System Requirements

The Authoring module is used for creating and managing surveys in an intuitive web interface.

Professional Authoring requirements (Standard and Professional users)

Element	Supported
Operating system	Windows 8 Desktop or Windows 10. OS X.
Web browser	Internet Explorer 11 (Windows only), Firefox (current and previous 5 releases), Chrome (current and previous 5 releases)*
Web browsing enhancement (Internet Explorer only)	Microsoft XML parser 3.0 SP3 Microsoft XML parser 6.0
Office components	Microsoft Office 2003 formats capable office suite for opening exports: Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft Office 2013 or Microsoft Office 2016

Note: “Panelist Editor” and “Compare Survey version” are not supported in Chrome and Firefox.

The Edge browser is not supported for Professional Authoring, however users will be allowed to log on via Edge.

Browser capability requirements

Element	Description
Cookies	Client cookies and session cookies must be allowed from the Forsta server. If the client browser does not accept cookies, Authoring users will be unable to log on to the system.

We recommend that users add Forsta to “Trusted sites” in their browser’s security settings, and that the adjustments to the security settings mentioned below should be done for trusted sites only:

Browser security settings (Internet Explorer only)

Element	Setting	Purpose / Effect
Binary and Script Behaviors	Enable	Some pages require this setting
Download Signed ActiveX controls	Enable / Prompt	If using the VSFlexGrid Pro ActiveX component for editing answer lists, ActiveX needs to be enabled. If using the DHTML component for editing answerlists, ActiveX is not required.
Run ActiveX controls and plugins	Enable	See above.
Script ActiveX controls marked as safe for scripting	Enable	See above.
Font download	Enable	Preview of a survey using a font that is not already installed will not work.
Display mixed content	Prompt	Some surveys/survey layouts previewed in HTTPS might use image sources from a HTTP site and vice versa.
Drag and drop or copy and paste files	Prompt / Enable	Users will not be able to drag images into WYSIWYG fields in Forsta when set to Disable or Prompt.
Submit nonencrypted form data	Enable	Will not be able to submit form data in Forsta if this is set to Disable.
Userdata persistence	Enable	Forsta stores a lot of information, such as size and positioning of objects, in userdata.
Active scripting	Enable	Forsta uses scripting in most parts of the application.
Allow paste operations via script	Enable	Users will not be able to paste into the WYSIWYG fields of Forsta if this setting is disabled.
Automatic prompting for file downloads	Enable	Required to allow launching of CATI monitoring from the interviewer list activity view.
Use software rendering instead of GPU rendering.	Enable	If using IE11, setting must be enabled to display toolbox icons. Note that IE must be restarted for setting change to take effect.

Requirements for Answerlists*, Survey Data Template Editor and Online Coding

Element	Supported
Microsoft Silverlight	Microsoft Silverlight 5.0 (Internet Explorer only). http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/resources/install.aspx

For answer lists, there is a DHMTL alternative to the Silverlight answerlist editor that is supported across all browsers.

Note: The user experience is designed for a minimum screen resolution of 1024x768 or higher at 100% browser zoom.