Exporting to Fixed Width File

If you have selected the Format to be Fixed Width File, then the dialog that opens will be as below.

Figure 1 - The second stage of the Export dialog for a Fixed Width File export

1. Make the appropriate selections. The options are as follows:
• Truncate Open Ends - For Open Ends (Open Text questions with no field width specified), it is recommended to truncate texts to improve performance. If a number of characters is specified for the Open Ends Width, texts longer than this limit, if any, will automatically be truncated. If No Truncation (Full Length) is selected, the whole text will be imported/exported, but the task will take significantly longer to execute.
• Files to include - select which files are to be included in the export; Schema and data, Schema only, or Data only.
• Data File Encoding - to support the export of open text answers in surveys using Unicode (for example Chinese), you can choose the Character Encoding of the Export files. Choose between ANSI (default), Unicode or UTF-8 character encoding. This property defines the encoding for the data file.
• Schema File Encoding - to support the export of open text answers in surveys using Unicode (for example Chinese), you can choose the Character Encoding of the Export files. Choose between ANSI, Unicode or UTF-8 character encoding (default). This property defines the encoding for the schema file.
• Loop Handling - this option is only available if the survey included loops. Here you specify how loops are to be handled for the export. The options are:
• Separate files - the default export format for loops creates one export file for each loop, and one export file for the top level. In the files containing the loop data there will be one row per loop iteration per respondent, so there will be several rows for each respondent. Each row will have the responseid (system generated respondent id) of the respondent and the precode of the loop id for the iteration as identifiers, and then the answers for the questions inside the loop for that specific iteration for that respondent. This means you can export a hierarchical survey without having to generate a flattened template.
• Single file - Instead of exporting loop data as separate files, you can export all data belonging to a survey in one single file. Loop data will then be expanded. This means that variables will be created to represent each iteration of each question.
• Loop Position - only available when Single file is selected in the Loop Handling option. This allows the user to specify in which position the loop variables should be exported. The options are:
• As in Survey - the loop variables are positioned as the corresponding loop was placed in the Survey.
• Appended at end - the loop variables are appended at the end of the template.
• Single File Export - for surveys with loops, instead of exporting the loop data in different files, you can export all data belonging to a survey in one single file.
• Recode Multis - check this box to recode value codes for non-sequential multi variables. For example, a multi variable with the answer codes 1, 2, and 99 will normally use 99 positions in the export, although only three are actually required. Check the box to recode the variables such that they will have the value codes 1, 2 and 3. The variable will then use only three positions. If you have many multi variables with non sequential codes, selecting Recode Multis will greatly reduce the size of the exported file.
• Variables to include - you can build templates to choose a subset of data fields for your exports. Check the box, then select the template you wish to use.
• Override Filename - allows you to override the system-generated file name. Tick this checkbox to open the file name text-box. Here you can edit the system-generated name (go to APPENDIX F: EXPORT FILENAME DYNAMIC VALUES for more information). Note that when exporting Survey Data to the FTP server in Survey Data > Exports or Data Processing rules, the Override Filename option accepts relative paths, as for example “..\..\myftpfile_in_another_folder.txt”. In this case the file will not be stored in the default folder (“ProjectsData\p123123” or “RulesData\RuleN”), but rather directly under the (Company) Download folder.

Note: The '_^PROJECTID^_' part of the name will be replaced by the real survey id during the export. Default is ^PROJECTID^_^USERID^_^TASKID^ (if Date Filter is used, then ^START^ and ^END^ will also be included). ^PROJECTID^ is only "required" when executing a rule; it is not "required" when running an export using the Export GUI.

• Export language - in the event the survey is multi-lingual, select the survey language version to be exported.
• Text in Question Labels - select the text you wish to be included as the question labels. The options are:
• Text only - the label element will contain the question id followed by the text of the question, separated by a colon.
• Title only - the label element will contain the question id followed by the title of the question, separated by a colon.
• Title and Text - the label element will contain the question id followed by a colon, then the question title followed by the question text, these separated by a hyphen.
• Question ID - the label element will contain only the question id.

Note: As the engine that is used for the exports requires that the column titles are unique, and in Professional Authoring question titles can be the same on different questions, the question id is included first for all question label options.

• Text in Answer Element Labels - allows you to specify whether the Answer element of a Multi / Grid / Open Text List / Numeric List Question is to be positioned in front of the Question label, after the Question label or without the Question label when exporting survey data or when generating a Survey Data Template which can be used for a survey data export. The content of the Question label depends on the Text in Question Labels setting, which allows you to specify whether you want the Question ID, Question text, Question title or Question text and Title exported. Select the text you wish to be included as the answer labels. The options are:
• Answer (Question Label) - the question label is placed after the answer element.
• Question Label (Answer) - the question label is placed before the answer element.
• Answer - the answer element is placed without the question label.
2. When you have made the appropriate selections, click Next to go to the third stage of the dialog.