate the database and/or the web interview files.

      2. In the Generate Database drop-down, if the database does not yet exist then "Create initial database" is the only option available. If the database has been generated previously then other options are available. If you wish to generate the database:

    2. Click the down-arrow beside the field to open a drop-down list of the generation options available, and select the desired option. The options in the drop-down are:
      • Update existing database (rebuild) – the system will update the entire database. You would for example use "rebuild" on your surveys after a system upgrade, after some bug fixing has been carried out, or if new languages have been added to the survey.
      • Create new database – the system will create a completely new database. All existing data will be deleted. If you select this option, a warning message, shown below, will be displayed - .

      Warning:
      Recreating the database will delete all data in the database. NEVER do this in a running production database.

      • Create new database (optimized format) - this option is only available for surveys that have previously been launched in the Legacy format. Select this option if you wish to convert the database to Optimized format. Note that any existing data will be deleted.

      Figure 3 - The Create New Database warning message

      Important
      For surveys created in the Optimized format, before you launch the survey for the first time and thereby create the database, you can change the type of database that is to be used. However once you have launched the survey and the database exists you can no longer change the type.
      For surveys created in Legacy format and using a survey layout, whenever you launch the survey you can select to change the database format to Optimized. Note that once the database is in the Optimized format it cannot be changed back to Legacy again.

      When launching a survey and updating an existing database, the database may be locked for a short period as it is updated. If a respondent is in the survey at the time, the survey will be closed and a message will be presented to the respondent telling them that the survey is undergoing maintenance and asking them to continue later.

    3. Select whether you wish to enforce a new version of the survey (go to Overwriting Running Interviews for more information).
    4. Select the survey mode(s) you wish to use.

      5. If you select the Web Survey channel, the two sub-options become available (go to Mobile Phone Options for more information). If you then also select the Smartphones option, touch rendering will be activated for the survey when the respondent accesses the survey via a smartphone. Note that you can switch off the touch rendering functionality for individual pages in the survey by going to the page editor for the survey page in question (go to Survey Objects for more information).

      If you select the CAPI/Kiosk Survey option and the Smartphones option, the survey will be rendered for smartphones and touch rendering will be activated when the interviewer accesses the survey via a smartphone.

      If you select the Offline self-completion survey option, your respondents will be able to use the AskMe app (go to AskMe App Overview for more information).

    5. Click Launch Survey to start the task.

    Note: When you launch a survey in CAPI/Kiosk or CATI modes (you have checked the CAPI/Kiosk or CATI Survey boxes in the Launch Survey window) you will automatically be given the "Supervise CATI/CAPI Survey" permission for that survey (go to Permissions for more information).

    When you compile the database for the first time, you are presented with a drop-down dialog asking you to confirm the creation of the initial database. If you click OK, a new database will be created and compiled. This may take some time, depending on the length of your survey.

    During compilation and WI generation, the system performs a number of checks to ensure the integrity of the survey. The Launch Survey page is displayed - , which shows the task progress and lists the procedures as they are completed. When the compilation task is complete, the URL to the survey is displayed at the bottom of the page. You can copy the URL to your clipboard and from there paste it into email etc. as required.

    Figure 4 - Example of the Launch Survey page on completion of the task

    The system will stop the compilation/generation process with an error message in the following cases:

    • if you have non-unique form ID’s in the Survey.
    • If there is a conflict between a multi variable (for example q1_1, that is question ID q1 and code 1) and a single or open text question with question ID q1_1.
    • if you use the same iteration code twice in a loop.
    • if the codes of the Single and Grid questions occupy more space than specified in Field Width (go to About Answers for more information).
    • if the codes contain illegal characters. Codes can only contain alphanumeric characters, and underscore (_), with no white space.
    • if a database column header is too long. In the database, the column headers are constructed as a combination of the question id and the code, and are limited to 50 characters. Care must therefore be taken when allocating codes for grid and multi questions if the code maximum has been increased above its default setting of 32 characters. (go to About Answers for more information).
    • if the codes in Answers (Single, Multi, Grid) and Scales (Grid) are not unique. In legacy surveys where the Code check functionality is disabled (a setting in the Survey Management > Overview page, which is available only to software administrators) the generation task will ble completed with a warning about non-unique codes.
    • if any reserved keywords are used as question IDs (go to APPENDIX C: RESERVED KEYWORDS for more information).

    The check will also check if the survey has any questions with empty answers or illegal properties.

    Important
    The survey is built on a secure (https) site. In the event the survey contains references to non-secure content (http pages), a warning will be presented in the Launch Survey page - . If such a warning is presented, you should investigate (go to Scanning for HTTP Content for more information), and remove the reference or move the non-secure content to a secure site. In the near future Authoring will no longer accept links to non-secure pages. After this time, any such non-secure content will cause the compilation to fail.

    Figure 5 - Example of the insecure content warning

    In the majority of cases you should only update the database. This applies especially when you are making changes in a running survey. This option will preserve all data (responses, respondents, quotas, etc.) in the database, and is quicker.

    When you have run a test-phase in production mode however, it may be useful to start from scratch by recreating the database in order to delete the test data from the production database.

    WARNING:
    Recreating the database will delete all data in the database. NEVER do this in a running production database.

    SaaS only:
    To avoid filling storage space unnecessarily, Forsta does not guarantee that test databases are saved on the server for more than two weeks.

    Web Interview Files

    The web interview generator produces a file capable of:

    • Displaying forms for user input over the web,
    • Storing the respondent's answers, and
    • Controlling Survey flow based on background data (if available) and answers received.

    The URL to an open survey will always be http://survey.confirmit.com/wix/pXXXXXXXX.aspx, or https://survey.confirmit.com/wix/pXXXXXXXX.aspx if you are using HTTPS. (pXXXXXXX is the survey number).

    Login only:
    The URL to the survey will always be http://survey.confirmit.com/wix/pXXXXXXXX.aspx, or https://survey.confirmit.com/wix/pXXXXXXXX.aspx if you choose to run the survey from a secure site.

    Updating an Existing Database

    After inserting a question into the Survey or moving a question within the Survey:

    If you insert a question into an existing Survey tree either by creating a new question, duplicating or moving an existing question, and you place the question within the Survey tree (not on the end), for example q1, q2, q5, q3, q4, where q5 is the inserted question, then when you re-launch the survey to update the database, the choices available for "Generate Database" will have the following effects on exported Data:

    • Update existing database (rebuild) - the inserted question will be in the order as it appears on the question tree (for example: q1, q2, q5, q3, q4. where q5 is the inserted question)
    • Create new database - as this creates a completely new database, the inserted question will be located in its correct place in the Survey.

    Note: When launching a survey and updating an existing database, the database may be locked for a short period as it is updated. If a respondent is in the survey at the time, the survey will be closed and a message will be presented to the respondent telling them that the survey is undergoing maintenance and asking them to continue later.

    Was this article helpful?
    0 out of 0 found this helpful
    Return to top