Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Version: Date:
1.1 07.06.2011
2011 Globalpark AG, Globalpark UK Ltd., Globalpark Inc., USA, Globalpark sterreich GmbH The information contained in this publication is the property of Globalpark AG and its subsidiaries. Passing on and reproduction of this publication or any parts of it is only permitted with the express written approval of Globalpark AG or its subsidiaries. This publication is issued without any guarantee whatsoever. Information contained herein can be changed without prior notification. In addition Globalpark accepts no guarantee as to the exactness or completeness of the information, text, graphics, links and other items in this publication. This publication is a preliminary version, which is not subject to any valid licence agreement or other agreements with Globalpark. The software products offered by Globalpark AG, its subsidiaries and/or its distributors may contain software components of other software manufacturers. All products may show country-specific differences. Globalpark, Enterprise Feedback Suite, EFS, EFS Survey, EFS Panel, EFS Employee and EFS Leadership, other Globalpark products and services mentioned in the text and their corresponding logos are trademarks and can be registered trademarks of Globalpark AG and/or its subsidiaries in Germany and other countries worldwide. All other names of products and services are trademarks of their respective companies.
Great Britain: Globalpark UK LTD. 19-21 Great Tower Street, 1st Floor London, EC3R 5AR
United States of America: Globalpark, Inc. 299 Broadway, 19th Floor New York, NY 10007
Contents
Contents
0 Introduction
0.1 ............................................................. 17 19 21 23 23 23 24 24 26 27 28 29 30 30 33 36 37 39 43 44 46 48 48 49 50 51 51 53 55 56 56 56 56 56 57 57 58 59
1.2
Project Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.1 Anonymous Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.2 Personalized Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.3 Employee Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.4 Panel Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.5 Master Data Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.6 Forum Discussions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Creating Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.1 Creating Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.2 Copying Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2
Contents
60 62 62 63 63 63 64 64 65 65 65 67 68 68 69 71 72 72 77 78 79 79 80 81 82 83 83 88 89 91 92 98 100 103 105 106 108 109 109 110 111 113 115 115 116 117 119 121
Compiling Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Linking Different Projects: External Survey Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Managing Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.5.1 The Project List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.5.2 Modifying Display Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.5.3 Searching for Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.5.4 Finding the Most Recently Edited Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.5.5 Marking Important Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.5.6 Organizing Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.5.7 Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.5.8 Granting Access Rights to Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Opening a Project and Getting an Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.6.1 Project Information in Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Determining Framework Data for a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.7.1 Configuring Survey Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.7.2 Overview of Survey Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.7.3 Changing the URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.7.4 Defining the Field Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.7.5 Automatically Submitting Questionnaire Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.7.6 Showing and Hiding Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.7.7 Checking for JavaScript and Flash before the Start of the Survey . . . . . . . . 3.7.8 Determining Participant Hostnames and IP Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.7.9 Letting All Panelists Participate in a Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.7.10 Allowing Repeated Participation in a Master Data or Panel Survey . . . . . . . . 3.7.11 Defining Login Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.7.12 Setting the Session Validity Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.7.13 Using URL Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.7.14 Using User-Defined Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.7.15 Editing Survey Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.7.16 Managing Survey Messages in the Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.7.17 Setting Up the Right Character Set for Your Survey Language . . . . . . . . . . . 3.7.18 Permitting only a Limited Number of Participations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.7.19 Controlling the Survey Display on the Panel Website . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.7.20 Highlighting Surveys in the Project List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Automating Frequently Required Work Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.8.1 Managing Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.8.2 Creating Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.8.3 Creating a New Macro and Selecting Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.8.4 Configuring Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.8.5 Macro Actions in Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.8.6 Granting Access Rights to Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.8.7 Using Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.8.8 Checking the Application of Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................
3.6 3.7
3.8
The Structure of the Questionnaire Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Planning the Structure of the Questionnaire (Routing) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Contents
The Routing Plan in the Editors Questionnaire View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Orientation Aids within the Questionnaire Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Finding Questions and Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
122 125 127 127 128 129 130 130 131 132 133 133 134 134 134 135 135 136 139 140 143 143 147 148 153 154 156 156 158 159 160 160 160 161 161 161 163 164 166 170 170 171 171 173 175 175 176
Working with the Alternative Drag&Drop Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.1 Using the Drag&Drop Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.2 Undoing Moves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Creating and Editing Questionnaire Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.1 Overview of Page Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Standard Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5.1 Overview of the Properties of Standard Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5.2 Defining Page-Specific JavaScript Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5.3 Automatically Submitting a Completed Questionnaire Page . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5.4 Automatically Submitting a Page after a Defined Period of Time . . . . . . . . . 4.5.5 Hiding the Submit Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5.6 Inserting a Cancel Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5.7 Assigning a Differing Character Set to a Specific Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5.8 Customizing a Specific Page with JavaScript or CSS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5.9 Creating a Static Start Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5.10 Editing Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mixed-External Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.7.1 Example: Routing Selected Participants into a Questionnaire Branch . . . . 4.7.2 Possible Filter Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.7.3 Defining Conditions for Filters and Other Dynamic Features . . . . . . . . . . . 4.7.4 Viewing the Filters of a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.7.5 Testing Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.7.6 Identifying Structural Problems in a Condition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.7.7 Entering Condition Code Directly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.7.8 Using LUA for Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Random Selection of Questionnaire Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.8.1 Repeating the Random Selection on Re-load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.8.2 Selecting m out of n Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.8.3 Filters in Random Select Branches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Random Rotation of Survey Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Creating and Editing Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.10.1 Creating a New Question and Selecting the Question Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.10.2 Editing Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.10.3 Showing and Hiding Question Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.10.4 Overview of the Functions in the Question View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.11.1 Viewing Runtime Error Messages in Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.11.2 Displaying Items Hidden in the Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.11.3 Jumping to Other Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.4 4.5
4.6 4.7
4.8
4.9 4.10
4.11
Contents
Closed Response List (Type 131) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Example: Using Self-Programmed JavaScript Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Open Response List (Type 132) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ranking Question (Type 411) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
177 178 180 180 183 183 185 185 185 186 187 189 189 191 191 194 195 196 197 198 200 202 203 206 208 208 210 215 216 216 216 217 217 217 218 219 219 219 220 226 227 228 229 230 230 231 231 232
Question Types with a Multiple Response List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2.1 Multiple Response List (Vertical) (Type 121) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2.2 Multiple Response List (Horizontal) (Type 122) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Question Types for Open-Ended Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.1 Text Field (Single Row) (Type 141) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.2 Text Field (Multiple Rows) (Type 142) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.3 Text Field Matrix (Vertical / Horizontal) (Type 143, 144) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Matrix Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4.1 Standard Matrix 1 (Type 311) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4.2 Other Standard and Scale Matrices (Types 312, 313, 321, 322) . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4.3 Semantic Differential (Type 340) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4.4 Double-Scale Matrix (Type 351) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4.5 Select Matrix (Type 361, 364) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4.6 Checkbox Matrix (Type 362) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4.7 Text Field Matrix (Type 363) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4.8 Archiving Scales in the Scale Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sliders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.5.1 Tips & Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . User-Defined Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Text and HTML Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Multimedia Question Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.8.1 Multimedia (Type 999) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.8.2 Single and Multiple Response Lists with Images (511, 521) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.8.3 Multiple Response List (Horizontally Ordered Images) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Structuring Answer Options Clearly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.9.1 Grouping Answer Options Using Inside Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.9.2 Combining Inside Titles and Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using Other Text Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.10.1 Combining Answer Options and Other Text Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.10.2 Adding Text Entry Fields in Surrounding Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Randomly Changing the Sequence of Questions, Answers and Scale Items . . . . . . . . . . 5.11.1 Randomly Switching the Position of Questions on a Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.11.2 Randomly Switching Answer Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.11.3 Randomly Switching Scale Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.11.4 Randomly Switching the Position of Answer Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.11.5 Mirroring Answer Options on the Centerline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Enforcing Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.12.1 Demanding Questions to be Answered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.12.2 Enforcing Answers to Individual Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.12.3 Forcing a Text Field Entry for Combination Fields and dac . . . . . . . . . . . . . Making Checkboxes Exclusive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Validating the Plausibility of Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.14.1 Plausibility Checks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.14.2 Planning the Use of Plausibility Checks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.3
5.4
5.9
5.10
5.11
5.12
5.13 5.14
Contents
Example: Plausibility Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 Predefined Plausibility Checks (Plausibility Check Types) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 Including Data from Participant Administration and from the User and Master Data Tables in Plausibility Checks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 PHP Plausibility Checks and JavaScript Plausibility Checks . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 Adjusting the Plausibility Check Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 The Pro Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 The OPST Meta Language (OML) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 247 247 248 249 249 250 251 252 255 257 258 259 259 265 267 267 268 269 272 273 273 275 276 276 279 280 281 283 285 286 287 288 291 293 293 295 295
Validating Open-Ended Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.15.1 Considerations before Starting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.15.2 Choosing the Entry Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hiding Questions and Answer Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.16.1 Hiding Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.16.2 Hiding Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Integrating Multimedia Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.17.1 Incorporating Multimedia Elements in the Questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.17.2 The Media Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.17.3 Managing Multimedia Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.17.4 Using Directories to Manage Multimedia Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.17.5 Downloading the Content of the Media Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.17.6 Protecting Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....................................
5.16
5.17
Importing Questions from a Template Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1.1 Formatting Questions for Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1.2 Performing a Question Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Importing Answer Options as Batch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Importing Pages into Another Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3.1 Invoking the Page Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3.2 Performing a Page Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Storing Frequently Used Questions in the Question Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.4.1 The Question Library Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.4.2 Working with the Question Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Referencing Questions from Several Places . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editing Questionnaires Externally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.6.1 Exporting, Editing and Importing Text Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.6.2 Editing Externally with MS Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.6.3 Translating Externally with SDLX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.6.4 Using the Version Control Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editing Page, Question and Trigger Names Externally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Search and Replace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...............................
6.2 6.3
6.4
6.5 6.6
6.7 6.8
Using Wildcards to Output Predefined Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1.1 Defining and Managing Wildcards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1.2 Using Wildcards in the Questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1.3 Example: Using Wildcards to Incorporate Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Contents
7.2 7.3
Using Wildcards to Output Dynamic Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.2.1 Inserting Wildcards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.3.1 Creating Dynamic Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.3.2 Creating Static Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.3.3 Incorporating Static and Dynamic Lists into Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.3.4 Configuring the Output of the List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.3.5 In Detail: Extended Random Selection of List Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.3.6 Outputting Lists in the Questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.3.7 Tips and Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Loops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.4.1 Creating and Configuring a Loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.4.2 Creating a Looped Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.4.3 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.4.4 Filtering on Loop Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.4.5 EFS Features with Limited or No Functionality in Loop Projects . . . . . . . . 7.4.6 Exporting and Evaluating Loop Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Initiating Actions with Triggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5.1 Example: Using a Trigger for Sending Feedback Mails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5.2 Triggers in Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5.3 The Mail Trigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5.4 The Page Trigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5.5 The Logout Trigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5.6 The Sample Trigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5.7 The Reinvitation Trigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5.8 The Variable Split Trigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5.9 The Recoding Trigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5.10 The Random Trigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5.11 The List Trigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5.12 The Bonus Trigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5.13 Panel Group Trigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Transferring Answers from Another Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............................................
297 297 299 301 306 308 310 312 313 314 314 316 317 319 321 322 323 325 325 329 332 333 334 334 335 336 338 342 343 345 346 346 349 351 352 353 354 355 355 358 363 364 366 368 368 370 372 373
7.4
7.5
7.6
Which Layout Options are There? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . General Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Standard Editor: Changing the Standard Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3.1 The Standard Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3.2 Inserting Logos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3.3 Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3.4 Form Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3.5 Changing Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3.6 Progress Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3.7 Configuring Plausibility Checks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Pro Editor: Advanced Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.4.1 Page Structure and Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.4.2 Using Templates to Edit the Page Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.4.3 Editing CSS Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.4.4 Debugging Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.4
Contents
373 374 374 375 375 375 375 376 377 378 379 379 380 381 381 382 382 382 382 385 387 388 390 391 393 394 394 396 397 397 398 398 399 399 401 402 402 402 405 407 407 407 408 410
Functions for Advanced Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.5.1 Creating a Page with a Deviating Border Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.5.2 Creating a Question with a Deviating Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.5.3 Editing the Layout of Special Question Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.5.4 Re-Defining Question Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.5.5 Modifying the Progress Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.5.6 Modifying the Plausibility Check Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.5.7 Detecting Specific Browsers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.5.8 Making Surveys Appear in a Frameset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.5.9 Creating Language-dependent Survey Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . How are Survey Layouts Generated? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.6.1 Technical Background Information on the Template System . . . . . . . . . . . Saving and Re-Using Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.7.1 Saving Settings as a Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.7.2 Loading Saved Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Exporting and Importing Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.6 8.7
8.8
9 Testing Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9.1 9.2 Checking the Completion Status of a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using Simulated Test Sessions to Identify Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.2.1 Producing Test Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.2.2 Interpreting Test Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.2.3 Deleting Test Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Checking Conditions for Logical Consistency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Checking Media Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Skipping Checks During Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Changing the Language During Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Switching to Language Editor During Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Checking Filters, Quotas and Triggers in the Course of the Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.8.1 Viewing Runtime Error Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.8.2 Subscribing to Notification Mail for Runtime Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Managing the To-Dos of the Project Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Capturing Pretest Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.10.1 Activating the Pretest Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.10.2 Changing the Labels of the Pretest Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.10.3 Viewing and Managing Pretest Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...................................
9.9 9.10
Recruiting and Inviting Participants to Anonymous Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.1.1 Inviting Participants Via a Link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.1.2 Inviting Participants via QR Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.1.3 Inviting Participants Via a Pop-up Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.1.4 Inviting the Nth Visitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Contents
10.1.5 10.2
Restricting Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
411 411 412 419 421 421 422 423 424 428 429 429 431 432 432 432 433 434 436
Managing Participants in Personalized Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2.1 Editing Participant Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2.2 The List of Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2.3 Display and Search Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2.4 Search Functions in Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2.5 Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2.6 Adding Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2.7 Importing Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2.8 Formatting of the Import File in Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2.9 Changing Participant Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2.10 Bulk Editing Participant Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2.11 Downloading Participant Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2.12 Allowing Duplicate Participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2.13 Selecting Participants via Their E-Mail Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2.14 Dispatching Reminders and Deactivating Accounts Automatically . . . . . . . . 10.2.15 Sending E-Mails to Participants of Personalized Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2.16 Testing Personalized Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2.17 Walking Participants through the Questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10.3
Drawing Samples for Panel and Master Data Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437 10.3.1 Example: Drawing a Sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437 10.3.2 Managing Samples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440 10.3.3 Editing a Sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441 10.3.4 Limiting the Basic Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441 10.3.5 Controlling the Attribute Distribution Within the Sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443 10.3.6 Checking the Composition of the Sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448 10.3.7 Viewing and Managing the Participants of a Sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448 10.3.8 Inviting and Reminding Sample Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450 10.3.9 Managing Personalized Links for External Survey Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450 10.3.10 Testing Panel Surveys and Master Data Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451 10.3.11 Viewing and Managing Participants Who Were Added Automatically to the Survey 452 10.3.12 Tips & Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452 Defining the Distribution of Specific Characteristics in a Participant Group with Quotas 10.4.1 Work Steps for Creating a Quota . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.4.2 Basics: The Quota Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.4.3 Basics: Internal and External Quotas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.4.4 Basics: Quota Timetable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.4.5 Basics: The Most Important Quota Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.4.6 Managing Quotas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.4.7 Configuration Options for the Quota Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.4.8 Selecting a Suitable Point in the Questionnaire for Checking Internal Quotas 10.4.9 Screening out Unsuitable Respondents by Quota . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.4.10 Viewing the Quota Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.4.11 Using Quota Data for Routing and Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.4.12 Reactivating Participants when Increasing Size of an External Quota . . . . . 10.4.13 Recalculating Quotas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............................................ 453 454 454 455 455 456 457 458 460 461 462 463 464 464 465 467
10.4
10
Contents
11.2
The EFS Mail Form in Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.2.1 Using Mail Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.2.2 Configuring Advanced Mail Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.2.3 Editing Mail Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.2.4 Additional Functions for Personalizing E-Mail Texts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.2.5 Setting the Dispatch Date, Dispatch Period and Status of E-Mails . . . . . . . . 11.2.6 Checking Finished E-Mails and Saving Them as Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using Ready-made Mail Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.3.1 Managing Mail Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.3.2 Properties of Mail Templates in Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Defining Senders Addresses for Mail Dispatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.4.1 Managing Sender Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Mail Dispatch Process in EFS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.5.1 Limiting the Mail Volume per Mail Interval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.5.2 Defining the Number of Repeats for Dispatch Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.5.3 Using Installation-specific Mail Headers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.5.4 Controlling Dispatch Processes and Intervening in Processes . . . . . . . . . . . Viewing Archived Mails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.6.1 Viewing Project-specific Dispatch Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.6.2 Viewing Project-specific Dispatch Processes Installation-wide . . . . . . . . . . .
470 470 470 474 477 480 481 483 483 484 486 486 487 488 488 488 488 489 489 491 493 495 496 497 498 498 501 503 504 504 505 505 506 507 507 507 507 507 508 508 509 509 510 510 511 511 511
11.3
11.4 11.5
11.6
12 Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12.1 12.2 12.3 Field Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Reporting and Statistic Tools for Individual Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Field Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.3.1 Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.3.2 The Field Report in Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.3.3 Disposition Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.3.4 Allocating Code 20 to either Gross or Net . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.3.5 Restricting the Field Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.3.6 Splitting the Field Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.3.7 Exporting the Field Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.3.8 Setting a Variable Page Marker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Online Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.4.1 Restricting the Online Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.4.2 Splitting the Online Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Open-ended Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.5.1 Restricting the Open-Ended Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editing Individual Participant Records Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.6.1 Access Restrictions for Accessing Data Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.6.2 Overview of Data Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.6.3 Viewing Individual Data Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.6.4 Editing Individual Data Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.6.5 Deleting Individual Data Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Deleting Result Data Selectively . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Protecting the Results of Selected Questions from Unauthorized Viewing . . . . . . . . . . . 12.8.1 protect_questions ACL Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.8.2 Marking Questions as Protected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12.4
12.5 12.6
12.7 12.8
11
Contents
12.8.3 12.9
513 513 514 515 516 516 519 522 522 522 525 526 526 526 527 527 527 527 528 528 529 530 530 530 530 531 531 531 531 532 533 533 536
12.10 Creating Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.11 Importing Data from Other Sources for Evaluation in EFS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.11.1 Performing a Project Data Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.11.2 Formatting of the Import File in Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13 Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13.1 13.2 General Tips and Tricks on Exporting Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Detailed Description of Result, Master and Address Data Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.2.1 Selecting the Appropriate File Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.2.2 Compressing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.2.3 Selecting an Export Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.2.4 Restricting Export to Individual Panel Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.2.5 Selecting the Language and Charset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.2.6 User-Defined Missing Values in Exported Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.2.7 Removing Line Breaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.2.8 Replacing Codes with Labels in Excel Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.2.9 Restricting the Range of Exported Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.2.10 Excel Export with Long Variable Names and Meta Information . . . . . . . . . . Exporting Participant and Status Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Exporting Answers to Open Questions for Quantum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Special Functions for SAS Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.5.1 Notes on SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.5.2 Making Default Settings for the Further Processing of the SAS Files . . . . . . 13.5.3 Exporting and Opening SAS Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Special Functions for Fixed Format Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.6.1 Adjusting Column Widths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.6.2 Downloading the Export Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Special Features for the Evaluation in SPSS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.7.1 Excursion: Merging Records in SPSS (Matching) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . What do the Exported Result Data Reveal? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.8.1 Overview of Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.8.2 Overview of Variable Preallocations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13.6
13.7 13.8
13.9
EFS Survey Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537 13.9.1 Overview of the Various Variable Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537 13.9.2 Maximum Available Number of Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538 13.9.3 Generating and Editing Project Variables and Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538 13.9.4 Preset and User-Defined Names for Project Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539 13.9.5 Viewing and Editing User-Defined Variable Names in the Questionnaire Editor 539 13.9.6 Options for Centralized Editing of Variable Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539 541 541 541 543 543 544
13.10 Defining Export Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.10.1 Overview of Existing Export Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.10.2 Viewing User-defined Templates and Sorting Their Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.10.3 Creating a User-defined Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.10.4 Downloading and Uploading Export Templates and Editing Them Externally 13.10.5 Editing a User-defined Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12
Contents
13.11 Data Cleaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.11.1 Activating Automatic Data Cleaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.11.2 Triggering Data Cleaning for the Entire Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.11.3 Viewing Details and Editing Records Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.11.4 Identifying Cleaned Data in the Export Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.12 Quality Correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.12.1 Triggering Quality Correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.12.2 Viewing the Quality Index in the Export Data Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.13 RelevantID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.13.1 The RelevantID Checking Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.13.2 Check Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.13.3 Configuring the RelevantID Check for a Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
544 545 545 546 549 549 549 550 550 551 552 553 555 557 557 558 559 559 561 561 562 562 562 563 563 564 564 565 567 571 571 572 572 573 574 574 574 575 576 578 578 578 579 582 583 585
..................................
Printing the Questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.1.1 Preparing the Print Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.1.2 Displaying Additional Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Looking up Variables and Encodings in the Codebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.2.1 Viewing the Codebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.2.2 Displaying Additional Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.2.3 Selecting the Language of Text Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.2.4 Editing Variable Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.2.5 Printing and Exporting Codebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Checking Changes of the Project Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Logging Changes to the Questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Archiving Survey Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.5.1 Archiving Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.5.2 Viewing, Downloading and Deleting Archived Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.5.3 Reactivating Archived Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
14.2
15 Multilingual Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
15.1 Tips for Your Project Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.1.1 Tips for Project Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.1.2 Recommendations on Project Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Specifying and Editing General Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.2.1 Overview of Existing Languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.2.2 Uniquely Characterizing Languages with a Language Identifier . . . . . . . . . 15.2.3 Creating Languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.2.4 Copying Language Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.2.5 Setting the Active Default Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.2.6 Setting the Output Language Via a Language Selection Variable . . . . . . . . . 15.2.7 Tracing Changes Made in Language Administration via the Log . . . . . . . . . Centrally Editing Text Elements and Logos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.3.1 Overview of the Translation Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.3.2 The Text Element Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.3.3 Editing Survey Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.3.4 Logos and Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Setting Up a Language Selection Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
15.2
15.3
15.4
13
Contents
15.5 15.6
E-Mail Dispatch from Participant Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.6.1 Exporting Result Data for Evaluation in SPSS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.6.2 Exporting Result Data for Open-ended Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Evaluation of Multilingual Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.7.1 Narrowing the Field Report, Online Statistics and Open-Ended Answers by Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.7.2 Selecting the Language for Online Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.7.3 Selecting the Print Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tips, Tricks and FAQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.8.1 How can I incorporate language-specific variations into the questionnaire? 15.8.2 How can I preview multilingual questionnaires? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.8.3 Language mix in the preview? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.8.4 Be careful when comparing strings in plausibility checks! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.8.5 Using wildcards in multilingual projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.8.6 How can I create multilingual buttons? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.8.7 Can I create language-specific layouts? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.8.8 Is it possible to transfer text elements from one language to another? . . . . . 15.8.9 Can I access the ID of the current language from the questionnaire or from templates? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....................................................
586 587 587 587 587 587 588 588 588 588 588 589 589 589 589 589 590 590 591 593 593 594 595 605 605 605 606 606 607 610 610 610 610 612 613 614 615 615 615 617 617 617 623 625 625
15.7
15.8
16 Administrating Staff
16.1
The EFS Rights System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.1.1 Controlling the Access Options of Staff via Team Affiliation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.1.2 Configuring Access Options Precisely Using ACL and Object Rights . . . . . . 16.1.3 Overview of ACL Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.1.4 Importing and Exporting Rights Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Creating and Managing Teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.2.1 List of Teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.2.2 Statuses of Team Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.2.3 Creating Teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.2.4 Editing Teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.2.5 Viewing and Changing the ACL Rights of a Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.2.6 Granting Read Rights to a Specific Team to Other Teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Setting up and Managing Staff Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.3.1 Staff List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.3.2 Creating Staff Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.3.3 Importing Staff Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.3.4 Temporal Limitation of Validity on Staff Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.3.5 Changing Staff Account Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.3.6 Sending a Link for Resetting the Password by E-mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.3.7 Checking Staff Accounts for Brute Force Suspension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.3.8 Delegating the Administration of Staff Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Changing Own Account Data and Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.4.1 Tweaking Your Own Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................
16.2
16.3
16.4
Limiting the Server Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.1.1 Setting the Threshold for the Server Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
14
Contents
Editing the Message for Rejected Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Viewing the Number of Rejected Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
626 626 626 626 627 627 627 627 628 628 629 630 631 632 634 634 634 635 639 641 641 641 642 642 642 642 642 643 644 645 651
Limiting the Number of Respondents Participating Simultaneously . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.2.1 Participation Limits in Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.2.2 System-wide Activation and Deactivation of Participation Limits . . . . . . . . 17.2.3 Project-specific Activation and Deactivation of Participation Limits . . . . . . 17.2.4 Editing the Rejection Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.2.5 Viewing the Number of Rejected Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Monitoring the Status of the Installation in the Platform Cockpit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.3.1 Cockpit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.3.2 Database Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.3.3 Login Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.3.4 Admin Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.3.5 OSPE Watchdog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.3.6 Interview Count . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.3.7 Installation Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Subscribing to the Daily Database Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.4.1 The Content of the Database Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ................................................................
17.3
17.4
18 Appendix
18.1
Technical Requirements for Using EFS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18.1.1 Admin Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18.1.2 Questionnaire Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18.1.3 Portal Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Accessibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18.2.1 Navigating via the Keyboard in a Questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18.2.2 Readability of EFS Questionnaires in Screen Readers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18.2.3 Clickable Areas of Various Question Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Session, Session IDs and Cookies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Firefox Plugins for Working in EFS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Overview of the Question Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....................................................................
18.2
Index
15
Contents
16
0 Introduction
0.1 About this Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
17
18
Introduction
In EFS 8.0, a layout overhaul of the entire admin area underscores the modernization of the Enterprise Feedback Suite. The completely revamped layout provides a maximum of clarity and consistency and will make working with it a pleasant experience for you. An overview on all novelties in EFS 8.0 is available from the customer center at http://my.globalpark.com. EFS Survey is Globalparks web-based software solution for organizing, implementing and evaluating online questionnaires. Its range of functionalities, however, extends far beyond the mere creation and publication of web-based questionnaires: EFS Survey is an efficient project management software application for online feedback processes which allows you to process survey projects of all levels of complexity quickly and effectively.
19
0 Introduction
your Globalpark sales representative. A manual for translators is available from customer center. EFS Conjoint Extension: Optionally leasable functional extension. A manual is available in the customer center. EFS Mobile Extension: Optionally leasable functional extension. Supports the delivery of online questionnaires on mobile devices. An introduction is available from customer center. For more detailed information please contact your Globalpark sales representative. EFS SMS Extension: Optionally leasable functional extension, enabling you to send SMS messages. An introduction is available from customer center. For more detailed information please contact your Globalpark sales representative. EFS Survey Status: Optionally leasable accessory tool. In the customer center, you can download a manual for project managers and a dedicated manual for customers to whom you might provide this platform. EFS Secure Exchange: Optionally leasable accessory tool. A manual is available in the customer center. EFS Web Services: Optionally leasable supplementary service. An English language introduction is available from the customer center. Action Planner: Optionally leasable tool for EFS Employee, which is used for managing follow-up processes of employee surveys. A manual is available from the customer center.
With the exception of the Flash question types and the traditional EFS Survey reporting, which are included in the standard version of EFS Survey, the accessory tools are available as options. If you are interested in these solutions, please contact your Globalpark sales representative for further information.
Versioning
The products of the Enterprise Feedback Suite are developed in parallel. Therefore, the numbering of the releases is identical for all products. If differences between releases are mentioned in the manual, the version numbering will always be as follows: EFS major version.minor version (e.g. EFS 8.0). Globalpark customers can download the most recent version of the EFS Survey manual from the customer center http://my.globalpark.com.
20
21
22
1.1.1
If you access the admin area via proxy server, e.g. from inside a company network, the access should not be restricted by time limitations. Furthermore, intermediary proxy servers should not manipulate any requests.
1.1.2
23
An exception is a range of newly introduced features based on AJAX technology, including in particular, the Drag&Drop questionnaire editor (Chapter 4.3, p. 127): Changes do not need to be expressly saved with these features.
24
Figure 1.1
EFS login
The admin area login is protected by the ACL right area_www. You and your staff need write rights in order to log in.
25
Figure 1.2
Please note: EFS Survey has brute force protection, i.e. only a limited number of false password entries is possible. Thereafter the staff member account is deactivated for a specified period (by default suspension occurs after the sixth false entry and the waiting time is 30 minutes). Therefore please use the help offered on the login screen if you have forgotten your password. Further information regarding brute force protection can be found in Chapter 16.3.7, p. 615.
1.2.2
26
A dictionary check can be optionally activated, i.e. a check is made as to whether the password will withstand a dictionary attack. On new installations this check is disabled by default. When changing password after the first login or on expiry of one month the same password may not be used again. Whether a password meets default security criteria is checked during entry and dynamically displayed.
Figure 1.3
The admin area can optionally be operated in High Security Mode. In addition to EFS standard security features, supplementary protective measures that meet advanced requirements for web application security are activated in this operation mode. These include, in particular, stricter security criteria for the passwords of staff members. A special documentation providing detailed information on the High Security Mode is available for download from our customer center.
1.2.3
Security Question
The function for sending a forgotten password is protected by a security question. This security question is defined at the first login: You can select the desired question from a list of suggestions or enter it yourself, and must enter the answer yourself. You can subsequently edit the security question in the Staff->Own account menu.
27
Figure 1.4
See Chapter 16.4, p. 617, for further information on how to change the settings for your own account.
28
Login data
On the left hand side below the menu the display shows the account you are logged on with and which other users are active. Clock time is also displayed. Login: The name of the logged-in staff member Users online user(s) online: Number of staff members logged in the admin area. For EFS Panel installations only: user(s) online: The number of panelists logged onto the panel website . respondent(s) online: Number of survey participants. The numbers are calculated in 30 second intervals and include users who performed an operation within the last 10 minutes.
Date (GMT): Server time. EFS Survey installations always use GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)/UTC (Universal Time Coordinated) and this setting cannot be altered. Local date: Date and time setting you may select for your account. See Table 16.15, p. 617. For EFS Panel installations only: Panel date. Date and time set for panel installation. The login to the customer center is located below the login data. As a Globalpark customer, this link allows you to switch directly from the admin area to the customer center.
Content area
The actual work is performed in the central content area in the middle of the screen. Clicking on tabs allows you to switch between different subtopics and then trigger actions or make entries using dialogs, icons, pop-up windows or links.
29
Standard dialogs
The layout of the user dialogs follows a consistent pattern: The Submit button is always located in the bottom right corner. Checkboxes you can tick and drop-down lists from which you can select options are also be placed in the right-hand part of the screen.
30
To offer your praise, criticism, or suggestions regarding specific functions you are currently working with, please proceed as follows: Open the pop-up window containing the feedback form by clicking on the Feedback link in the upper right-hand corner. Information regarding the context of your comment, such as installation, menu, or currently executed action, is gathered automatically; i. e. you do not have to enter this information in detail. If you are willing to answer further questions, please activate the respective checkbox.
31
32
33
34
Figure 2.1
35
where to put a specific filter (i.e. which pages should only be visible to specific participants)? Which questions and answer items should only be visible to specific participants?
Figure 2.2
To create an anonymous survey, please proceed as follows: 1. Click on the Create project menu item. 2. The entry dialog for new projects is opened.
36
Figure 2.3
Creating a project
3. Enter the following project details: project type: anonymous survey title, description, author and co-authors staff teams which are allowed to have access to the project survey messages (e.g. button labels, login messages and system messages): a default set can be selected in various languages. Additionally users can define their own sets. Please select Standard survey messages for English language (en_GB).
Chapter 3.1, p. 55, introduces the various survey types you can realize using EFS Survey, EFS Panel and EFS Employee. 4. In the Advanced options section, keep the default settings unchanged. 5. Confirm your entries by clicking on the Create button. 6. The message Project has been created successfully. will be displayed on a green bar. Click on the To project link in the message.
37
Figure 2.4
To create the questionnaire, click on the Questionnaire editor menu item. The questionnaire editor is opened.
Figure 2.5
For your sample project only the final page has been created automatically so far. You will soon create all other pages yourself.
38
Figure 2.6
Youre presently on level 1, the questionnaire view. It shows a list of the different pages of the questionnaire. If you click on a page title in the questionnaire view you get to level 2, the page view. The questions on a questionnaire page are listed. If you click on a question title in the page view you get to level 3, the question view. You will see the text elements and all other relevant settings for a specific question.
2.2.1
39
Figure 2.7
1. Enter Start as a title of the page. Select the page type Standard. 2. Confirm with Create. 3. The new page is created and displayed in the automatically opened questionnaire view.
40
Figure 2.8
3. The title of the first question has been automatically preset with the page title Start. Keep this title. 4. You have to choose an appropriate question type. Click the Show available question types icon. (As soon as you have familiarized yourself with the question types of EFS Survey, you can use the drop-down list instead: Selecting a group of questions opens a list of the corresponding question types with schemas.) 5. A list of all question types with schemata is shown.
Figure 2.9
Detailed explanations on the question types are given in Chapter 5, p. 175. 6. For the welcome text you do not need any question elements, just normal text and a little bit of HTML. Therefore, select the question type Text and HTML code (998). 7. Confirm with Create. You get to the third level of the questionnaire editor, the question view, where you will see an entry form to enter texts.
41
Figure 2.10
8. Enter the text. You can either add HTML tags yourself or use the formatting features. 9. Confirm with Save. 10. Click on the Preview question tab. In a pop-up window, you can see the question from a future respondents point of view. 11. Click on the Questionnaire tab to get back to the questionnaire view.
Figure 2.11
12. The icons in the Actions column offer a variety of options to edit the newlycreated standard page: Preview, Create new page or filter, Copy, Search / replace, Edit page, Page tree import under page X and Delete. 13. Click on the Preview icon to view the complete starting page.
42
If you want to change the text of the Forward button, click on Back to survey menu. Open the Project properties menu. In the Survey messages submenu you can edit the text of the buttons and other important survey messages.
2.2.2
Steps:
1. In order to create the next page, click on the Create new page or filter. 2. Enter Internet use as a page title. 3. Create a new question on the page, take care to select the question type Single response list (vertical) (111) in the drop-down list.
Figure 2.12
43
Figure 2.13
6. Enter the question text and the texts of the answer categories. 7. In order to delete the fifth answer category, click in the checkbox in the Delete column. 8. Save your entries. 9. Click on the Preview question tab to view the question you have just created. With the question preview you can only see the specific question. Whereas in the page preview which you have used in Chapter 2.2.1, p. 39 the whole page is shown.
2.2.3
44
Steps:
1. Create a standard page with the title Attention. 2. Create a question with the question type Multiple response list (vertical) (121). 3. Enter the question text, the fill-in instruction and the first three answer categories (items). Activate the checkbox Delete for the answer categories which you do not need.
Figure 2.14
4. Save your entries. 5. In the New row, enter the text others into the text field in the column Item text. A number for the new item is created automatically. Select Answer category + text in the drop-down list.
45
Figure 2.15
6. Save again. 7. The answer category with text area is created. Optionally you can change width and maximum length of the text.
Figure 2.16
2.2.4
Steps:
1. Create a standard page with the title Evaluation. 2. Create a question of the question type Standard matrix (311).
46
Figure 2.17
Opening the section Scale options in the question view of a standard matrix
4. Save your entries. 5. To edit the scale items, open the section Scale options by clicking on the Arrow icon. 6. The entry dialog for the answer scale is opened.
47
Figure 2.18
7. Enter the four items from 1=I strongly agree to 4=I absolutely disagree. 8. Define the fifth scale item No answer as a missing value. 9. Save your changes and check the result in the preview. If the left margin with the item texts is too small, change the number of pixels in the line Width of the left column with the question texts (in pixel).
2.2.5
Steps:
1. Click on the title of the final page in the questionnaire view and create a question of the question type Text and HTML code (998). As you have learned in Chapter 2.2.1, p. 39, you can format the text yourself. 2. Insert a Close window button: Place the cursor in the entry field and select the option Insert Close window button in the drop down list Insert code automatically. The following HTML code will be added automatically:
<br> <div align=center> <input type=button onClick=window.close() value=Close window> </div> <br>
2.2.6
48
Choosing a layout
If there are already layouts available on the EFS Survey installation you use, you can integrate them in your questionnaire in the Layout templates menu. Choose the layout you need and click on the Select layout button to implement it in your questionnaire.
On the Format tab you can format numerous elements of a questionnaire page for the whole project. The tab contains an interactive scheme of a questionnaire page with all standard elements. If you choose an element, a popup window is opened, and you can change the layout of the element. As soon as you close the window by clicking on Accept & close window the changes will be integrated into your questionnaire. On the Form elements tab you can replace the HTML buttons by graphical form elements. After selecting the graphical form elements and clicking on the button Save you can choose from several sets of form elements and you can upload your own images. On the Progress bar tab you can activate the progress bar. After saving the selection you can choose among several designs or change the text above the bar. Detailed instructions on how to use this and other functions of the standard editor are provided in Chapter 8, p. 351. It also explains the extensive design options offered to advanced users with knowledge of HTML by the Pro editor.
49
Figure 2.19
Figure 2.20
50
the participants data beforehand. In order to gain participants you have to direct potential participants to your survey by integrating a link to the survey in a website. by publishing a link to the survey in a newsletter. by integrating a pop-up window in a website. You can find the link of the survey in the Survey menu in the line URL (see Figure 2.19). If you are conducting a personalized survey in which participants are known in advance, you can use EFS Surveys participant administration to distribute personal invitation mails. See Chapter 10.2, p. 411, for further information.
51
52
53
54
55
Anonymous survey (AN) Personalized survey (PE) Only on EFS Employee platforms: Employee survey (ES) Only on EFS Panel installations: Panel survey (PA) Only on EFS Panel installations: Master data survey (MD) Only on EFS Panel installations: Forum discussions (FD)
3.1.1
Anonymous Surveys
Anonymous surveys (abbreviation: AN) are accessible for all who know the respective survey Internet address. This is usually conducted by means of advertising efforts such as banners or hyperlinks on existing websites.
3.1.2
Personalized Surveys
Personalized surveys (abbreviation: PE) are only accessible for persons included in the survey sample. In a personalized survey, you can precisely define who you wish to include as participants in your online survey. You may either enter participants manually or import the list of participants into EFS in an Excel sheet (CSV file). There are various options of how to restrict access to the survey. For example, by means of a password sent to the participants per e-mail, or via a personalized link or definable IP addresses. The respective passwords for participants can be either generated within EFS Survey or imported into the system.
3.1.3
Employee Surveys
The project type Employee survey (abbreviation: ES) is used only on EFS Employee installations. It satisfies particularly strict data protection guidelines and allows access to the optionally available additional tool Org Processor. The employee survey project type can only be used on EFS Employee installatons. Features and tools that have been developed specifically for this project type are presented in the EFS Employee manuals, which are available for download in the customer center.
3.1.4
Panel Surveys
Panel surveys, master data surveys and forum discussions are only available on EFS Panel installations. Panel surveys (abbreviation: PA) are answered by persons registered as participants within your panel. In order to perform panel surveys you must generate groups in the Panel module. Samples are then drawn from these groups for the survey project of your panel.
3.1.5
56
on the interests of the panel operator. The master data survey is usually the first survey to be completed by each panelist, following registration.
3.1.6
Forum Discussions
You can decide for yourself whether you want to use the new display options for forum discussions described below. If you wish to use them, open the dialog Edit settings for all current forum topics and tick the checkbox Treat as qualitative project. If you subsequently create your forum topics from within the project list, this option will be enabled automatically. The forum discussion (abbreviation: FD) is one of the most frequently used qualitative feedback collection methods. It is strongly used, in particular, in Insight Communities. From EFS 8.0, a dedicated project type Forum discussion is available. In analogy to the familiar survey projects, you can create forum discussions as separate projects and organize them via the Projects menu. The new features in brief: Forum discussions are integrated into the project list and the field overview. Optionally, you can create forum discussions via the familiar Create project menu. If you open a forum discussion from within the project list, the contents will be presented in a navigation structure corresponding to the familiar EFS survey projects. Possible project statuses are active and inactive. In contrast to quantitative projects, forum discussions have no project ID, no author and no project directory. Therefore, these data cannot be retrieved by the search features in project list and field overview. Furthermore, forum discussions cannot be sorted into folders. Please mind that only the most important features of project list and field overview are supported for forum discussions. In particular, the actions in the project list are not available for forum discussions, furthermore neither archiving nor import and export can be used. Access to the qualitative projects in the admin area is controlled via the EFS rights system, as usual. If you want to enable your staff members to open a forum discussion from the project list, you have to assign read rights for board_admin und read rights for the forum. If you want them to create qualitative projects themselves, please assign read rights for cr_project, read rights for board_admin and read rights for the referenced forum. The forum discussions can be displayed along with quantitative surveys on the panelists personal homepages (EFS Panel 8.0, Chapter 19.4.33). For more details on the forums of EFS Panel, please see the manual EFS Panel 8.0, Chapter 14.6.
57
You can export and import a project from one EFS installation to another (see Chapter 3.2.3, p. 60). The number, size and complexity of the projects on an installation affects the performance. - If a project is finished, make sure that all necessary data and project documentation have been downloaded and stored properly. Then, archive the project (see Chapter 14.5, p. 563). To simplify this task, EFS lists all projects whose field time has ended more than 6 weeks ago once per month, thus enabling you to keep your installation clean with minimum effort. - If a project is not needed anymore, it is recommended to delete it from the archive. In many cases, old projects must be deleted for reasons of privacy protection, too. - When preparing a survey, please respect existing limits and guiding values, as e.g. the maximum numbers for variables (Chapter 13.9.2, p. 538), pages (Chapter 4.4, p. 130) and questions (Chapter 4.5, p. 131).
3.2.1
Creating Projects
1. Click on the Projects module in the navigation bar. 2. Click on Create project. The entry form for creating a new project will open.
Figure 3.1
Creating a project
3. In it, specify the project type for the survey by selecting a project type from the Project type select box. (Exception on Panel installations: If you select forum discussion, the dialog shown above will be replaced automatically by the list of required forum topic properties.) 4. Type a name into the Title field. 5. If required, enter a description of the present project in the Description field (e.g. content and use of the project). 6. In the Author field, enter the name of the project author.
58
7. Specify additional persons participating in the project in the Staff field, as required. 8. Specify which staff teams are to receive access to the project. To do so, choose the team from the Which teams shall receive full access? select box (see Chapter 3.5.8, p. 68). The teams, in which you are a member, are displayed in a select box, and your own primary team is pre-selected. Your own primary team always gets read and write rights on the newly created project automatically. If you belong to a team with write rights to the ACL right groupadmin, you can assign all teams in the installation of the Admingroup type with read and write rights to the project. 9. Apply the following survey messages for this project: A set of survey messages that already exists in the library is uploaded (see Chapter 3.7.16, p. 98). 10. In the Advanced options area, you can make further adjustments to the settings: EFS features a runtime check for checking the conditions of LUA filters, quotas and triggers in the course of the survey (see Chapter 9.8, p. 398). Optionally, you can subscribe to e-mail notifications which are sent whenever a participant causes this kind of error. To do so, enter a list of staff members to be notified in the field Notification on errors during survey processing. Each row should contain only one address. You can have an e-mail notification sent to you before the end of the field period of a survey. To do so, enter a list of the staff members who are to receive an e-mail in the Notification before end of survey field. In each row there should be only one address. The mails will be sent seven days before the end of the project. Then select the desired mail template. You can choose from mail templates of the Notification before end of survey type. If you do not select a template resp. if you cannot select one due to missing rights, a mail with default text will be used. Put the project in folder: The project is moved into the corresponding folder of the project list (see Chapter 3.5.6, p. 65). After creating the project directly apply layout: A layout that already exists as a template is uploaded (see Chapter 8.7.1, p. 382). Which status is to be applied after creating the project? You can choose between the statuses survey compiled, active and inactive. An overview of all the statuses can be found in Table 3.1.
11. Clicking on the Create button will create the new project. A green bar containing the To project link will display a message indicating that the operation was successful. The project can now be located in the project list under the title you entered.
3.2.2
Copying Projects
You can create copies of projects at any time. Contents of questionnaires, layout settings and general project attributes will also be copied. Result data which already exist, generated reports or sample definitions (e.g. contents of participant administration in personalized projects) will not be copied. 1. Open the Projects module. 2. Select the project you wish to copy from the project list and click on the Copy icon.
59
3. The familiar entry dialog for creating projects (Figure 3.1) is opened, preset with the data of the source project. 4. In the Project type select box, choose the project type for the survey copy. Please mind the restrictions mentioned in Chapter 3.2.4, p. 62. 5. Enter the project title, description, author and staff members, as described in Chapter 3.2.1, p. 58, and specify the access for the team in the Which teams shall receive full access select box. 6. Click on Create to create a copy of the selected project.
3.2.3
Exporting a project
In order to save a project on the local server, please proceed as follows:
60
1. Starting from the Projects module, open the appropriate project and go to the Export menu.
Figure 3.2
2. Select the Project export option and confirm with Continue. 3. Define if and which additional data should be included in the export. 4. Save the file locally on a volume of your computer as an XML file with the file extension gpx.
Importing a project
To import a project which was exported as described above into the same or into another EFS installation in the EFS-specific XML format, please proceed as follows: 1. Switch to the Projects module again and click on the Project import menu item.
Figure 3.3
Importing a project
2. Click on Browse. 3. Choose the .gpx file from the local drive or from the network and click on the Open button. The file you selected will appear in the Source field. 4. Specify the project type you wish to assign to the imported project by selecting a project type from the Project type drop-down list. Please mind the restrictions mentioned in Chapter 3.2.4, p. 62. 5. Enter a project title into the Title field. 6. Specify which staff teams are to receive access to the project by choosing the respective teams from the Which teams shall receive full access select box. 7. Click on Send file to import the selected project. 8. If the import was successful, the following message will appear: Project will be imported!. You can select and edit the project in the project list.
61
3.2.4
Runtime compilation
EFS Survey automatically performs soft compilation without data loss, if the survey engine detects that data were added during the field phase without subsequent compilation. However, for performance reasons, it is recommended that you perform manual
62
compilation after making changes to your project, as deleted variables will be kept after each runtime compilation.
Figure 3.4
You will find the following information on every project in the table: Project title Author (except for forum discussions) Project ID (except for forum discussions) Type: Project type, see Chapter 3.1, p. 55 Status: The current state of your survey project each with information on the date of the last update. An overview of the project statuses can be found in Table 3.1. Created: The date on which the project was created. Start: Date on which the survey started in the field. See Chapter 3.7.4, p. 78. Traffic-light icon: Signifies whether external participants can have access to the survey. If the project is in the field, then a green arrow pointing upwards is visible. If the project is not active, then a red arrow pointing downwards is visible.
63
Actions: An explanation of the possible actions can be found in Chapter 3.5.7, p. 67 to 3.5.8, p. 68. Via the icons and checkboxes in the Actions column you can edit individual projects or all projects. Chapter 3.5.7, p. 67 offers an overview on the actions available. A search function is available for browsing the project list, see Chapter 3.5.3, p. 64 for details). Those projects which you edited most recently, and projects marked as important, are highlighted, see Chapter 3.5.4, p. 65 and 3.5.5, p. 65. Additionally, the projects can be sorted with the help of a folder system which is introduced in Chapter 3.5.6, p. 65. The table columns can be hidden or visible in order to achieve a better overview. Click on the Show column icons to make them visible, click on the Hide column icons to hide them.
3.5.2
3.5.3
64
Figure 3.5
For the forum discussions which can be included in the project list from EFS 8.0, you can search or restrict the list only by project title and the available statuses in the field and inactive. Projekt ID, project directory and author are not available for this project type.
3.5.4
3.5.5
3.5.6
Organizing Projects
With the help of folders you can sort, group together and manage projects (except forum discussions). You can for example order the projects by theme, customer or by responsible employee. You can choose between the tree view and the standard list view. You can arrange the folders in up to three hierarchy levels. There are a number of display options at your disposal. Access to folders can be controlled through the rights system. The project list folder system is complemented by an archive folder system (Chapter 14.5, p. 563) that functions exactly the same, but is set up independently. You need write rights for create_project_cat to create new folders or edit existing folders.
65
Figure 3.6
Creating a folder
4. When the new folder is positioned directly under the Default folder, you can define the access rights for particular teams. 5. Confirm by clicking on Create.
2. Editing folders
Find the desired folder in the project list and click on the Further actions icon. (You need write rights for create_project_cat to see this icon.) The following editing options will appear in a popup window: Delete folder: This link appears only when the folder is empty and is used to delete the folder. Edit folder: Through this link you can edit the properties of the folder. Create subfolder: Opens a form that creates a subfolder.
3. Moving folders
It is possible to move folders, including their projects and subfolders, to another position in the hierarchy. To achieve this, use the Edit folder button to open the dialog shown in Figure 3.6. In the drop-down list Put folder below, select the new parent folder. Then, confirm with Save. When moving folders, please mind that the folder structure is restricted to three levels. Therefore, the list of potential target folders contains only folders below which your folder and its subfolders fit.
66
3.5.7
Actions
Using the icons in the column Actions and the Further actions icon, you can edit specific projects or access important menus directly. (Please mind: Editing options for forum discussions are currently still limited, if needed please use the familiar options in the Website module.) Jump to questionnaire editor: Allows to jump directly into the questionnaire view of the questionnaire editor. Edit project data / -type: You can edit the project data and the type. Copy project: You can copy the entire project. Preview: Opens the questionnaire of the project in preview mode. For personalized projects and employee surveys: Participant administration. Allows to jump directly into the participant administration. By clicking on Further actions you can open a popup window. This contains the following additional actions: Status changes: Activate, no further participations, Deactivate, End. By clicking on these links you can change the status of the project. To-dos: Release again, Export. By clicking on these links you can trigger the corresponding action. Rights: You can assign access rights to a project to different teams. Furthermore, various actions can be applied to selected projects or all. To do so, you select the desired projects by ticking the checkboxes in the Actions column. Then you specify the desired action in the drop-down list and confirm by clicking Execute.
67
Change folder: Enables you to move the projects selected into a target folder to be defined. See Chapter 3.5.6, p. 65. Delete projects: Allows to remove the projects selected. Please note that the deletion process cannot be reversed. Project and result data from deleted projects can no longer be reconstructed. Archive projects: Starts the archiving process, see Chapter 14.5, p. 563.
3.5.8
Figure 3.7
3. In the entry form for rights administration, you can individually assign read and write rights to user teams. Your own primary team has read and write rights, which cannot be changed. 4. Click on Change rights to accept your changes.
68
Figure 3.8
Project information
3.6.1
69
To-do: This row contains a link for executing the project step that must be performed next in the course of the survey. An overview of the To-dos can be found in Table 3.2. Can participants take part in this survey: In this row, you can see at a glance whether external participants can access the survey. If the project is in the field, a green traffic-light icon will be displayed. If the remaining field period is ten days or less, the color of the traffic-light icon will change from green to yellow, and a corresponding message will be displayed. If the project is not active, the traffic-light icon will be red.
Maximum number of respondents active at the same time: This line will appear, when the installation-wide or project-specific participation limit is activated. Further information can be found in Chapter 17.2, p. 626. Participation counter: This line will be displayed, if the participation counter described in Chapter 3.7.18, p. 103 is activated. It informs you about counter settings and the participation that is still required. Which teams may access the project: Via the Edit rights link, you can access the dialog described in chapter 3.5.8, p. 68 and specify which staff teams should have access to the project. By clicking on the Print preview button you can call up an optimized version for printing.
no further participations
The process of filling out a questionnaire in progress can be finished, whereas it is no longer possible to begin a new one.
No No
70
(cont.)Status archived Table 3.1 To do Activate No further participations Deactivate Finish Export Archive Table 3.2 To dos Project status
Participation possible? No
Meaning The survey project will be set to the status active. The survey project will be set to the status no further participations. External access to the survey project is canceled. The status changes to inactive. The survey project is finished. The status changes to finished. Switch to the Export menu, in order to export the required data. The survey project is scheduled for archiving. Once a day, scheduled projects are archived during a low traffic period. See Chapter 14.5, p. 563.
71
3.7.1
Figure 3.9
2. Make changes as required. You can find explanations of the various feature in the following chapters, the tables in Chapter 3.7.2, p. 72 offer an overview. 3. After making the changes, click on the Save button. The changes will be accepted.
3.7.2
72
Brief description This feature leads to an automatic consecutive numbering of questions 1 to n. Question type 998 (Text and HTML code), 911, filters and rotation on page level will not be taken into consideration. If users jump back and change answers, the modified answers will not be saved. The function prevents the use of the browser Back button to change answers. Please note that the function cannot be combined with a displayed Back button: If the Back button is displayed, the respondent expects with due right that a subsequent change of the values is possible. This feature works only if JavaScript is enabled.
Details
Radio buttons for questions with a single response list can be deselected Preventing usage of the right mouse button in a survey
This feature is primarily used to protect content: It deactivates the context menu in the entire questionnaire. Please mind: Keyboard commands however will not be suppressed. Using a question of the type Text and HTML code (998, see Chapter 5.7, p. 206), you can realize the same behavior for a particular questionnaire page. The feature can also be used to prevent the usage of the browsers Back button. For this the survey must be opened in a pop-up window, so that there is no menu bar. The respondent does not need to click on the Submit button on pages which only contain the specified combinations of question types. Chapter 3.7.5, p. 79
Page is submitted automatically after completion of all questions, if it contains only combinations of the following question types... Should a Back button be displayed? Show Back button on resumption?
If this option has been activated, a real Back button will be shown which does not depend on the browser used by the respondent. This feature is available for personalized surveys, as soon as you have activated the Show Back button? function. If respondents resume the survey after an interruption, they can return to the questions they answered before interrupting the survey and change answers. This option will be displayed as soon as the function Should a Back button be displayed? has been activated. Clicking on the Cancel button will close the window. This function is only visible for personalized projects. Activates automatic data cleaning.
Should data be saved when the Back button is used? Show button for survey cancel? Type of codes which will be generated Enable data cleaning Table 3.3 General options
73
(cont.)Section For all possible answers of the type answer category + text, completeness checks (DACs) should also check whether the related text field has been filled in Name of ticket variable (external survey start)
Brief description
Option for changing the name of the Get parameter used for the external survey start.
Special documentation External survey start Special documentation External survey start Chapter 3.7.7, p. 80
Name of ticket variable (when returning from an external survey) Check whether the respondent has JavaScript activated and the Adobe Flash Player plugin is available? Only on installations with EFS Mobile Extension: Dynamically switch output format of survey (HTML, XHTML-MP, WML) depending on browser used by the respondent? Only in panel surveys: At what point of time shall survey result data be transferred to master data variables?
Option for changing the name of the Get parameter transferred upon returning from an external survey.
This option must be activated if you want the variables javascript and flash to be filled.
This option has to be enabled if the survey is to be accessible from a mobile device. The output format will then be automatically adjusted to the browser used by the participant.
This option allows you to specify the time when the master data transfer usually takes place: Upon completion of the survey (manually): The transfer has to be triggered manually by the moderator (menu Master data allocation->Execute master data transfer button). After each survey participation (immediately): The transfer takes place automatically upon completion of the interview, i.e. as soon as the panelists reach the final page and are assigned disposition code 31 or 32. This option opens the survey to all panelists, independent of their belonging to a sample for the survey. Optionally, you may permit multiple participation. The panelists result data record will be overwritten when he or she participates again. This option is recommended for master data surveys only. This specifies the upper limit for the number of simultaneous participants for this project. This entry however can only undercut an eventual installation-wide setting for the maximum number of participants per project, it cannot bypass it.
Table 3.3
General options
74
Brief description Used to control the routing of the survey on resumption. The following options are available: Display page last sent. Send page last sent again and displays the next page. Display page last viewed. Display first page: The respondent will be redirected to the first page after resuming the survey. This is advisable, for example, if your questionnaire is divided into different chapters that are accessed via an index page. In this case, the respondent is not to resume the survey from the last page sent, but from the index page. By default the setting is Display page last sent. This option is used to activate the determination and storage of hostnames and IP addresses. As of EFS 7.1, this option is deactivated in new projects by default. In order to change the setting or to view and export hostnames and IP addresses, you need read rights for ip_addresses. Please note: Certain network constellations may allow only restricted determination and storage of hostnames and IP addresses. Please note the corresponding information in Chapter 3.7.8, p. 81 and check the functionality before taking the project into the field. Indicates to which client the project belongs and is used for billing purposes (i.e., interviews conducted within this project are booked to the given organisation). If the wrong organization is indicated, please contact the person responsible for the installation. If you hold the right orgadmin, you can alter the accounting organization in the Project properties menu. If you use automated dispatch of reminders, the appropriate mail template is selected in this field.
Details
Determine participant hostnames and IP addresses and store them in survey results
Chapter 3.7.8, p. 81
Accounting organization
Only in personalized projects and employee surveys: Mail template for automatic reminders Table 3.3 General options
Internal organization
In this area you can activate features which help you with the internal organization and testing of your project.
Section Debug mode (e.g. print internal question title Brief description Shows the internal page and question titles in the questionnaire for testing purposes. Question type 911 will not be taken into consideration. Ticking this checkbox will show the to-do marker icon in the questionnaire, and you can directly enter to-do notes from the questionnaire. Enables the entry of to-do notes in the questionnaire view. Ticking this checkbox will show the pretest icon in the questionnaire, allowing testers to enter their comments. Chapter 9.9, p. 399 Chapter 9.9, p. 399 Chapter 9.10, p. 401 Details
Show to-do markers in the questionnaire Show to-do markers in the editor Show pretest icon in survey Table 3.4
75
Brief description This button allows you to skip plausibility and completeness checks. In multilingual projects this drop-down list appears in the questionnaire and makes it possible to switch directly into another language. In the questionnaire and in the preview, links are activated which enable you, your staff and translators (depending of access rights) to jump directly into the respective editing pages of the Language editor or EFS Translator Interface. The drop-down list shown in the preview makes it possible to navigate directly to specific questionnaire pages. The external variable names can be uniformly labeled according to a predefined pattern. For anonymous surveys, disposition code 20 will be set when the first page is invoked. Depending on the type of survey, it may make sense in an evaluation to allocate participants with this disposition code either into gross or net.
Details Chapter 9.5, p. 396 Chapter 9.6, p. 397 Chapter 9.7, p. 397
Allow direct jumping to any page of the survey. Algorithm for creating the external variable names How is disposition code 20 to be allocated in the field report?
Table 3.4
Login options
Online surveys can be equipped with diverse access mechanisms. The Login options section defines the type of access to the survey in combination with the selected project type. You can find detailed explanations in Chapter 3.7.11, p. 83.
Section Cookies are used Brief description Only in anonymous surveys: Cookies are used in anonymous surveys to make resumption possible and to make multiple participation more difficult. In this field, you can set the session period for surveys. From EFS 7.0, the default value is in anonymous surveys: 1,209,600 seconds, i.e. two weeks. in all other project types: 7,200 seconds, i.e. two hours. Details Chapter 3.7.11, p. 83 Chapter 3.7.12, p. 88
Table 3.5
Login options
Relevant ID configuration
EFS supports an external validation of survey participants by the service provider RelevantView for a special charge. If this check has been enabled for an installation, the additional section Relevant ID configuration is displayed in anonymous and personalized surveys, panel surveys, and master data surveys. See Chapter 13.13, p. 550 for a detailed explanation.
76
Meaning Authentication code of the installation. If you have ordered the feature, yet no value has been set, please get in touch with your Globalpark sales contact. This checkbox must be ticked to activate the check for the current project. Select a user-defined variable. The variable must be of the Integer data type. Select a user-defined variable. The variable must be of the Integer data type. From EFS 8.0, RelevantID provides additional information which can be stored in user-defined variables as well. The following data are available: FraudProfileScore: fraudprofilescore City: city Domain: domain County: country Region: region The desired scope: You may select either country, region, or city. International codes of the countries, regions, or cities from which participants are to be admitted. Please contact Globalpark Support to receive an up-to-date list of codes. Please enter the allowed values is a comma-separated list.
Activate Relevant ID verification for this survey Survey variable for saving the result of the geo IP validation Survey variable for saving the confidence value Save additional optional variable in
Table 3.6
Relevant ID configuration
When using RelevantID, please pay special attention to your companys applicable privacy regulations and to the privacy regulations governing the respective survey.
User-defined variables
Section URL parameters User-defined variables Table 3.7 Brief description URL parameters are required for importing runtime environment variables. User-defined variables are additional variables, in which, for example, trigger results are stored. Details Chapter 3.7.13, p. 89 Chapter 3.7.14, p. 91
User-defined variables
3.7.3
77
Here is an example of what the URL could look like: http://www.domain.com/uc/your_company The Replace URL in questions? option will browse all entered questions for absolute paths to the old URL. These references can have found their way into the survey, for example, through user-defined questions or the HTML container. If the Replace URL in questions? option has been activated, all old URL paths will be replaced with the new URL.
Figure 3.10
The URL may not be changed once the field phase has begun. Otherwise externally placed links on the questionnaire or links in invitation mails already sent will not work and participants can no longer access the questionnaire. If you change the URL before the beginning of the field phase, make sure that these changes are also made to any mails you may have prepared (e.g. invitations).
3.7.4
Figure 3.11
2. Set the precise date for the start of the survey. 3. Specify the precise date for the end of the survey. 4. Click on the Save button. The field period has now been defined.
78
Make sure you enter the time for the field period in GMT (i.e. Greenwich Mean Time), a globally valid time unit. You must therefore convert the local mean time into the globally applicable unique time. To do so, use the specified current server time.
3.7.5
3.7.6
79
To activate the real Back button, tick the checkbox in the Should a Back button be displayed? field. By default, the Back button is located to the left of the Submit button. You can change its position in the pro editor by repositioning the variable $backbutton (refer also to Chapter 8.4.1, p. 368). If the session time is exceeded in an anonymous survey with activated Back button, the participant must start the survey anew.
Saving data when the Back button within the form is used
Optionally, you can specify that the entries made before going back to previous pages be saved. To do so, you must first enable and save the Should a Back button be displayed? function. Only after that will the additional option labeled Should data be saved when the back button is used? be displayed, which likewise must also be enabled. Please note, that the activation of the saving function will affect the behavior of the plausichecks: Each plausibility check that the participant passes while going back will be triggered, it will then test the entry and force a correction, if necessary. This will not be the case if the saving function is not enabled: Because no data is being saved, there is no need to test for correctness.
Cancel button
Ticking the checkbox in the Show button for survey cancel? field will display a button that allows the respondent to close the survey window and cancel the survey.
3.7.7
Checking for JavaScript and Flash before the Start of the Survey
You have the option of performing a check to see whether a participants browser accepts JavaScript and the Adobe Flash Player plugin is available at the beginning of the survey. In the course of the survey, this information can then be used for filtering and evaluation purposes. This feature is helpful, for example, if the survey employs question types that work only with JavaScript or require even Flash. In this case, participants with unsuitable browsers can be identified right at the very beginning of the project, and you can either reject them or present alternative questions to them.
80
When working on an EFS Panel installation, please note that the JavaScript and Flash checks in master data and panel surveys have not been available until the release of EFS 6.0. This function can be activated in the field labeled Check whether the respondent has JavaScript activated and the Adobe Flash Player plugin is available? You can access the results of the check as follows: JavaScript check: The javascript variable is available in the condition editor. If the check is deactivated, the value of the javascript variable is -77. If JavaScript is switched off, it has a value of 0. If the respondents browser accepts JavaScript, the variable will contain the version number, e.g. jscript = 10 for JavaScript 1.0 or jscript = 15 for Javascript 1.5. The export data record contains the same information, with jscript as the label for SPSS export.
Flash check: The flash variable is available in the condition editor. If the check is deactivated, the value of the flash variable is -77. If the Flash plugin is not available, it has a value of 0. If the Flash plugin is available, the variable will contain the version number, e.g. flash = 800 for Flash 8.0 or flash = 900 for Flash 9.0. The export data record contains the same information, with flash as the label for SPSS export.
Please note: The check for JavaScript and Flash is performed once at the beginning of the survey. If the respondent switches JavaScript off in the course of the survey, this change will not be taken into account.
3.7.8
81
If this option is disabled, hostnames and IP addresses will not be determined. Default setting: As of EFS 7.1, this option is disabled in newly created projects. The browser type is always identified in these project types. If you hold the required read right for ip_addresses, you can also define whether hostname lookup shall be generally enabled or disabled in projects newly created by you. You will find the corresponding option Determine participant hostnames and IP addresses and store them in survey results in the Staff-> Own account->Preferences menu on the Projects tab. If you do not hold read rights for ip_addresses, this option is always disabled in projects newly created by you.
Panel processes: In newly set-up panels, this function is usually disabled, i.e. hostnames and IP addresses are not determined. If required, please get in touch with your Globalpark sales contact or with Globalpark Support to find out whether it is technically feasible and desirable to enable this function. In old panels, hostname lookup is always performed, especially upon registration.
For reasons of privacy, employee surveys generally do not support the determination and storage of hostname, IP address, and browser type.
3.7.9
82
having the link displayed, you will also find all invited panelists in the internal sample and can keep track of who actually participates.
3.7.10
3.7.11
Code
83
Description Respondents click on a link http://www.mydomain.com/uc/ survey/ or the link is opened in the pop-up window by JavaScript. Respondents can participate in the survey with no further verification of access. The so-called referrer, an IP address which specifies the IP address last visited by the respondent, is checked. This login option ensures that the respondent is actually being referred from the website you wish to evaluate and has not found out about the survey from other sources. Please note: Certain network constellations may allow only restricted determination and storage of hostnames and IP addresses. Please note the corresponding information in Chapter 3.7.8, p. 81 and check the functionality before taking the project into the field. The password specified here is a password shared by all participants of the survey. Any participant who has the password can participate in the survey (even more than once). Panel and master data survey based on a drawn sample. Respondents usually receive the link to the survey on their personal homepage after logging in. Alternatively, a URL, such as http://www.mypanel.com/gto.php3?code#code# can be used, and #code# will be replaced with a personalized access code by the mail dispatch tool.
IP
Password
Sample
Table 3.8
Figure 3.12
Figure 3.13
3. Only in anonymous projects: If you wish to limit access to the survey to certain IP addresses, type an IP address into the text field in the IP row. If you wish to allow access to the
84
survey only after entering a password, enter a password into the text field in the Password row. If you wish to allow everybody to participate in your survey, leave these fields blank. Tick the checkbox in the Cookies are used field if cookies are to be used during the survey.
4. Specify the validity period of the session (see Chapter 3.7.12, p. 88). 5. Confirm by clicking on Save.
3. Cookies
For anonymous surveys, you must specify whether you wish to set cookies or not. A cookie is a short text file stored on the respondents computer. In EFS Survey projects, the text file saves an internal survey title and the respondents session ID. The session ID is an anonymous, unguessable number which is assigned when the respondent first accesses the survey and which ensures that the respondent can be recognized from submitting one page to submitting the next page. If the session ID has been stored on the respondents computer (in a cookie), EFS Survey can recognize the respondent throughout Internet sessions and enable resumption of an anonymous survey. As some Internet users do not permit the storage of cookies, the session ID can be transferred as a so-called GET parameter as an alternative / fallback, i.e. it is attached to the survey URL, thus avoiding the storage of information on the respondents computer. Resumption without cookies set is only possible for personalized or panel surveys. Summary: Although you have activated cookies, each respondent will individually decide whether they wish to permit cookies or not. Respondents who do not accept the cookie can participate in anonymous surveys more than once. Deactivate cookies if you want to allow yourself or others to participate in the same survey more than once in succession. This is especially recommended if you want to use EFS Survey as an input tool for CATI surveys and the telephone interviewer enters several interviews in succession / at once. The project info of an anonymous project will contain the participate again link. Clicking on this link will delete a set cookie and thus enable multiple participation in / repeated test of the project. Do not pass this link on to real respondents as a survey URL.
85
Passwords and codes can be automatically generated in Participant administration (see Chapter 10.2, p. 411). Externally generated codes can be imported if required, via the Import codes in participant administration. For each imported code, a dummy account will be created. From EFS 7.1, e-mail addresses on the @3uu.eu domain are used for these accounts. These addresses are owned by Globalpark, mails sent to them are deleted automatically.
In an invitation mail, the wildcard for the code would naturally be replaced. Alternatively use the #code_complete# wildcard. In contrast, the #code_complete# wildcard replaces the entire URL. Important note: Please make sure that the URL with the replaced code in the invitation mail does not wrap (most mail readers wrap after 72 characters). If the URL and code are together longer than 72 characters, truncate the URL, by shortening the section between /uc/ and ?code, using the Change URL function. If the URL is still too long due to an extensive domain name, a so-called server alias must be set up by system administration.
86
directly to the survey. If, instead you use either password and e-mail, password or manual code entry for logging in, users can take their time in deciding whether they want to take part now or later. If you wish to use the function, please proceed as follows: First, ensure that the Code login type has been selected in the Login options section. Select the type of code you wish to generate in the Type of codes which will be generated field of the General options section. The next time you add a new participant in participant administration or generate new codes for existing participants, the codes will be generated as selected. The code is usually set prior to importing participant data. Please note that if you change code settings after importing participant data or after importing parts of participant data, the code type of participants already stored will not be automatically changed retroactively. You can generate new codes of the desired type in participant administration (also refer to Chapter 10.2.2, p. 419). However, you should only do so if you have not already sent the codes to the participants. When entering passwords and codes, Internet users occasionally have difficulties in differentiating between the characters 1 (the number one), and l (lowercase L), 0 (zero) and O (uppercase o). As only lowercase letters and numbers are used for both codes, we recommend that you indicate this (e.g.: Please note that the code contains only lowercase numbers and letters) on the code entry field or in the message displayed for a failed login attempt. You can adjust login messages in the Project properties->Survey messages menu.
87
3.7.12
Personalized projects: The login screen is displayed. After entering their code or password, participants can resume the survey where they left off. Clicking on the access link also allows participants to resume the survey.
Only for EFS Panel: panel surveys: From EFS 7.0 on, the Login message survey message is displayed. In previous versions, the Message on wrong login was displayed and panelists were logged out of the panel. After logging in again, panelists could resume the survey where they left off.
88
Survey messages menu in the Error message if number of URL parameters is wrong field.
3.7.13
The parameter a at the end of the URL http://www.your-domain.com/uc/surveys/?a=3 indicates from which website the participant logged in. The ? indicates the occurrence of parameters.
Notes
URL parameters can be used in all project types. URL parameters as so-called GET parameters can be very easily manipulated by respondents. Up to 26 URL parameters can be created for each project. The names of the respective variables in the export record / for filtering are p_0001 to p_0026, and a to z upon transfer. #p_0001#, #p_0002# etc. are used as wildcards for dynamic output of wildcard contents. The URL of a project with URL parameters is not automatically generated by the system. For anonymous projects, you need to create a new URL based on the URL specified by the system under Project info and the number of desired URL parameters, before passing on the URL to the website operator hosting the
89
respective survey. For example, change http:/your-domain.com/uc/admin/ 4711/ into http://your-domain.com/uc/admin/4711/?a=23&b=12&c=5 If URL parameters are used for a panel survey or master data survey, the links pointing to the project, which are displayed to the panelists e.g. in the survey list on the website, contain the URL parameters defined, but initially they do not transfer any values. You must define yourself in the appropriate template which values should be transferred.
If URL parameters are used in an anonymous survey and a participants session times out, message will be displayed which points out that the number of URL parameters is not correct. You can find this message in the Project properties-> Survey messages menu in the Error message if number of URL parameters is wrong field. A URL with three parameters could look like this:
http://your-domain.com/uc/admin/4711/?a=23&b=12&c=5
The three parameters of this URL are as follows: a=23&b=12&c=5 If you are sending invitations to a survey with URL parameters per e-mail, you will need to adapt the link in the invitation mail. It must contain the URL parameters. Using the & character, attach the following URL parameters to the wildcard for the whole URL which has already been assigned the access code per GET parameters:
#code_complete#&a=1&b=2
Figure 3.14
Then click on the Submit button. The URL parameters have now been defined.
90
Figure 3.15
If, for example, texts are used instead of numbers in the URL parameter, you will need to adjust the type. Otherwise, the URL parameter will be stored incorrectly.
text float
Strings of numbers and letters with variable length A whole number or floating point number.
3.7.14
91
The newly created user-defined variables (c_000n) are now available for questionnaire screening and will be exported along with the defined label.
3.7.15
92
Figure 3.16
93
General messages
Message Title of the survey window Label for Submit button Label for Cancel button Label for Back button Label for the "Close window" button within the help pop-up window Character set Meaning Display own text in the browser window title. Labeling of the Submit button Labeling of the Cancel button Labeling of the Back button This button is used for the pop-up window which contains help texts. Which character set is to be used to display these messages? See Chapter 3.7.17, p. 100 for additional information on the choice of character sets. Text entered in the panelists account statement and in the bonus points history if bonus points are allocated on the final page or by a bonus trigger (Chapter 7.5.12, p. 345). Please note: If no text is defined, an English default text Participation in survey 'Project title' will be used. This ensures traceability of the entries in the account statement. Text displayed next to the progress bar. The wildcard for the percentage is '%s' Used in some layouts to output special information Text used for consecutive numbering of questions. The wildcard for the number is '%s' With image protection activated, participants will see only the silhouette and outline of the protected image in the questionnaire, plus this instruction for display. See Chapter 5.17.6, p. 259. English default message Survey Continue Cancel Back Close window
UTF-8
Only on EFS Panel installations: Entry into the panelists bonus points history
<empty>
Special phrase for different purposes Text for consecutive numbering of questions
In order to view the image, hold down the space bar, move your mouse pointer over the image and click.
Table 3.10
General
94
Introductory text for incomplete questions marked with a weak DAC. Instruction for incomplete questionnaire processing Error message for invalid answers to questions with exclusive answer categories Table 3.11
%s Note: the question '%s' is important for the rest of the questionnaire. I dont want to answer this question. Please fill in the following questions:
Please enter floating point numbers only. Please enter letters only.
95
(cont.)Message Type check: Error message for invalid entry (phone number)
Meaning Will be output if the entry does not correspond to one of the commonly used formats for phone numbers, i.e. the entry may begin with one or more + signs, but after that, a sequence of numbers is expected. You have the option of grouping these into blocks using brackets or alternatively interrupting them with blank spaces, hyphens or slashes. The regular expression is as follows: / ^((\d+\s*)?\+{1,3}\s*)?(\(\d+\)|\d +)([\s-\/]?\d+)*$/
Table 3.12
Correct
Ignore
Login messages
Message The participant is not accepted for the survey, as the quota is already full (status: filtered out). The time frame for the participant to complete the survey has expired. Meaning Text displayed if a participant is to be excluded from the survey English default message <empty>
In all survey types except anonymous projects: this message is shown to participants whose accounts were deactivated automatically at a predefined date. See Chapter 10.2.14, p. 432.
<empty>
Table 3.14
Login messages
96
Meaning Optional additional text for the login screen. In standard configuration, this text will be inserted before the contents of the "Login message" field. Message with different functions depending on the type of project. In personalized projects and employee surveys, the text is used in the login screen. It is usually used for a prompt. In standard configuration, this text will be inserted above the text fields for the login data. In panel surveys, this message contains the text shown when the session time is exceeded (see Chapter 3.7.12, p. 88). Text displayed upon failed login attempt. Text which is displayed when the session time is over. Text displayed next to the account entry field in the login screen. Text displayed next to the password entry field in the login screen. If you use a password for authentication, but forget to fill in this field, the default preallocation used is Password. Text displayed next to the code entry field in the login screen. Label of the Submit button in the login screen.
Login message
Message on wrong login The session ID is invalid (e.g. no activity for 30 minutes). Login screen: description for account entry field Login screen: description for password entry field
Password:
Login screen: description for code entry field Login screen: label for Submit button Table 3.14 Login messages
Code: Continue
System messages
Message The survey was not generated yet. The survey was not activated Displayed when the survey has either not been activated yet or has already been deactivated. Displayed when the beginning of the field period is still in the future. The desired survey is not active at present. The desired survey is not active at present. Meaning English default message
The survey is not yet in time frame. Table 3.15 System messages
97
Meaning Displayed when the end of the field period has already been exceeded. Displayed when the status no further participations is activated and no further participants will be admitted to the survey. See Table 3.1. Displayed if the participant has already completed the survey. Displayed if the browser of a participant sends a wrong URL parameter or none at all. Displayed if the system is overloaded due to too many requests (see Chapter17.1, p. 625) or participation limit (see Chapter 17.2, p. 626). Displayed if the download platform or the separate Org Processor login of an employee survey have been deactivated. See EFS Employee project managers manual, Chapter 6.1.
English default message Many thanks for your interest but the questionnaire has already been completed. Many thanks for your interest but the questionnaire has already been completed.
The participant has already completed the survey. Error message if number of URL parameters is wrong
You have already completed the survey. The address which you have entered is not correct. Please check your entry for typing errors. There are too many people filling in the survey at present. Participation is therefore not possible at the moment. Please try again later. This function is not available.
Only for project type Employee survey: essage which is displayed if download platform or Org processor login is deactivated. Table 3.15 System messages
3.7.16
98
Survey messages can be exported and imported into another installation (version 7.0 and higher). You can compare two selected sets of survey messages.
99
Export, and confirm by clicking on Execute. An Excel file containing the selected message sets will be generated. If you want to export all existing messages, use the Export all survey messages button.
3.7.17
100
Most modern operating systems can display UTF-8 correctly. Older operating systems, such as Windows 95 or Windows NT do not support these character sets yet. The internationalization of mail programs has not progressed as much as Internet browsers. Most modern programs can display UTF-8 correctly, occasionally however it can lead to complications. Internet-based mail programs in particular do not work reliably yet. If you are not certain whether the respondents have access to a modern mail program, you can assign in a UTF-8 project language-specific character sets for the mail dispatch, e.g. you can code the e-mails in ISO-8859 and send them (see Chapter 11.2.2, p. 470).
UTF-16
ISO 8859-5 Cyrillic ISO 8859-6 Arabian ISO 8859-7 Greek ISO 8859-8 Hebrew ISO-8859-9 Turkish
Table 3.17
101
Description Latin 9 Extension of ISO-8859-1, in which a few seldom used symbols have been replaced with the Euro symbol, French and Finnish characters. Thus the languages French and Finnish have been covered completely. Russian and Bulgarian. Chinese simplified Chinese simplified Chinese simplified Traditional Chinese Traditional Chinese. Used in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Traditional Chinese with extensions for the Cantonese dialect. Indian scripts Japanese Japanese Japanese Japanese Korean Korean Thai
KO18-R, Russian Simplified Chinese, PRC standard GB2312, EUC encoding, Simplified Chinese GBK, Simplified Chinese CNS11643 (Plane 1-3), EUC encoding, Traditional Chinese Big5, Traditional Chinese Big5 with Hong Kong extensions, Traditional Chinese ISCII91 encoding of Indic scripts JISX 0201, 0208 and 0212, EUC encoding Japanese JISX 0201, 0208 and 0212, EUC encoding Japanese Shift-JIS, Japanese JIS X 0201, 0208, in ISO 2022 form, Japanese KS C 5601, EUC encoding, Korean ISO 2022 KR, Korean TIS620 Thai Table 3.17 Available character sets
102
tionnaire page or e-mail with characters that have been converted or cannot be displayed.
Warning message when calling up a questionnaire page that has characters that cannot be
With the function Search and replace, see Chapter 6.8, p. 288,, you can quickly find frequently appearing special characters and remove them. Typical problematic cases are curved quotation marks, long dashes and three points (...).
3.7.18
1. Participation counting in detail In accordance with which rules does the counting take place?
From the moment of activation the participation counter counts backwards from the preset value until 0, and then triggers a status change from active to no further participations.
103
When counting it will only take into account further participation that takes place from the time of activation onward or from the time of a change to the counter value onward. Participation that took place before activation or before a change to the counter value will not be taken into account. A change to the number of participants in personalized and panel projects, caused e.g. by adding, deleting or reseting, likewise has no effect on the participation counter. So that a survey will be classified and counted as completed regularly, the respective participant must reach the final page of the project, which means it will have disposition code 31 or 32. You also have the option of counting screened out and quoted out participants and testers. Participants, who were screened out or quoted out are identifiable through the disposition codes 36 and 37, which they were given for reaching a certain page with such a configuration.
Figure 3.18
2. Enter into the text field Number of additional necessary survey participations the number of participants required from this point in time. The participation counter counts backwards from this value. 3. You also have the option of counting respondents with the tester status. To do this tick the corresponding checkbox. 4. You have the option of counting quoted and screened out participants (disposition code 36 and 37). 5. Complete the work process by clicking on Save.
104
3.7.19
105
version-specific text is entered, the description from the Change project dialog will be used. Wildcard: {$s.survey_description} Displayed user-defined label: Selected surveys can be highlighted with specific notes or icons. See Chapter 3.7.20, p. 106. Wildcard: {$s.survey_extra_label} Sorting category: The surveys displayed in the survey list can be grouped by assigning them to one of ten predefined categories. Hide survey for language version: If this checkbox is ticked, the survey will not appear in the survey list on the panelists personalized homepage. By default, all projects are activated in all language versions. Please note that panelists can still participate in a hidden survey if they are provided with a link to the survey: As usual, access to the survey depends only on the panelists sample membership.
Figure 3.19
These new features replace a number of previous ones: So far, you could enter alternative survey names in fields Project name on the panelists personal homepage (Name of language version) in the Project properties menu. These fields have been eliminated. In the past, master data surveys on multipanel installations were allocated to the various language versions via a drop-down list in the Multipanel language selection section of the Project properties menu. This feature was dropped, too. The option Do not show the following projects on the personal panel page, which was used to hide projects in a specific language version, has been deleted as well. (Breadcrumb: Website->Panel websites->{Selected language version}-> Configuration tab.)
3.7.20
106
In each language version, one of these labels can be assigned to a survey. The user-defined labels are usually displayed along with the number of bonus points. Instead of entering a text, you can also use an image from the panels media library.
Figure 3.20
The new system with three user-defined labels replaces the old solution with only two fixed gratification types, Bonus points and Prize draw. The Bonus points gratification type is still available per default. It can be displayed along with the new labels. The option Prize draw is no longer available per default since EFS 7.1. In contrast to the Bonus points option, it was never fully integrated into the incentive management of EFS Panel, i.e. prize draws had to be executed manually (creating a group, conducting a prize draw etc.). Of course, you may still conduct prize draws for gratification, if you wish to do so: Create a user-defined Prize draw gratification type, create groups containing the respective project or campaign participants, and conduct a prize draw among these participants. The mail wildcard #bonustype#, which was previously used to insert the gratification type into a mail, has been dropped in EFS 7.1 well.
107
Figure 3.21
In the Displayed gratification type column of the Projects->{Selected project}-> Project properties->Website settings menu, you can define which label should be used for a survey in a specific language version.
If you panel was originally created in an EFS version < 7.1, you may have to modify the project list template (labelled func_survey_list in the standard panel) in order to display the user-defined label (wildcard: {$s.survey_extra_label}).
108
The macro function permits automation of such steps: Specific actions can be preconfigured by the user and executed again at a later time at the push of a button. The macro function makes it possible not only to execute individual actions, but also to bundle several actions into a single macro. This does not only simplify working with EFS, but it also increases the uniformity of work processes.
3.8.1
Managing Macros
In the Options->Macros menu, you can find all macros of the installation which youre authorized to access.
Figure 3.23
The following editing functions are available: Edit: By clicking on this icon, you can switch to the Macro settings tab for the respective macro. Edit actions: By clicking on this icon, you can switch to the Actions tab for the respective macro. Delete: By clicking on this icon, you can delete the macro. Rights: Clicking on this icon opens the dialog for rights administration. Here, you can define, which teams will be allowed to execute the respective macro. Read rights permit execution of a macro, while write rights allow users to edit a macro. Please note that macros can only be executed in projects for which the user has additional write rights. The macro administration is designed for up to 100 macros. If you and your staff use macros a lot, take care to use meaningful names: The better the title, the easier it is to select the appropriate macro from a project.
3.8.2
Creating Macros
Macros are created in the Options->Macros menu. The following work steps are necessary: Creating a new macro and selecting the actions to be executed. Configuring the actions by setting the appropriate parameters. Creating macros requires write rights for create_macro.
109
3.8.3
Figure 3.24
2. Set the basic properties of the macro: Name Description Suppress output: If the checkbox is ticked and the macro activated, the output of precise information on the process will be suppressed, and only a message indicating success or failure will be output. It is recommended that you activate the message output when first testing a macro, but switch it off after a successful test. Offer for projects of type: You can select the project types for which the macro is to be available.
3. The select boxes in the Actions area allow you to select preset actions. If you wish to select only individual actions, click on these actions in the Available actions field, and then click on the simple Arrow icon to move them into the Selected actions field. If you wish to select all available actions, click on the larger arrow.
110
Figure 3.25
4. After that, use the up and down arrows below the Selected actions select box to sort the actions in the desired order.
Figure 3.26
3.8.4
Configuring Actions
After creating the macro, you will automatically be taken to the Actions tab, which is now active. It allows you to edit or delete actions.
Figure 3.27
Configuring an action
Click on the name of an action or on the related Edit icon.
111
Figure 3.28
In the General area of the entry form, you can enter a specific title for the action and describe it. In the Parameters area, the specific parameter for the respective action must be set, in this example, the message set to be chosen. Depending on the complexity of the action to be executed, you may have to make more than one setting in the Parameters area. In the case of a result data export, for example, all the setting options described in Chapter 13, p. 521 will be available. After that, the setting must be saved by clicking on Save. The action now has a completed configuration and will be marked accordingly in the overview of the actions.
Figure 3.29
112
Figure 3.30
Deleting an action
Clicking on the Delete icon allows you to remove an action.
3.8.5
Action Activate autosubmit Activate / deactivate data cleaning Activate graphical form elements Apply data cleaning Apply predefined survey messages Change project field period
Description This action activates autosubmitting for single response questions. This action activates or deactivates automatic data cleaning during the survey. This action activates graphical form elements. This action applies data cleaning to the survey data. This action allows to import a predefined set of survey messages. This action allows you to change the field period of the project. You can either specify a fixed date or select relative times that refer to the next weeks, the current month or the current year. This action allows you to change the project status. This permits automation of the process of ending or activating the project. This action generates a new survey. It is identical to the Compile menu item. You can choose whether result data are to be deleted while generating the survey. With this action you can create several blank pages at once in the questionnaire. The pages can also optionally be placed below filter pages. With this action you can create a block of pages of type random rotation, random select or loop. You can also create subpages for the block.
set_project_status
generate_survey
Create blank pages in the questionnaire Create block of pages Table 3.18
create_pages
create_page_block
113
Name export_data
Description This action allows you to export result or address data from the current project. Setting the file type as well as further export options possible. This action will delete all plausibility checks in the selected project. This action deletes all pretest comments of the current project. This action will delete all type checks that have been defined in the project's questionnaire. The questions will not be deleted. With this action you can configure all completeness checks (DACs) in the survey to check for every answer category of type "answer category + text" if the related text field has also been filled in by the respondent. This option activates or deactivates the debug features that can be used in a survey. With this action you can configure all radio buttons in all single response questions of the survey to be deselectable. That means answers in single response questions can be deselected again by clicking the selected radio button again. This feature will only work for participants that have JavaScript enabled. This action allows you to export participant codes and disposition codes from the current project into a CSV file. You can select the disposition codes for which the participant codes will be exported. The #PID# wildcard in the file name will be replaced with the current project ID. This action exports all pretest comments of the survey into a Microsoft Excel file. This action exports the questionnaire as an XML file. You can select which subdirectories of the project directory will be exported. The #PID# wildcard in the file name will be replaced with the current project ID. This action allows you to import participant codes from a file into participant administration. Each row of the file is interpreted as one code. Therefore, the file should not contain a header. A participant is created for each code. The remaining participant data (e.g. name, password) are set automatically. This action allows you to import participants from a CSV file into participant administration. The first row of the CSV file must contain the column headings. Based on the column headings, an automatic assignment to the participant data saved in participant administration is performed. Columns that have not been recognized are skipped. The following column names can be used: u_account, u_passwd, u_firstname, u_name, u_street, u_zip, u_city, u_phone, u_email, u_www, u_address, u_country, u_other_id. This action allows you to import wildcards from another project.
Delete all plausibility checks Delete all pretest comments Delete all type checks Enable advanced completeness checks Enable/disable debugging features in the survey Enable deselectable radio buttons
toggle_hardcore_ dacs
toggle_debug
apply_triple_state
export_participants
export_pretest export_project
import_codes
Import participants
import_participants
import_placeholders
114
(cont.)Action Load layout template Run quality correction Save codebook as .mht file
Description This action allows you to copy an existing layout into the current survey. This action performs quality correction in the current project. It is identical to the function available under Statistics->Quality correction. This action saves the codebook of the current project as an .mht file. The function internally selects the Codebook menu item and saves its output. The codebook display options can be configured here. In the file name, the #PID# wildcard will be replaced with the current project ID. This action saves the online statistics of the current project as an .mht file. The function internally selects the Online statistics menu item and saves its output. The #PID# wildcard in the file name will be replaced with the ID of the current project. This action saves the Open-ended answers of the current project as an .mht file. The function internally selects the Open-ended answers menu item and saves its output. The #PID# wildcard in the file name will be replaced with the ID of the current project. This action allows you to save the questionnaire as an .mht file. The function internally selects the Print version menu item and saves its output. In the file name, the #PID# wildcard will automatically be replaced with the project ID.
create_codebook
create_online_stats
create_online_repor t
create_print
Table 3.18
3.8.6
3.8.7
Using Macros
1. The Project info dialog includes the Execute automation macro field in the Special actions section.
Figure 3.31
2. Select the macro you created, and then click on the Run selected automation package icon. 3. A popup window will provide an overview of the contents of this macro.
115
Figure 3.32
4. If you wish to start the macro, confirm by clicking on Execute. 5. The actions configured will now be executed. If this involves generating files, the result display will provide a link you can use to download a zip file. Alternatively, you can have the file e-mailed to your address.
3.8.8
116
117
118
Figure 4.1
119
Figure 4.2
The questionnaire view represents the structure of your questionnaire. See Chapter 4.2, p. 121, for further information on creating the structure or routing plan for a questionnaire. The functions of the questionnaire view will be introduced in Chapter 4.2.1, p. 122. Creating a page is explained in Chapter 2.2.1, p. 39. The various page types will be described in detail in Chapter 4.4.1, p. 130.
Figure 4.3
Creating a question will be explained in Chapter 4.10, p. 161. The various question types will be described in detail in Chapter 5, p. 175.
120
Figure 4.4
The text elements and settings for an individual question in the question view
The various question types and their specific setting options will be described in detail in Chapter 5, p. 175. There, you will also find information on the advanced functions which are provided in the question view of many question types.
121
reveal themselves as buyers of your products other questions than those persons who only know your company from your website. At the same time, you plan a specific order in which your questions are to be answered. This will, for example, help you to avoid so-called spillover effects which can result if respondents use an earlier question as the cognitive reference for subsequent questions. An example of this would be asking a question about acceptance of the death penalty following questions on respondents knowledge of sexual offenders. In this case, the opinion expressed would be strongly influenced by the respondents attitude towards sexual offenders and by (possibly current) reports on such crimes. EFS enables you to realize all imaginable ways through the questionnaire. When determining the way through the questionnaire, a process called routing in market research jargon, you can utilize various pieces of external information. Each piece of information that is known at a surveys runtime can be used as a switch for the routing. You can imagine the EFS routing engine as a railway control center, which opens and closes various routes. In contrast to railways, these routes do not require linear interconnections; instead, jumps can be realized, just as if your train were able to suddenly turn into an aircraft at a track switch and land at a totally different place in the rail network.
4.2.1
122
You can proceed step by step and create the pages without initially defining the questions. You can proceed step by step and simultaneously define the individual questions on the survey pages. You can create the questionnaire or parts therefore in a word processor of your choice (e.g. Word) and then import it into EFS. See Chapter 6.1, p. 267.
Figure 4.5
Hide subpages button: This version offers a quick overview, which makes it very useful especially when working on longer questionnaires.
123
Figure 4.6
Show questions option in the View dialog: The questions will be shown, as well as the question type and the related variables for each question.
Figure 4.7
Figure 4.8
124
Arrow icons for moving pages within a sequence (up and down arrows): You can use these icons to change the order of the questionnaire pages. Arrow icons for moving pages into another branch (left and right arrows): You can use these icons to move a page into or out of a branch of the questionnaire (for example, to move it into a filter).
Figure 4.9
Moving pages
Caution: If you delete the page on which the questionnaire branches in most cases a filter page, a random select page or a random rotation page - the entire underlying branch will be deleted automatically. If you do not want to delete the entire branch, but only want to delete the branching page, you must first move the pages contained in the branch back to the main section of the questionnaire.
4.2.2
125
Questionnaire view
Figure 4.10
In the questionnaire view, the positions of the following elements are marked with icons: mandatory questions and do-answer-checks (dac) plausibility checks hiding conditions triggers ActionScripts Smarty templates list elements Pages with an external survey start that serve the purpose of directing respondents either to an external questionnaire or from an external questionnaire back to the original survey. Only for EFS Panel installations: The assignment of bonus points for reaching final pages. By activating the Show filter conditions option in the View dialog you can additionally display the filter conditions. Only in installations with EFS Hybrid Extension: By activating the two options Edit offline / online variant and Show questions in the View dialog you can additionally display the columns Online and Offline. Here you can specify which questions are to be included in the online version and in the standard version of the paper-pencil questionnaire respectively. Standard pages, mixed-external pages and final pages that do not contain any questions or text elements yet can be easily recognized in the questionnaire view because of their red color. Filter pages, random pages and loops are displayed in red as long as they do not contain subpages.
126
Page view
In the page view, the positions of page-level hiding conditions are marked.
Question view
In the question view, the source variables of filters, hiding conditions and lists are marked with icons. Clicking on the icons allows you to open information windows displaying the respective condition definition. An Edit link lets you switch to the filter or list editor to edit the respective definition.
4.2.3
127
Only in installations with EFS Hybrid Extension: Please note that the option Edit offline / online variant is not available in the Drag&Drop questionnaire editor. In consequence, the columns Online and Offline can only be displayed and edited in the classic questionnaire editor. Please note that you require JavaScript to use the Drag&Drop questionnaire editor. JavaScript must be activated for you to be able to work in the EFS admin area.
4.3.1
Figure 4.11
Switch to the Questionnaire editor menu. Clicking on the To Drag&Drop questionnaire editor link allows you to activate the alternative display.
Figure 4.12
If you wish to sort not only pages, but also questions, display these with Show questions and Show subpages.
128
Figure 4.13
Place the mouse in the gap that opens and allow the page to drop as shown in the figure below.
Figure 4.14
4.3.2
Undoing Moves
If you have placed a page or question wrongly you can reverse your move with the Undo button. If you have mistakenly undone an action you can perform it again using the Redo button. If you have placed a page or question incorrectly, you can reverse the action with the help of the Undo button. If you have mistakenly undone an action you can perform it again using the Redo button.
129
Figure 4.15
Reversing a move
The undo function saves your moves provided you do not leave the page, refresh or load it again with Show questions/Show only pages.
4.4.1
130
Survey pages
Page type Standard Properties Contains one or more questions, plus a Submit button. Up to 255 questions per page are possible. The first page of a survey is normally also a standard page. In most cases, it contains hints on the survey. A page with a special border layout to freely place questions on a page. A page with no Submit button. When this is reached, the questionnaire is finished, and so-called finishing rules are triggered. Is automatically set by the system when a survey is created. Cannot be removed. Is filled with content by the user. Does not contain a Submit button. Details See Chapter 4.5, p. 131
Mixed-external page Final page (intermediate final page) System final page Table 4.1
Routing pages
Page type Filter Properties A question track switch. Subsequent pages will only be displayed if the filter condition is met. As filter conditions, you can choose any survey contents that have already been collected at this point in the survey or which were additionally loaded before the start of the survey. Random selection of m from n questionnaire pages. From all n pages that are indented below this page, m pages will be selected randomly and displayed. The other pages below this page will be ignored. By default m=1, i.e. only one page will be selected. Random rotation of survey pages. All the pages placed under this condition will be displayed in random order. Looped questionnaire pages are filled with contents depending on the elements of a list and processed. A page referring to another survey. This page will invoke another survey on another EFS Survey platform or outside EFS Survey. Parameters can be transferred to the external survey so that the respondent can be referred back from the third-party provider to the EFS Survey questionnaire. Details See Chapter 4.7, p. 143
Random selected
See Chapter 4.9, p. 161 See Chapter 7.4, p. 314 See Chapter 3.4, p. 63
Table 4.2
131
A standard page can contain up to 255 questions. The complexity of the question types used affects the performance. To optimize the execution time of the questionnaire pages, please use the following guiding values for orientation: - Ordinary EFS question types: 50 questions - Complex question types which require, for example, JavaScript or Flash: 25 questions.
4.5.1
JavaScript code to be executed when the user clicks on the Submit button Page is submitted automatically after completion of all questions Hide Submit button Send page automatically Hide Back button Add Cancel button Check internal quotas Set universal page marker to fill the variable rate within the field report Table 4.3
The page is submitted automatically as soon as the respondent has answered all of the questions.
This option allows you to hide the Submit button permanently or temporarily. The page will be sent automatically after a defined time span.
This option allows you to display a Cancel button. If you are using quotas, this option allows you to mark the page where the checking for internal quotas is to take place. The so-called variable page marker allows you to determine, and show in the field report, how many people have completed the survey up to a specific questionnaire page X.
132
(cont.)Property Only on the first page in anonymous surveys: Create static start page Force a character set for this page Additional code for the head section of the page Table 4.3
Explanation This option allows you to create a static start page. Static start pages are created only once - upon enabling this function - and not each time a survey is called up. This greatly enhances the performance of the survey. This option allows you to assign to the page a different character set other than the general character set of the survey or the character sets for the various language versions of a multilingual project. This input field allows you to insert JavaScript and CSS directly in the head section (<head>) of the page.
4.5.2
Figure 4.16
Please mind: Only single quotation marks (') are permitted. If double quotation marks are used, the feature wont work.
4.5.3
133
There will be no check as to whether the questionnaire page contains HTML and image type elements. Please ensure therefore that such elements are not located at the end of the page: In this case, autosubmit would prevent the participant from seeing the text or the image. The function assumes that JavaScript is enabled in the respondents browser. Please note that it is risky to hide the Submit button when using the Autosubmit function (see next section). Example: If the respondent uses the Back button of the browser to go back and make a change, the Autosubmit function will not be reactivated. At the same time, however, there is no way to re-send the pages using the Submit button.
4.5.4
4.5.5
4.5.6
134
This option does not work with all browsers for the following reason: JavaScript has a security setting that prevents windows from being closed via JavaScript if they were not opened with JavaScript. EFS Survey is not opened using JavaScript, therefore it is also not possible to close it using JavaScript. Many browsers, such as Internet Explorer do not adhere to this security setting entirely, instead they display a confirmation window which queries the surfer as to whether he would really like to close the window: With these browsers the Cancel button functions as expected - the respondent can close it after confirming the window. With browsers that follow the security settings closely, such as Mozilla Firefox, the Cancel button will not work. You can test this function in productive mode, not in the preview: The preview is opened via JavaScript, therefore the browser specific behavior described cannot be observed.
4.5.7
4.5.8
135
4.5.9
136
directly receive an appropriate message and are not greeted with a still active static start page that requests them to fill out the questionnaire. Please note: If you put a finished project with a static start page in to the field again or if you copy or import a project, the start page must be explicitly marked and generated as a static start page again.
Creating links to SSL surveys If you wish to create a link to the SSL version of your survey on the static start page, use the following URL:
http://www.mydomain.com/uc/project/?#static_hidden#
The parameter #static_hidden# ensures that clicking on the SSL link will start the survey and not reload the static start page.
137
Figure 4.17
5. In the questionnaire view of the Drag&Drop editor, the static start page is marked by a dedicated icon. In the classic editor, an (S) will be displayed behind the page name of the page. Both indicate that the static start page has been created and is in use.
Figure 4.18
6. Continue working with the project as usual. The static start page contents will be automatically created and adjusted.
138
The information that a static start page is in use is also displayed in the overview of the Project checks->Project check menu.
4.5.10
Editing Pages
In order to edit a page, click on the title of the page in the questionnaire view. This link will automatically take you to the page view which displays the individual questions of a survey page. Chapter 4.10.1, p. 161 explains how to create and edit questions.
Figure 4.19
Page view
The table listing the questions that have already been created provides the following information and editing options: coid: the container ID, i.e. the ID of the question component. q_id (ID of the question) and question ID (unique identifier based on q_id): both are unique and will remain intact even when copied. They are used as follows: In the reporting, it allows you to define the questions that should be in an evaluation (see Chapter 12.10, p. 514). In the pro editor: you can create a specific design for each question using CSS.
Question title: Clicking on the title will open the question view. Question type: see Chapter 4.10.1, p. 161. Move: Using the icons you can change the position of a question on the current page or move the question to an adjacent page. Randomization: The position of all or selected questions on the current page can be randomly switched from EFS 5.2 and later. To do so in the desired question, activate the checkboxes in this column. Actions icons: Preview: Opens the page preview. Copy Copy question and insert into another page: Clicking on this icon will open a dialog that allows you to rename the copied question and insert it into another page in a targeted manner. Delete
In addition the following tabs are available in page view. The Questionnaire tab opens the questionnaire view, providing you with an overview of all the pages created.
139
The Change page properties tab opens the dialog described in Chapter 4.5, p. 131. Clicking on the Page preview tab opens a new window presenting a preview of your draft. The Change order tab allows you to change the order of the questions on a page. The Conr column shows the position of the question as a numeric value. If, for example, you have created two questions on one page, you can change their order by swapping the numbers 1 and 2. After that, click on the Change button for your changes to be accepted. When making position changes, you can also have the sort numbers of all affected questions automatically adjusted. To do so, use the new arrow icons. Clicking on an arrow icon will open a script prompt that allows you to enter the new position of the respective question. After you have confirmed by clicking on OK, the position number will be changed automatically, and the sort numbers of all subsequent questions affected by the change will also be automatically adjusted. Then click on Save. Make the next position change, click on Save again, etc.
The Trigger tab allows you to create the triggers described in Chapter 7.5, p. 325. The Plausibility check tab allows you to define a plausibility check in order to check the respondents answers for logical and formal errors. If the plausibility check detects an error during the survey, the respondent will be alerted to the error and asked to answer the question. (See Chapter 5.14, p. 231, for detailed information on plausibility checks.) In multilingual projects, the Text elements tab opens an entry form in which you can edit the pages text elements in the other project languages. See Chapter 15.3, p. 578, for details.
Example:
You have the following four questions on one questionnaire page.
140
Figure 4.20
Page preview
Now, however, you want to output two questions per row side by side. This can be realized using a mixed-external page.
Figure 4.21
Creating questions
After creating the mixed-external page, select it from the overview. Your first step now is to create the desired questions, so that, referring to the example, the page view of the mixed-external page will look as shown below.
141
Figure 4.22
Page view
The individual questions must be incorporated into the pages HTML code via wildcards. Wildcards for questions consist of the REPLACE_COID variable and the question ID. Therefore, the following wildcard must be used for the first question: #REPLACE_COID_3158#. An HTML input field for entering the HTML code is located below the questions.
142
4.7 Filter
Figure 4.23
4.7 Filter
If you create a survey page of the Standard type, all participants in the survey will automatically be routed to the next page as soon as they have answered and clicked on the Submit button. Additional questions can be directed at participants, who have provided answers which you have specified or at those with specific properties saved in participant administration. Other respondents who do not meet the filter criterion will skip these questions.
4.7.1
143
Figure 4.24
On the standard page P2, the participants are asked to name their hobbies. Among others, they can select the option Sports. The following page, entitled F1 Hobby: Sports is a filter page which does not contain questions but will, according to the answers given on P2, let the respondents pass through or re-route them: All those respondents who have selected sports will be routed to page P3, which is hierarchically subordinated to, and indented below, filter page F1. This page contains a question on the kind of sports. For the remaining participants, who do not work out and have accordingly not selected the option Sports, the question on P3 would be of no interest. These respondents will be routed directly P4 Pets. To trace this example in practice, please proceed as follows: 1. After page 2, which is a question of the Standard type, create a new page 3 with the Filter type. This page is entitled F1 Hobby: Sports because the filter will only send the respondents on to P3 if they have selected the option Sports. 2. After its creation, the new filter page will appear in the questionnaire view. Clicking on the title will open the EFS condition editor.
144
4.7 Filter
3. In the Variables drop-down list, select the variable which contains the information if the participants have selected the option Sports, when asked to name their hobbies. In the example project, this is v_1. 4. In the Condition drop-down list, select equal. 5. As soon as you have selected a variable, its possible characteristics are displayed in the Code field. In this case, these are quoted (1) und not quoted (0) (the question is a multiple response list). Select quoted (1). I.e. the value of v_8 must equal 1 to activate the filter and route the participants into the filter branch. Thus, in this case, the filter definition is that the value of the selected variable must be equal to 1 for the filter to be activated.
If you are working on your first project, or if your project is quite complex, click on the Codebook menu item: The codebook lists all variables, including their characteristics and labels. See Chapter 14.2, p. 559. 6. Save the filter condition.
145
7. The new filter condition is listed as current filter definition. 8. Click on the Back to questionnaire menu item to return to the questionnaire view of your survey. 9. Create page P3. It should be indented below the filter. If you use the Create new page or filter icon in the row of the filter page F1, P3 will be indented automatically. If you use the Create new page or filter tab, the new page will be placed on the main level. But you can drag it into the filter branch easily.
146
4.7 Filter
Figure 4.28
10. The following page P4 should be placed in the main level of the questionnaire.
4.7.2
Filter 1 Page 2
Page 6
Figure 4.29
Filter flowchart
147
Filter 1 is located on the main level of page 1. If the filter condition is met, or true, the pages on the sublevel of this filter will be displayed. In the example, this would be page 2. If the condition of filter 1 is not met, the respondent will be taken directly to page 5 and then page 6, without any further action. Here, another filter (filter 2) containing a further condition has been set after page 2. If this condition is met, page 3 (on sublevel 2) will be displayed, followed by page 4 (sublevel 1). If the condition is not met, the respondent will be taken directly to page 4. The filtering in a survey can be constructed from any number of filters on any number of levels. Nesting of the other page types with filters is also possible.
4.7.3
1. Defining a condition
Please proceed as follows: 1. After you have created a new page of the Filter type, it will be displayed in the questionnaire view. Click on the page title to open the condition editor.
2. Creating a condition requires the following settings: Negation: You can negate the following condition by ticking the checkbox in this column. Please note, the usual rules of logic apply to the use of brackets, see Section 6. Using brackets, p. 153: usually you will want to combine the negation with brackets to guarantee meaningful results. Variables: The drop-down list is used to set the variable. An overview of the variables that can be used is given in Section 2. Variables available for filtering, p. 150). Condition: In this column, a logical operator is selected. An overview of the operators is given in Section 3. Logical Operators, p. 151. Code: This column is used to enter the corresponding answer value. Further information on this can be found in Section 4. Selecting Codes, p. 152.
148
4.7 Filter
3. The condition will not be finally saved until you click on the Save button.
4. You can make a filter definition as complex as you wish by adding further conditions and creating conjunctions between them. To do so, use the new empty condition row that is displayed after the first condition has been saved: Fill in this row as explained above. 5. Create conjunctions between the conditions: To do so, select AND or OR from the Conjunction drop-down list. See Section 5. Conjunctions with AND and OR, p. 152. 6. If required, you can change the processing order using brackets. See Section 6. Using brackets, p. 153. 7. Click on Save again. The next new condition row will be displayed enabling you to expand your definition step-by-step by adding several conditions, if required. The figure below shows a complex filter definition with conjunctions and brackets. You can remove a superfluous condition by ticking the checkbox in the Delete column and then clicking on Save.
149
150
4.7 Filter
For Employee surveys: Org Processor data, see EFS Employee project managers manual 8.0, Chapter 2.4.1 for details. org_code_structureID (Primary Structure.OrgCodePreAllocation): Unit in the named structure to which the participants have been allocated. E.g. org_code_1 is the unit of the participants in the primary view (structure ID = 1). org_allocation_structureID (Primary Structure.OrgCodeSelfAllocation): Unit in the named structure to which the participants have allocated themselves. E.g. org_allocation_1 is the self-allocated unit of the participants in the primary view (structure ID = 1) (Please note that self-allocation requires special programming.) org_function_structureID (Primary Structure.OrgFunction): Function of a participant in the named structure. E.g. org_function_1 is the function of the participant in the primary structure (Struktur-ID = 1).
The Codebook, which can be opened in a second window by clicking on the corresponding menu item, contains a detailed breakdown of the variables and codes for the respective project.
3. Logical Operators
The following operators can be used:
Operator greater greater equal equal less equal less unequal contains Symbol > >= == >= < != contains Meaning Greater than answer value x Greater than or equal to answer value x Equal to answer value x Less than or equal to answer value x Less than answer value x Unequal (answer value x is excepted) Used primarily for filtering via texts, see the following notes on coding when filtering via content from the participant administration. Produces all texts that contain the entered text element, for example when filtering for cd abcde will also be filtered out. Filtering is case sensitive, blank spaces will be regarded as an incorrect entry. Umlauts can be used. Firstly, you can use this condition to check whether an entry contains one of several specified elements. Example: Entering 22 would fulfill the condition contains any = 11,22,33, whereas entering 123 or 122 would not. Secondly, you can use this condition to identify a specific element in an entry that consists of multiple elements, such as a phone number. Example: Entering 0229-1234 would fulfill the condition contains any = 1234, whereas entering 0229-12345 would not. Acceptable separators are comma, apostrophe, and |. Regular expressions can be used in the filter condition. They must be enclosed in slashes. The variable selected must contain the organizational unit named in the code field.
contains any
contains any
Filter operators
151
Meaning The variable selected must contain either the variable named in the code field or one of its subunits.
Filter operators
4. Selecting Codes
The condition editor helps you to select suitable codes. If the data type of the selected variable includes codes resp. characteristics, these codes resp. characteristics are automatically offered in the Code field. All you need to do is select the appropriate code. For variables of data type text, you have to enter the code value for the condition yourself. This may happen, for example, if a free entry field is used to query a staff number or a zip code, or if the condition refers to a participant variable of type text. For variables of data type text, the filtering is case sensitive. Blank spaces will be regarded as an incorrect entry. Umlauts can be used. If you wish to identify participants who did not enter anything in a specific text field, leave the code field empty. If, for example, all participants who left the v_1 text field empty are taken to an additional page below the filter, the condition could be v_1 equal . (The condition v_1 equal 0 would not work: Due to the predefined code 0, the software expects a number that is not equal to 0. If the respondent enters a text, PHP classifies this as 0.) Please note: Using filters on open answers is generally problematic. It is virtually impossible to predict what participants will enter on the other hand you can only correctly formulate filter conditions if you know which data type is to be expected as input, for example. You should therefore use plausibility checks (Chapter 5.14, p. 231) or type checks (Chapter 5.15, p. 247) to restrict input options from the outset. If, for example, you ask for a percentage and then want to filter the value, a numbers-only check allows you to make sure that participants have not entered texts or negative numbers.
152
4.7 Filter
6. Using brackets
You can specify user-defined brackets in the condition editor. The usual rules of logic apply. This means, in particular: Without brackets AND conjunctions will always take priority over OR conjunctions. For example, v_1=1 AND v_2=0 OR v_3=1 will be processed as (v_1=1 AND v_2=0) OR v_3=1. If you want the condition to be processed as v_1=1 AND (v_2=0 OR v_3=1), you must insert the corresponding brackets. Without brackets, negation will always take priority over anything else. Therefore, in most cases negation must be combined with brackets: If you want to negate v_1 > 0 explizitly, for example, the syntax is : !(v_1 > 0). Without brackets, the condition !v_1 > 0 would be processed as (!v_1) > 0. I.e. first the system would check if the variable has one of the two values 0, 1 permitted by bollean logic. Such a check is possible, but in context of the situation in the condition editor, it is usually not intended by the user. For variables with more characteristics, the boolean check does not make any sense. In the second step, the condition >0 is be applied to the result. I.e. when using negation in the condition editor, usually you will want to use brackets to guarantee meaningful results. Alternatively, in many cases it is possible to replace the negation by other operators and additional conjunctions. If you have inserted incorrect, i.e. incomplete, brackets, an error message will be displayed on saving, indicating that the filter as such has been saved, but not the brackets. This means: The condition editor will continue to display the brackets, giving you an opportunity to locate and correct the error. If you ignore the error message and leave the incorrect brackets unchanged, the database will not consider the incorrect brackets when processing the data, but proceed according to the usual rules (with AND always taking priority over OR). Please mind: brackets which do not fulfill the intention of the author, but establish a logically meaningful syntax, cannot be identified automatically.
4.7.4
153
Figure 4.33
Filter list
4.7.5
Testing Filters
Before conducting a test survey, you can test the functionality of your filters. To do so, please proceed as follows: 1. Open the Questionnaire editor->Filter list menu. 2. In the Test column, you can invoke the function test separately for each filter by clicking on the test tube icon.
Figure 4.34
3. In the filter test dialog, enter the variable characteristics for which the filter is to be triggered resp. is not to be triggered into the text fields provided. (The number of text fields depends on the number of filter variables.)
154
4.7 Filter
Figure 4.35
Figure 4.36
5. Check in the newly-opened results section whether the filter is functioning as expected. 6. After successful end of the test, change the filters test status in order to mark those filters that function correctly for your further work.
155
Figure 4.37
7. After that, click on Change status to assign the respective new status to the filter.
4.7.6
4.7.7
1. Syntax
The following rules apply:
156
4.7 Filter
Please use only internal variable names (v_xxx). External or long variable names cannot be used. Conjunctions must be separated by brackets
If you wish to create an OR conjunction between the groups, the entire filter must be put in brackets. Without surrounding brackets, the filter might be triggered even if none of the criteria is met.
((Item1=1 OR Item1=2) OR (Item2=3 AND Item2=4))
The condition can be formulated according to the usual logical rules for filter definitions. All survey variables and logical operators can be used. Please note the following: Unlike the usual filter conditions, the function does not refer to the behavior of the participant responding, but to the completed interviews of other participants. The condition must be enclosed in squared brackets and quotation marks. Please note: Use of the count function may significantly affect the servers performance. Therefore, please use it economically. Also, please check if your condition can be realized more easily and more efficiently with LUA (Chapter 4.7.8, p. 158). When using the count function in list conditions, in particular, it is recommended to use it not more than 50 times.
Example
As soon as more than 10 survey participants have answered a question about a specific product A (e.g. v_1>0), all subsequent participants are to be redirected to a question-
157
naire page containing a question about another product B. The following function must be entered in the alternate filter editor:
count['v_1>0']=10
4.7.8
You can switch from a standard filter definition to a LUA condition or to an alternative filter condition without loss of information. Please bear in mind, though, that a return or a switch between LUA and alternative filter condition will require a redefinition of the condition.
1. LUA in EFS
Detailed information on the LUA scripting language can be found on the official homepage at http://www.lua.org/ The LUA implemented in EFS differs from the standard scope of the scripting language in some respects. The following modules have been disabled: debug, coroutine, package, io, os. The following functions have been disabled: rawequal, rawget, rawset, dofile, load, loadfile, require. The following functions are EFS specific: time (os.time): Standard function usually located in the disabled os module. date (os.time): Standard function usually located in the disabled os module. string.len: Determines the number of characters in a string (unicode) instead of the number of bytes. Please note that the # operator has not been modified in this way, i.e. it still determines the number of bytes.
Another EFS-specific feature is the module rex_pcre (see http://lrexlib. luaforge.net/manual.html). Please note that only the module pcre is available.
158
Figure 4.39
Random
selected Page 2 Page 3
Page 4
Figure 4.40
Page 1 is located on the main level, followed by a page of the Random selected type. The sublevel of this page contains two pages (in this example, page 2 and page 3). The survey is routed as follows: After completion of page 1, one of the subpages of the Random selected page will be randomly selected. In the example, either page 2 or page 3 will be displayed. After the selected page has been sent, the respondent will continue on page 4. Again, any number of page levels and types can be nested here.
159
To find out which pages of a random select block a participant has seen, check the content of the variable rnd_pg_PGID in the export file. See Table 13.2.
4.8.1
4.8.2
4.8.3
160
SUBLEVEL 1
RANDOM rotation
Page 2 Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Figure 4.41
The page type Random rotation displays all subpages located on the sublevel of the Random rotation page in random order. Here again, any number of nestings is possible. To find out in which order a participant has seen the pages of a random rotation block, check the content of the variables rnd_pg_PGID_NR in the export file (Table 13.2).
Choosing a title
Enter the desired title into the input field in the Title column. This should not be the exact wording of the question yet, but only a title for internal use that relates to the content of the question, e.g. job. If questionnaire pages contain only one question, the question title will frequently be identical to the page title. Therefore, you can have the system default the page title as a suggested title for the first question on each page. To do so, go to the Staff ->Own account->Preferences menu, open the Behavior of the questionnaire editor tab and activate the option When creating the first question on a page, automatically suggest the page title as the question title (Chapter 16.4.1, p. 617).
Selecting the question type or loading the question from the library
After that, you have two options for selecting the question type:
161
You can use the drop-down list to specify the desired question type. The list of question types is organized in groups for easier access. Click on a group to view the list of corresponding question types. When scrolling over the question types schemata will be immediately displayed in the drop-down list. This makes it easy to find the appropriate design. Then, create the question by clicking on Save.
Figure 4.42 Selecting the question type from the drop-down list
If you prefer working with the old drop-down list, you can deactivate the Ajax dropdown list. See Table 16.18. Alternatively, you can invoke a list containing schemata of all question types via the Detail view question types icon. Select the desired question type and then confirm by clicking on Create.
162
Figure 4.43
Instead of creating new questions, you can also draw on a question that has already been archived to the library. To do so, click on the Load a new question from library icon. See Chapter 6.4.2, p. 276, for further information on using the question library. The question types are described in detail from Chapter 5.1, p. 175, and a list of the various question types is located in the appendix to this manual in Chapter 18.5, p. 645.
Deleting questions
Questions already created can be removed by clicking on the Delete icon.
4.10.2
Editing Questions
After creating a new question, you are automatically taken to the question view. If you wish to edit an existing question, simply click on its title in the page view.
163
Figure 4.44
The question view of a question with a single response list (question type 111)
In the question views entry form, which can contain different input fields and functions depending on the question type, you can enter your question text with the related items and make question-specific settings. You can use HTML to layout the question text, fill-in instruction, help text and answer options or to insert images. You should use the option to manually format individual questions with care. Whereever possible, use the layout features of standard and pro editor (see Chapter 8, p. 351) instead: it increases uniform appearance and reduces the maintenance effort in case of changes.
4.10.3
164
that react dynamically: Thus, rarely used options can be shown and hidden as required. The saved settings will be valid for the entire project.
Figure 4.45
2. A layer containing the hidden options will open. As soon as you enable a feature, it will be shown in the question view. Saving is not necessary. To close the layer, click on the x icon.
Figure 4.46
165
Please note: Older versions of Internet Explorer cannot display the pop-up windows correctly. If a window is positioned over a drop-down box, the box will shine through. Therefore, pop-up windows can be moved.
4.10.4
Question options
Feature Question title Question text Fill-in instruction Description This field contains the title of the question. In this field, you can enter the question text as it will appear on the website. Here you can insert explanatory notes on answering the question, e.g. Multiple answers possible. If you do not need a fill-in instruction, please delete the standard text (Here you explain...) from the corresponding input field. Individual questions give respondents the option of invoking a help pop-up window. Here, you can enter the help text that is to appear in the pop-up window later. You can protect respondents answers to the current question against unauthorized viewing. Depending on the answers the respondent has previously given, you can hide the question. To define the conditions, click on the Edit hiding condition link. This function offers an alternative to randomization: The questions items will be mirrored on the horizontal (vertical flipping) or the vertical (horizontal flipping) centerline. If you tick the Mandatory checkbox, EFS Survey will automatically check to see whether the respondent has answered this question. If this is not the case, an appropriate message will be displayed. (The message is listed in Table 3.11.) Please note: In the case of matrix questions, selecting this function will only ensure that at least any one item will be answered. You can force respondents to answer several items or all items by ticking the checkboxes in the dac column in the Answer options section of the entry form. If this function is activated, answer options and inside titles will have alternating background colors (white and grey) to improve readability. See Chapter 12.8, p. 511 See Chapter 5.16, p. 249 See Chapter 5.11.5, p. 226 See Chapter 5.12, p. 227 Details
Help text
Mark question as protected Hiding condition for this question Activate horizontal / vertical flipping of answers Mandatory (dac)
Alternate colors
Table 4.5
Question options
166
Description After the selected number of answer options has been reached the list wraps and a new column begins. This function is particularly well suited for use in combination with hiding conditions on item level or randomization, i.e. for situations in which New column (see Table 4.7) is too static. This field allows you to specify how many of the existing items are to be displayed: With the default setting, 0, all items will be displayed. If you enter a number that is less than the actual number of existing items, the selection will be made by counting off the existing items from the top. Using this function is particularly recommended when combined with item randomization (see Table 4.7) because the randomization produces varying item combinations. If the function is used in combination with hiding conditions at the item level (see Chapter 5.16.2, p. 250), the output of the questionnaire page will be done by first considering the hiding conditions. Only after that will the number be limited. If this option has been enabled, long answer texts will be wrapped automatically. This feature can be used with the question types 111, 112, 113, 121, 122 and 144.
Details
Table 4.5
Question options
Dynamic answers
Feature Dynamic answers Table 4.6 Description If the answers are to be dynamically read from a list, you can make the corresponding settings in this area. Details see Chapter 7.3.3, p. 308
Answer options
Feature No Description When creating the items, the numbering is automatically assigned by the system. You may change the numbering, but the changed numbering should be unique. If the numbering you assigned is not unique, an automatic, unique numbering will be assigned. Input fields and functions in the Answer options section of the entry form Details
Table 4.7
167
(cont.)Feature Code
Description Serves to identify a characteristic for questions with a single response list and matrix questions. An overview of all encodings is provided in the codebook, see Chapter 14.2, p. 559. You can edit the encoding. However, you should never do this while the survey is in progress because otherwise, the encoded information will be lost or it will no longer be possible to assign it correctly. Filters and other functions that are based on codes can also be damaged. When defining codes in matrix questions, please note that code 0 is disabled for scale items, except for question types 351, 361 and 364. Code 0 is normally used for questions types 361 and 364 to generate the Please select scale characteristic: This allows you to track whether participants have responded to the question. To create a new answer option, enter a new answer or item text into the New row. The sort number or the code (depending on the question type) will then be assigned automatically. Used to re-sort the answer options. Clicking on the arrow icon in front of an answer option will open a script prompt. Enter the desired new position for the item. After you have confirmed by clicking on OK, the position number will be changed automatically, and the numbers of all subsequent items will be corrected accordingly. Then click on Save. Make the next position change, click on Save again, etc. Enter the answer options (answer categories or answer items) in this field. By default there are five preset options. However, you can expand or reduce the number as you wish. If you need more than the pre-created options, simply enter in the New row the text for the next option, select the type and Save. You can remove redundant items by ticking the option Delete and then Save. Up to 100 answer options can be created for a single question. For some question types, less options are available, to guarantee an appealing design. Please mind advice given in Chapter 5, p. 175 regarding this matter. The answer text may have up to 10,000 characters. But please keep in mind that overlong texts may negatively affect the appearance of the question. You can choose the type of new answer option in this field. The following options are available: Answer category Answer category + text (see Chapter 5.10, p. 217) Inside title (see Chapter 5.9.1, p. 216) With 5xx-er questions, you can instead choose between image and HTML (see Chapter 5.8.2, p. 210) This option allows you to create a separate answer category, such as the answer Other. This will, therefore, enable the respondent to indicate that none of the possible answers apply to them. Ticking the Missing value checkbox for an item marks the item as a missing value in the online statistics. (Caution: When exporting the data, e.g. as an SPSS file, any declaration as Missing must be performed again.)
Details
New
Arrow icons
Type
Missing value
Table 4.7
Input fields and functions in the Answer options section of the entry form
168
(cont.)Feature Randomization
Description The order of the selected answer options will be changed randomly so that the respondents will see different arrangements. The extension Grouping enables you to randomize item groups, see Chapter 5.11.4, p. 220. This option allows you to show an answer category for your question in a separate column. This is especially suitable if you wish to offer an additional text field, separated from the answer categories. By selecting this function, you can ensure that, for matrix questions and questions with multiple response lists, individual items, several items or all items must be answered. The Delete option allows you to reduce the number of possible answers to the question as much as you wish.
New column
dac
Input fields and functions in the Answer options section of the entry form
All the modifications described above will only be performed if you click the Save button after entering them.
Tabs
Feature Questionnaire Page Description This function returns you to the overview of all the pages in your survey. This function displays all the question titles of the page you are currently editing, instead of only one question as with Preview question. If you feel that the selected question type is not adequate, you can use the Change question type link to modify it according to your wishes. If you want to see a preview of the question, the Preview question link at the top of the screen allows you to do so. The window that opens will now only contain the current question, as opposed to the whole page as displayed in the Page preview. This function allows you to change a question type to another without having to create the whole question again. You can only change the existing question type to the ones displayed in the drop-down list. Select the desired question type and click on Change. Please note that various special settings cannot be transferred when changing the question type. For example, hiding conditions and type checks will be lost. Selecting this function allows you to insert a previously created answer scale into the question. This function allows you to copy a finished question into the question library. Clicking on this tab allows you to insert a previously created wildcard into a question or answer field in the entry form. Functions of the tabs in the question view See Chapter 5.4.8, p. 198 See Chapter 6.4, p. 275 See Chapter 7.1, p. 293 Details
Preview question
169
Figure 4.47
Figure 4.48
4.11.1
170
Figure 4.49
4.11.2
Figure 4.50
4.11.3
171
172
173
174
5.1.1
Figure 5.1
Elements
This question type has the following content elements: Question text Fill-in instruction Help text Answer categories 1-n Optional: Answer category with text entry field (see Chapter 5.10, p. 217) Optional: Inside titles 1-m (see Chapter 5.9.1, p. 216) Optional: Columns 1-o
175
Entry dialog
The admin screen that was used to create this question looks as follows:
Figure 5.2
5.1.2
176
With question type 113, you have the option of modifying the area between the scale and the answer block by inserting an additional template, e.g. to change the distance. See Chapter 8.5.3, p. 375, for further explanations.
5.1.3
Figure 5.3
Elements
The base elements are identical with the elements in the question type 111: Question text Fill-in instruction Help text Answer categories 1-n Optional: Answer category with text entry field (see Chapter 5.10, p. 217) It is not possible to create inside titles or several columns.
177
5.1.4
Figure 5.4
Question
Figure 5.5
Figure 5.6
To create this, please proceed as follows: 1. In the editor, create question of the type 131 Closed response list. 2. Add a text field to the question, and encode it as 999.
Figure 5.7
178
3. On the same questionnaire page, create a question of the HTML type. Enter the following HTML code:
001 002 003 004 005 006 007 008 009 010 011 012 013 014 015 016 017 018 019 020 021 022 023 024 025 026 027 028 029 <script type="text/javascript"> <!-function check_other(selectObjName, textObjName) { var selectObj = document.getElementsByName(selectObjName)[0]; var textObj = document.getElementsByName(textObjName)[0]; // Option Sonstige? gewhlt?! if (selectObj[selectObj.selectedIndex].value == '999') { with (textObj) { readOnly = false; } textObj.style.background='white'; textObj.value=""; textObj.focus(); } // akuell ausgewaehlte Option ist nicht die sonstige Option if (selectObj[selectObj.selectedIndex].value != '999') { with (textObj) { readOnly = true; } textObj.value=""; textObj.style.background="#C0C0C0"; } } function pre_set(item) { var obj = document.getElementsByName(item)[0]; obj.readOnly = true; obj.style.background="#C0C0C0"; } pre_set('v_3'); //--> </script>
4. Go back to the question of the type 131. Select the Special options tab, which is now additionally displayed. Enter code that will invoke the function when a certain event occurs. In this case, the event is onchange, and the command is:
001 onchange=check_other(v_1,v_3);
Figure 5.8
179
5.1.5
Figure 5.9
Elements
The base elements are identical with the elements in the question type 111: Question text Fill-in instruction Help text Answer categories 1-n It is not possible to use a combined Answer category + text fields, the creation of inside titles or the creation of several columns.
5.1.6
180
Figure 5.10
Please note: This question type requires that the respondents have JavaScript activated. You can determine this by activating the JavaScript check with subsequent filtering using the variable javascript, see Chapter 3.7.7, p. 80
Elements
This question type has the following content elements: Question text Fill-in instruction Help text Up to 18 answer options. HTML formatting cannot be used for the answer options of ranking questions. Instead of text you can also have the option of using images. Please note that images will be transformed by the software to the preset width and height. Accordingly the images should have a uniform format suitable for the settings for width and height.
Question options
The following specific options are available for designing a question: Width / height (in pixels): You can edit the size of the answer options. To do so, enter the value in pixels. Animate movement of ranking items: If this question option is activated, the options will glide into place by themselves as soon as you let them fall into the righthand field. If it is not activated, the respondent must place them exactly by himself. Label of Rank: In this field, you can enter a key word that later in an evaluation, for example in Online Statistics, will be used to describe the position. E.g. the label Position used in the following figure appears as Position 1, Position 2 ...Position 5 in the online statistics.
181
The usual features used in questions with a single response list of the type 111, randomization, dac, always visible and hiding conditions can be used. It is not possible to use answer category + text, new column, hierarchical rotation and wrap item text.
Entry dialog
The admin screen that was used to create this question looks as follows:
Figure 5.11
Layout 1. Arrow
If necessary, you can replace the arrow in the ranking question by another image from EFS 7.0 on. The existing image file for the arrow is named rank_arrow.gif and stored in the /layout folder. (You can check this in the Layout->Pro Editor menu on the Upload
182
tab: By clicking on the Project resources tab, you can access the content of all folders which are relevant for the layout.) Create your own image file in GIF format. It should have the name rank_arrow.gif. In the Layout->Pro editor menu on the Upload tab, upload your file into the \layout folder. It will replace the existing image.
5.2.1
183
Figure 5.12
Elements
This question type has the following content elements: Question text Fill-in instruction Help text Items 1-n Optional: Items with text entry fields (see Chapter 5.10, p. 217) Optional: Inside titles 1-m (see Chapter 5.9.1, p. 216) Optional: Columns 1-o
Entry dialog
The admin screen that was used to create this question looks as follows:
184
Figure 5.13
5.2.2
185
Figure 5.14
Elements
This question type has the following content elements: Question text Fill-in instruction Help text Text around the entry field Maximum width of the text field Maximum entry length. A maximum of 255 characters is permitted.
Entry dialog
The admin screen that was used to create this question looks as follows:
Figure 5.15
5.3.2
186
Figure 5.16
Elements
This question type has the following content elements: Question text Fill-in instruction Help text Text around the entry field, see Chapter 5.10.2, p. 217 Number of columns (width of the text area) Number of rows (height of the text area
Entry dialog
The admin screen that was used to create this question looks as follows:
Figure 5.17
5.3.3
187
Figure 5.18
Elements
This question type has the following content elements: Question text Fill-in instruction Help text Texts around the entry fields 1-n. From EFS 7.1, you can position the entry fields within, before or after the texts, see Chapter 5.10.2, p. 217. Please mind: Question type 143: If the space between the left part of the text and the entry field is too big, use the Width of the left column with the question texts (in pixels) field to minimize it. Question type 144: If you want to move the entry field, the Wrap item text option should be deactivated. It is not possible to combine these two features.
Entry dialog
The admin screen that was used to create this question looks as follows:
188
Figure 5.19
5.4.1
189
Figure 5.20
Elements
This question type has the following content elements: Question text Fill-in instruction Help text Scale labels 1-m Dimension titles 1-n Optional: Inside titles 1-o (see Chapter 5.9.1, p. 216) Optional: Answer category with text entry field (see Chapter 5.10, p. 217)
Question options
As with most other question types, normal matrix questions also provide the following question options: Mark question as protected, hiding condition at question level, vertical and horizontal flip, mandatory (dac), Number of items visible and Alternate colors. In the section answer options, the following options are available: Answer category + text, inside title, type check, grouping, randomization, dac at item level, Always visible and hiding condition at item level. Please note: If Mandatory (dac) is activated for a matrix question of type 311 and comparable matrix types, this function will only check whether an answer has been given to any item. If you want all items to be answered, you should use the dac function on item level (see Chapter 5.12.2, p. 229). In addition, the following question type-specific question options may be used when designing the matrix: Repeat scale headers every x rows: In the case of a matrix question with numerous answer categories, the scale can be repeatedly displayed after x rows so that the respondent can still see the scale apportionment while scrolling, for example. Width of the left column with the question texts (in pixels): This feature allows you to specify the width of the left column.
Entry dialog
You can find an instruction for creating a standard matrix, including illustrations of the entry dialog, in Chapter 2.2.4, p. 46.
190
Layout
With question type 311, you have the option of modifying the area between the scale and the answer block by inserting an additional template. This allows you to change the distance, for example. See Chapter 8.5.3, p. 375, for further explanations.
5.4.2
Other Standard and Scale Matrices (Types 312, 313, 321, 322)
EFS Survey provides three further question types which merely differ from question type 311 in their layout (see Chapter 18.5, p. 645, for illustrations of these question types). The use of inside titles is not possible with these question types. Standard matrix 2, question type 312: The answers appear next to the respective radio buttons. Standard matrix 3, question type 313: This question type is a standard matrix mirrored along its diagonal. The items are listed along the top, while the scale is on the left. Scale matrix 1, question type 321: The questions appear above the answers which, in turn, appear next to the respective radio buttons. Scale matrix 2, question type 322: The questions appear above the answers which, in turn, appear above the respective radio buttons. Using these alternatives is especially recommended when a matrix question becomes so long that the respondent has to scroll. That is because, with the question types 312, 321 and 322, the text of the scale is displayed with each question and does not disappear from view during scrolling. Available question options vary slightly from question type 311. Use of Answer category + text and inside titles is not possible. Also, some other 311 question options such as, for example vertical flips are not available for some of these question types as they do not make sense in the changed layout.
5.4.3
Figure 5.21
Elements
This question type has the following content elements: Question text Fill-in instruction Help text Optional: Scale labels 1-m Optional: header left pole Optional: header right pole
191
Answer options 1-n left pole Answer options 1-n right pole Optional: Inside titles 1-o (see Chapter 5.9.1, p. 216)
Question options
The following specific options are available for designing a semantic differential: Width of the left column with the question texts (in pixels): This feature allows you to specify the width of the poles. Width of a scale property (in pixels): The width of the scale characteristics can be changed. Show scale: After you have ticked the checkbox and clicked on Save, a scale will be displayed above the radio buttons. As usual with matrix questions, this scale is edited in the Scale options section. Title left / right pole: This feature allows you to insert headers above the answer options.
Figure 5.22
Entry dialog
The following figure shows the entry dialog for the semantic differential.
192
Figure 5.23
With question type 340, you have the option of modifying the area between the question and the answer block by inserting an additional template, e.g. to change the distance. Further information on this can be found in Chapter 8.5.3, p. 375.
193
5.4.4
Figure 5.24
Elements
This question type has the following content elements: Question text Fill-in instruction Help text Column titles 1, 2 Scale labels of the two columns 1-m Answer options 1-n
Entry dialog
The double-scale matrix entry dialog is largely similar to the entry dialog for a standard matrix. Only the Scale options section differs: In question type 351 both columns are listed in this section and you open the individual scales with a link to Edit scale.
194
Figure 5.25
Figure 5.26
5.4.5
Figure 5.27
195
There are two question types which allow you to create a select matrix: The figure above shows a normal select matrix (question type 361). Alternatively, you can create a vertical select matrix (question type 364), i.e. a mirrored version of question type 361.
Elements
This question type has the following content elements: Question text Fill-in instruction Help text Column titles 1-m Scale labels 1-n Answer options 1-o
Entry dialog
The select matrix entry dialog is largely similar to the entry dialog for a double-scale matrix described in Chapter 5.4.5, p. 195. Caution: If you are using the closed drop-down lists of the select matrix, you should set up one scale characteristic with the text Please select for each of the two answer scales and assign code 0 to it. During evaluation, this will help you to track whether or not a participant has answered the question. The Mandatory and dac functions only work with question type 361 and 364, if a Please select scale characteristic with code 0 exists. Under this condition, the dac function allows you to force respondents to answer an individual dimension. A completeness check for an individual item is not possible with this question type (also refer to Chapter 5.12, p. 227).
5.4.6
Figure 5.28
196
Elements
This question type has the following content elements: Question text Fill-in instruction Help text Column titles 1-n Answer options 1-m There is no cell-specific information. There is no description text for the checkboxes.
Entry dialog
The checkbox matrix entry dialog is largely similar to the entry dialog for a standard scale matrix. Only the section Scale options differs slightly: the columns are created in this section. Furthermore, you can tag the columns of the checkbox matrix as exclusive, see Chapter 5.13, p. 230.
Figure 5.29
5.4.7
Figure 5.30
This question type is a combination of rows and columns, thus forming a matrix. The information stored in the cells of this matrix is collected using text fields. This question type is therefore called text field matrix.
197
Elements
This question type has the following content elements: Question text Fill-in instruction Help text Column titles 1-n Answer options 1-m Cell text for each cell, i.e., with m rows and n columns, m x n cells. Each cell contains text which can be placed before the text field and text which can be placed after the text field.
Entry dialog
There are some special features in the text field matrix entry dialog: In the Scale options section the columns are created as explained for the checkbox matrix in the preceding Chapter. In the Answer options section you can separately specify the width and maximum input length for each text field. The maximum length of entries is 255 characters. If you wish to specify text around the entry field click the Edit cell text link. Using the %s wildcard you can also specify as with other text field questions (see Chapter 5.10.2, p. 217) where the entry field is to appear.
5.4.8
Scale overview
Clicking on the Scale library menu item opens a list of scales already created. There are two options to open the scale library: starting from the project, via the Projects->{Selected project}-> Questionnaire editor->Scale library menu. in the Options->Scale library menu. Various icons allow to open these scales for viewing or editing as well as to copy or delete them.
198
Read rights for show_scala are necessary for accessing the scale library.
Figure 5.31
4. After you have clicked OK to confirm, the scale will be stored. You will receive a message indicating that the operation was successful and can continue your work.
Figure 5.32
Selecting a scale
199
4. Confirm by clicking on Save. 5. The desired scale will be inserted into your matrix question, and you can continue editing the characteristics as desired.
5.5 Sliders
Question types 341 and 342 permit creation of horizontal and vertical sliders.
Figure 5.33
200
5.5 Sliders
Figure 5.34
Slider layouts
Elements
This question type has the following content elements: Question text Fill-in instruction Help text Scale labels 1-m Dimension titles 1-n Display field for selected scale value
Entry dialog
The question view of slider question types is largely similar to the question view of a matrix question type. The additional options are summarized in a separate Slider options section. In the next Chapter you will find a detailed explanation.
Slider options
You select the slider layout and settings in Slider options section.
Figure 5.35
201
(cont.)Function Show scale options Show scale lines Show scale value
Meaning Scale options can be optionally shown above or below the slider bar. They cannot be hidden. Scale lines can be optionally shown above or below the slider bar. They cannot be hidden. The numerical code of the scale item selected by the participant can be optionally displayed in a box alongside the scale. Please mind that it is not possible to display the label. Using the offset setting both end points of the scale are moved inwards by a specified pixel value. You can determine the initial position of the pointer yourself. The following options are available: Initially hidden: The pointer only becomes visible when the participant clicks on the bar. the various scale options. You can choose between the following options: analog: The slider continually follows the movement of the mouse. If the mouse pointer remains stationary the slider moves to the next adjacent scale option. discrete: The slider jumps to the scale option at which the mouse remains stationary. It is not pulled along the bar as in the case of the analog display. Saving of values is identical with both options.
Slider properties
Table 5.1
Slider options
Figure 5.36
5.5.1
202
Please mind that if you use such a scale, the display of the scale values in a box on the right hand must be deactivated: The box contains the code, which might cause misunderstandings in this special case.
Figure 5.37
203
1. In the drop-down list of question types, select the question type 911 (User-defined). 2. You will see a two-part form. The upper part of the form shows the variables created for this question. The Edit HTML section is where you enter the HTML code for outputting your question.
Figure 5.38
3. Add new variables as required, or tick the checkbox Delete to delete superfluous variables. The example above will output a text field, with the data saved in the v_40 variable. 4. Save your entries. You can check the appearance of the user-defined question in the preview. However, for user-defined questions, in particular it is important to test in live operation whether the data are also being saved as desired and included in the export dataset.
204
The Item text serves as an internal description of an individual variable in the question type 911. It will be output in the codebook and used to label the variable for the SPSS export. As with all other question types, an external variable name may be entered. The Variable type defines how the variable is to be created in the database:
Variable type Integer Short text Text Table 5.2 Use Saves numbers up to 11-figure numbers (variable type integer). Threshold values: -2147483648 bis 2147483647 Saves a short text up to 255 characters (variable type varchar). Saves a text up to 65535 characters (variable type blob Overview of variables for question type 911
Use the following table for orientation when defining your variables:
Form type Question with radio buttons Use One variable of the Integer type for the whole radio button group: <input type="radio" name="v_15" value="1" /> Characteristic 1 <input type="radio" name="v_15" value="2" /> Characteristic 2 <input type="radio" name="v_15" value="3" /> Characteristic 3 One variable of the Integer type for each item: <input type="checkbox" name="v_13" value="1" /> Item 1 <input type="checkbox" name="v_14" value="1" /> Item 2 <input type="checkbox" name="v_15" value="1" /> Item 3 One variable of the Short text or Text type with the desired length for the text field. Make sure that the maxlength HTML attribute is not higher then the number of maximum characters that can be saved with the chosen variable type. Otherwise, the variable will be saved to the database in a truncated form. Example: v_363 is of the short text type and required to be 2 characters long. <input type="text" name="v_363" size="2" maxlength="2" />
Table 5.3
Variable definitions
Error sources
Questions of the type 911 should be carefully tested: Is the HTML code correct? Are the data saved correctly? Possible errors: The variable definition does not match the use in the HTML code: For example, a text field has been defined as an Integer variable; the data will be saved incorrectly. The variable names used in the HTML code do not match the system variable names assigned to the question. The data will not be saved. The HTML code is incorrect, e.g. containing non-closed tables.
205
1. To convert a question, open the Change question type in the question view. 2. Select the question type 911. 3. Click on the Change button.
Figure 5.39
Entry dialog
The following figure shows the entry dialog.
Figure 5.40
Formatting options
The various formatting icons are located just above the input field.
206
Icon Format as question text Bold Italic Paragraph Break Alignment: left / center / right
Meaning Sets HTML tag <div class=questiontext></div> Sets HTML tag <b></b> Sets HTML tag <i></i> Sets HTML tag <p></p> Sets HTML tag <br/> Sets HTML tag <div align="left"></div> <div align="center"></div> <div align="right"></div> After retrieval of the file name, the HTML tag <img src="http://www. your_domain.com/uc/ihr_team/images/example.gif" alt=""> is automatically inserted. You can insert the alternative label yourself. If you have stored the image in the media library in a subfolder, please note that the name of the folder must also be inserted in the path.
Insert image
Table 5.4
Formatting styles
Table 5.5
207
Code This feature is used to protect content: It deactivates the context menu in the respective page. Please note: This form of protection is always for the entire current page and not merely to individual elements and never extends to the entire survey. If the survey participant presses the right mouse button, this will be intercepted, and an alert box will be displayed. Keyboard commands however will not be suppressed. Using the project property Disable right mouse button in survey, you can realize the same behavior for the entire questionnaire. See Table 3.3, p. 72. Deletes the entire HTML code of the question. Marks the entire HTML code of the question.
5.8.1
208
Figure 5.41
209
Figure 5.42
3. In the following dialog you can define the settings of the selected multimedia element. In the example shown above, a JPG-formatted image, these are: Alignment: The options available are Left (image at the left-hand margin of the window), Right (right-hand margin of the window), Center (middle of the window). Alternative text: The text will be displayed if loading of images is deactivated in the respondents browser. You can see the text when scrolling over the image with the mouse pointer, too. Width Height Protect image: Optionally, you can activate an image protection feature which makes storing or screenshotting of images considerably more difficult. In Chapter 5.17.6, p. 259, this EFS 7.0 feature is introduced in detail.
5.8.2
210
Figure 5.43
Question type 511 in the questionnaire. The respondent has clicked on the upper image.
211
Creating question
When creating a question, please proceed as follows: 1. Choose the question type 511 - Single response image or the question type 521 multiple response image. 2. Enter the question text as usual. 3. In the Answer options area, you can insert images instead of answer categories. The drop-down lists of the Image column show all the files in the media library. Choose the desired image. Alternatively, you can click on the binoculars icon to open the media list, which shows thumbnails of all images, and choose the desired image by clicking on the Insert image icon. 4. You can either tick the checkbox labeled Frame images on click or choose a graphic in the Overlay images with a graphic field or you can use both functions. At least one of these two functions must be activated.
Figure 5.44
5. Then click on Save. After saving, you will be able to see thumbnails of the selected images next to the drop-down lists. When you scroll over them, you can see an enlarged version of the respective image.
212
1. To do so, enter the desired text into the question view in the Alternative text field. 2. Do not choose a multimedia element. 3. Set the field Type to Image.
213
Figure 5.45
4. Confirm by clicking on Save. 5. An image will be generated for the questionnaire, which contains the entered text. For the layout, you can additionally use the field Background color for text as HTML color located in the section Question options. With this you can define the background color. The color of the text is black; this is not modifiable.
214
1. Enter the desired name for the text item in the field Alternative text. 2. Select the type Text.
Figure 5.46
3. Confirm by clicking on Save. Please note: When you combine text items and graphical elements in the 5xx-er question type, browser-specific errors may occur when using the back button (HTML button as well as the browser button) with the pre-selection.
5.8.3
Figure 5.47
The functional scope corresponds largely to the the other 5xx question types, see Chapter 5.8.2, p. 210. But please note: Unlike the question types 511 and 521 with the question type 522 it isnt possible to combine images with normal answer options with a checkbox. (You can find a description of this feature in Chapter 5.8.2, p. 210, section Combining images and normal answer options.)
215
Neither the dynamic column break nor the manual definition of column breaks are available for question type 522.
Entry dialog
The entry dialog corresponds largely to the dialog already known in other 5xx question types, see Chapter 5.8.2, p. 210.
Figure 5.48
Please proceed as follows: 1. In the New row above the first item, enter an additional code and the desired inside title. 2. Then, select Inside title from the drop-down list. 3. Click on Save. You can subsequently adjust the order of answer categories and inside titles as required by changing the numbering and codes.
5.9.2
216
1. Create a question of the desired type, in the example this is type 121. 2. Follow the instructions given in Chapter 5.9.1, p. 216, to set up the inside title. 3. Sort the inside titles and answer categories in the desired order by numbering them accordingly, and then Save your changes. 4. For all inside titles, tick the checkbox in the New column column of the table . 5. Save your work by clicking on Save.
5.10.2
Figure 5.49
This function can be used when combining answer categories and text (question types 111 and 121), with select boxes (question types 131 and 311) and also with various question types with open entry field (question types 141, 142, 143 and 144). If you do not use the wildcard, the entry field or select box will automatically appear after the item text. Please proceed as follows:
217
Figure 5.50
Entering the wildcard for the position of the entry field in the questionnaire
2. Insert the %s wildcard at the position where the open entry field is to appear. 3. Complete the work process by clicking on Save.
5.11 Randomly Changing the Sequence of Questions, Answers and Scale Items
The sequence of questions, answer options and scale elements in the questionnaire can distort survey data. This can be avoided in an online questionnaire by randomly changing the position of the elements. In EFS Survey there are various functions available for this purpose: Randomization of questions: The positions of questions on a questionnaire page are randomly switched. See Chapter 5.11.1, p. 219. Randomization of answer options: The positions of selected answer options are randomly switched. See Chapter 5.11.2, p. 219. Randomization of scale items: The positions of selected scale items can also be randomly switched. See Chapter 5.11.3, p. 219. Randomization of answer groups: Answer options are arranged in groups. The items in such a group may randomly switch position or the position of groups themselves relative to one another may be randomly changed, as required. See Chapter 5.11.4, p. 220. Mirroring the answer options on the centerline. See Chapter 5.11.5, p. 226.
218
5.11 Randomly Changing the Sequence of Questions, Answers and Scale Items
5.11.1
Figure 5.51
5.11.2
5.11.3
219
5.11.4
220
5.11 Randomly Changing the Sequence of Questions, Answers and Scale Items
zation in the source question, the randomly generated item order can be added, i.e. when the list is output at later stages in the questionnaire, the items will remain in the order in which the respondent saw them in the source question. See Chapter 7.3.1, p. 301 for further information. Loops: Grouping questions can be used as source questions for loops. When doing so, please mind that the group items must always be part of the list (inclusion condition always in list) if you want to display the allocated answer options. If a group item is not part of the list, its allocated answer options will be skipped in the loop.
1. Planning groupings
If you plan a complex grouping, in which groups are deeply nested in each other at several levels, it will be easier to accomplish, if at first you record the planned structure and prepare its implementation in the questionnaire editor. The group structure can be up to four levels deep. Lets assume you would like to depict the following structure:
Root level Root wooden cupboards wooden cupboard 1 wooden cupboard 2 wooden cupboard 3 bookcases made out of wood bookcase made out of oak bookcase made out of beech steel cabinets steel cabinet 1 cellar shelves made out of steel cellar shelve made out of steel 1 cellar shelve made out of steel 2 Table 5.6 Structure to be depicted 1st level 2nd level 3rd level
When doing so the titles of the groups and subgroups (in italics) should not be displayed to the groups (otherwise the use of inside titles would be required). In the questionnaire editor this structure could for example be implemented as follows:
Item Wooden cupboard 1 Wooden cupboard 2 Wooden cupboard 3 Bookcase made out of oak Table 5.7 Typ e A A A A Selection in the drop-down list in the group field Wooden cupboards Wooden cupboards Wooden cupboards Bookcases made out of wood
221
(cont.)Item Bookcase made out of beech Steel cabinet 1 Cellar shelve made out of steel 1 Cellar shelve made out of steel 2 Wooden cupboards Bookcases made out of wood Steel cabinets Cellar shelves made out of steel Table 5.7
Selection in the drop-down list in the group field Bookcases made out of wood Steel cabinets Cellar shelves made out of steel Cellar shelves made out of steel No selection Wooden cupboards No selection Steel cabinets
Please pay attention when working in the questionnaire editor, that you set up the all answer items first (including inside titles and text fields) and then create the group items. This keeps the question view clearly structured: the answer items are above, and the group items underneath. Furthermore, the variables and encodings of the answer items automatically form a continuous sequence (the variables and encodings of the group items are hidden in the condition editor and export data record).
222
5.11 Randomly Changing the Sequence of Questions, Answers and Scale Items
Figure 5.52
4. Click on Save. 5. Set up all of the other required group items. Please note: You can customize the order of answer and group items afterwards by changing the numbering as desired. You cannot change the internal variable names. Furthermore, it isnt possible to change the type of an item afterwards, i.e. if you would like to create a group, but by mistake choose Answer category, you can only correct it by deleting the item (or using it elsewhere) and creating a new one of the type Group again.
3. Defining groupings
Grouping are defined after you have created all of the necessary answer and group items. The drop-down lists which you can find in the column Group of each item are used for this purpose: you simply select the group to which the item should be allocated. The following rules apply: For answer and group items on the first hierarchical level, no larger group is set, i.e. the drop-down list remains in the position Please select. Select the corresponding next higher group in the drop-down list for answer and group items on lower hierarchical levels. One answer or group item cannot be subordinated to itself or its own subgroups.
223
Cross references are also not allowed (group A is a subgroup of group B and group B is subgroup of A). The group structure can be up to four levels deep.
Figure 5.53
Defining groupings
If the Group column is hidden, use the Arrow icon in the Input format column to unhide it. Please proceed as follows: 1. Carry out the allocation. 2. Save the settings. 3. By clicking on the Group overview button, you can open a pop-up window which shows you the groupings.
Figure 5.54
224
5.11 Randomly Changing the Sequence of Questions, Answers and Scale Items
The group overview is static, i.e. when using randomization or flipping, these functions aren't listed in the group overview, instead the arrangement follows the numbering in the questionnaire editor. Please use the page or questionnaire preview in order to test randomization or flipping.
Figure 5.55
225
5.11.5
Vertical flipping
Vertical flipping mirrors the answer options on the horizontal centerline. The sample questionnaire page shown in the following figure, on which the original order of answer options is CBS, BBC, FOX, CNN arranged vertically, would appear in the order CNN, FOX, BBC, CBS after flipping.
Figure 5.56
This flipping function can be applied to almost all question types, but not with the question types of select box (131), text fields (141, 142), HTML (911), container question (921) and image (999). Vertical flipping can even be applied to complex lists of answer categories with inside titles. As explained above, it mirrors the answer categories on the horizontal centerline, and then inserts the inside titles at the appropriate places.
Horizontal flipping
Horizontal flipping mirrors the answer options on the vertical centerline, i.e. in the example, the pole labeled I like the atmosphere a lot will appear on the right after flipping, and the pole labeled I dont feel at ease here will appear on the left.
Figure 5.57
This can be applied to the question types of standard matrix (311, 312), scale matrix (321, 322) and semantic differential (340).
226
Vertical flipping cannot be combined with the new column feature. If both flipping and randomization have been activated for a question, randomization will automatically be deactivated.
Figure 5.58
227
Using the item-specific Do Answer Check, you can also enforce the answering of an item. See Chapter 5.12.2, p. 229. For the question types 131, 351, 361 and 364, the Mandatory or dac option can only be used in connection with a Please select item for which code 0 has been preset. Please observe the details in Chapters 5.1.3, p. 177, and 5.4.5, p. 195.
5.12.1
Enforcing an answer
Normally, mandatory questions must be answered. If a respondent does not answer a mandatory question, a corresponding message will be displayed and the question will be marked so that it is found easily. The respondent cannot continue with the questionnaire until this question is answered.
Demanding an answer
As of EFS 7.0, there also mandatory questions which may be ignored. If a respondent does not answer such a question, the following will happen: He will be notified of the missing entry. As usual, the relevant question will be highlighted. The participants can go to the next page without answering the question. However, they first have to acknowledge the notification.
Figure 5.59
228
For the question types 131, 351, 361 and 364, the Mandatory or dac option can only be used in connection with a Please select item for which code 0 has been preset. Please observe the details in Chapters 5.1.3, p. 177, and 5.4.5, p. 195.
Editing messages
You can edit the messages to be displayed when a mandatory question is not answered in the Project properties->Survey messages menu. See Table 3.11. In the field Introductory text for incomplete questionnaire processing, you will find the message that is used for normal mandatory questions. The message for mandatory questions which may be ignored is in the field Introductory text for incomplete questions marked with a weak DAC. The default text is: <br/>%s Note: The question '%s' is important for the rest of the questionnaire. I dont want to answer this question. The first wildcard %s indicates where the checkbox is to be inserted in the text. The second wildcard %s is filled in with the question text.
5.12.2
229
Figure 5.60
For the question types 131, 351, 361 and 364, the Mandatory or dac option can only be used in connection with a Please select item for which code 0 has been preset. Please observe the details in Chapters 5.1.3, p. 177, and 5.4.5, p. 195.
Editing message
The message to be displayed when triggering an item-specific DAC can be edited in the field Introductory text for incomplete questionnaire processing in the Project properties->Survey messages menu.
5.12.3
230
Figure 5.61
The exclusive checkbox displays the following behavior: Once the respondent ticks this checkbox, all other checkboxes are automatically disabled. If one of the remaining checkboxes is selected after the exclusive checkbox has been ticked, the exclusive checkbox will be unticked. If the exclusive checkboxes are combined with a text field, unticking the checkbox will hide the content that has been entered into the text field. If, subsequently, the exclusive checkbox is ticked again, the text fields content will re-appear. The check is executed both on the client-side and on the server-side. Thus, even if JavaScript is disabled, the item marked as exclusive cannot be combined with other items. The exclusiveness function for the desired answer option is activated via the Exclusive column in the Answer options section. Additionally, in the Scale options section of the checkbox matrix (362) you can tag the checkboxes of an entire matrix column as exclusive.
Figure 5.62
231
answers are commonly referred to as plausibility checks. This term is also used in this manual.
5.14.2
232
Try to avoid complex plausibility check conditions or to substitute them by multiple simple plausibility checks. This way it is easier to get an overview of the variables used in the plausibility check and to avoid unexpected results. Abstain from applying both hiding conditions and plausibility checks to the same variables. A special feature allows to skip checks as soon as at least one idem is hidden (see below Execute check if one or more items are blinded out?). If necessary, the pro editor (Chapter 5.14.8, p. 241) allows to define complex conditions.
5.14.3
3. The overview of plausibility checks is opened. No checks have been defined yet.
Figure 5.64
4. Click on the Create plausibility check button. 5. Enter the title. 6. Select the Range check check type. For detailed explanations on the check types, please see Chapter 5.14.4, p. 236.
233
Figure 5.65
7. Confirm with Proceed. 8. The entry dialog is opened. 9. In the User may ignore this check field, the No option should be activated. This means that the person completing the questionnaire must correct any incorrect entry. Otherwise, the next survey page will not be displayed. 10. In the Systems to use for check field, the Client (JavaScript) AND Server (PHP) option should be activated. 11. Do not change the setting of the field Execute check if one or more items are hidden??. In the current example situation, it does not matter as there are no hidden items. 12. In the following field, you can edit the message which is displayed if the check condition applies. Please replace the default message An error occurred! by Please enter your year of birth as a four-digit number!. If you do not enter a message, a client-side JavaScript check will not be triggered!
Figure 5.66
234
13. Next, define the check condition itself: First, select the variable which you want to check. 14. Then, enter the range within which the values are to be valid. In the example shown, 1900 is the minimum, 2000 the maximum.
Figure 5.67
15. Click on the Save button. 16. To see the pop-up which will be displayed to the respondents, open the Page preview tab and enter an erroneous value to trigger the check. See Chapter 8.3.7, p. 366, for information on how to change the texts and appearance of the error pop-up.
Figure 5.68
235
Figure 5.69
5.14.4
Standard check Format check RegEx check NoRegEx check OnlyNumbers check Range check old Combination check
Freely definable Variable, format Variable, regular expression Variable, regular expression Variable Variable, int from, int to Variable, int
Range check
The range check checks whether the number entered by the survey participant is within the number range you set. Otherwise, the plausibility check will be triggered and report an error.
236
For this, the preset limits are included in the permissible range of values. The check also works with negative numbers. When entering the range check, please use the example described in Chapter 5.14.1, p. 231, above. If you set up a range check to do a JavaScript plausibility check or a combined PHP plausibility check, please note: JavaScript gives a value of 0 to an empty string (nothing entered). That is, if a respondent enters nothing, it will not be seen as an incorrect entry, rather it will be given a value of 0, which is either permitted or prohibited depending on how each area is defined. In order to prevent this kind of misevaluation, please run a separate OnlyNumbers check (do not use AND conjunctions with the Range check) on the input field.
Standard check
The standard check checks the variable to be set to see whether it meets a condition set through the mathematical operators (= , < , > , <= , >= , !=). 1. Select the variable you want to check. 2. Select the mathematical operator you want to use to check the variable. 3. Enter the value of the variable for which the check is to be performed.
Format check
The format check checks the variable to be set to see whether it complies with a format, also set by you. You have the choice of the following formats: Checking to see whether the field contains no numbers. Checking to see whether the field contains only uppercase letters. Checking to see whether the field contains only lowercase letters. Checking to see whether the field contains only numbers with periods or commas.
237
Checking to see whether the field contains only numbers with or without periods. Checking to see whether the field contains only numbers with or without commas. To create the format check, please proceed as follows: 1. Select the variable you want to check. 2. Select the format for which you want to check the variable you previously set.
If a RegEx check returns true, an error message is output. The logic of the NoRegEx check is exactly the other way around. RegEx checks are enclosed in /. Optionally, a so-called pattern modifier can be placed at the end. Please note that RegEx checks in PHP and JS may show a differing behavior. For JS checks, the results might even differ among various browsers. Because of the complexity of regular expressions, we recommend testing the check in the system first. Examples: Zip code check => /^[0-9]{5}$/ (exactly 5 digits) Money field => /^[0-9]+ (EUR|USD)$/ (as many numbers as required + currency, either EUR or USD)
References: http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php Complications can arise when, in a survey that is encoded in UTF-8 (see Chapter 3.7.17, p. 100) RegEx checks with JavaScript or JavaScript and PHP are carried out in order to compare strings containing more than just numbers: JavaScript is unable to recognize umlauts or other special characters that are reproduced in UTF-8 as doublebyte character (thus takes up two characters). To create a RegEx check, please proceed as follows: 1. Select the variable you want to check. 2. In the text field, specify the regular expression whose entry is to trigger the RegEx check. To create a NoRegEx check, please proceed as follows: 1. Select the variable you want to check. 2. In the text field, specify the regular expression whose entry is not supposed to trigger the NoRegEx check. For all entries of other types in the field to be checked, the check will be triggered.
238
5.14.5
Including Data from Participant Administration and from the User and Master Data Tables in Plausibility Checks
Introduction
You can access data from participant administration when defining plausibility checks. For EFS Panel installations, you can also access data from the user and master data tables. However, this is only possible for server-side plausibility checks (PHP), not for client-side plausibility checks (JavaScript) or for plausibility checks covering both client and server (JavaScript and PHP). An overview of the available variables is given in Table 10.4. These variables are addressed via the respective variable name. This allows you to combine a plausibility check condition that refers to a current user entry with a condition that refers to participant administration data, e.g. to check the logic of a statement. Furthermore, you can compare two variables directly by entering the second variable instead of a characteristic in the second condition field. In the example shown, the information on the respondent's gender was saved in participant administration in the Group field (variable: u_group): 1=female, 2=male. In the survey, respondents are asked to state their gender (v_11, code: 1=female, 2=male). The plausibility check defined in the figure, v_11 !=u_group will output an error message if the contents of v_11 and u_group do not match.
5.14.6
239
5.14.7
Figure 5.70
The properties of the JavaScript plausibility check can be edited in the Properties of the client-side plausibility check section: You can change the title of the pop-up window, adjust the introductory text and change the labels of the Correct and Ignore buttons. The texts are part of the survey messages, i.e. you can edit them via the Project properties->Survey messages menu as well (section Plausibility check phrases).
Figure 5.71
In the Properties of the server-side plausibility check section, you can edit the layout, introductory text and behavior of PHP plausibility checks, DACs and mandatory questions. The introductory text is part of the survey messages, i.e. you can edit it via the Project properties->Survey messages menu as well (section Plausibility check phrases).
240
The settings for font, font size, font color and background color are used to highlight mandatory questions and DACs.
Figure 5.72
5.14.8
241
Figure 5.73
5.14.9
242
can never be met, but this is ignored. The OML statements are not automatically updated, i.e. if you delete variables to which they refer from the questionnaire, errors will occur. You can access all the variables of the questionnaire. The codebook contains a list of all the variables that are currently defined in your project.
Conjunctions between IF conditions are created using AND or OR. The individual conditions must be enclosed in brackets, as must the entire IF block. Multiple IF conditions must be separated by a semicolon:
if ((v_15 = 3) and (v_231 > 5000000)) print "Well, that income seems a bit high for a student.";
3. Operators
The following operators are permissible:
Operator + / * % Table 5.9 Meaning Add Subtract Divide Multiply Modulo Plausibility check operators - 1
243
4. Special functions
Function not_only_numbers(variable name) Meaning Checks whether the variable contains only numbers as well as period, semicolon and white space characters (blank spaces, tabs). Example: if (not_only_numbers(v_15)) print Please enter the year of your birth in numbers.; Checks whether the content of the variable name is fulfilled by regular expression (refer to Chapter 6. Addendum: Regular expressions below). Example: if (matches(v_15, /fuck/)) print Please do not use abusive language in the questionnaire; Checks whether the content of the variable name is not fulfilled by regular expression (refer to 6. Addendum: Regular expressions below). Example: if (not_matches(v_15, /\\d\\d\\.\\d\\d\\.\\d\\d\\d\\d/)) print Please enter the date in 05.03.2000 format; Squares the transferred value. Returns the algebraic sign of the value: -1, 1 or 0. Removes blank spaces at the beginning and end of a text. Returns the net length of a text (excluding blank spaces, line breaks and tabs). Returns true if number > 0, otherwise returns false. Returns true if number < 0, otherwise returns false. Compares the two texts (without matching their case and without taking blank spaces at the beginning and end into consideration). Returns true if they are identical, otherwise returns false. Returns true if the number is 0. Returns true if the string is blank, i.e. has no content or contains only blank spaces, otherwise returns false. Compares the content of value to the regular expression "/^\?d+([\.,]\d+)?$/". Returns true if they match, otherwise returns false. Compares the content of value to the regular expression "/^[a-z]+$/i". Returns true if they match, otherwise returns false. Compares the content of value to the regular expression "/^[a-z0-9]+$/ i". Returns true if they match, otherwise returns false. Compares the content of value to the regular expression "/^\?d+(,\d+)?$/". Returns true if they match, otherwise returns false. Compares the content of value to the regular expression "/^[az]+$/i". Returns true if they match, otherwise returns false. Compares the content of value to the regular expression "/^[a-z09]+$/i". Returns true if they match, otherwise returns false. Returns true if the content of value is 77, -66, 0, or blank, otherwise returns false. Returns true if value is between min and max, otherwise returns false. Sets the value to 1, if the entered value is > 0. E.g.: v_1 = 3 then setval(v_1)= 1 applies.
pow(number) sgn(number) trim(string) netstringlength(string) ispositive(number) isnegative(number) issamestring(string1, string2) iszero(number) isblank(string) isnumber(value) isalpha(value) isalphanumeric(value) isnumber_de(value) isalpha_de(value) isalphanumeric_de(valu e) ismissing(value) isinrange(value, min, max) setval(number)
Table 5.11
244
If you want to specify that at least three cities should be selected, use the following formulation:
001 if (v_11 + v_12 +v_13 + v_14 + v_15 < 3) print "Please select a minimum of three cities.";
If you want to specify that exactly three cities should be selected, use the following formulation:
001 if (v_11 + v_12 +v_13 + v_14 + v_15 < 3) print "Please select exactly three cities.";
This command will find Globalpark well as globalpark or GlOBaLpArK. Please note: If you use backslashes within the regular expression, these must be masked with backslashes. For example, the decimal characters \d must be masked with two backslashes: /\\d\\d\\. The following table introduces some important sample elements which you can combine to form a regular expression. This list does not claim to be complete.
245
Character .
Example matches(v_15, /a.b/) The answer contains the combination a-any character-b. matches(v_15, / [0-9]/) The answer contains a number. matches(v_15, /(Berlin|Prague|Oslo)/) The answer contains the word Berlin, Prague or Oslo.
[..]
any character enclosed in the squared brackets one of the alternatives specified
(..|..|..)
Regular expressions for plausibility checks - 1 In the answer, the respective character appears: at the beginning of the text Example matches(v_15, /^a/) The answer begins with an a. matches(v_15, /$a/) The answer ends with an a.
Regular expressions for plausibility checks - 2 In the answer, the respective character appears: once or several times Example matches(v_15, /4+/) The answer contains one or more 4s. matches(v_15, /4?/) The answer contains no 4s or one 4. matches(v_15, /4*/) The answer contains no 4s or several 4s. matches(v_15, /4{2,}/) The answer contains at least two 4s. matches(v_15, /4{2}/) The answer contains exactly two 4s. matches(v_15, /4{2,5}/) The answer contains at least two 4s and no more than five 4s.
{n,m}
Regular expressions for plausibility checks - 3 Description A modifier that will be attached to a regular expression. The check will be case insensitive, i.e. there is no distinction made between upper and lower case. Example matches(v_15, /^a/) The answer begins with a, it does not matter whether a is a capital or a lowercase letter.
Table 5.15
246
5.15.1
247
5.15.2
Figure 5.74
Choosing the input format for a question type containing an open-ended question
With questions of the type 141, you will find the drop-down list for setting the file format in the Input format column.
248
Figure 5.75
249
Figure 5.76
5.16.2
Hiding Items
You have the option of showing or hiding specific items, depending on the participants answers. Example: If you are asking about a list of newspapers that are regularly read, you can show the New York Times item only if the respondent has given a certain answer on a preceding page which makes asking about this newspaper appear sensible. When dealing with question types whose variables have characteristics (e. g. single response list), please note: If individual items of a variable are hidden, the variable will be defined as missing when used in a plausibility check. Therefore, in this case, the actual value of the variable cannot be determined by means of a plausibilty check. If you cannot or do not want to work without the plausibility check, you might want to consider using a list instead of hiding conditions.
Figure 5.77
250
This will open the familiar entry form used to formulate filter conditions (see Figure 4.30). After you have set and saved the condition for which the item is to be hidden, the condition will be displayed when you scroll over the funnel icon. In addition, the following will appear next to the selected answer category: the Delete hiding condition icon, which allows you to delete the hiding condition if required. the Copy hiding condition icon whose function will be explained in the next section.
Figure 5.78
Figure 5.79
2. Then, click on the Paste hiding condition icon for the item to which you want to add the hiding condition. You can also select several items.
Figure 5.80
3. Confirm by clicking on Save. Then, you can use the condition editor as usual to modify the copied hiding condition for the specific item. By using the Arrow icons in the condition editor, you can leaf through all hiding conditions defined for a specific questionnaire page.
251
The upload function is useful for advanced users with webdesign skills to upload file for layout design. See Chapter 8.4.5, p. 373.
In most cases multimedia content is used to illustrate a question: With question type Multimedia (999) (Chapter 5.8.1, p. 208) you can easily incorporate images, SVG graphics, Flash movies and various video formats into a survey. Alternatively you can use question type HTML (Chapter 5.7, p. 206) to format elements, e.g. images, according to very specific requirements.
Using the question types 511 and 521 you can create single and multiple response lists in which radio buttons, check boxes and items are replaced by selectable images. See Chapter 5.8.2, p. 210. Flash question types are a standard feature of EFS Surevy. Depending on your requirements, you can design single questions or complete questionnaires in Flash. For details, please see the manual EFS Surveys Flash Question Types. Occasionally, customers wish to protect the content of a survey, and especially multimedia elements, against illegitimate copying or screenshots. With the current state of technology, a reliable protection is not possible. But you can make illegitimate copying consideratly more difficult. The paper Protecting images in surveys, which is available from customer center, offers further information and advice.
5.17.1
252
Figure 5.81
Figure 5.82
253
4. In case the chosen file is an image, you can specify how the image is to be aligned with the page margin: Left (image at the left-hand margin of the window), Right (right-hand margin of the window), Center (middle of the window). A alternative text can be entered, width and height can be changed. As soon as youve saved your entries, they will be displayed in the preview. 5. Confirm again by clicking on Save.
Figure 5.83
3. Search for the required multimedia element. Enter it into the HTML code entry form by clicking the Add multimedia element icon. Alternatively you can highlight the HTML code for your image, right-click on it, choose Copy from the pop-up menu, and then insert the code into the HTML code entry form. 4. Click on the Save button, and the image will be inserted.
254
For information on other basic HTML commands, visit the website: http:// selfhtml.org
5.17.2
Figure 5.84
The project-related media library which is available per default on all EFS Survey installations offers the following options: You can use not only images, but SVG graphics, flash and video formats as e.g. RealVideo or Quicktime. To access a detailed list of the permitted file types, click on the Question mark icon in the Upload file dialog, see Chapter 5.17.3, p. 257. The uploaded files are stored in the project directory in the directory /images.
255
The functions and structure of the media library are similar to the functions you already know from the question library: Directories can be created within /images to improve the overview. The size of files for upload is restricted to 20 MB. With release 6.0 this limit has been raised to 80 MB for new standard installations. You can upload zip files and unpack them directly if you wish. Thus multimedia files which exceed the maximum file size can be uploaded if it is possible to compress them to allowed size. The upload of a high number of files or the creation of a directory with sub directories is made easier by compression, too: You can sort the files as required in a parent directory and subdirectories, compress these, and then, in one operation, upload them to the server and have them unpacked. EFS offers a second option to upload project-related files, the Upload function which can be found in the pro editor on the Upload tab (see Chapter 8.4.5, p. 373). The media library helps you to administrate multimedia files which are usually incorporated in the questionnaire and presented to the respondent. The upload function offers experienced users with webdesign skills who design complex own layouts the option to use other target directories besides /layout.
256
5.17.3
Figure 5.85
Uploading a file
2. Locate the file on your hard disk using the Browse function. 3. You have the option of defining a wildcard. You can use the characters a-z, A-Z and 0-9. The wildcards must be enclosed in two hash signs (#). 4. If you are uploading a zip file, you can have the system unpack it and automatically create subdirectories in one operation. To do so, tick the Unpack ZIP file checkbox. 5. If you want to jump directly back to this directory after uploading the file, tick the corresponding checkbox. 6. Confirm by clicking on Upload.
257
Height and width of the images and an alternative text are defined when inserting the images into the Multimedia question type (Chapter 5.17.1, p. 252).
5.17.4
Figure 5.86
Creating a directory
3. Enter the name. 4. If you want to jump directly into the directory after creating it, tick the Show new directory checkbox. 5. Confirm by clicking on Create.
2. Renaming directories
1. Click on the directory you wish to rename. 2. Click on the Rename directory Button.
258
3. Deleting directories
1. Click on the directory you wish to delete. 2. Click on the Delete directory button. 3. Affirm the confirmation window. The /images directory cannot be deleted. If a directory that was not empty is deleted, the files will be moved into the next higher directory.
5.17.5
Figure 5.87
Click on this button to download a zip file that contains the content of the current folder including its subfolders. You can save this file locally to a PC, open it and then view or edit the images. When working in the installation-wide media library, in particular, take care to select only reasonable amounts of data for download, i.e. less than 10 MB and not more than 30 files. Otherwise, the download process can affect the performance of the EFS installation.
5.17.6
Protecting Images
Customers running product or cover tests frequently ask for a better protection against illegal copying and screenshotting of their content. From EFS 7.0, a dedicated image protection feature makes storing or screenshotting of images considerably more difficult.
259
In the questionnaire, participants will see only the silhouette and outline of the protected image, plus an instruction for display. If the participants press the key combination specified in the instruction, the image will be displayed. (They have to keep the blank key pressed and click on the image with the left key of the mouse pointer.) Please mind: For technical reasons, it is not possible to prevent participants from taking screenshots or from downloading the displayed images on their hard disks with absolute reliability. But with the new image protection feature, it is considerably more difficult.
Figure 5.88
260
Figure 5.89
Before starting
Please mind: Image protection has been implemented in question type 999. The Adobe Flash Player plugin, version 9 or higher, must be installed on the participants PC. The combined JavaScript and Flash check familiar from image and Flash question types must be activated. It allows to identify participants without current Flash plugin and to display a note that asks them to download the current version. If necessary, you can screen out participants without a current Flash plugin, too. The feature can be used to protect JPG, PNG and GIF images. As Flash cannot handle BMP images, it is not possible to use the protection for BMP images. But there is a variety of image editing software which allows to convert BMP images into JPG images. The images should be big enough to display the instructions completely. If image protection is activated, Alt texts will not be displayed. According to the manufacturer, penetration of the Adobe Flash plugin for version 9.0 is over 95%. For detailed penetration statistics provided by the manufacturer, visit: http://www.adobe.com/products/player_census/flash-player/version_ penetration.html
261
Figure 5.90
262
3. Create an intermediate final page under the filter. 4. Click on the Edit page properties icon of the intermediate final page. 5. In the field Status, select the disposition code that the participants are to be assigned upon reaching this intermediate final page. Available are the disposition codes 31, 36, and 37. If the Check whether the respondent has JavaScript activated and the Adobe Flash Player plugin is available option is activated in the Project properties menu, the Flash version of the participants is stored in the flash variable. - If no appropriate plugin exists, the value of flash is 0. - Otherwise the variable contains the version number, i.e. for example flash = 800 for plugin version 8.0, flash = 900 for plugin version 9.0. If the check is not activated, the value of flash is 0. But image protection necessarily requires the check and will not work without.
263
264
Referencing Questions from Several Places. . . . . . . . . . . 279 Editing Questionnaires Externally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 Editing Page, Question and Trigger Names Externally . . . . 287 Search and Replace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
265
266
6.1.1
267
Blank row to next question Please state your area of employment. Question text Fill-in instruction (may be left blank) Categories (may be left blank) Marketing Training Administration Answers 111
340
Categories Answers
6.1.2
Figure 6.1
2. In the drop-down list, specify the page behind which you wish to insert the page(s) with questions. 3. Highlight the questions in your template file and right-click to save them to the cache. Then right-click on the question import input field and insert the questions.
268
Figure 6.2
4. Then click on Submit. 5. In the next dialog, specify the question type. 6. Use the New page column to determine whether the questions are to appear on one page or whether and where additional pages should be created.
Figure 6.3
269
You can create answer options via mass import with your own alternative text and code for multimedia question types 511, 521 and 522; you must, however, upload and choose the multimedia elements manually.
Each row in the input field is interpreted as an answer option. During import, the options are automatically numbered and encoded. Optionally, you can specify the codes yourself. To do so, enter the desired code before each answer option, using a semicolon as the separator:
1;Software 2;Consulting 3;The Company 4;Service
Figure 6.4
270
3. The input dialog will be displayed directly in the question view. 4. Enter the answer options as explained above. Each answer option must be entered in a separate row.
Figure 6.5
5. Trigger the Mass import by clicking on the button of the same name. 6. The imported answer options will be listed in the New section. Check over the data, and make any necessary changes. If you wish to manually add more answer options, click on the [+] icon to open additional New rows.
Figure 6.6
271
Figure 6.7
272
You can create an archive of frequently used questionnaire sections for the page import: Create a master project with separate branches for frequently used questionnaire sections. If you need a section in a real project, you can simply import it from your master project.
6.3.1
Figure 6.8
6.3.2
273
Figure 6.9
Figure 6.10
2. Find the page under which you want to import the page tree. In the example shown, the filter branch is to be inserted under the page Surfing the internet. In the Actions column you will find the new Page tree import under page x icon. Click on it. 3. Specify the desired source project. 4. Select the source page.
274
Figure 6.11
Figure 6.12
6. If necessary, you can further adjust the position of the imported page tree via drag & drop.
275
From EFS 7.0 on, the external variable names are stored in the library. When loading the archived questions into a questionnaire, the system ensures uniqueness of the variable names: If a variable name does already exist, a prefix dupl1_, dupl2_... will be inserted.
6.4.1
Figure 6.13
The category tree displays the question library structure. The category system is similar to the file tree on a hard disk with main directories and subdirectories. Here, categories correspond to folders. The main directory in an empty library is called root. Below root you can create main categories, which in turn can be followed by specific subcategories. A flashing red cursor at the right-hand side displays the category you are currently in.
To the right of the overview, the Content of the category table displays the questions in the opened categories.
6.4.2
276
Figure 6.14
3. Click on Add to library in the editor. 4. The question library will open. 5. Select the category in which the question is to be filed. The question will be copied into the library automatically.
Figure 6.15
4. In the library, you can search for and select the desired question in the individual categories. 5. Tick the checkboxes of the questions you wish to incorporate into the questionnaire page.
277
Figure 6.16
6. Confirm by clicking on Choose. 7. The selected questions will be inserted into your questionnaire.
Figure 6.17
Checkbox: This function allows you to choose a question, as described in the previous paragraph. Move: This function allows you to move a question into another category. Delete: Clicking on this icon will delete the selected question. Copy: This function allows you to copy a question into a category of your choice.
Figure 6.18
Creating a category
Deleting categories
1. Select the category you wish to delete from the category tree. 2. Click on the Delete category tab.
278
3. A dialog containing a warning message will open. Clicking on OK in the dialog will delete the category. Caution: You may only delete empty categories. Prior to deleting, remaining questions must be moved to higher categories or deleted, and subcategories must be deleted.
279
Example
A questionnaire contains two branches which will be passed by different participant groups. In each branch, the same demographic data are queried. To avoid having to enter these demographic questions twice, use depot questions.
280
6.6.1
Figure 6.19
2. Click on the Export file tab. 3. Set the file format for the export. The following options are available: XLS for editing with MS Excel: Chapter 6.6.2, p. 283 gives an explanation of how you can edit this file in MS Excel. HTML for editing with SDLX: Chapter 6.6.3, p. 285 provides further explanations on how to use the translation software SDLX when editing externally.
4. If you wish to use the versioning features, please follow the instructions given in Chapter 6.6.4, p. 286 when making your selection. 5. If you have chosen XLS as the export format, you will have several special options available to you for defining the file structure, see Chapter 6.6.2, p. 283: Select the desired options. 6. Click on the Export button on the right-hand side to download the file. 7. In most browsers a dialog will open in which you can choose whether you wish to directly open the file in a program or save the data. It is recommended that you save the data on the hard disk. In some browsers the file will be automatically opened in Excel: In this case you should likewise save the file onto you hard drive, make sure that you enter a file extension that matches the file format.
281
If an Excel file is opened on a computer running with Windows 7 and Excel 2007, depending on the circumstances, a message may be displayed which notifies you that the file is corrupted. This problem is caused by an extension provided by a thirdparty supplier. Until further notice, please proceed as follows: Save the file locally. Then, open the saved file, allowing Excel to repair it. Finally, save the file again. 8. Confirm by clicking on Save.
Figure 6.20
3. Use Browse to select the edited file. 4. Clicking on Next page to import the changes. 5. Changes will be documented in the overview Import finished.
282
Figure 6.21
6.6.2
Translation of a questionnaire in Excel Meaning By default this column is hidden. It contains coded information for internal use. Do not change! Provides information about the type of text element in the respective column. The separate elements are explained in the following table. Do not change! Meta information that is not displayed in the questionnaire, such as page or question title. Do not change! The previous content of each text element. Do not change! Table contents
283
Meaning Text changes or new texts are entered into this column. Optionally you can leave this column filled with the source texts. To do this, select the option Prefill translation column with the current values in the export dialog (see the following section). Cells that are marked with ~, do not permit any changes: The related cells contain context and structure data that cannot be changed, but nonetheless do help to provide orientation. You can display or hide these rows by using the option Also export unchangeable data rows (for informational purposes only). As of version 4.0 you have the option of producing a column that informs you about the editing status: To do: The text element has not been edited yet. Done: The text element has been edited already. Please note that the status only shows whether the new content cell is filled with text or not: it is not able to test whether the text is correct. Use the option Put status (to do) column into exported file in the export dialog to activate or deactivate the output of this column.
status
Table 6.2
Table contents
Caution: A frequently made mistake is to change the text in the content column. New text must be entered in the new content column. The description column indicates which question element is meant in a specific row. You can edit the following types of question elements:
Element Q-text Q-instruct Q-help Category Item HTML-text Message Scale Table 6.3 Changeable question elements Text element Question text Fill-in instruction Help text Answer category Answer item Text with HTML tags Survey message Scale
By default the setting for the export dialog is such that the column internal is hidden, the column Status is activated and the Excel sheet is protected with a Protect Sheet. The password for deactivating the Protect Sheet is located in the export dialog under the Question mark icon: It is constant and applies installation-wide. Deactivation of Protect Sheet is done in MS Excel in the Extras->Protect...->Deactivate Protect Sheet.
284
Prefill translation column with the current values: The column new content will be filled with the text elements of the source language. Put status (to do) column into exported file: A supplementary column that automatically marks each row with the status of the translation as either To do or Done. Please note: If you simultaneously select prefilling of the new content column with source text and refrain from using change protection, not only will changes in the new content column be classified as edited, but undesired changes in the column content as well causing the creation of a status change from To do to Done. Therefore pay attention that you only make changes to the new content column highlighted in color.
By default change protection (2) and display of the To do column (4) are activated.
6.6.3
285
6.6.4
Figure 6.23
286
Figure 6.24
Viewing differences
Exporting changes
If you only wish to export changes, please proceed as follows: 1. In the Only export changes relative to previously recorded version, select the version against which the comparison is to be performed. In the example shown, all changes made since version 2 will be exported.
Figure 6.25
287
1. Switch to the Questionnaire editor->Title editor menu. 2. Select the desired element names, and specify the file type (CSV or Excel) and character set.
Figure 6.26
3. Confirm by clicking on Export. 4. Save the export file locally. 5. You can now open the file and enter the desired new text in the New title column. In doing so, simply skip over the existing titles that you do not wish to change.
Figure 6.27
6. After that, you can use the Import tab to reimport the file into EFS Survey.
288
Performing a search
The keyword is entered in the search form. Optionally, you may also specifiy the following restrictions or criteria: Search type Normal search: Default setting Case sensitive Regular expression: If you wish to use this option, enter a regular expression instead of a term in the keyword field.
Language to be searched: This option will only be displayed in multilingual projects, by default the search is performed in the default language. Text types to be searched: You can, for example, restrict your search to scale titles or long variable names. To trigger the search, click on the Search button.
289
290
291
292
7.1.1
293
Figure 7.1
This shows a list of all the wildcards defined for the project, including a search function and the functions for creating new wildcards and importing existing wildcards from other projects, which are explained below.
Figure 7.2
If you wish to use wildcards to incorporate images, you have the option of defining a wildcard for an image even as you are uploading it. See Chapter 7.1.3, p. 295.
294
Editing wildcards
In the table listing the wildcards defined for the respective project, the right-hand column contains the following Actions icons: Edit: Changing name and content of the wildcard Delete: Deleting the wildcard
7.1.2
Figure 7.3
5. Clicking on this icon will automatically insert the selected wildcard into the answer category and close the window for wildcard administration.
7.1.3
295
Figure 7.4
4. Define a wildcard. You can use the characters a-z, A-Z and 0-9. The wildcards must be enclosed in two hash signs (#). 5. Confirm by clicking on Upload.
296
Figure 7.5
11. Click on the Insert wildcard icon. 12. The wildcard will now automatically be inserted into the answer category, and the dialog will be closed. 13. Save the question. If you wish to change the size of the image, you can either do so before uploading it or use wildcard administration to insert the appropriate HTML attributes into the images IMG tag.
7.2.1
Inserting Wildcards
If you wish to output contents of the database, simply insert the name of the corresponding variable, enclosed in two hash signs, into a question text or an answer option or at any other place in the questionnaire. For example, the #v_2315# wildcard is
297
replaced with the content of the v_2315 project variable. Depending on the variable type, the following replacement rules apply: Project variables (v_000n): Depending on whether you want to output the label or the code of the variable, use the following syntax: #v_000n#: the label of the respective variable. #v_000n|code#: the code of the respective variable. For variables that refer to open-ended text fields, the entry made by the respondent will be displayed in both cases.
URL parameter (p_000n): The wildcards are #p_0001# for the first URL parameter, #p_0002# for the second URL parameter, etc. User-defined variables c_000n: The wildcard is #c_000n#. Participant variables u_000n: The wildcard for the participant administration contents listed in Table 10.4 is #variable name# (e.g. #u_language#). Participant variables of the panelists in EFS Panel installations u_000n: The wildcard for the user table contents listed in Table 10.4 is #variable name# (e.g. #u_name#). Master data of the panelists in EFS Panel installations: The wildcards for master data, m_000n and md_000n, are #m_000n# and #md_000n#. Please note: - Dynamic output of content cannot be tested in preview mode, as data generated in the preview cannot be allocated to a participant account and dataset. - Not all of the above wildcards function in the mail trigger and recoding trigger. The contents of project variables relating to an open text field may also be output using #v_000n# in the trigger. For closed-ended questions the wildcard #v_000n# in the trigger only outputs the code. In the mail trigger, you may, however, insert the question labels or other texts using conditional replacement, see Chapter 11.2.4, p. 477.
298
7.3 Lists
7.3 Lists
Using lists, you can make your questionnaire more dynamic: The answer options of a question can be filled via a list. The loops introduced in Chapter 7.4, p. 314 are controlled via lists, i.e. a respondent sees a page within the loop block once for each list element, with the text adjusted to the respective list element using wildcards. There are different methods for filling the list: Dynamic lists draw their elements from questions and other lists. Static lists contain fixed preset elements. The elements of a list which are actually displayed may be determined by both the respondents answers and by complex hiding conditions, depending on the list type and setting. With dynamic lists you can even modify the export of individual list elements to individual questions by using respective item-specific features such as dac, randomization and grouping or taking their setting from the source questions.
Application example
In Chapters 7.3, p. 299 and 7.4, p. 314, a project is created for explanatory purposes which examines the preferences of TV viewers for specific channels and subjects. In the first question, titled Known TV networks, respondents are asked which TV networks they know. This question is used as the source question for creating a list.
Figure 7.6
In the following questions, the respondents are to give more detailed assessments of the TV networks. However, you want those questions to only refer to those networks which the respective respondent knows. This is made possible by the dynamic list created using the first question.
299
Figure 7.7
The follow-up question created using a list will only display the selected answers
If it were advisable to always display all answer categories (i.e., in this example, all TV networks), you would use a static list. The following will be explained below: how to create dynamic and static lists (see Chapters 7.3.1, p. 301 and 7.3.2, p. 306) how dynamic and static lists can be used to create a dynamic answer block in a question (see Chapter 7.3.3, p. 308) The number and complexity of the lists in a project affects the performance. The following guiding values provide orientation: - The number of lists is limited to 100 per project. It is recommended to use not more than 50. - Dynamic lists should not refer to more than 5 source questions resp. source lists. - Static lists should not have more than 250 elements.
300
7.3 Lists
7.3.1
Figure 7.8
2. After that, click on the Assign to list button. You will be taken to the lists editor.
301
1. In the drop-down list, select the list into which you wish to insert the question items as list elements. In this case, however, as there is no existing list yet, you must select New list and confirm by clicking on Next.
Figure 7.9
2. Give the new list an internal name, in this example TV channel. 3. Specify a wildcard, in this example TVchannel. This wildcard will be used if the list is later inserted into the questionnaire (Chapter 7.3.6, p. 313) or integrated in a loop (see Chapter 7.4, p. 314). The name must be unique. It should contain only the the letters a-z and A-Z, numbers and _. 4. In the Source questions section you can specify from which questions and static lists the elements of the new list are to be drawn. In the example enter the question just created in the drop-down list. After saving you can also add further questions or lists however.
Figure 7.10
5. In the Properties of items from source question section, which is only available with dynamic lists, you can specify whether and which properties and contents of source question items should be included in the list. Further information on this can be found in Table 7.1. In the example no particular settings are made.
302
7.3 Lists
6. In the Output whole list in questionnaire section you can decide how the list elements are to be strung together if they are output in the questionnaire using wildcards. See Chapter 7.3.6, p. 313, for an explanation of this function. 7. Confirm by clicking on Save. 8. The list will now be created, and the dialog in which you can specify inclusion conditions will appear. The variables of source questions for list elements are marked with the L icon in the question view to indicate that they are accessed by a list.
Adopt DAC at item level from the source question in target questions Table 7.1 Adopting item properties for list elements
303
Variable name: The source questions variable and label. List element no. Source variable: The label used for the source variable in the source question. Type Inclusion conditions: The conditions under which the element concerned is displayed in a target question. The following chapters explain how to specify in advance inclusion conditions individually, for the entire list or for elements yet to be added. Output text: The text that will be output in the questionnaire. (If you are using the list in a loop, you can use wildcards to incorporate the list elements into the questionnaire. In this case, you can click on the links in the Output text column to open a dialog which allows you to create additional wildcards with alternate text versions.)
Figure 7.11
304
7.3 Lists
Figure 7.12
Edit icon
always in random selection if selected, always in random selection if not selected, always in random selection in random selection if...: As soon as you set this inclusion condition, an Edit icon will appear, allowing you to open the condition editor and define a filter condition. By default, the if selected, always in list option is preset. Click on Save after you have completed your settings. Clicking on the Back to editor menu item will take you back to the question view of the source question. Once the above mentioned inclusion conditions have been processed, the size of the list can be used for filtering.
Figure 7.13
3. When you select a condition that requires detailed definition, the Edit icon is activated in the Actions column. Define the condition in the condition editor. You can use the #varname# and #code# wildcards to do so. #varname#: Wildcard available for selection in the Variables selection field. It is respectively replaced in the various list elements by the name of the variable assigned to the list element in the source question. #code# Can be entered in the Code field. It is replaced in the various list elements by the code the list element has in the source question. 4. Save the settings. All list inclusion conditions are now changed accordingly.
305
condition you can, as described above, open the condition editor and formulate the condition in generalized terms using the #varname# and #code# wildcards.
7.3.2
Figure 7.14
2. Give the new list an internal name, in this example Subjects. 3. Enter a wildcard. 4. Confirm by clicking on Save. 5. The List elements tab will be opened automatically. To create a new list element, enter its name in the New element row. Then, confirm each entry by clicking on Save.
Figure 7.15
306
7.3 Lists
1: always in list 2: never in list 3: in list if... 4: always in random selection 6.: in random selection if... You can create lists with an appropriate format, e.g. in MS Excel.
Figure 7.16
3. Select the desired separator, and enter the elements in the correct format. If you have created an Excel table, transfer the content, but not the column labels, using copy & paste. 4. Confirm by clicking on Import. 5. Click on the List elements tab to switch to the overview of the list elements that have been created.
307
1. Copy the content of the input field into Excel. 2. Should Excel copy the data into a cell instead of formatting it correctly, select Data->Text to Columns. Choose the data type Delimited, and confirm by clicking on Next. 3. Choose the separator, and confirm by clicking on Next again. 4. Check the display, and then confirm by clicking on Finish.
7.3.3
308
7.3 Lists
Figure 7.17
Figure 7.18
Selecting a list
4. Select the list TV channel and confirm by clicking on Save. 5. Click on the Back to editor menu item to return to the question you are editing. Here you will find the elements of the selected list in the Dynamic answers area.
309
Figure 7.19
6. Depending on the target question type, item-specific functionalities such as randomization, grouping and dac are available with dynamic list elements. If desired, you can set these separately for each target question. Alternatively, you can also adopt the settings from the source question, see Chapter 7.3.1, p. 301. 7. You have the choice of offering only list elements as answer categories. In this case, you should tick the Delete checkbox for all other answer categories and then click on Save. offering list elements as well as standard answer categories. In this case, you can change the positions of the elements by changing their numbering. Then click on Save.
7.3.4
310
7.3 Lists
Press the Options button to find the appropriate setting options in the question view of the list questions. The special options described in this chapter cannot be used in questions with groupings.
Figure 7.20
Select only the [n] elements with the highest / lowest code value: These options apply to the code which you assigned to the items of each question. This option is only suitable for single response questions or matrix questions. With a multiple response or a select box matrix the code can only take on the values of 0 (not selected) and 1 (selected), therefore the use of this question type is senseless.
311
Unsorted (default setting) Sorted numerically according to answers in the source question (ascending / descending): Sorting is done on the basis of entries made by respondents in source questions with text fields. Sorted alphabetically according to answers in the source question (ascending / descending): Sorting is done on the basis of entries made by respondents in source questions with text fields. Sorted alphabetically by list element label (ascending / descending): It will be sorted by list element label.
7.3.5
Figure 7.21
Entering a condition
3. Enter the desired condition and confirm by clicking on Save. 4. If required, you can define additional conditions which will be processed in the order you define. 5. Return to the Options dialog by clicking on Back. 6. If you click on the Info icon, the condition will be displayed. This icon will also appear in the question view.
Figure 7.22
Displaying a condition
312
7.3 Lists
7.3.6
The operation of the function is summarized as follows: The list-ID (#1_xxx#) serves as a wildcard. You can specify which general separator to use and the separator between the last two elements of the list. You can define alternative labeling for the list elements. It is not possible to use this wildcard to output list elements, which come from the multimedia question types 511 and 521: Instead of images, the related alternative texts will be output. However, if you use HTML to incorporate images directly into the items of a list source question, these images will be output.
Figure 7.23
List IDs
Using the form #l_xxx#, insert this list ID into the desired position in the questionnaire text, where it will serve as a wildcard.
313
Specifying separators
1. Open the menu Lists, select the desired list, and then open the General settings tab. 2. Enter the usual separator into the Separator between list elements field. See figure 7.10, S. 302. 3. If you wish to use a special separator before the last element in the listing (e.g. the word and or <br>), enter this separator into the field entitled Separator right before the last list element. 4. After that, confirm by clicking on Save.
7.3.7
7.4 Loops
The Loop page type differs from other EFS page types insofar that its page contents and variables are not yet fixed at the beginning of the survey, but newly calculated for each respondent during the survey. This means that variables and pages within loops are formed dynamically, which is a difference from the EFS variables and pages you are familiar with, also in terms of functionality.
314
7.4 Loops
Example
In the second part of the example project titled Television, which was introduced in the previous chapter, you want to find out how satisfied the respondent is with the way various subjects are realized by the various TV channels. As the question is identical for each channel, a loop is used. The question that the respondent is to answer for several TV channels is: Have you got one or more favorite programs on #TVchannel#? To generate this question group, a questionnaire page titled Favorite programs is set up indented below a page of type Loop. This page contains the question, with the question text containing the #TVchannel# wildcard. When the page is invoked in the questionnaire, this wildcard is filled from the dynamic list titled TV channels which you created in Chapter 7.3.1, p. 301, i.e. the respondent will see the page more than once with different channel names. The page is looped.
The loop and the looped questionnaire page titled Favorite programs in the sample pro-
Figure 7.25 The questionnaire page titled Favorite programs will be presented to the respondent for all TV channels specified for the Knowledge of TV channels source question
315
7.4.1
Figure 7.26
Creating a loop
2. Confirm by clicking on Submit. 3. The new loop page will be displayed in the questionnaire view.
Figure 7.27
Choosing a list
4. Click on the title of the loop. 5. The list selection dialog described in Chapter 7.3.3, p. 308 will open.
316
7.4 Loops
Figure 7.28
Selecting a list
6. Select the list to be assigned to this loop. In the example, respondents are asked to assess the range of various TV channels, i.e. you must choose the TV channel list. 7. Then, click on Save.
7.4.2
317
grams as the title, choose the Standard page type, and then click on Submit to save. The page will now be create as a looped page.
Figure 7.29
2. Create one or more questions on the page. Insert the question text, using the #TVchannel# wildcard.
Figure 7.30
3. Enter any existing answer items as usual. (The example shown was simplified by choosing an open-ended question, for which this is not necessary.) Make any further required settings, and then click on Save.
318
7.4 Loops
7.4.3
Applications
1. Creating a second looped page
You can create several looped pages for one loop. The next figure shows the sample project you already know, with a page titled Assessment by subject added to the Favorite programs page you created in Chapter 7.4.2, p. 317.
Figure 7.31
In the questionnaire, these two pages will now be presented to the respondent for all TV channels specified for the Knowledge of TV channels source question, i.e. the sequence of questionnaire pages seen in the loop will be as follows: 4. Favorite programs for the first TV channel specified as known 5. Assessment by subject for the first TV channel specified as known 6. Favorite programs for the second TV channel specified as known 7. Assessment by subject for the second TV channel specified as known 8. ...etc.
319
Figure 7.32 The question text on this page is determined via the loop, and the answer items are generated via another list
To do so, please proceed as follows: 1. Create the Assessment by subject page. 2. On this page, create a question of the Standard matrix 1 type (type 311). 3. Enter the question text. In doing so, replace the name of the TV channel with the wildcard of the list that is associated with the loop, i.e., in this example, the #TVchannel# wildcard of the TV channels list. 4. Open the Scale options area by clicking on the [+] icon, and enter the scale for the matrix. Then, click on Save. 5. Open the Dynamic answers area by clicking on the [+] icon, and then click on the Select button. 6. Choose the list you wish to use to determine the answer items, i.e., in this example, the Subjects list. Confirm by clicking on Save. 7. Clicking on Back to editor will take you back to the question view. For the default answer categories, tick the Delete checkbox. 8. Complete the work process by clicking on Save.
3. Loop-in-Loop
It is possible to nest up to three loops. If you intend to evaluate the result data subsequently in SPSS, please note the following: The SPSS exports variable length is limited to eight characters. With interleaved loops or loops with many pass-throughs this length can be exceeded. In projects with complex loops prior to survey commencement you should therefore check whether the data can be exported subsequently by SPSS as desired.
320
7.4 Loops
The lists used in EFS therefore offer the possibility of creating the standard wildcard (#wildcard#) plus four more wildcard versions (#wildcard_2#, #wildcard_3#,...). These give you more flexibility in formulating your question texts. The dialog for creating alternate wildcards for loops is located on the lists editors Wildcards tab.
Figure 7.33
For each list element, the content of the standard wildcard (Wildcard 1) is defaulted via the source question and cannot be changed. The other wildcards can be filled with your own content. In a question, the alternative texts are incorporated using the wildcards #wildcard_2# through #wildcard_5#, with wildcard to be replaced with the name of the general wildcard for this list. If, for example. the name of the general wildcard is #TVchannel#, the alternate texts will be invoked using #TVchannel_2# through #TVchannel_5#. To translate the wildcards in multilingual projects, find the list in the overview of the Questionnaire editor->Lists menu and click the Globe icon.
7.4.4
321
4. The loop name will be displayed. Additionally, a drop-down list allows you to choose a single list element. 5. Make your selection, and click on Save again.
Figure 7.34
7.4.5
322
7.4 Loops
or random selection will be executed anew when entering the loop. I.e. on resumption the participant may see other elements in another sort order. Until EFS 7.0, only a restricted version of randomization was available for the answer options of loop questions: The answer options were randomized once at the start of the loop and kept their resulting position throughout all loop cycles. In EFS 7.1, this has been fixed. If the answer options of the source question of a loop are grouped (Chapter 5.11.4, p. 220), display depends of the group items. To display the answer options, the allocated group item must always be part of the list (inclusion condition always in list). If a group item is not part of the list, its allocated answer options are skipped in the loop. The plausibility check editor (Chapter 5.14, p. 231) does not accept the v_x_y variable names (v_variablenumber_listelementnumber) used in loops. If you wish to access the current value of a variable in a loop, simply use the conventional variable name instead, e.g. v_x, and omit the _y_z part that follows. When defining quota conditions (Chapter 10.4, p. 453), you cannot access loop variables. It is not possible to use a page trigger (Chapter 7.5.4, p. 333) to redirect to a page located within a loop branch. In the case of the variable split trigger (Chapter 7.5.8, p. 336), variables located within a loop branch cannot be used as a split attribute. It is not possible to recode variables located within a loop branch with a recoding trigger (Chapter 7.5.9, p. 338). Time measurement cannot be applied to variables located within a loop branch. The quality index will be skewed because looped pages are sent more than once and the survey table has only one timestamp field. It is not possible to upload externally collected loop data into EFS via project data import (Chapter 12.11, p. 515). It is not possible to display missing values for pages within a loop branch in Online statistics. Questions on pages within a loop branch are not displayed in the Detail view (Chapter 12.6, p. 507). Data from variables located within a loop branch cannot be cleaned using the Data cleaning function (Chapter 13.11, p. 544). It is not possible to split the field report (Chapter 12.3.6, p. 504) using variables located within a loop. It is not possible to include loop data into reports created with EFS Reporting +. From EFS 7.0 on, loops can be used in master data and panel surveys. But the data collected in the loop cannot be used as master dataa: A master data transfer of loop data into the master data is not possible.
7.4.6
323
1. You can initiate the process from the Export menu as usual: first, choose the Data (all answers) option. When selecting the export format please note the following: The SPSS exports variable length is limited to eight characters. With interleaved loops or loops with many pass-throughs this length can be exceeded. If you wish to export data with SPSS check in projects with complex loops whether the data can be exported subsequently by SPSS as desired before commencing with the survey. 2. In the next dialog, select the desired basic and advanced options. 3. Tick the checkbox in the Select data area. 4. Confirm with Export. 5. In the next dialog, select the desired variables. The loop variables are not listed individually: they can be selected or de-selected using the All loop variables of the questionnaire option. 6. Confirm with Export. 7. Once the file has been generated, you will be notified via e-mail. Clicking on the link contained in the notification mail will take you directly to the download page. 8. In the Export tasks menu, you can check the status of the export job. If you are taken to the login form after clicking on the link contained in the notification mail, log in, and then click on the link in the e-mail again. 9. After clicking on Copy file to local PC, you can continue the download as usual.
Export variables
The export variables are composed as follows:
v_variablenumber_listelementnumber
324
Meaning Number of the loop cycle List element no. of the element to which the respective loop cycle refers. Which elements are used in the loop depends on the inclusion conditions for the list and the loop. If several loops are nested (no more than three possible), the list elements displayed at a certain stage of the loop cycle are coded as follows: The list element at the top nesting level is marked with gle_ (g = grand), i.e. ple_nr represents the list element number and ple_text the output text. The list element at the next level is marked with ple_ (p = parent). The list element loaded by the loop at the center of the nest is marked with le_. The text output for the respective list element. (Various text versions can be output using the wildcards from Chapter 7.4.3, p. 319.) The answers given in the respective cycle The duration of survey completion, i.e. the time elapsed between the respondents first and last accessing of the questionnaire. See Table 13.2. Date and time of when the survey was last accessed.
7.5.1
325
Figure 7.36
Creating a trigger
Figure 7.37
4. Enter the name of the new trigger. 5. Select the Mail trigger trigger type. An overview of the various trigger types is given in Chapter 7.5.2, p. 329. 6. Confirm with Create. 7. The edit dialog for the new trigger opens.
326
Figure 7.38
10. If you only wish to send the mail when the respondent has actually made a comment, then you must define corresponding conditions: Click on the Edit link in the Condition field. Enter the desired definition in the condition editor. In this example the mail should only be sent out if the text field with the variable name v_11 is filled in, i.e. not empty. The corresponding condition is: v_11 greater , i.e. you leave the Code field empty. Confirm with Save. Next, switch back to the mail trigger by clicking on Back.
Figure 7.39 Defining the condition for the mail trigger initiation
327
11. Optionally, you can execute the triggers in the questionnaire preview. For mail triggers, testing in the preview is not really useful. u_e-mail or any project variables used are not replaced correctly: they cannot be allocated to a participant account in the preview. Therefore, keep the checkbox deactivated. Instead create a test participant with an e-mail address to which you have access and use this account to test the questionnaire in productive mode. For details on testing mail triggers, see the corresponding section in Chapter 7.5.3, p. 332. 12. You may also also optionally execute the trigger multiple times in one survey. This doesn't make any sense in this example, therefore don't activate the checkbox. 13. Save the settings.
Figure 7.40
18. In the Subject field, enter the title Employee survey feedback. 19. In the Mail text field, enter the variable for the comment field v_11, enclosed by two hash signs (#). During the course of the survey this wildcard will be replaced with the participants entry.
328
Abbildung 7.41
20. Leave the default setting for the dispatch date unchanged. 21. Confirm with Save. To test your mail trigger, create a test participant with an e-mail address to which you have access and use this account to test the questionnaire under real-live conditions. For details on testing mail triggers, see the corresponding section in Chapter 7.5.3, p. 332.
7.5.2
Triggers in Detail
The following table provides an overview of the different trigger types.
Trigger Mail trigger Properties Upon occurrence of the event to be defined, an e-mail with predefined or dynamically generated content will be sent to an e-mail address that was either defined in advance or collected during the survey. Upon occurrence of the event to be defined, the respondent will be directed to a certain page of the survey. Upon occurrence of the trigger event, the respondent will be directed to the final page. Upon occurrence of the event to be defined, the participant will be registered in a sample of a personalized or panel project and will be invited via e-mail to participate in the survey. The trigger reinvites the participant to take part in the same survey. This feature can be used if, for example, the respondent does not want to fill in the survey now but agrees to be reminded of it via e-mail. The trigger reads cookies and Get parameters, respectively, and writes them into user-defined variables. It is able to use a split attribute to separate cookies and passed parameters into single variables. This trigger can be used to recode survey variables. The recoded values can, for example, be transferred from other variables or calculated on the basis of the entries made by participants. Details Chaper 7.5.3, p. 332
Chapter 7.5.4, p. 333 Chapter 7.5.5, p. 334 Chapter 7.5.6, p. 334 Chapter 7.5.7, p. 335
Reinvitation trigger
Recoding trigger
Table 7.3
Trigger types
329
Properties This trigger can be used to generate a random number from a specified interval. The list trigger allows you to transfer the contents of a list into user-defined variables. The contents of the user-defined variables can in turn be displayed in the questionnaire via wildcards. Upon occurrence of the event to be defined, the panelists will be credited with bonus points. Please note: Until EFS 7.0, bonus points could be credited only once per panelist and survey. The allocation was triggered either by a bonus trigger or when reaching a final page. From EFS 7.1, this limitation has been dropped. Please see Chapter 7.5.12, p. 345 for details. The trigger adds a survey participant to a specific panel group.
Only on EFS Panel installations: Panel group trigger Table 7.3 Trigger types
330
Select Execution position = Directly, if you want the trigger to be executed first, before the page on which the trigger is defined will be output. Do not use this setting on the first page of a survey. If you select Execution position = After submitting page, before filter, the trigger will be executed after the page has been submitted, but before a filter that immediately follows it. Select this option if you want to use the result returned by the trigger for filtering (for example, if the trigger result fulfills a user-defined variable being used as a filter). This execution position is not available on final pages, independent of the trigger type. For page trigger, logout trigger and reinvitation trigger, it is disabled completely. If you select Execution position = After submitting page, after filter, the trigger will be executed after the page has been submitted. You can use this option if the trigger returns a result that you only want to use after the filter has been applied, i.e. the next page has been determined. For example, it is imaginable that you want to overwrite a user-defined variable, but only after the trigger has been executed.
You will usually be on the safe side if you select the Execution position = After submitting page, before filter option! You can create triggers with the execution position Directly right on the first standard page of a survey. The conditions of such a trigger can contain participant variables, URL parameters and user-defined variables. Project variables cannot be used in such a trigger because they will not be available until after the first page has been sent, i.e. on the second page of the project. Many trigger types involve sending an e-mail. You specify a sender, a sending date and the content of the e-mail. The content of the e-mail is defined by reference to an existing mail template of the Default mail type. You can define default mail templates under Options->Mail templates. Some trigger types create contents to be saved in the survey result data, e.g. calculating formulas or saving parameters. For this, you need user-defined variables which you create in advance under Project properties. Make sure you adjust the type of the user-defined variable (Labels and data type link) if you do not want to save integers to the variable. If necessary, change the type to Text or Decimal. The runtime check, originally introduced for LUA filters, notes when a trigger cannot be executed, e.g. because an e-mail cannot be dispatched due to a broken if condition. See Chapter 9.8, p. 398.
Condition editor
In the condition editor, you specify for which event the trigger will be activated / executed. In Table 4.4 you can find an overview of the available operators.
Basic steps
The basic steps to creating a trigger are identical for all trigger types: 1. Create a page of the Standard type. 2. Create a question of the type of your choice. 3. Select a trigger type. 4. Specify the execution position.
331
5. Select the variable (question) with which you want to associate the trigger. 6. Specify the answer value at which the trigger is to be activated. 7. Specify the triggers detail properties in the respective editing dialog (select a mail template, etc.)
7.5.3
Basic settings
When configuring basic settings for a mail trigger please note the following features: Execution position: As the execution position you should choose After submitting page, after filter. Condition: Definition of an appropriate condition is of special significance for mail triggers. For example, you can ensure that e-mails are only sent when the participant has completely filled a comments field.
Special options
In addition the following specific settings must be made for this trigger type: Mail template: Optionally, the mails dispatched by the trigger can be defined using mail templates and only uploaded in the trigger editor. Mail sender Manually defined mail sender: The e-mail address of the sender must be entered, it cannot be adopted from a mail template. Entering a real name (e.g. John Doe <john.doe@example.com>) is not possible in triggers. Dynamic mail sender: here you can select the variables for single row text fields (141) and Other fields (answer category + text). In personalized projects, the additional u_email wildcard is available, which is filled with the stored survey participants e-mail address. If you use the ACL right mail_reply to hide Reply-To and Return-Path (usually for privacy protection), please take care to enter clearly-defined values in the mail template which your staff is supposed to use for the trigger. The default options Reply-To = From and Return-Path = From cannot be used, because they are filled with the mail sender entered manually by the responsible staff member.
Mail recipient: Manually defined recipient: In this field, you can define one or more recipients who do not necessarily have to be included in the EFS Survey system. You may either enter a single e-mail address or several e-mail addresses separated by commas. The e-mail will be sent to all the recipients you have defined. Dynamic mail recipient: You can select the variables for single row text fields (141) and Other fields (answer category + text). In personalized projects, the additional u_email wildcard is available, which is filled with the stored survey participants e-mail address.
Mailing date:
332
Immediately upon activation of the trigger. This option is preset as the default. Scheduled Dynamically upon activation of the trigger: This option triggers the dispatch after a period defined by the user, which can range from 30 minutes to 6 months.
On EFS Panel installations the mail trigger can access panel-specific values and master data variables using the #panelpoints#, #panelist_code# and #md_00# wildcards.
7.5.4
333
7.5.5
7.5.6
Example
You are surveying customers of an online shop to find out how satisfied they are and when they expect to receive the goods they bought: Depending on the expected date of delivery, the interview participants will receive a mail inviting them to a second survey after a certain delay. The respondents are entered into the sample as active participants.
Features
The sample trigger can be set up and executed in all survey types. For target project, you can use all project types with participant administration, i.e. personalized projects, employee surveys, panel surveys and master data surveys.
334
You can only invite participants with existing panelist accounts to panel surveys or master data surveys. The e-mail address is used to match participant and panelist account.
Define the dispatch date: Per default, the mails will be dispatched immediately upon activation of the trigger. Optionally, another dispatch date can be defined. Create a user-defined variable (c variable) or project variable of type text. This variable should contain the number of days from the execution of the trigger to the dispatch of the mail, for the proper dispatch date EFS will then add another 12 hours to the value of this variable.Select this variable in the sample trigger.
7.5.7
Example
At the start of a long, complex survey, you want to offer participants the option to interrupt and participate at a later date. On one of the first pages, you ask if the participant does have sufficient time to respond at the moment. If not, you offer to send a reminder mail. If a participant does not have sufficient time and wishes a reminder mail, hes routed to a final page via a filter. On this final page, the reinvitation trigger is executed. It resets the data record and sends the reminder mail at the desired later date.
Features
The reinvitation trigger is only available on final pages. It can be used in personalized projects, employee surveys, panel surveys and master data surveys. In anonymous surveys, this trigger type is not available.
335
If the trigger is activated, an e-mail containing an invitation text will be sent. The invitation text is generated from a default mail template, which you can create under Options->Mail templates. The participants disposition code will be reset to 11 resp. 12. The data records are reset without deleting, i.e. already-given answers of the participant are not deleted. Participants who respond to the reminder mail will start again on the first page: Due to the reset of the disposition code, the resumption is considered a restart.
Define the dispatch date: Per default, the mails will be dispatched immediately upon activation of the trigger. Optionally, another dispatch date can be defined. Create a user-defined variable (c variable) or project variable of type text. This variable should contain the number of days from the execution of the trigger to the dispatch of the mail, for the proper dispatch date EFS will then add another 12 hours to the value of this variable.Select this variable in the reinvitation trigger.
7.5.8
336
Please note: - If a variable split trigger is used on the first page of a survey, then the execution position cannot be =directly. - Variables located within a loop branch cannot be used as a split attribute.
Application example
You are planning an advertising effectiveness study intended to test a new form of advertising. Your co-operation partner sets a cookie with every website visitor who has seen the new form of advertising. Now, you want to find out whether there are connections between answer patterns in your study and the form of advertising (e.g. Do people who have seen the form of advertising remember its contents?). At the beginning of the survey, all cookies will automatically be read and saved, collectively, in a system variable. The variable split trigger will pinpoint one cookie value, read it from the collection and save it in a user-defined variable. For reasons of privacy, the browsers only allow certain cookies to be read. If you run the study at the survey.mycompany.com domain, for example, you can read all cookies in the mycompany.com domain group. This includes, e.g., advert.mycompany.com or survey.mycompany.com, but not www.somethingelseentirely.com or www.mycompany.net. However, this will only work if the cookie was set in such a way that other subdomains are allowed to read it. Clarify this in advance with those responsible for setting the cookie. To read the respondents cookies and save a cookie value in a user-defined variable, please proceed as follows: 1. Create a user-defined variable in the Project properties menu. As you want to save the cookie name, choose the Text type. Assign a meaningful label. You can output the variables content via #Label# or #c_000n#, where n is the number of the userdefined variable. 2. Then, switch to the page of the survey on which you wish to create the trigger. 3. Click on the Trigger tab and create a trigger of the Variable split trigger type. 4. First, specify the condition for which the trigger is to be activated. You will normally want to execute the trigger on the first page of your survey. If this page does not contain a variable, create a dummy variable with question type 911. 5. In the trigger editor, various source variables are visible:
Variable Cookies (start_cookies) GET variables at the beginning of the survey (start_get_vars) Quota (quota) Project variables (v_xxx) Table 7.4 Source variables Meaning All readable cookies. All parameters transferred at the beginning of the survey. Contains the result of quota processes. The normal project variables.
6. A cookie, when it is set, has a name and a value, e.g. opst_demopanel_108 and 7a8cc5c05df7820217d9bf3f6c5b0781. The Array field allows you to define which of the collected cookies is to be written into the user-defined variable.
337
7. The cookies value can be structured to contain various values, separated by a separator such as | or ;. For example, the cookie value could encrypt the date, the browser version and the site by which the cookie was set. If your cookie has such a structure, you can save the individual values separately using different destination variables. To do so, you must save the settings, create a new destination variable and enter the separator character (e.g. a comma). 8. The value of the cookie named in the Array field will now be stored in the userdefined variable.
7.5.9
Before starting
Please note: The recoding trigger is available for all survey types. You can recode project variables (with the exception of variables located within a loop branch), user-defined variables and URL parameters, participant data, panelist data and master data can be recoded. System variables cannot be recoded. If the value to be set is a text, put it between quotation marks. Both recodings and trigger actions require a lot of server resources, i.e. the usage of recoding triggers affects the performance of the questionnaire. Therefore, it is recommended to use not more than 100 recodings per trigger and per page.
Recoding syntax
When defining recoding conditions, the following rules apply: The operators + - / * and ( and ) can be used. Wildcards (#v_xxx#) can be used to insert project variables. Please mind: Special project variables, as e.g. loop or conjoint variables, cannot be used in the condition.
338
For project variables relating to an open text field, #v_000n# outputs the content. Make sure to enclose the wildcard by quotation marks in this case, e.g. '#v_1#' (see below). For closed-ended questions the wildcard #v_000n# in the trigger outputs the code.
Texts (strings) must be enclosed by quotation marks (e. g. 'foo'). It is not permitted to use the special characters ? and $ in the recoding condition. They are reserved for internal usage in database queries. You can use the MySQL functions NOW() and IF(). NOW() returns the current date and time. Example: NOW() -> 2011-02-11 12:08:29 IF(expr1,result1,result2) is processed as follows: If expr1 is TRUE, IF() returns result1, otherwise it returns result2. Example: IF(#v_1#<2,'Yes','No') -> If #v_1# < 2, IF() returns Yes, otherwise it returns No.
339
Figure 7.42
10. Select the variable to be recoded, and enter the value for which the recoding condition applies. In the example, v_1 is the variable where the answer to the question relating to pertinent departments and characteristic 1 is saved. 11. Confirm by clicking on Save.
Figure 7.43
12. Click on the Filter icon, which will now appear, in order to define the condition. 13. Choose the variable whose content is to be loaded as well as the condition and the code. In this example, variable v_1 is to be prefilled with code 1 if the participant variable labeled u_department equals 1.
340
Figure 7.44
Defining a condition
14. Click on Save. 15. Repeat this operation for all characteristics of the variable v_1, which are to be preallocated.
Figure 7.45
Specifying values and defining recoding conditions for the characteristics of a variable
Figure 7.46
Recoding log
341
7.5.10
Uniform distribution
The distribution of the randomly generated values will only approximate a uniform distribution only if the number of cases is sufficiently large. The special feature labeled Approximate uniform distribution within given range is used in order to allow you to simulate a uniform distribution even with small and medium numbers of participants. If this function is enabled, the numbers generated will no longer be actual random numbers, rather the numbers will be generated in such a way that, even for a
342
small number of cases, their distribution will tend strongly toward a uniform distribution.
7.5.11
343
Figure 7.47
7. In the Settings section, successively specify for each remaining list element (i. e. for each list element that remains after processing all inclusion conditions etc.) which list property is to be transferred into which destination variable. The available list properties are element number and element label. 8. After clicking on Save, the settings will be adopted and the line New for selecting the next list element will be displayed again. 9. In the lower sections, you can set list options and sort order of the list elements. These functions are explained in Chapter 7.3.4, p. 310. 10. Then, confirm by clicking on Save.
344
Figure 7.48
7.5.12
Features
Up until EFS 7.0, only one bonus point allocation was possible per survey and panelist regardless of whether this was done via the bonus trigger or via the final page. EFS 7.1 offers you more options in that respect: A panelist may receive more allocations in one survey. A potential allocation on the final page of the survey does not affect any bonus point allocations via a bonus trigger. In particular, you may use triggers and final page to allocate different amounts of points. You may use multiple bonus triggers within one survey. You can use the bonus trigger only for allocating points. The subtraction of points makes no sense within the context of a survey and is therefore not possible.
345
7.5.13
346
Making assignments
1. Open the Project properties->Variable data import menu.
Figure 7.49
Making assignments
2. Select the source project. 3. Confirm by clicking on Select source project. 4. Assign the first source variable from the source project to the respective destination variable in the current project. 5. Confirm by clicking on Save. 6. Repeat this operation for all variables that have to be assigned.
347
348
349
350
The Standard editor (see Chapter 8.3, p. 353), the entry page of which will automatically open in the content area when you enter the Layout menu, you can perform the following modifications to the standard layout provided by Globalpark, without requiring any knowledge of HTML or web design: Colors, fonts, font sizes and alignment of the layout can be edited. You can choose between normal HTML form elements, graphical form elements or a graphical Submit button in combination with HTML form elements, and load your own form elements into the system.
351
A maximum of four logos can be incorporated. You can choose between different progress bar designs. You can choose between different plausibility check designs. The distances to the page margin as well as between questions and answers can be changed.
Via the Pro editor (see Chapter 8.4, p. 368), you can additionally freely re-design the border structure of your survey pages, specify a different border layout for individual pages / questions, completely restructure individual elements, such as the output of plausibility checks or that of the progress bar, specify a different layout for individual question types, insert new CSS classes, edit the CSS file in the source code or replace it, make the table borders visible in the layout (debug mode), e.g. in order to detect visualization errors more quickly, define special wildcard variables for each survey page, with which you can, among other things, show chapter headings in the survey project.
In the Layout templates menu, you can choose between different project layouts. Under Save settings in template, you can save a fully formatted layout as a template and so re-access it later for other projects. If you wish to publish the survey in a pop-up window, you can generate the requisite code in the Pop-up generator menu. In the standard editor, you change the general appearance of a project. More farreaching changes to the page structure or changes relating to the appearance of individual pages or questions require the use of the pro editor. However, when creating the questionnaire (see Chapter 4, p. 119 and following) you are already provided with various options for changing the visual appearance of a questionnaire page: For example, you can increase the width of the column containing the item texts of a specific matrix question, or change the text formatting by entering HTML code in the input fields for the question or answer text.
352
Pay attention to loading times: If you are incorporating your own images into the survey, check the file size of the images. Combined, the images should not be larger than about 30 to 40 kilobytes. You can use JavaScript to realize graphical form elements and usability features which facilitate data entry. With JavaScript disabled, those additional options are eliminated, and in extreme cases, the survey can no longer be edited. Especially if you are conducting your project in an environment such as a large group of companies, which may be centrally regulated, you should, in advance, check with the responsible technology department whether JavaScript is enabled in the standard configuration of the staff PCs and, if necessary, refrain from using JavaScript-based features. You can have the respondents browsers checked for functioning JavaScript (see Chapter 3.7.7, p. 80). If JavaScript is not activated, the graphical form elements will automatically be replaced with HTML form elements (see Chapter 8.3.4, p. 358).
Test your survey in the common browsers: In addition to Internet Explorer (5.0 or later), you should also view your survey with Netscape 6 or later. Especially in large groups of companies, the problematic browser Netscape 4.x is occasionally still used. Chapter 18.1 provides an overview on all browsers supported in the EFS questionnaire area.
353
Figure 8.2
In it, you will find an overview of the most important current settings for the project layout. Via the Change links, you can navigate directly to the places in the menu where the respective settings can be modified. See the following Chapter 8.3.1, p. 354, for notes on the defaulted basic settings. The remaining tabs contain the various functions which allow you to edit the standard layout of the project in the standard editor: Logos (see Chapter 8.3.2, p. 355) Format (see Chapter 8.3.3, p. 355) Form elements (see Chapter 8.3.4, p. 358) Spaces (see Chapter 8.3.5, p. 363) Progress bar (see Chapter 8.3.6, p. 364) Plausibility checks (see Chapter 8.3.7, p. 366) Changes you make in the standard editor will only affect the current project.
8.3.1
354
In the basic setting, HTML form elements are activated. If you activate graphical form elements instead, the elements from the standard layout set will be loaded first:
You can customize these settings as desired. This is what a typical questionnaire page looks like in the standard layout with the progress bar and graphical form elements switched on:
Figure 8.3
8.3.2
Inserting Logos
In the Logos tab, you can upload up to four logos and insert them into your layout. In the standard layout, the first logo will be displayed above the questionnaire, while the second logo will be displayed below the questionnaire. If you upload a third and fourth logo, the page structure of your project will be modified by the system to make room for these logos. You will normally want to edit the page structure to achieve optimum placement of the logos. You will need the logos in a web-enabled format, i.e. as GIF (preferably for drawings and figures with few colors), JPEG (preferably photos, and figures with many colors) or PNG. Pay attention to the file size. All images in one questionnaire page should under no circumstances exceed 30 to 40 kilobytes. BMP files (bitmaps) can be displayed in Internet Explorer, but not in most other browsers. Do not use them! You should also make sure that the file name for a logo does not contain any blank spaces: this is not tolerated by all browsers. You can remove uploaded logos from the layout by clicking on No image.
8.3.3
Format
The Format tab allows you to edit the font, background design, alignment and also the borders around the questionnaire elements. As a working aid, you will find a model of your questionnaire in the middle of the content area of the tab: It contains standard elements such as questions with single response lists, questions with multiple response lists and matrix questions. The layout matches the current appearance of the
355
survey as closely as possible (however, changes made in the pro editor cannot be reproduced with absolute accuracy). When you scroll over the elements displayed in the model, alternative texts will show the names of their related CSS classes. Clicking on an element will open a pop-up window in which you can change the layout properties. The change options are divided into four tabs for font, background, alignment and frame. Some elements, such as the progress bar, cannot be edited in the normal view of the model. Showing the structure, however, will make most elements editable. Invisible images used to adjust distances cannot be edited. This option is only available in the Pro editor (see Chapter 8.4, p. 368). However, when the structure is shown, you can see these images and observe their impact on the layout.
Model of the questionnaire with opened pop-up window for editing the attributes of a layout
Please note that changes will be transferred to your questionnaire as soon as you close the pop-up window by clicking on the Accept & close window button or by switching between tabs.
Additional functions
There are some additional options located above the questionnaire model:
356
If several CSS files exist in the project, a drop-down list allows to select the file you wish to edit. The Show structure / Hide structure option is a tool for editing formats. Border lines are displayed, to facilitate orientation: The survey page structure becomes visible and the individual active surfaces can be identified. The option only affects the view in the layout editor, not your project. You can change the overall alignment of the layout, by giving the survey either a left, a right or a center alignment. To do so, click on the appropriate link. In addition, you can remove all background colors from the CSS file by clicking on the respective Execute link. The option is only advisable if you are using a background graphic that is to be visible through all other page elements. Caution: In order to reintegrate the background colors, you must manually add the respective property to the affected CSS classes or restore the standard layout by clicking the button Restore standard layout settings in the Layout->Layout templates menu (all other new settings will also be lost when you do this).
357
Figure 8.5
4. Now, for example, enter a different pixel value in the Size field and change the font color. 5. Confirm by clicking on the Accept & close window button. 6. The pop-up window will close and the typified questionnaire will be updated. 7. You will now see the changes on the typified questionnaire page. Use the preview link to view the changes to your project.
8.3.4
Form Elements
Form elements, the settings for which you can see and edit on the tab with the same name, are used to highlight answers. You can choose between three versions: HTML: By default, HTML form elements are used. Graphical form elements: The HTML form elements are replaced with images, the so-called graphical form elements. These change their shape when you click on them or pass the mouse pointer over them. Only the buttons are graphical form elements: HTML form elements are integrated in the third version, the Continue button is an image. Graphical form elements, standard HTML buttons: Graphical form elements are used for radio buttons and checkboxes, while HTML form elements are used for teh standard buttons. Before opting for or against graphical form elements, please take into consideration that graphical form elements only work for respondents who have JavaScript enabled. You can perform a check at the beginning of the survey to see whether a respondents browser accepts JavaScript. If this check function has been activated according to the instructions given in Chapter 3.7.7, p. 80 and reports that a browser is not JavaScript-enabled, the graphical form elements will be replaced with standard HTML elements. Frequently, the request is made to improve the look and feel of the questionnaire by using graphical form elements. Simple HTML form elements are no longer considered
358
up-to-date. This is arguable. Completing a clearly designed questionnaire with HTML form elements can also be fun. Graphical form elements are sometimes considered playful. As so often, this all depends on the target group. A questionnaire for children and youths should be enriched with graphical form elements. HTML form elements are generally considered more reputable for the university environment. There is surely much room for methodical research, into how the choice of form elements affects response behavior of participants and abort probability. Graphical form elements can also be designed unobtrusively and additionally adjusted to fit the companys CI colors or website. Simply create your own graphical form elements and import them to the library for graphical form elements. Or select them from the existing library for graphical form elements.
Figure 8.6
2. For What kind of form elements are to be used?, select Graphical form elements. 3. Confirm by clicking on the Save button. 4. In the bottom part of the tab, the currently used form elements will be displayed. The various functions for setting and configuring graphical form elements are now also available.
Figure 8.7
359
Figure 8.8
4. You are automatically taken to the button generator, which provides you with various editing options (see the following section).
360
Figure 8.9
Editing buttons
5. Click on the Preview button at the bottom right to view the effects of the changes made. 6. After selecting the desired options, you can use the Apply to select box to specify whether the change is to be applied only to the respective button or to the entire set. 7. Confirm the changes by clicking on Save.
361
Images needed
Depending on the configuration of the survey, the following images are needed:
Option Radio button / checkbox in normal state Radio button / checkbox when passed over with the mouse pointer Radio button / checkbox selected Back Cancel Correct Meaning These images replace HTML radio buttons and checkboxes. They are displayed if the respondents neither click on the form element nor pass the mouse pointer over it. These images replace HTML radio buttons and checkboxes. They are displayed if the respondents pass the mouse pointer over a form element.
These images replace HTML radio buttons and checkboxes. They are displayed if the respondents select a form element by clicking on it. This image is used for navigating back to the previous page. Clicking on the Cancel image closes the survey window. The Correct button is used in the pop-up window for client-side plausibility checks. Clicking on this button closes the window, allowing the respondent to correct incorrect entries. The Ignore button is used in the pop-up window for client-side plausibility checks. Clicking on this button closes the window and submits the questionnaire below: The respondent does not correct incorrect entries, but instead continues completing the questionnaire. This image replaces the HTML Submit button for navigating to the next page.
Ignore
Uploading images
Please proceed as follows: 1. Before uploading your images, please make sure that the survey messages of the project are phrased properly and do not need any further changes (when changing survey messages, user-defined images are overwritten). Then, proceed as follows: 2. Click on Upload your own images in the Used graphical form elements section. 3. The following form will appear:
362
Figure 8.10
8.3.5
Changing Spaces
On the Spaces tab, you can set some general spaces in your layout. If you have not entered a unit of measurement, the entered value will be interpreted as a pixel value. Alternatively, you can specify relative values in percent. A layout width of 80% uses 80 percent of the width of the current browser window, while a 600 layout is always 600 pixels wide, regardless of the size of the users window. Your survey should be no wider than 800 pixels, as some respondents still have a screen resolution of 800x600 pixel. If you would like to see what your surveys look like on a smaller screen or on a PC with a lower resolution, install the free Windows tool Sizer (http://www.brianapps.net/sizer.html). Unfortunately, it is not yet possible to change the spacing between form elements and answer texts.
363
8.3.6
Progress Bar
The progress bar shows the respondent which percentage of the questionnaire they have already completed. This can be in a text version (You have already completed XX percent of the questionnaire) or in a graphical version with a progress bar. Both versions can be combined.
Figure 8.11
Notes: The upper most row, Currently selected, displays the progress bar that is currently used in the questionnaire. If you have changed the appearance of the respective progress bar type using the Format tab, you will get a realistic reproduction of what the display looks like. The images in the type selection list show whether the selected type supports text display. In the pro editor, you can modify a selected type, e.g. suppress or add text display. You can change the appearance of types 1, 2, 5 and 7 in the Format tab: If you display the structure, you can access CSS classes .progress and .progresstext. Via
364
the Pro editor, you can access these CSS classes as well. You can only change the color of the bar itself for type 7. Types 3, 4 and 6 are generated based on background images, which means they cant be changed with CSS. The text can be edited in the Text indicating progress field. Advanced users can change the structure of the progress bar in the pro editor, e.g. to add or to hide text from displaying (refer to Chapter 8.5.5, p. 377)
where: denominator (page x) = (sum of pages submitted to date + 1) + (sum of all pages still anticipated after page x) and numerator (page x) = number of all pages actually submitted to date The progress value on the first page of the questionnaire is: progress value (page 1) = 100 / sum of all pages in the questionnaire The progress value on the final page is: Progress value (final page) = 100
365
project with filters, count the number of pages a respondent will see, add the rounded mean value from the sum of filter branches and enter the value into the Total number of pages field. 5. Now you can indirectly determine a value for the progress bar for each page: you define the page number for each individual page from the respondents point of view. 6. If the opening pages of the project are to be ignored, enter a value of 0 for these pages. Then, the pages will be excluded from the calculation, and a progress bar will not be displayed on them. In the case of random blocks, the page-defined progress bar jumps. Therefore, for projects with Random rotation or Random select branches, it is recommended that you use the automatically calculated display.
8.3.7
366
Changing types (type1, type2, type3) overwrites the corresponding output template. Manual changes to the structure of the plausibility check template made in the pro editor in the meantime will be lost.
Figure 8.12
The error message consists of a general phrase, which can be defined in this menu, and the error messages you define individually for each plausibility check in the plausibility check editor.
Option Pop-up window title Introductory text Meaning This text is displayed in the blue bar (under Windows) at the top of the window. General message text, e.g. This message is automatically generated, if your details were incomplete or erroneous. Please check the details in the following fields:. Enter this text in the message set archive under Options->Survey messages, to ensure that it is filled as desired when survey messages are assigned in the Project properties-> Survey messages menu. Here you can determine the label of the button clicked by the respondents, if they do not want to correct the reported error (also refer to Soft plausibility check). See previous item for information on preallocation of this field. Here you can determine the label of the Submit button clicked by the respondent, if they want to correct the reported error (also refer to Hard plausibility check). See Introductory text for information on preallocation of this field.
Table 8.3
If you have selected graphical form elements in the project, this dialog will display the images currently included. Click on Change to replace the images via the Form elements tab.
367
Figure 8.13
The error message consists of two general phrases, which can be defined in this menu, and the messages you define individually for each plausibility check in the plausibility check editor.
Option Plausibility error Meaning Introductory text in the lead text to the plausibility check error message (also refer to notes on the Introductory text option for JavaScript checks, for information on preallocation). Instruction between introductory text and display of individual error messages.
Further notes
Advanced users can change the structure of a selected type, e.g. suppress the output of detailed information on items missing in the answer (see Chapter 8.5.6, p. 378).
8.4.1
368
required by EFS for processing plausibility checks. With a few exceptions, you can freely restructure the HTML code. More on this topic later on.
Figure 8.14
A survey page consists of a main template main.tpl, which positions all elements on a questionnaire page. For reasons of clarity, some components are stored in separate subtemplates: progressbar.tpl displays the progress bar. questioncomplete.tpl displays the plausibility check text. qtext.tpl formats the question text and the fill-in instruction. question.tpl formats the table framing questions. answer.tpl formats the table framing answers.
369
Figure 8.15
You can freely configure the area outside the actual question form. You can freely configure the table framing questions, answers and the entire questionnaire form. You can freely configure both question and fill-in instructions. In general, you have no influence on answer blocks. You may re-define individual question types, but we only recommend this for absolute pros. In addition to the above templates, there are some special templates for specific tasks: login.tpl defines the login window for surveys with password protection. critical.tpl is used for system error messages (e.g. Survey is not active). helpwin.tpl formats the Help pop-up window (help texts for the individual questions can be entered in the editor). errorwin.tpl can be used to design pop-ups for JavaScript plausibility checks. mixedextern.tpl is a version of the main template main.tpl, which is used for mixed-external pages (questions created with EFS can be freely positioned on the screen in mixed-external pages).
8.4.2
370
Figure 8.16
The following information can be found in the overview table: For each template, there is a list containing the title as well as the file name, size, date of the last change and person who edited it. The search function allows you to capture not only the template name and file name, but also the template content and related comments. You can make notes on individual templates: By clicking on the Marker icon, you can open a pop-up window containing a comment field, enter your comment and save it.
Editing templates
You have the following options for editing or creating templates: By clicking on the title, you can open a template and edit its content. If you insert the wildcard {debug} into a template (e.g. main.tpl), Save and then invoke a questionnaire page, variables will be displayed in a pop-up window. Please note that the usual wildcards of EFS cannot be used in the Smarty templates. Click on the Create template button to create a new template. You can duplicate templates that already exist by clicking on the Copy icon. You can delete newly created and duplicated templates, but not system templates. If you wish to restore the original state of a template during project creation, click on the Restore icon in the Function column. Chapter 8.5, p. 375, contains different examples of how to perform complex changes to the layout by editing the respective templates or incorporating new ones.
371
8.4.3
Figure 8.17
If several CSS files exist in the project, an additional drop-down list is displayed, allowing you to select the file you wish to edit.
Additional functions
Export CSS: Clicking on this button triggers an export of all CSS files, compressed in a Zip file. Import CSS: This function allows you to import a CSS file you have externally edited or exported from another project. Please note that, in the file to be imported, you must use the existing CSS classes in the project layout.
372
8.4.4
Debugging Layouts
EFS layouts work with invisible tables to position texts on a page. For debugging, it is often desirable to make table boundary lines temporarily visible. On the Debug mode tab, you can activate the table borders for all those who see the survey. Alternatively, you can make table borders visible only for those participants with a special IP address. Assume that your project is already in the field and you want to make changes to it on short notice. Naturally, you do not want your participants to see the table borders, so you restrict the view to yourself.
8.4.5
373
8.4.6
Wildcards
On the Wildcards tab, you can easily define dynamic contents for each questionnaire page outside of the actual questionnaire. You can use this feature, for example, to divide your survey into topic blocks and then to visualize this division in the layout. To do so, proceed as follows: 1. Click on the Wildcards tab. 2. Click on the page title of the first page of your project. 3. A form will appear, in which you can insert a maximum of five wildcards for this page. Type an arbitrary text into the Text 1 field, e.g. Demographic questions 4. Click on Save changes. 5. Repeat Steps 1 through 4 for one or two further pages. 6. Now tell the layout where you would like to use the defined wildcards: In the questionnaire editor, for example, you can reference the wildcards from questions using the wildcards #r_text1#, #r_text2#, #r_text3#, #r_text4#, #r_text5#. 7. You can alternatively modify the structure of your layout. 8. Switch to the Structure tab. 9. For example, edit the main.tpl template, to place the wildcards in the general page structure file. 10. Insert the {$r_text1} system variable anywhere on the page. 11. Take a look at the project in the preview. You will see that {$r_text1} has been replaced with the corresponding text from the database. 12. Wrap the wildcard in HTML code to achieve the desired appearance.
8.4.7
Figure 8.18
374
If defects are found, you will receive both information on their cause and a classification of their importance (e.g. New feature or Important). To fix a problem, tick its checkbox in the Correct column, and then confirm by clicking on Correct layout.
8.5.1
8.5.2
8.5.3
Editing the Layout of Special Question Types 1. Editing the layout of question types 113 and 311
By incorporating an additional template, you can modify the area between the scale and answers for the frequently used question types 113 (Single response list (scale above)) and 311 (Standard matrix 1) across questionnaires. The contents of the additional template will be output immediately below the scale, so you can, among other things, change the distance between the scale and answers or insert a separating line. To create the additional template, please proceed as follows: 1. Copy any existing template, and name the copy scale_extra_113.tpl or scale_extra_311.tpl. 2. Confirm by clicking on Copy.
375
3. You will now find the template copy in the template list, under the name you specified. Open the template copy. 4. Delete the HTML code that was also copied, and replace it with the desired code.
8.5.4
376
8.5.5
Example 1
1. In a test project, open the Typ2 progress bar via Standard editor->Progress bar. 2. Switch to Pro editor->Structure. 3. Choose the progressbar.tpl template. You will see the following code:
001 {* Version 1-0 2002-09-25 *}<table width="{$layout_width}" border="{$sys_border}" class="progress" cellpadding=2 cellspacing=0> 002 <tr> 003 <td width=100% class="progresstext">{$msg_progress} 004 <img src="{$baseurl}layout/s1.gif" height="13"><img 005 src="{$baseurl}layout/s2.gif" height="13"><img 006 src="{$baseurl}layout/s3.gif" height="13" width="{$sys_progress}"><img 007 src="{$baseurl}layout/s4.gif" height="13"><img 008 src="{$baseurl}layout/s5.gif" height="13" width="{math equation="x y" x=$sys_maxprogress y=$sys_progress}"><img 009 src="{$baseurl}layout/s6.gif" height="13" width="1" 010 > {$sys_progress}%</td> 011 </tr> 012 </table>
Example 2:
Some progress bar types require calculations with the system variables for output. An example of this is progress bar type 6:
001 {* Version 1-0 2002-09-25 *} 002 <table width="{$layout_width}" border="{$sys_border}" cellpadding=2 cellspacing=0> 003 <tr> 004 <td align="right"> 005 <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> 006 <tr> 007 <td><img src="{$baseurl}layout/pbar_start.gif"></td> 008 <td background="{$baseurl}layout/pbar_bg.gif" width="{$sys_maxprogress}" align="right"><img src="{$baseurl}layout/ pbar_scale.gif" height="13" width="{math equation="x y" x=$sys_maxprogress y=$sys_progress}"></td> 009 <td><img src="{$baseurl}layout/pbar_end.gif"></td> 010 </tr>
377
This will build a table that is completely filled with the progress bar image (large bar). A single-color image will be placed over this table so that only a part of the background will be visible. The length of this image is calculated from the maximum overall length of the progress bar by subtracting the current percentage.
8.5.6
378
024 <img src="{$baseurl}layout/pixel_t.gif" width="15" height="1" border="0">{$plausi_text} 025 </td> 026 </tr> 027 {/if} 028 </table> 029 <br>
Line 5 9 15-21 Meaning Outputs the first introductory text, $msg_complete_header. These lines can be removed or modified through a fixed value, if desired. Outputs the first introductory text, $msg_complete_quest. These lines can be removed or modified through a fixed value, if desired. These lines output the question texts of the questions that have not been fully answered. The entire area can be removed if its output is not desired (e.g. because too much space would be lost). These lines output the plausibility error messages, if a plausibility check has detected errors. The lines can be re-written as desired. Meaning of the individual lines in the template code
26 Table 8.6
8.5.7
agent_type
8.5.8
379
Please note: Framesets can be used for anonymous and personalized surveys, they do not work for panel and master data surveys. Please proceed as follows: 1. Create the project. 2. Choose the Layout menu item. 3. Choose Pro editor from the submenu. 4. Create a new template named index.tpl. (Alternatively, you can also copy an existing template. However, its contents will then be overwritten and lost.) 5. Insert the HTML code for a frameset into the template:
001 002 003 004 <html> <head> <title>Our Survey</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso -8859-1"> 005 </head> 006 <frameset rows="60,*,45" frameborder="NO" border="0" framespacing="0"> 007 <frame src="http://www.your-domain.com/header.htm" name="header" scrolling="NO" noresize > 008 <frame src="#LINK#" name="main"> 009 <frame src="http://www.your-domain.com/footer.htm" name="footer" scrolling="NO" noresize > 010 </frameset> 011 <noframes><body> 012 Please use a browser that supports frames. 013 </body></noframes> 014 </html>
6. Save the changed version of the template. The frameset definition shown above is meant as an example and can be adjusted to meet different layout wishes. The survey URL will be included at the corresponding position in the frameset via the #LINK# wildcard. Required parameters will be dynamically attached to the URL (e.g. the code).
8.5.9
380
Now, the name of the language will be displayed besides the templates in the template list. If you set up a layout for mobile output (EFS Mobile Extension), various templates are used for the various output types. When creating language version-specific copies of these templates, the ID is inserted at the start of the file name, too. E.g. wml_main.tpl -> 2_wml_main.tpl 3. Copy the existing CSS file to get language-specific versions, too. Name them according to the same pattern. 4. The references to CSS files in the templates are hard-coded and must be modified manually. Please change the name of the CSS file in the following line:
old: <link rel="stylesheet" href="{$baseurl}css/layout.css"> new: <link rel="stylesheet" href="{surveyfile file="css/layout.css"}">
5. On the tab Layout->Pro editor->CSS editor, you can select the various CSS files via a drop-down list and edit them. If you want to edit the various layout versions via the tab Layout->Formatting, you can also select the desired CSS file via a dropdown list. Then, the display is modified accordingly (the system identifies the appropriate templates automatically).
8.6.1
All question texts on all pages will now be output in capital letters. The documentation for Smarty can be found at http://smarty.php.net. The section on modifications will be of particular interest.
381
8.7.2
Figure 8.19
Layout list
382
Figure 8.20
Importing layouts
9. If you wish to use your layout for the current project, tick the Activate template checkbox. 10. Complete the work process by clicking on Upload file. 11. A green text bar containing the text The template was successfully added will inform you about the successful transfer of the template. On the Layout list tab, it will now also be available for all projects located on this second EFS Survey instal-
383
lation. If you have decided to directly activate the template under Step 9, a second green text bar will report the successful activation.
384
9 Testing Projects
9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 9.8 9.9 9.10 Checking the Completion Status of a Project . . . . . . . . . . 387 Using Simulated Test Sessions to Identify Problems . . . . . 388 Checking Conditions for Logical Consistency . . . . . . . . . . 394 Checking Media Links. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394 Skipping Checks During Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396 Changing the Language During Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397 Switching to Language Editor During Testing . . . . . . . . . . 397 Checking Filters, Quotas and Triggers in the Course of the Survey 398 Managing the To-Dos of the Project Team . . . . . . . . . . . . 399 Capturing Pretest Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
385
386
Testing Projects
Running a survey project is a complex task that involves planning, questionnaire creation and evaluation as well as various quality assurance measures. From the functionality of individual settings made in the questionnaire editor to the appearance of the questionnaire, everything must be checked, discussed, changed if necessary and tested under real-world conditions before the beginning of the field phase. This chapter introduces the quality assurance features for EFS surveys: The project check enables you to check the completion status of a project. See Chapter 9.1, p. 387. The project test function, which allows you to automatically check e.g. the setting of filters, will be introduced in Chapter 9.2, p. 388. The consistency check tests the conclusiveness of the configuration of filters, hiding conditions, triggers and plausibility checks. See Chapter 9.3, p. 394. The media check presented in Chapter 9.4, p. 394 makes it easier for you to identify problems with links to images and other media files. The boss button, which allows you to skip plausibility and completeness checks, is introduced in Chapter , p. 401. The language selection feature described in Chapter 9.6, p. 397 is helpful for testing multilingual projects. As of version 7.0, EFS features a runtime check for checking the conditions of LUA filters, quotas and triggers in the course of the survey. See Chapter 9.8, p. 398. In addition to specific test features, EFS also provides tools for work and test organization: To-do management is used to capture and manage internal notes made by those responsible for the project. See Chapter 9.9, p. 399. Chapter 9.10, p. 401, introduces the pretest tool, which allows you to capture the testers comments during the pretest phase. More tools for testing individual settings in the questionnaire are introduced in Chapter 4, p. 119: - The preview (Chapter 4.11, p. 170). - The filter test, which allows you to test the functionality of individual filters (Chapter 4.7.5, p. 154).
387
9 Testing Projects
In the example below, an older project has been imported to a new installation. The project check now complains that the layout does not support all project features. This problem is easy to solve: Click on the link Check layout to switch to the pro editor and use the available correction functions (Chapter 8.4.7, p. 374).
Results of the project check Meaning EFS checks for errors in LUA filters, quotas and triggers while processing the survey. Indicates whether a static start page has been set up. Indicates the standard language. Indicates whether all of the text elements of the different survey languages have been filled and has a link to the overview of the To-dos. Provides information on the correctness of the layouts in use. If the layout is no longer current, you have the option of clicking on the Check layout link to switch to the Pro editor, where you can fix the problem. Number of variables. The number may change when compiling the project. Chapter Chapter 4.7.8, p. 158 Chapter 4.5.9, p. 136 Chapter 15.2.5, p. 575 Chapter 15.3.1, p. 578 Chapter 8.4.7, p. 374
Errors while processing the survey Static start page Current selected language In multilingual projects: Translation status Layout status
388
389
9 Testing Projects
Tips for using the project test in projects with participant administration
In personalized projects, you may either have tester datasets automatically generated, or you can use copies of existing participant datasets for testing. Using automatically generated test participants: Test participants are automatically generated and saved in participant administration. These test participants are marked as testers and can therefore be easily removed with Delete test data or be removed manually from participant administration. Using copies of existing participants for testing: The project test uses copies of the participants available in participant administration with disposition code <20 instead of creating new test participants. If the number of test runs desired is greater than the number of participants with disposition code <20, no new participants are additionally generated, but the project test discontinues after all open datasets are used up. These copied test participants are marked as testers, too, and can therefore be easily removed with Delete test data or be removed manually from participant administration. Employee survey project type: As a rule, the project test always uses copies of existing participant datasets available in participant administration for these project types (see above). This ensures that realistic data are available for the organizational structure. As already mentioned above, you can easily identify and remove these test participants.
9.2.1
Figure 9.2
Click on the Produce test data tab and enter the conditions for the automatically generated test runs: In the Number of interviews to create field, enter the number of questionnaire sessions that are to be automatically generated. The advisable number of sessions depends on the complexity of the project and the robustness of the server. On the one hand, high numbers of sessions (in the hundreds) deliver more meaningful results. On the other hand, projects with a complex filter structure can cause a considerable server load even with one hundred sessions. Before you enter a larger number of times participated, you should therefore make sure that there is no survey with a high number of participants running at the same time on the same installation. In the second field, you can specify the Maximum number of pages sent per session. The number entered should be greater than 0. If the Delete test data prior to execution? option is enabled, data generated in preliminary test runs or automatically generated test participants are deleted.
390
Personalized survey project type only: If the Use copies of existing participants? option is enabled the project test will use copies of the datasets with disposition code <20 already available in participant administration instead of creating new participants. If the number of test runs desired is greater than the number of participants with disposition code <20, no new participants are additionally generated, but the project test discontinues after all open datasets are used up. If the project contains numeric URL parameters, you can specify individual values or number ranges for them. Please note that Project test does not support nonnumeric URL parameters. With projects containing such parameters, Project test must be run before the URL parameters are configured. If the project contains triggers, you can choose separately whether these may be activated during the project test. Before activating the trigger test function, make sure that this cannot inadvertently trigger infinite loops or the bulk dispatch of mails. Usually, however, a manual test is more advisable for checking the functionality of triggers than using the automatic project test.
9.2.2
Figure 9.3
391
9 Testing Projects
Figure 9.4
If all sessions were completed successfully, you can limit your analysis to this statistics, labeled Evaluate completed data records only. If test sessions were interrupted as in the example shown, you should first identify the cause of the drop-outs. To do so, click on the Evaluate all data records link. Note that drop-outs do not necessarily indicate problems. In the example shown, for instance, the drop-outs are participants who were screened out after a quota was fulfilled.
Have the filter conditions and internal quotas been defined correctly?
To test the mere functionality of the filters, you can use the filter test described in Chapter 4.7.5, p. 154. In the routing statistics of a test session that was automatically generated using Project test, you can also check whether the filtering concept is sensible, i.e. whether your settings have the anticipated effect with high numbers of participants. In the example shown in Figure 9.3, for instance, only 49 of 100 participants have gone through one of the two possible filter branches. This suggests checking whether the selection was required by the projects concept or whether the filter conditions were not correctly defined. If you find errors, you can correct them in the questionnaire and then launch another test run. Before launching the new test run, however, be sure to delete your old test data: Otherwise, the routing statistics will give you an evaluation of the test data for all previous test sessions, which will be worthless for your error analysis.
2. Field report
By clicking on the Field report menu item, you can view the field report for the automatically simulated test phase.
3. Participant administration in personalized surveys a) Personalized survey, Use copies of existing participant option not enabled:
For each participation in a test run, an automatically generated participant should be entered in the participant administration of the project concerned. The fields first
392
name, name and e-mail will be filled with the text __Projekttest__. This content and the tester status allows to identify them easily.
b) Personalized survey with Use copies of existing participants option enabled, employee survey:
As explained above, in these cases copies of existing participants with disposition code <20 are used for the project test. If the number of test runs desired is greater than the number of participants with disposition code <20 no new participants are additionally generated, and the project test discontinues after all open datasets are used up.
4. Internal quotas
In projects with internal quotas, the current allocation and status of the quota shown under Questionnaire editor->Quota management should match the test results.
9.2.3
393
9 Testing Projects
Figure 9.5 The consistency check reports an incorrect hiding condition and a consistently defined plausibility check
394
Figure 9.6
The display contains the following information for each media file: URL Preview Source element Context of use Media type Language: In the case of multilingual projects, this column contains the language of the questionnaire in which the file is used. Status: The traffic-light icon indicates whether a media file is available or invalid. Using the link in the Actions column, you are able to open the menus and edit the respective media file.
Example
In the following example, a search for invalid media will be made: 1. First, select the status of the resources. The available options are no matter what status, status available and status not available. Select Only show invalid media (status not available). 2. In multilingual projects, the language must be specified. 3. You have the option of suppressing recurring media from being displayed twice. 4. Click on Execute check to trigger the function.
395
9 Testing Projects
Figure 9.7
5. The resulting list will show the image digital-camera.bmp, which is linked to the question entitled Digital Camera on the Prize Draw page, but is not available.
Figure 9.8
6. The information provided on the context and URL can be used, for example, to check whether the link is correct and the image is still available in the media library.
396
Figure 9.9
It is activated respectively deactivated via the Show 'boss button' in survey dropdown list in the Project properties menu. By selecting the appropriate options disabled display for all participants display for testers only you can define which target groups should be able to use it and where.
397
9 Testing Projects
stage, or when you are controlling the work of a translator, this link will save you the time-consuming effort of scrolling back and forth: you can click through the questionnaire and switch directly to the appropriate editing page whenever you detect a problem.
Figure 9.10
Please note: The question types 911, 921, 998, and 999 do not support this link function. The link function is activated respectively deactivated via the Activate link to EFS Translator Interface drop-down list in the Project properties menu. By selecting the appropriate options disabled display for all participants display for testers only you can define which target groups should be able to use it and where.
9.8 Checking Filters, Quotas and Triggers in the Course of the Survey
As of EFS 7.0, the functioning of LUA filters, quotas and triggers is checked in the course of the survey, i.e. while the participants are clicking through the questionnaire in the field phase. If errors are detected, a highly visible notice will be displayed in the survey menu. The corresponding details can be viewed in the runtime error log. Runtime errors can also be viewed in the preview. See Chapter 4.11.1, p. 170. Optionally, you can have the error messages e-mailed to you.
9.8.1
398
Figure 9.11
A table lists each detected runtime error along with the corresponding error message, the number of occurrences, the time of the last occurrence as well as the consecutive number (lfdn) of the last affected participant. By clicking on the link To the filter, you can switch to the respective filter condition. By clicking on the Delete all errors button, you can reset the log after fixing the errors.
Figure 9.12
9.8.2
399
9 Testing Projects
Show to-do markers in the questionnaire: Depending of the settings of the dropdown list, the to-do marker will be displayed either for all participants, or in personalized projects only for participants with tester accounts, or it will be disabled.
Figure 9.13
400
Figure 9.14
Caution: If you have selected the option Display for all participants in the Show to-do markers in the questionnaire drop-down list, the to-do marker icon will be visible for every survey participant. The to-do marker should therefore be deactivated before the survey is launched.
Figure 9.15
By clicking on this icon, the tester can open a pop-up window and enter their pretest comment. In anonymous projects, a field will be provided for the respondent to leave their contact data. In all other project types, the name and e-mail address of the participant giving the comments is automatically retrieved from participant administration.
401
9 Testing Projects
Figure 9.16
As with the to-do marker, you should make sure you do not forget to deactivate the feature after the pretest phase has been completed.
9.10.1
9.10.2
9.10.3
402
Figure 9.17
The Extended search, which you can open by clicking on the link, provides various options for searching the comment list and restricting the results displayed. For example, you can search for a keyword from the comment or for the page title. After the search is completed, you can tick the checkbox in the Clear search form field to return to the full comment list. The pretest comments will be shown in the table. The following additional information is available for each comment: ID (of the comment) Inserted on: creation date User ID Consecutive number: The testers are assigned consecutive numbers. Contact information: In the case of personalized projects, the names and e-mail addresses of the testers will be taken from participants administration. For an anonymous project, contact information will be displayed only when capturing has been enabled and the testers have entered data. Page ID: The ID of the questionnaire page. Page title: By clicking on the page title, you can open the commented pages directly in the questionnaire editor. Comment Language: The language of the questionnaire in multilingual projects that was tested. Browser: The browsers used by testers will be logged. This makes it easy for you to check, for example, whether layout tests have been performed with all major browsers or whether an error message is browser-specific. Status: You can assign processing statuses to pretest comments. This facilitates coordination, particularly if you are preparing the project together with other staff members. You can select the statuses not decided, to do, done and not relevant. Furthermore, the Actions column provides the following icons: Page preview: Shows the commented questionnaire page in the preview. Edit page: Opens the commented questionnaire page in the questionnaire editor.
403
9 Testing Projects
Edit language elements: Opens the commented questionnaire page in the language element editor. Delete comment.
404
405
406
10
10.1.2
407
camera-equipped mobile device. Various applications for Android, iPhone, and Windows Mobile allow the decoding of the image and the opening of the URL. With EFS, you will find it particularly easy to communicate the URL of your survey not only online and through e-mail, but also in QR code via print media, for example. In the survey menu of anonymous projects you will find the new field QR code: clicking on the Display link opens a pop-up window containing the QR code of the survey URL. In order to save the QR code image to your PC, right-click the image and select the option Save image to.... By clicking on Print image, you can trigger the print function of your browser. To store the QR code image locally and e.g. forward it to an advertising agency, use the Save image button.
Figure 10.1
QR code
Please note that it is not possible to communicate any URL parameters via the QR code image.
10.1.3
408
Figure 10.2
Settings
Option Width Height Position of popup window on the screen toolbar Explanation Width of pop-up window in pixels Height of pop-up window in pixels Available options: Centered (default setting) Left upper corner of screen Pop-up window property Value yes: Window has own toolbar. Value no: Window has no toolbar. Preset is no, but with Internet Explorer however only if the option character chain contains at least one option. Pop-up window property Value yes: Window has own address line. Value no: Window has no address line Preset is no, but with Internet Explorer however only if the option character chain contains at least one option. Netscape 6.1 does not interpret this property. Pop-up window property Value yes: Personal links list is shown Value no: Link list is not shown. Pop-up window settings
location
directories
Table 10.1
409
(cont.)Option status
Explanation Pop-up window property Value yes: Window has own status line. Value no: Window has no status line. Preset is no, but with Internet Explorer however only if the option character chain contains at least one option. Pop-up window property Value yes: Window has own menu bar with browser commands Value no: Window has no menu bar. Preset is no, but with Internet Explorer however only if the option character chain contains at least one option. With Safari, the menu bar is not a component of the window and therefore cannot be hidden. Pop-up window property Value yes: Window has scroll bars. Value no: User cannot scroll in window. Preset is no, but with Internet Explorer however, only if the option character chain contains at least one option. Pop-up window property Value yes: User can resize window. Value no: User cannot resize window. Preset is no, but with Internet Explorer however only if the option character chain contains at least one option.
Menu bar
scrollbars
resizable
Table 10.1
Detailed information regarding configuration of pop-up windows can be found for example at SELFHTML at http://de.selfhtml.org.javascript/objekte/window.htm#open
10.1.4
How? Why?
Table 10.2
410
(cont.)QuesVariations
Answer A distinction is made between two variations: Each participant who visits the website during the field period has the same chance of being prompted to participate. All participants visiting the site have the same probability p of being shown the pop-up window. In order to prevent the participant from getting another chance to participate in the survey on a later visit, a cookie is set. The second variation does not require setting a cookie. Every visitor to the website has the same chance of getting into the sample. Participants are allowed to participate more than once. The frequency of their visits is the subject of a question in the questionnaire. This variation may be advisable for sites with changes in content. The survey can be displayed at different points in time: On enter: the visitors are surveyed when they enter a website. Clickstream: cookies are set when various content areas are visited. The pop-up window will only be displayed when a certain number of cookies has been set or specific content areas have been visited. On exit: visitors are not invited to participate in the survey until they leave the site. The procedures described are based on the use of cookies and JavaScript. These functions are implemented with 97.4% of users (for cookies) and 99.8% of users (for JavaScript), respectively.
10.1.5
Restricting Access
Chapter 3.7.11, p. 83 explains how you can restrict access to an anonymous survey to specific participant groups.
In personalized projects, participant administration is located under the Projects-> {Selected project}->Participant administration menu item. The topmost tab in the content area of participant administration contains its centerpiece, the List of participants. On the remaining tabs, you will find various selection and edit options.
411
The following will be explained below: how to configure the fields of the participant administration. See Chapter 10.2.1, p. 412. which information the participant administration contains, how you can change the display of the participant list and how to restrict the list to subsets. See Chapter 10.2.2, p. 419 to 10.2.4, p. 421. which actions can be executed in relation to individual respondents, to all respondents or to a subset, including e-mails to respondents with specific disposition codes. See Chapters 10.2.2, p. 419 and 10.2.15, p. 433. how you can add participants and change the participants data. See Chapters 10.2.6, p. 423 to 10.2.9, p. 429. how participant data can be exported. See Chapter 10.2.11, p. 431. The participant administration of personalized projects is designed to manage up to a million participants. Please note: The participant number is one of the factors which can affect the performance of a project considerably. Other important factors are e.g. size and complexity of the questionnaire. When planning a project with a lot of participants, please mind advice given in this manual regarding performance optimization, in particular when planning participant variables (Chapter 10.2.1, p. 412) and when using dynamic features as e.g. lists and triggers (Chapter 7, p. 293). Your contact at Globalpark can provide advice, too.
10.2.1
412
Figure 10.4
The table contains the following information for each variable: Order: The order of the variables, which is defined via the Arrow icons in the Move column, is used both for the entry and search froms of the participant administration and for the export data records. Internal label: The actual name of the variable. In the format #internal_label#, this is used as a wildcard in the questionnaire and in e-mails (see Chapter 7.2, p. 297). All the participant variables begin with the prefix u_ so that they can be unambiguously identified, for example, during filtering. Label. Please note: The field does not have multilingual capability. For projects with international staff you should therefore choose a name which can be understood by all of those involved. Type: The available display types are Text field, Checkbox, Select box and Radio buttons. For variables of the Select box or Radio buttons type, you can
413
specify answer categories that can be selected via select boxes in participant administration. In the case of u_gender, for example, you can choose between Male, Female and Not entered. See Section 3. Variable types, encoding and missing values, p. 415, for further information. Properties: This column indicates whether a variable is visible in participant administration, can be filled with data (see Section 4. Detail Settings, p. 416), if new characteristics can be created by import or if it serves as the language variable (see Chapter 15.2.6, p. 576). The following editing options can be used: Using the Arrow icons in the Move column you can change the order of the participant variables both in the entry and search form of the participant administration and in the export data records. Particularly in projects with large numbers of variables, this facilitates operating in the participant administration and working with the exported data. Clicking on the internal label or on the Edit icon will open the dialog in which the respective variable is configured. User-defined variables can be deleted by clicking on the familiar Delete icon. If you do this, please note the tips given in Section 7. Deleting variables and answer categories, p. 419.
Account name (optional) First name Name E-mail Password (unencrypted) Title Gender Group Language version Date of creation: Date and time of creation of the participant record Table 10.4
u_account u_firstname u_name u_email u_passwd u_title u_gender u_group u_language c_date x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x varchar varchar varchar varchar varchar tinyint int int timestamp 255 255 255 255 255 1 11 (see above) 11 (see above)
414
(cont.)Label Date of change Mobile number Reminder date (This variable is not visible in the overview, but can be imported or exported.)
Variable name m_date u_mobile internal: date_of_ remind / external: dateofremind internal: date_of_ expire / external: dateofexpire
PE x x x
ES x x x
Size
timestamp
Expiry date (This variable is not visible in the overview, but can be imported or exported.)
timestamp
Table 10.4
For an overview of the participant variables in the panelists administration of EFS Panel installations, please see the EFS Panel 8.0 manual, Chapter 4.1.
Checkbox
Used to output information that can be given by answering Yes or No. Variables of the type Checkbox can only assume the values 0 and 1. Imported values which are not 0 are recoded to 1. Display types and their usage
Table 10.5
415
Meaning Generates a select box in which user-defined answer options can be selected. If a Selectbox type variable is created anew, all existing participants are assigned the value 0. Generates a single response list in which user-defined answer options can be selected. If a radio buttons type variable is created anew, all existing participants are assigned the value 0.
Missing values Select boxes which are set to Please select by default will be preset at 0. This is the case, for example, with the standard variables u_gender, u_language and u_group.
Radio buttons
Table 10.5
4. Detail Settings
You can control whether a variable is visible in participant administration, whether the data stored in the variable can be edited and how codes that do not yet exist are to be treated upon import.
Data from participant import can be used to expand characteristics of this variable
If this function has been activated and data are imported into the radio buttons and selectbox fields that do not correspond to codes of an existing characteristic, this will result in the following: Numerical values that do not correspond to any existing code are interpreted as new codes. Required characteristics are automatically generated, using the numerical value as a label.
416
New characteristics are also generated for entries not interpretable as code, such as texts or combinations of letters and numbers. The codes of these characteristics are allocated by the system. If the function is not activated, this will result in the following: Numerical values that differ from coding are imported, but displayed with a question mark prompting you to check and subsequently create the missing characteristic. Entries not interpretable as code are set to the default value 0.
Figure 10.5
2. The following details are required: Internal label: This is used within EFS to label the variable. You may use up to 255 characters. Only letters and numbers (i.e. ASCII characters) may be used; special characters or Japanese kanji, for example, are not allowed. The prefix u_ will be attached automatically.
Please note: The internal label cannot be subsequently changed. Label. The field does not have multilingual capability. For projects with international staff you should therefore choose a name which can be understood by all of those involved. Display type: See Section 3. Variable types, encoding and missing values, p. 415. Allow editing of the variable: See Section 4. Detail Settings, p. 416. Show the content in participant administration: See Section 4. Detail Settings, p. 416.
3. Confirm by clicking on Save. 4. If the display type of the variable is Select box or Radio buttons, a table for creating the answer categories will be shown. Please note: The value 0 is treated as a default value. This means, for example, that with select box type variables the Please select option is preset with this value and this value is assigned to empty cells on import. For that reason when creating answer categories similarly use the 0 code only for settings preset as default such as Please select.
417
Figure 10.6
5. Enter the label of the first answer category. 6. Confirm by clicking on Save. 7. Create all other required answer categories. 8. Lastly, click on the Back to Overview link to return to the overview of participant variables.
Figure 10.7
9. The newly created variable will be listed in the table. If many variables are used, the table page will wrap. Use the Previous page and Next page icons to scroll.
418
If participant administration already contains data records, all those in which the code to be recoded appears will be recoded accordingly. Please proceed as follows: 1. Switch to the Participant variables menu, and click on Edit to open the dialog for the desired variable. 2. Change the code. 3. Then click on Save. Please note that renamings comprising several steps must be performed in individual steps, i.e. if you wish to recode code 1 to code 2 and code 2 to code 3, you must first recode code 2 to code 3 and the code 1 to code 2. 4. The recoding dialog will be opened. Here, you must re-confirm the recodings explicitly. 5. You can trigger the recoding by clicking on Save.
10.2.2
419
The actions and the display and search functions are described in the following chapters. The following additional information and functions are available for each data record: All participant data. The participants names are active links. Clicking on a participant will open the entry form described in Chapter 10.2.6, p. 423, where you can change the participants data. Password and code: depending on whether the login option set for the project is Password or Code, the corresponding column will contain an activated link which can be copied and passed on (e.g. to a tester who wants to check the questionnaire under real conditions). The Direct link column displays an icon which can be used to open and view the questionnaire intended for the respective participant in a pop-up window. Please note that, by viewing the questionnaire from the perspective of a regular respondent, you will not only change the participants disposition code, but also capture all your entries as entries made by the participant. It is therefore recommended that you create special tester accounts. See Chapter 10.2.16, p. 434, for further information. If you have read rights to show_dispcode, you can see the disposition code of the participants. Question mark icons indicate values for which there is as yet no corresponding characteristic for radio button or checkbox type variables. This may occur if you use values in the imported dataset for which you have not yet created any characteristic and for which, at the same time, the function for automatic creation of new characteristics on import is disabled (see Chapter 10.2.1, p. 412). Via the checkbox in the Actions column you can select participants to whom you wish to apply the actions listed in Chapter 10.2.5, p. 422.
420
10.2.3
10.2.4
421
With a large number of results, the first page of the results list may not display all participants found. In such a case, you will find the exact number of currently selected participants in the title bar for the list of participants. You can scroll through the results list using the > (Next page) and < (Previous page) links. Therefore, note that the group of selected participants may be larger than the number of participants listed on the first results page, in particular when you are using the All found participants checkbox.
10.2.5
Actions
The following key processes can be invoked via buttons: Add participant: Opens the entry form for manual storing of participant data (see Chapter 10.2.6, p. 423). Import participants: Allows you to import participant data from CSV files (see Chapter 10.2.7, p. 424). Contact participant groups: Allows you to send e-mails to participant groups with specific disposition codes. See Chapter 10.2.15, p. 433. Excel export: Allows to download the entire content of the list of participants as an Excel file. See Chapter 10.2.11, p. 431. CSV export: Allows to download the entire content of the list of participants as a CSV file. Siehe Kapitel 10.2.11, p. 431. Furthermore, the actions listed in the following table can be applied to selected participants or all. To do so, you select the desired participants by ticking the checkboxes in the Actions column or alternatively via either of the checkboxes All entries of this page and All entries. Then you specify the desired action in the dropdown list and confirm by clicking Execute.
Action Generate codes Invite Meaning If you choose this action, it will generate the access codes which the participants can use to log into the survey (also refer to Chapter 3.7.11, p. 83). Using this action, you can send invitation mails to the selected participants. You can customize the template for an invitation mail. Other options for contacting the respondents will be introduced in Chapter 10.2.15, p. 433, below. Using this action, you can send reminder mails to the selected participants. Other options for contacting the respondents will be introduced in Chapter 10.2.15, p. 433, below. This action allows you to delete the allocation of the selected participants to a particular unit. See Chapter 10.2.10, p. 429 and the EFS Employee project managers manual.
Remind
Only in project type Employee survey: Delete allocations to organizational structure Only in project type Employee survey: Allocate participants to organizational unit Bulk edit Table 10.6
This action allows you to allocate the selected participants to a specific organizational unit. When using the additional feature Function, you can also define the function. See Chapter 10.2.10, p. 429 and the EFS Employee project managers manual. This action allows you to modify several participant records in a single step. See Chapter 10.2.10, p. 429.
422
Meaning The participants will be reset; the participants disposition codes will be reset to 11 = not yet invited or 12 = active (11: participants who have not been invited yet; 12: participants who have already received an invitation mail). Already collected result data of the participants will be deleted. Participants who have already taken part in the survey may participate again. The participants disposition codes will be reset as described above; however, the already collected result data will not be deleted. When using paper-pencil questionnaires in the respective survey these can be downloaded for selected participants with this action. This option can only be used to generate the standard offline version. If you want the paper-pencil questionnaire to contain participant codes, these will be printed. When selecting more than one participant, the PDF documents will be made available for download in a zip file. If invitation mails are bounced, you can set the corresponding participants to disposition code 15. This code will be taken into account in the field report during evaluation. This action deletes the selected participants from participant administration. Please note: Deleting participants in personalized projects also irrevocably deletes all data belonging to these participants, including existing survey data.
Reset without deleting survey data Only in installations with EFS Hybrid Extension: Create offline version Standard
Table 10.6
10.2.6
Adding Participants
New participants can be either added individually or imported from a list of participants in CSV file format (see next chapter). The function for including individual persons is useful in cases such as the following: if you wish to have the questionnaire checked before the field phase by test persons with a specific tester status (see the tips in Chapter 10.2.16, p. 434). if you wish to subsequently add individual persons. Otherwise, using the import function is more effective in most cases. To manually create a new participant, please proceed as follows: 1. Click on the Add participant button to open the entry dialog.
Figure 10.9
423
2. Enter the participant data. The following rules apply: The E-mail field must always be completed. Use of the other fields is optional. In the Password field, the Generate new password checkbox is ticked by default. If you enter a password yourself, this will be used, and no automatic password will be generated. If you want to have the questionnaire checked by test persons with specific tester status prior to the field phase, then tick the checkbox yes in the field Tester for these test persons. For further information on the use of testers, see Chapter 10.2.16, p. 434.
3. If variable characteristics are missing, use the Edit variable icon to open the dialog shown in Chapter 10.2.1, p. 412 and add the new characteristics as required. 4. After entering all required information, click on the Save button to save the data. 5. The new participant will appear in the list of participants.
10.2.7
Importing Participants
Usually, you will not create the individual participants of your project manually but rather import the list of participants. In the following, the sequence of the import operation is first explained. After that, the structure of the import file is explained in detail.
424
Figure 10.10
3. EFS provides a preformatted import template already containing all necessary columns. It can be downloaded by clicking on Download import template.
Figure 10.11
3. Matching the fields of the import file with the database fields
7. Again, open the import dialog by clicking on the Import participants button. 8. Select the appropriate character set. 9. Use Browse to select the import file on your computer. 10. Verify that the checkbox in the field First row includes column labels is set appropriately. Normally, it should be activated. 11. Verify that the checkbox in the field Allow duplicate e-mail addresses is set appropriately. Normally, it should be deactivated. (See Chapter 10.2.12, p. 432.) 12. Click on the Send file button to start the import operation. 13. In the next step, all columns of the import file must be matched with the appropriate database fields. If you have used the template without changing the column labels, as recommended, the software will carry out the allocations automatically.
425
Figure 10.12
Figure 10.13
426
16. If necessary, use the Edit and Delete icons to open and subsequently edit resp. delete specific data records. Afterwards, use the Back link to return to the overview.
Figure 10.14
Figure 10.15
19. By clicking on the Download results button you can retrieve an Excel file containing the following information: all data contained in the import file the result column contains the import result, i.e. a message Data record import successful or Data record not imported. in case of problems, the reason will be indicated in the messages column.
427
20. If necessary, you can correct the data records that were not successfully created directly within this file, delete the data records created successfully, and use this file for a new import attempt.
10.2.8
File format
The import file can be created in Excel or CSV. Data columns may be separated by tab, comma, or semicolon. When using Excel, consider the following restrictions imposed by manufacturer specifications: Only the first sheet of the file will be processed. You should not exceed the maximum of 256 columns and 65,000 rows. Excel import is only possible for files created or saved using Excel 97+. Excel files that were created or saved using Excel for Mac, Neo Office or Numbers, for example, cannot be imported. The file format XLSX, newly introduced by Microsoft with Office 2007, is not supported by EFS. Please save your files as XLS files before starting the import process.
File structure
An individual column is created for each participant variable to be imported. We recommend entering the respective column labels in the first row. Where possible use the name of the respective variable as the label: The software will automatically identify the columns and assign them to the appropriate database fields. If you choose this option, make sure to tick the checkbox First row includes column labels in the import dialog. Should you deviate from these recommendations, make sure that the first row does not contain any blank spaces or special characters such as dots or umlauts. Otherwise, these will be uniformly replaced with _.
Optionally, you can dispense with using the column labels in the file. In this case, untick the checkbox labeled First row includes column labels in the import dialog. The values of the individual data records are entered in the rows of the file. See Table 10.4 for data type and size of the default variables. The code of the desired characteristic must be specified for data imported into radio buttons, selectbox or checkbox fields. You will find it in the Codebook. (Tick the checkbox labeled Show participant variables in order to display the respective section.) Empty cells are automatically set to the default value 0 upon import. How codes that do not yet exist or entries that cannot be interpreted as code are treated depends on the display type and fine-tune settings; see Table 10.5 and Section 4. Detail Settings, p. 416. Optionally, you can create new characteristics for an existing variable during import. To do this, the relevant option must be activated for the respective variable, see Section 4. Detail Settings, p. 416.
428
10.2.9
10.2.10
429
Please proceed as follows: 1. To do so, switch to the Participant administration. 2. Use Search participants to restrict the list of participants as far as possible to those participants affected by the change. 3. Mark the participants to be changed. 4. Select the Bulk edit action from the drop-down list.
5. Confirm by clicking on Execute. 6. The form where you can specify the desired change will be displayed. Select the variable to be changed and the value you want this variable to have after the change. In the given example, the value of the variable u_group is to be changed within the selected data records from 1 = Development to 5 = System administration as the employees have been transferred.
430
Figure 10.17
Specifying a change
8. Check whether the change appears as you had planned it. If so, confirm by clicking on Save.
10.2.11
431
The Excel export may take some time, depending on the number of data records and variables contained in the list of participants. For large projects we therefore recommend the CVS export. If an Excel file is opened on a computer running with Windows 7 and Excel 2007, depending on the circumstances, a message may be displayed which notifies you that the file is corrupted. This problem is caused by an extension provided by a third-party supplier. Until further notice, please proceed as follows: Save the file locally. Then, open the saved file, allowing Excel to repair it. Finally, save the file again. Alternatively, if you are using the optionally leasable platform EFS Survey Status, you can offer your customers access to the so-called respondent export. This export contains all those participants who actually participated in a survey. See Chapter 12.9, p. 513.
10.2.12
10.2.13
10.2.14
432
11 or 12), either a reminder will be sent automatically or the account will automatically be excluded from participation. Please mind: The system checks once per hour which participants require a reminder or should be deactivated. I.e. these functions are accurate on an hourly basis. Smaller time units cannot be considered.
10.2.15
Figure 10.19
433
The tab contains an overview of the dispatch options available as well as the number of participants who have the respective status. You can trigger the following actions by clicking on the respective link: Send test e-mail to yourself: Enables you to send a test e-mail to a user-defined email address and optionally create a corresponding tester account at the same time (Chapter 10.2.16, p. 434). Send invitation mails: Will automatically select all persons existing in participant administration, irrespective of their disposition code. Clicking here will open the mail dispatch window, and you can either write an e-mail or select a mail template (Table 11.4, p. 484). Send invitation mails (only those who didnt get an invitation so far): Will automatically select all persons who have not been invited yet (disposition code = 11). Invitation mail type templates are available in the mail dispatch window. Send reminders: Will automatically select all persons who have not yet started the survey, i.e. activated the link to the survey (disposition code < 12). In the mail dispatch window, you can then select the template for the reminder mail. Inform successful participants: Will automatically select all participants who have completely finished the survey (disposition code 31,32). Therefore, this function is particularly well suited for thank you-mails. Invitation mail type templates are available in the mail dispatch window. E-mail to first page viewers: Will automatically select all persons who have viewed the first page of the survey but have not clicked on the Submit button (disposition code 20). These participants can then be sent a specific reminder mail. Chapter 11.1, p. 467 walks you through the invitation process from filling out the form until checking for successful dispatch.
10.2.16
434
You can select the mail template (type: invitation mail). If you want the recipient of the test e-mail to log in and test the survey, the template should contain wildcards for the login data, i. e. survey link, code and/or password. When sending the mail, these wildcards will be replaced with the corresponding data of the tester. If you are not using an already existing tester, you can, in addition to e-mail address and mail template, also specify the first name and name of the new tester account to be created. If the mail template contains the wildcards #u_firstname# and #u_name#, these will be replaced with the respective details. Other wildcards will be replaced only if an appropriately prepared set of participant data is available. If you want to test the complete mail process, i.e. receive the mails, you should only use either your own e-mail addresses or addresses of users who have given their consent. 1. In order to try out the test function, click on the Contact participant groups button in the participant administration. 2. Select the action Send test e-mail to yourself. 3. This will prompt a dialog where you can enter various basic data required for sending e-mail. Enter the tester data and select the mail template.
435
Figure 10.20
10.2.17
Figure 10.21
In panel surveys and master data surveys, you can find the links on the Sample contents tab in the Monitoring column.
436
10.3.1
Figure 10.22
Creating a sample
437
4. Confirm by clicking on Submit. 5. The edit dialog of the new sample is opened. The Overview tab contains basic information about the new sample. Further tabs contain various setting and editing functions. However, it is not yet possible to select all tabs.
Figure 10.23
Figure 10.24
7. In the top section of the tab, you specify which panel group shall form the basic set for drawing the sample. For detailed explanations of the various options, please see Table 10.7. First select the group category and then the panel group from which you want to draw the sample.
438
Optionally, you can use grouping filters and capacity filters to restrict the basic set further. Optionally, you can restrict the sample to panelists with specific panel statuses. Also, a maximum number of participants can be defined. Please note: this is only recommendable if you do not use stratification. If the basic set is narrowed down unnecessarily from the beginning, it might not be possible to reach the target values which are explicitly specified during the stratification process.
8. The Extended settings allow to further narrow the sample. For example, you can specify how many surveys the members of the new groups must have participated in or how many bonus points they must have. For detailed explanations of the various options, please see Table 10.8. 9. In the Choose the projects... section, you can optionally exclude the participants of specific projects from the sample draw. To do so, tick the Exclude checkbox after the desired project. 10. After specifying all criteria, click on the Test filter button. 11. This will first test-create the sample. A bar will indicate whether panelists meet the conditions and how many of them do. Furthermore, in addition to the Test filter button, you will now see the Activate filter button. 12. You can make further changes to the filter conditions and test them by clicking on Test filter until the result is to your liking. 13. After that, click on the Activate filter button. 14. The tab Overview now contains information on the size of the new sample. The sample shown in the figure comprises 13 participants.
Figure 10.25
15. Optionally, you can define the distribution of certain attributes within the sample in detail on the Stratification tab. This option will only be available until you have
439
created the sample by activating the Draw sample function on the following tab. See Chapter 10.3.5, p. 443 for a detailed explanation of the stratification function. 16. After you have applied all desired filter criteria to the members of the new sample and also - if stratification is required - performed all necessary stratifications, open the Draw sample tab. Click the Draw sample button: The sample will now be drawn. 17. After the sample has been drawn, the Define basic set, Stratification and Draw sample tabs are disabled, the Statistics, View tester list, Sample contents, Inform and Remind again tabs are activated.
10.3.2
Managing Samples
The Sample menu contains an overview of all samples which exist within the respective project.
An internal sample is available for all panel surveys and master data surveys. This sample lists all panelists automatically taken to a survey. See Chapter 10.3.11, p. 452. The following information will be displayed: Title Description Size: The number of panelists assigned to this sample. Completed interviews: Number of sample participants with disposition code 31 and 32. Screened-out participants: Number of sample participants with disposition code 35, 36, 37 and 41. Tester: Number of testers assigned to this sample. See Chapter 10.3.10, p. 451. Status Filter: Shows whether a filter has already been set. Stratification Accessible: Surveys that are not accessible are marked with a red traffic-light icon. Move the cursor over the icon to display the reason for non-accessibility.
Editing options
Via buttons you can call up the following actions:
440
Create sample: Opens the dialog for creating a new sample, see Chapter 10.3.1, p. 437. Send reminders: Allows for a centralized reminder dispatch. Opens a list of all samples from the current project that are currently available. You can select the desired sample. By default, reminders are sent to participants with disposition codes 11, 12, 13 and 17. A drop-down list below the mail form allows you to optionally specify the disposition code of the recipients yourself. You can choose from the codes 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 20, 21, 22, or 23.
The following Action icons are available for editing individual samples: By clicking on the title you will open the edit dialog of the respective sample, see Chapter 10.3.3, p. 441. Edit: Opens the properties dialog where you can change the title and description of an existing sample. Add tester: Opens the View tester list tab, see Chapter 10.3.10, p. 451. Save in group: Clicking on this icon will create a new panel group including all participants from the sample. Optionally, the Include participants with completed interviews only feature can be used to restrict the group to those participants who have completed the survey (disposition codes 31, 32).
10.3.3
Editing a Sample
Clicking on the title of a sample will open the edit dialog. On its various tabs you will find the following information and functions: Overview: This tab provides basic information on the sample. Basic set: On this tab, you specify which group will serve as the basic set for drawing the sample, which additional criteria the participants are to meet, and how many participants are required. See Chapter 10.3.4, p. 441. Stratification: On this tab, you can define the distribution of certain attributes within the sample in detail. See Chapter 10.3.5, p. 443. Draw sample: After defining the basic set and optionally applying stratification, the actual drawing of the sample is performed on this tab. Statistics: On this tab, you can create an ad hoc statistics to get an overview of how the sample is composed. See Chapter 10.3.6, p. 448. View tester list: On this tab you will find all the testers allocated to the current sample. See Chapter 10.3.10, p. 451. Sample contents: This tab lists the sample participants. See Chapter 10.3.7, p. 448. Inform / Inform again / Remind again: Via these tabs you can contact sample participants with specific disposition codes. See Chapter 10.3.8, p. 450. Which tabs may be opened and edited depends on the respective stage in the sample drawing process.
10.3.4
441
Basic set
Field Group category Group Filter Capacity filter Panelstatus Maximum number of participants Meaning See EFS Panel 8.0, Chapter 8.1.2. See EFS Panel 8.0, Chapter 8. You can use grouping filters for creating samples. The capacity filters can be used for organizing the panelists capacity in an optimal way. Panel status. See EFS Panel 8.0, Chapter 4.2.2. Optionally, you can define how many participants are to be contained in the sample. Please note: limiting the maximum number is only recommendable if you do not use stratification. If the basic set is narrowed down unnecessarily from the beginning, it might not be possible to reach the target values which are explicitly specified during the stratification process.
Tabelle 10.7
Basic set
Extended settings
Field Number of completed surveys (based on variable n_poll) Meaning Evaluates the n_poll system data item. Please mind: If tracking is activated, evaluation of the variable track_num_completed (e.g. via grouping filter) provides you with more precise information. Evaluates the current sum of the bonus points in the panelists account. Evaluates the system data item last_poll_date. Please mind: If tracking is activated, evaluation of the variable track_num_completed (e.g. via grouping filter) provides you with more precise information. Calculates the time for which the panelist has been a panel member based on the system data item penter_date.
Number of bonus points Last completed interview at least / not longer than x months ago
Panel member since x months Last updating of master data for x months PCI value E-mail verification status Variable used to define uniqueness
PCI value. See EFS Panel 8.0, Chapter 9.4. Status of the double opt-in e-mail verification. See EFS Panel 8.0, Chapter 6.5. Each characteristic of this variable will be in the sample not more than once. Please note that finding unique values requires an extra internal processing step. Therefore, if you use this feature, queries will be considerably slower.
Tabelle 10.8
Extended settings
442
At the bottom of the Define basic set tab, click on the [+] icon to open the section Choose the projects whose participants shall be excluded from the basic set. This will open a list of all panel surveys. Select those whose participants you do not want to include in the basic set of the current sample. If you create several samples in the same project, each panelist can only be allocated to one of these samples.
10.3.5
The stratification is defined by import, the target distribution will be specified in absolute values.
The stratification is defined by import, the target distribution will be specified in percentages.
Definition methods
443
fans would each account for 50% of the participants, 50% of the participants were male, while the soccer fans could be made up of 20% men and 80% women.
Manual stratification
1. Create a sample as usual and define the basic set. 2. Switch to the Stratification tab.
Figure 10.28
3. Select one of the manual stratification methods and confirm by clicking on Continue.
444
Figure 10.29
4. Select the appropriate cell value specification mode. You can choose between interlaced and non-interlaced. Per default, interlaced is activated. If you change the setting, please confirm with Restrict. 5. Optionally you can restrict the list of available variables to a specific master data category. If you do so, confirm with Restrict. 6. The variables available for stratification are listed in the bottom section of the tab. Select the appropriate stratification variable(s) and confirm by clicking on Continue. In the example, the variables u_gender and m_favoritesports are used. 7. All answer categories of the selected stratification variables are listed.
445
Figure 10.30
8. Select the answer categories you wish to use for stratification. It is advisable to exclude missing categories such as no answer. Confirm by clicking on Continue. 9. An overview of the stratification cells with their current proportions will be displayed. The number of surveys completed by the prospective sample members over the past weeks will also be indicated: Thus, you can check in time whether a high percentage of the panelists might be overworked or whether many candidates have not participated in any survey for some time i.e. might be inactive.
10. Enter the target values in absolute numbers or percentages, as required. When expressing target values as percentages, you also have to predefine the absolute
446
total amount to be reached. It should be defined in such a manner that the specific target values can be met based on the number of existing candidates. 11. Click on Check to see whether your stratification can be achieved with the current basic set. Target values or the total number may have to be adjusted. Please bear in mind that the values may diverge due to rounding. In the example above, the sum total of the values of the individual cells (10) slightly differs from the absolute total number of the panelists in this stratification (13). It may also be necessary to modify the basic set and the stratification criteria in order to reach the target values.
12. If the values are valid, this will be indicated by a green success message. In this case you can complete the process by clicking on Perform stratification. 13. On the Overview tab, you will now find a Stratification section. This section lists the stratification cells, the target values and the total number. In the course of the sample draw, the following additional data will be displayed: Number of allocated participants: Number of participants in the sample that are allocated to a particular cell. This is displayed after the sample draw. Completed or screened-out: Number of participants with disposition codes 31, 32, 36 and 37, allocated to a particular cell. Completed or screened-out %: Percentage of participants with disposition codes 31, 32, 36 and 37, allocated to a particular cell.
Figure 10.32
447
1;2;1150 2;1;950 2;2;1200 This file describes a stratification employing the variables m_0001 and m_0002. Both variables have the characteristics 1 and 2 each. Each line contains the target value for a combination of the characteristics of these variables. For example, the second line 1;1;1000 specifies that for the combination of m_0001 = 1 and m_0002 = 2 the target value 1000 is to be obtained.
Import
Please proceed as follows: 1. Create a sample as usual, define the basic set and switch to the Stratification tab. 2. Select one of the stratification methods using import and confirm by clicking on Continue. 3. Locate the import file on your hard drive and upload the file by clicking on Import file. 4. You will be directed to the dialog showing you the current proportion of characteristics. Check the selection of the variables and the target values. Then perform check and stratification as described above.
10.3.6
10.3.7
448
Figure 10.34
Panelists in a sample
Listed for each panelist are: First name Name E-mail Panel status Code: This is the panelists survey access code. You can copy this code to an e-mail or use it to examine the survey from the perspective of this panelist. Mails sent: Number of e-mails sent in the course of this sample. Status: Panelists disposition code in this panel survey. Date of first invitation Last access: Monitoring: With the monitoring function you can observe passively as another staff member clicks through a survey with a panelist account (Chapter 10.2.17). It is used for example during telephone introductions. By clicking on the name or the Edit icon, you can open the detail view of the respective panelist. Additional information can be displayed via View.
449
If you have used stratification, the stratification variables can be used as search criteria, too.
Editing options
A range of participant administration actions are available for editing sample members, such as, for example, the dispatching of e-mails to selected participants, or reset with or without deleting data.
Actions Reset and delete data Description Status of the panelist in the sample is reset to active. If the panelist had already participated in the survey he can participate again. Participant's results data already recorded are deleted. Status of the panelist in the sample is reset to active. Participant's results data already recorded are not deleted. Panelist is removed from sample. Using this function, you can send mails to the selected panelists. If invitation mails are bounced, you can set the corresponding panelists to disposition code 15. This code will be taken into account in the field report during evaluation.
Reset without deleting data Delete panelist from this sample Send e-mail Disposition code 15 (not available) Figure 10.35
When using an action proceed in a manner analogous to participant administration: Search the desired panelists and mark them in the Selection column. Then set the desired action and confirm with Send request.
10.3.8
10.3.9
450
the second column. In this case the links will be assigned to the panel members accordingly. You can only import or update links for panelists that have not yet started the survey.
Export links: Triggers the export of all links. Delete links: All links are deleted after a confirmation prompt. For details on external survey start, please see the dedicated manual which is available in the customer center.
10.3.10
451
10.3.11
Viewing and Managing Participants Who Were Added Automatically to the Survey
An internal sample is available for all panel surveys and master data surveys. This sample lists all panelists automatically added to the survey: In master data surveys, all panelists who were invited by e-mail or who accessed the survey by clicking on a link are added to the internal sample. In panel surveys in which the function All panelists may participate is activated, all panelists that participated without belonging to another sample are added to the internal sample (see Table 3.3.). This allows you to view, edit and analyse information on these survey participants just the same as in normal, manually created samples: You can see which panelists participated and whether or not they completed the survey. If you send out e-mail invitations to a master data survey, you will find all invited panelists in the internal sample and can keep track of who actually participates. You can send e-mails and reminders to the panelists in the internal sample, reset these panelists and assign them disposition code 15. For panel surveys, you can limit the export to the internal sample. The internal sample is automatically generated and cannot be edited.
10.3.12
452
10.4 Defining the Distribution of Specific Characteristics in a Participant Group with Quotas
10.4 Defining the Distribution of Specific Characteristics in a Participant Group with Quotas
In many surveys, you will need samples containing certain characteristics in specific proportions. For example, you may want the sample to reflect the distribution of age, gender, income etc. within the total population. This can be achieved by using quotas to limit the total number of participants to those displaying the desired characteristics. The project quotas offer you the greatest possible freedom in defining the quotas and the quota process. The following variables can be used in the quota conditions: Project variables, userdefined variables and GET parameters, various system data and, depending on the type of project, participant data, address data of panelists, all master data and tracking variables in the panel. A wide range of configuration options allows you to adjust the quota process to your requirements. For example, it is up to you to decide whether participants shall be excluded right from the start of the survey if they are no longer required, or you can have the participants allocated to all matching open quotas instead of only one quota. An overview is provided in Chapter 10.4.7, p. 458. Chapter 10.4.5, p. 456 presents frequently-used scenarios. In particular, the quota function is able to react dynamically to allocation figures. This can be used to fill up especially those quotas with lower allocation figures. Participants that are no longer required may be screened out using filters. The runtime check covers errors that may have occurred in quota while processing the survey. See Chapter 9.8, p. 398. Quota statistics and field report will always give you an up-to-date overview of the quota status. The variables quota and quota_assignment and a number of special disposition codes in the export data record will tell you exactly which status a particular participant has achieved. The following chapters will introduce you to the possibilities offered by the project quotas: Chapter 10.4.1, p. 454 will present an overview of the work steps involved in setting up the quotas for a project. Chapters 10.4.2, p. 454 through 10.4.5, p. 456 will provide you with the basics for planning the quotas. Chapter 10.4.6, p. 457 will teach you how to create and manage the quotas for a project. Chapters 10.4.7, p. 458 through 10.4.9, p. 461 will explain how you configure the quota process and adjust the questionnaire accordingly. Chapters 10.4.10, p. 462 through 10.4.13, p. 464 will explain where you can view the results of your quotas and which options are available for subsequent adjustment or correction. Please note: The number and complexity of the quotas in a project affects the performance. Therefore, it is recommended to use not more than 300 quotas per project.
453
10.4.1
2. Enter the questionnaire before starting with the actual creation of the quotas. Participants should also already exist or, in the case of a panel survey, the sample should already be drawn. 3. Define the quotas in the Survey menu->Questionnaire editor->Quota management menu. 4. Specify the sequence of the quota process on the Configuration tab. Chapter 10.4.5, p. 456 explains how to combine the options in order to yield the most frequently desired scenarios. 5. If you make use of the possibility of excluding participants from the survey due to external quotas, it may be the case that respondents cannot open the questionnaire in the first place. In the Project properties->Survey messages menu, adapt the text of the message these respondents will receive when trying to log in (The participant is not accepted for the survey, as the quota is already full (status: status: filtered out).). 6. If you have defined internal quotas (i.e. quotas whose conditions contain variables that are determined only in the course of the survey), you have to specify after which questionnaire page the checking for these quotas is to be performed. To do so, select an appropriate page in the questionnaire editor, click on the Edit page properties icon, and select the option Check internal quotas. See Chapter 10.4.8, p. 460. 7. Set up the questionnaire so as to appropriately screen out any respondents no longer required. This is commonly achieved with a filter which redirects respondents with quota = 0 (i.e. respondents that have not been allocated to any open quota) to an intermediate final page. See Chapter 10.4.9, p. 461.
10.4.2
454
10.4 Defining the Distribution of Specific Characteristics in a Participant Group with Quotas
Figure 10.36
10.4.3
10.4.4
2. If the check for external quotas is not performed beforehand as described above, it will be carried out at the start of the survey. 3. The check for internal quotas is triggered by sending a questionnaire page predefined by you. See Chapter 10.4.8, p. 460. 4. The allocation figures in the quota statistics will be changed according to the check results mentioned above when the participant completes the questionnaire (i.e. when reaching the final page or an intermediate final page and receiving disposition code 31 or 32). If the participant has been allocated to an open quota i.e. if quota is greater than 0, the quota count for the respective quota will be increased by 1. Depending on the configuration, the quota count for all other open quotas whose conditions the respondent has met might be increased by 1, too.
455
When the target size of a quota has been reached, the quota is closed. If this is an external quota and you have chosen the option of excluding participants already prior to their login (see 1. above), then all respondents with disposition code < 20 falling within this quota will be set to status 41 (quota closed).
Please note: For external quotas, the quota check is performed already at the start of the survey; for internal quotas, in the course of the survey. The allocation figures (quota count), however, will not be changed before completion of the survey. If the questionnaire is very long and/or many participants start taking the survey at the same time, it may therefore be the case that slightly more participants will pass the quota check and complete the questionnaire than planned.
10.4.5
interlocking
Extended mode
Option 3 Allocation mode: First matching, open quota Options 1, 2, Allocation mode: First matching, open quota
Mode 3
Low Bucket Filll (Fill up the quotas with the lowest allocation figure first)
All options disabled Allocation mode: Matching, open quota with the fewest participants
Table 10.10
456
10.4 Defining the Distribution of Specific Characteristics in a Participant Group with Quotas
10.4.6
Managing Quotas
The quotas of a project are managed in the Projects->{Selected project}-> Questionnaire editor->Quota management menu. In this menu, you will find three tabs: Quotas: This tab is used for managing the existing quotas and creating additional quotas. The corresponding processes are described in the following sections. Configuration: On this tab, you can specify in detail the sequence of the quota process in your project. See Chapter 10.4.7, p. 458. Quota statistics: On this tab, you will find the current allocation figures. See Chapter 10.4.10, p. 462.
1. Quota overview
When you open the Projects->{Selected project}->Questionnaire editor->Quota management menu, you are automatically directed to the overview of the existing quotas. They are listed along with information on status, current allocation (quota count), and quota condition.
Figure 10.37
Managing the quotas - and, in particular, editing several quotas en bloc - is done via the Actions checkbox and the drop-down list below the table: Delete quotas: The respective quotas will be deleted. Activate quotas: This option allows you to activate several quotas en bloc. If you want to activate an individual quota, you can simply click on Edit and open the edit dialog. Deactivate quotas: This option allows you to deactivate several quotas en bloc. If you want to deactivate an individual quota, you can simply click on Edit and open the edit dialog. If you want to edit individual quotas, the following actions can be applied by clicking on the corresponding icons: Order: The arrow icons allow you to change the processing order.
457
Edit condition: Clicking on this icon opens the condition editor. Delete condition: The respective condition will be deleted. Please note that the allocation figure of the quota will be maintained. Edit: Clicking on this icon opens the edit dialog of a quota. Here you can change the name and size of the quota; you can also activate or deactivate the quota. Copy: This icon allows you to copy a quota. When doing so, you will also copy the status, but not the allocation figures, i.e. the new quota is initially empty, activated, and open. Delete: The quota will be removed following a confirmation prompt.
2. Creating quotas
Please proceed as follows: 1. Click on the Create quota button. 2. Enter the name and the size of the new quota. 3. Confirm by clicking on Save. 4. The condition editor will open automatically. Define the deisred quota condition and click on Save. (If you do not define any condition, the quota will not be activated in this step.) 5. After saving, the quota overview will be displayed. There you will find the new quota. It will already be activated.
2. Importing quotas
Alternatively, EFS allows you to import new quotas. Click on the Import quotas button to open the CSV-based import dialog. You can enter one quota per row, using the format
label;size;(alternative)condition.
This syntax is easily generated by filling in a 4-column Excel table and saving it in CSV format.
10.4.7
458
10.4 Defining the Distribution of Specific Characteristics in a Participant Group with Quotas
Options
Option Option 1: If matching external quota is full, reject participants at survey start Meaning This option only applies to external quotas. I.e. usage is only reasonable in personalized surveys, employee surveys, multi-source feedbacks, panel surveys and master data surveys with external quota. If this option is not activated, participants falling within a full external quota can still open the survey. How they will be handled in the course of the survey, i.e. whether they will be screened out by quota, for example, depends on the further configuration and on the structure of the questionnaire. If this option is activated, the system will continuously check during the course of the project whether any participants that have not yet started the survey fall within a full external quota. If this is the case, these participants will be excluded from the outset, i.e. they are assigned disposition code 41 (Quota closed) in the participant administration. If these participants try to log in, they will be rejected and assigned disposition code 35 (rejected at login (quota closed)). The quota variables of the excluded participants are allocated as follows: quota = -77, quota_assignment = -66. When activating this option, make sure that respondents who are rejected at login will not be confused: In your invitation, indicate that only the first participants may be able to see the questionnaire. In the Project properties->Survey messages menu, adapt the text of the message for the rejected participants (The participant is not accepted for the survey, as the quota is already full (status: filtered out).). If in the course of answering the questionnaire the participants fall within a full quota and this option has been activated, then the quota variable will be set to 0, i.e. they will not be allocated to any quota. In this case the quota variables of the participants are allocated as follows: quota = 0 quota_assignment = -99. In order to screen out these participants by quota, you may, for example, set a filter to quota = 0 and redirect the participants to an intermediate final page. They will then receive e.g. disposition code 36 (rejected (quota closed)). With this option you can control how the allocation figures (quota count) are to be changed at the end of the survey: If this option is not activated, the participants will be allocated to one matching, open quota after completing the survey. Which quota this will be depends on the selected allocation mode and on the defined order. If this option is activated, the participants will be allocated to all matching, open quotas. In this case, all these quotas will be increased by +1. The quota variables of the participants are allocated as follows: quota = one quota, depending on the selected allocation mode and the defined order. quota_assignment = all quotas whose allocation figures (quota count) have been changed. If this option is deactivated, quota_assignment contains the same quota ID as quota. Preallocation yes
Option 2: If matching quota is full, do not allocate participants to any quota (quota=0)
yes
yes
Allocation mode
Via the allocation mode you control to which quota a participant will be allocated if there are various matching open quotas. This selected quota will then be recorded in the variable quota and may be used e.g. for filtering. The following options are available: First matching, open quota: The matching open quota that is first in the sorting order will be allocated to the participant and recorded in quota. If
459
quota_assignment contains various quota IDs, these will be sorted in ascending order. Random matching, open quota: From the matching open quotas one is chosen at random. Last matching, open quota: The matching open quota that is last in the sorting order will be allocated to the participant and recorded in quota. If quota_assignment contains various quota IDs, these will be sorted in descending order. Matching, open quota with the fewest participants allocated to it: The system will select the matching open quota that currently has the lowest allocation. If two quotas have equally few participants, the system will select the one that is first in the sorting order.
10.4.8
Figure 10.38
460
10.4 Defining the Distribution of Specific Characteristics in a Participant Group with Quotas
10.4.9
461
Figure 10.39
10.4.10
Figure 10.40
Quota statistics
If there are 200 or more quotas in a given project, the Quota statistics section in the Field report will only be expanded when you click on the [+] icon. This prevents unnecessary delays caused by long processing times. Each quota is listed along with the following information: Quota ID: Unique identifer of the quota, assigned by the system. Name Quota limit: The quota size specified when creating. Quota count: Current allocation figure. Status: Indicates whether a quota is open, full, or inactive.
462
10.4 Defining the Distribution of Specific Characteristics in a Participant Group with Quotas
Number of interviews which meet the quota condition: Indicates how many of the completed interviews (disposition codes 31, 32) meet the respective quota condition as currently defined. Depending on the selected configuration, this value may differ from the quota count. Filling degree: (number of interviews which meet the quota condition) / quota limit By clicking on the Recalculate quota button you can trigger a recalculation of the quotas. Please make sure to refer to Chapter 10.4.13, p. 464 before making use of this option.
10.4.11
Filtered out before the beginning of the survey, because quota is already closed (code 41) Table 10.12
463
10.4.12
10.4.13
Recalculating Quotas
It is possible to manually trigger a recalculation of the quotas. Occasionally, this may be necessary to adjust the quota allocation to the actual number of participants. Possible applications: If you delete participants that have already taken part or apply Reset and delete data, from EFS 7.1 quota statistics is automatically updated. If you delete or reset participants in EFS 7.0 or earlier versions, the value was not automatically updated in the quota statistics. Updating quota allocation corrects the value. If you, for example, check the project using a tester account for which a quota is set only once but which generates entries for the allocation every time you click through the project, you can use the update function to undo this effect. Before using the function please note the following: In the course of recalculation, the existing quota results will be irretrievably overwritten. Recalculation should not be triggered during an ongoing field phase. The following takes place during recalculation: All quotas are reset to zero allocation and opened. After this the quotas are checked individually for each participant. In larger projects (i.e., many quotas and/or many participants) this process may take quite a while.
During recalculation new participants may enter into the project and additionally fill up quotas where they would normally be rejected. At the same time it may happen that participants who have already completed the questionnaire are subsequently screened out by quota.
Triggering recalculation
Recalculation is triggered by clicking on the Recalculate quota button on the Quota statistics tab in the Quota management menu.
464
465
466
11
Chapters 11.3, p. 483 and 11.4, p. 486 explain how to make the process of creating e-mails more effective using predefined mail templates and mail sender addresses. Chapters 11.5, p. 487 and 11.6, p. 489 present the dispatch process and its relevant monitoring and archiving functions in detail.
Figure 11.1
467
2. Click on the Send invitation mails link. 3. Select the desired mail template, and confirm by clicking on Apply mail template.
Figure 11.2
Please take into consideration that only those mail templates that fit the respective action area will be offered for selection. For example, if you are in the area of the Send invitation mails function, only the templates of the Invitation type and of the Default type, which can be used anywhere, will be offered.
Figure 11.3
Writing an invitation
4. Make sure that the proper mail format has been selected. Otherwise change the mail format and confirm by clicking on Apply mail format. It is important to select the proper mail format before entering content: different input boxes are used for the various formats.
468
5. If you wish to make use of the advanced mail settings described in Chapter 11.2.2, p. 470, click on the [+] icon to open this section and make the desired changes. 6. Check the content and settings of the mail template. If you are satisfied, you can skip the following steps and continue directly with Step 11. 7. Tick the Personalized dispatch checkbox if you wish to use the recipients real name. 8. Enter the subject. 9. Select the sender. If the desired sender is not available, you can click on the Add mail sender link to open the menu for creating new senders (Chapter 11.4, p. 486) in a new window. 10. Formulate the content of the invitation mail. You can display an overview of the wildcards you can use by clicking on the question mark icon (see also Chapter 11.2.4, p. 477). 11. If you wish to add an attachment, it should be uploaded in the Add an attachment field. Locate the desired file, and click on Attach file to add it. 12. Click on the Preview mail button to check the result.
Figure 11.4
13. In particular, check whether the wildcards are replaced correctly. 14. If you want to save the mail for future use, tick the Save as mail template (including wildcards) checkbox and enter a title for the new template. 15. If you are satisfied, click on Send. 16. The Mail transmission report menu gives you an overview of the mails that have been sent. Please note: The e-mails will not be sent immediately but, depending on the mail volume, will be placed in a queue and processed in groups in ten-minute intervals (see Chapter 11.5, p. 487).
469
11.2.2
Figure 11.5
Clicking on the [+] icon will open the Advanced mail settings section
1. Character set
The character set for e-mails is set separately and can depending on your requirements vary from the settings for the character set for the overall project. This can be sensible, if in a project carried out using UTF-8, you are not sure whether the mail program of the majority of respondents is compatible with this character set. Most modern mail programs can display UTF-8 correctly, in particular with internet-based mail programs complications can arise. if you will be carrying out a project, that will use a character set other than UTF-8 or diverse character sets, where you would like to use UTF-8 or another divergent character set for the display of special characters in e-mails. For the mail form, the character set ISO-8859-1 is preset by default.
470
dows-specific characters that are not in the character set of the mail form, then these must be converted. EFS Survey is able to convert many Windows-specific characters correctly, however the conversion will still require checking. Characters, for which there is no match, will be deleted completely from the mailtext, because they could not be sensibly converted (for example Chinese characters could not be displayed in a ISO-8859-1 coded questionnaire). Therefore a warning message will be displayed in the mail preview, that ask you to make a check, as soon as you open an e-mail with characters that have been converted or cannot be displayed.
2. Reply-To: = From
The Reply-To information in an e-mail indicates where the recipient is to send any replies. Making different entries may be advisable, for example, in surveys you conduct for a third party. Under Sender, you can then enter your customers address: This will be displayed for the recipient and may increase their willingness to respond. However, the Reply-To address makes sure that the reply mail will be sent to you as the supervisor of the survey. Furthermore, server messages indicating that an e-mail could not be delivered will also be sent to the Reply-To address. You can set the Reply-To address using the drop-down list contained in the row of the same name. Read rights for mail_reply are required for accessing and using this field, plus the Return-Path and Read confirmation options explained in the following sections. The default setting is Reply-To = From, i.e. the senders address will be used. If you complete a mail form without read rights for mail_reply, i.e. without seeing the Reply-To and Return-Path options, the default setting ReplyTo = From will be used. Read confirmation will be deactivated as per default. If you do not have read rights and use a mail template in which Reply-To, ReturnPath or Read confirmation have been defined, the values from the mail template will be used. Additionally, the same addresses as in the Sender field are available for selection. If you wish to change the sender addresses, you can do so in the Options->Mail templates->Mail senders menu (Chapter 11.4, p. 486). Before you use a third partys address, remember to make sure they approve! Also, contact the recipients post master to find out whether the sender address is permissible. Some mail gateways of larger companies, in particular, do not permit any emails from the Internet if the sender indicated is a faked address for their own mail domains. Sometimes, auto responders (e.g. notifications of absence, such as vacations) are poorly configured. Normally, the automatic message should not be generated at all because EFS Survey has placed a corresponding mail header. Nevertheless, there are mail systems which have been carelessly configured. Often, such mail systems do not evaluate the information in Reply-To, either, but send the automatic replies to the (assumed) sender address.
471
3. Return-Path
Error messages and other transfer errors (e.g. bounce messages) will be sent to the address configured in the field Return-Path. These messages will be forwarded to the mail sender, if no address has been configured. Access to the Return-Path option is controlled by the mail_reply right described above. The default setting is Reply-To = From, i.e. the senders address will be used. Assuming that you have the required read rights, the addresses in the drop-down list are the same as those found in the drop-down list in the field Mail sender.
4. X-Priority (importance)
This information allows you to assign the e-mail a status. Commonly used mail clients can use this information to highlight or arrange your e-mail according to the recipients settings. Five statuses are available, 1 being used for the lowest significance and 5 for highest priority. As senders of unwanted advertising mails (spammers) also frequently use this option to attach greater importance to their e-mails, using this feature may also turn out to be disadvantage. Some mail clients or mail filters in gateways are set up to simply delete e-mails indicating a (high) priority. Therefore, if you have set a high priority in an invitation mail, be sure to avoid using another priority setting for a reminder mail.
5. Sensitivity
For recipients using Outlook, you can set the messages sensitivity.
6. Read confirmation
Commonly used mail clients support sending automatic read confirmations. Once the recipient opens the e-mail, a message is automatically sent to the recipient you selected (sender or Reply-To). Since this happens automatically, such a read confirmation of course does not mean that the recipient has actually read or even understood your e-mail. It merely indicates that the message has been displayed in the recipients mail program. Also, it is not mandatory for a mail client to send a read confirmation. The recipient may also have deactivated this option or deliberately decided not to send a read confirmation for this particular mail. They may nevertheless have read the mail. Also, in particular in the case of recipients in larger companies, the header line may have been removed by a mail filter. Access to the Read confirmation option is controlled by the mail_reply right described above in the Reply-To section. It may well be that you receive read confirmations from recipients whose mail addresses are not stored in your project at all. Some Internet users use e-mail addresses for mere forwarding purposes. In this case, if the recipient sends an automatic read confirmation, the sender indicated in the read confirmation will usually be the mail address at which the Internet user actually received your mail. Some Internet users consider read confirmations a nuisance. If a warning message appears, pointing out that you have requested a read confirmation, this, in particular, can cause uncertainties. For inexperienced recipients, the mere mail text does not make it clear that their client has been prompted to send an automatic reply.
472
473
11.2.3
Figure 11.6
2. Sender
The drop-down list in the Mail sender row allows you to select the sender address. The default setting is the e-mail address of the staff member logged in. Additionally, addresses which were created in the Options->Mail templates->Mail senders menu and for which you have access rights will be available for selection (Chapter 11.4, p. 486)
3. To
Only for EFS Panel installations: The Panel->Contacts->Send e-mail menu contains a mail sending function that allows you to contact individual recipients in a targeted manner. Whereas in all other action areas the group of recipients is determined in advance (e.g. a group of participants identified through the disposition code or the
474
sample drawn from a panel), the mail sending function in this menu allows you to contact individual recipients whose data are not even present in the EFS Panel system. Enter the address in the To field.
4. Mail format
You can send either text or real HTML mails from EFS Survey. To do so, you must specify the format before writing the mail. The following options are available: Text only (default) HTML only Text and HTML After you have confirmed the selection by clicking on Apply mail format, the appropriate input field(s) will be shown.
HTML format
By default, EFS sends e-mails in plain text format. Alternatively you can also send HTML mails. Please note that line breaks are not automatically inserted with the HTML format checkbox ticked. EFS generates the HTML mails as content type multipart/alternative. This means: The actual text is contained in the e-mail in duplicate. This allows mail clients that cannot display HTML to display the alternate text. Web mail services, in particular, often warn users against displaying e-mails in HTML format and suggest displaying the alternate text (if available). As described in Chapter 3.7.17, p. 100, the alternate text may contain encoded special characters which are not easy to read for users.
5. Subject
In the Subject field you enter the title of your e-mail. Wildcards can be used (see Chapter 11.2.4, p. 477). Please note: You should avoid special characters, such as the German umlauts, in this field. The line is part of the so-called mail headers. Encoding special characters, as in the emails content, is not possible here. Please note that mail subjects should in general not be longer then 60 characters. Many servers make a cut after 248 characters for security reasons.
475
6. Mail text
In the Mail text field, you can enter the actual content of the mail or edit the content of the chosen template. Depending on the format you select in the Mail format field (see Chapter 11.2.2, p. 470), you will be provided with either an input field for a text mail, a form for an HTML mail or two fields: Mail text in normal text format: You merely have to enter the text. You have no option to design the text, e.g. by formatting characters. Wildcards and conditional replacement can be used (see Chapter 11.2.4, p. 477). Mail text in HTML: The mail must be formatted in HTML. Accordingly, you have various design options. Images inserted as an attachment can be incorporated, and even the use of wildcards and conditional replacement is also possible (see Chapter 11.2.4, p. 477).
476
6. Adding attachments
It is possible to send e-mails with attachments. The maximum size for the attachments is 1 MB. You can use all the file types which are permitted for the media library. See Chapter 5.17.2, p. 255. If you intend to attach not only normal attachments (e.g. pdf files), but one or several of the incorporated images described above, to an e-mail, take care to upload the normal attachments first. Otherwise, mail recipients using Outlook wont be able to open the attachments. The attachments can be saved as an attribute to mail templates. In order to add an attachment to an e-mail or mail template, select the desired file in the Add an attachment field. Once confirmed with the Attach file button, the attachment will be uploaded and attached to the e-mail. You can remove an unwanted attachment by clicking on the respective Delete icon. The functionality is protected by the mail_attachments right, with read rights required to use it.
11.2.4
477
Chapter 7.2, p. 297, contains an introduction to using the EFS wildcards in questionnaires and e-mails. Table 10.4 contains an overview of the wildcards you can use to access participant data. The wildcards that can only be used in e-mails are listed in the following section. If you click on the Help icon above the text entry field in the mail form, you can open a context-sensitive overview.
Wildcards for all project types Meaning Participants code. Participants code including survey URL. If youre logged in as usual with http, the wildcard is filled with the unencrypted http URL. If youre logged in with SSL, the wildcard is automatically filled with the https URL. When you create an HTML mail please note: In order to generate an active labeled link in a new e-mail or mail template you must define the corresponding HTML tags. E.g. <a href=#code_complete#>Label</a>. http survey URL including the code of the participants. If youre logged in with SSL, the #code_complete# wildcard will always be filled with the https URL. By using the #code_complete_http# wildcard, you can enforce use of the http URL. This may be useful, for example, if for reasons of safety you work with SSL encryption in the admin area but want the survey to be conducted without encryption. https survey URL including the code of the participants. If youre logged as usual with https, the #code_complete# wildcard will always be filled with the http URL. By using the #code_complete_https# wildcard, you can enforce use of the https URL.
#code_complete_ http#
#code_complete_ https#
Table 11.2
478
Meaning A link to the panel. Language version. The panelist code, i.e. access code to the panel. See EFS Panel 8.0, Chapter 7.3.6. Wildcard which allows to create a shortened login link. See EFS Panel 8.0, Chapter 7.3.6. URL parameter for direct login with shortened code: lc Sample link: http://your-domain.com/panelwebesite/ ?lc=QAplygBpxAoPhVL3ceoIL8ztW5g Usage of the shortened login link is recommended, in particular, if the domain of the panel itself is quite long: If the normal 40-digit code is used, the complete URL might become too long for mail programs to forward it correctly. The pseudonym, i.e. encoded unique panelist ID. The type of incentive (prize draw or bonus points). Please mind that in EFS 7.1, the old incentive types are replaced by a new, more flexible labelling system (see Chapter 3.7.20, p. 106). In context of this change, the #bonustype# wildcard has been dropped. Number of bonus points (format). The panelists current account balance (p.pcredit_points). The value of the variable from the respective master data item.
Limits
The permissible number of wildcards is not directly limited. However, there is a limit with regard to the overall length of the text. It must not exceed 20 MB (excluding wildcards). That said, many Internet users regard mails of this size as impolite because the can quickly exceed the storage capacity allotted by their e-mail provider. Also, some mail servers are set up to simply delete messages of more than 1 MB, assuming an attack on the mail system (mail bombs). EFS is capable of generating hundreds of personalized e-mails within a few seconds. The procedure used for this purpose is also subject to an installation-related limit. You can approximate the number of permissible wildcards as follows: 2 * text length in byte ^ number of wildcards < 20 MB One text character equals one byte. Please note that the text of mails in HTML format is about 2.2 times larger than the actual text. The amount may even grow sixfold if you use Unicode characters. The so-called Dr. Grauert letter (ISO 10561), which is commonly used in printer tests, contains about 1500 characters. 20000000 bytes / 1500 bytes = 13334 For a plain text mail, this equals about 213. This means that you could use a total of 13 wildcards. Most mails, of course, are much shorter and also contain fewer wildcards. However, the installations limit can also be changed by system administration if required.
479
In this, the following variables must be adjusted to specific projects: operand1 and operand2: Wildcards or fixed values. operator: One of the comparative operators (=, !=, < or >). Please make sparing use of conditional replacement: A growing number of if blocks increases the risk of triggering an infinite loop. Therefore, make sure not to create too many if blocks.
Example
An invitation mail to the respondents in a personalized project is to contain German text if the participant lives in Germany. Participants from other countries are to receive an English text. The information on which country the participant lives in is stored in the corresponding column of participant administration and accessible via the #country# e-mail wildcard. Code: 1 = Germany, 2 = other countries. In this case, the condition definition used to address the participant is as follows: {if #country# = "1"}Sehr geehrter Teilnehmer,{else}Dear participant,{/if} German participants will now be addressed in German, while participants from other countries will be addressed in English.
11.2.5
Figure 11.7
Delivery options
480
11.2.6
481
You can scroll through the e-mails to the various recipients and check them successively.
Figure 11.8
482
11.3.1
Edit options
You have the following editing options: Create template button: The dialog for creating a new template will be opened. Detailed explanations of the mail template properties to be entered when creating can be found in Table 11.4. The other form fields for mail settings and mail text are familiar from the e-mail dispatch (Chapter 11.2, p. 470). Clickable links in the table and the familiar icons in the Actions column allow you to edit individual mail templates: Description link: The dialog for editing an existing template will be opened. Status link: The entries Active and Inactive in the Status column are also clickable links. You can change the status with a click on the respective link: An inactive mail template will no longer be offered in the mail forms. Preview: The template will be opened in the preview. As the project context is missing in the Mail template menu, wildcards will not be replaced in the preview. Edit mail template: The dialog for editing an existing template will be opened. Copy mail template: The template is copied. You can open the copy directly by clicking the link in the green confirmation message. Edit rights: The dialog for assigning object rights for the template will be opened.
483
Delete mail template: The template will be deleted following a confirmation prompt.
Before deleting mail templates, please make sure that they are not linked to from a live project. As of EFS 7.1, EFS Panel installations feature a check to prevent deletion of mail templates that are still linked to a panel function (e.g. a CMS function module, an update rule, a promotional campaign, or a bonus). Instead, a list of the relevant panel functions will be displayed, so that you can either refrain from deleting or replace an unwanted template. However, mail template assignments in EFS Survey (e.g. mail trigger) or in EFS Employee will not be checked.
11.3.2
HTML format E-mail address Name of the sender Only in EFS installations: Language version Table 11.4
484
Mail template type Default mail Invitation mail Reminder mail Notification before end of survey
Type
When it is used Is available in all non-automated dispatch processes. Used to invite participants to a survey project. See Chapter 10.2.15, p. 433. Used to remind participants of surveys they have not completed yet. See Chapter 10.2.15, p. 433. Used to notify staff of the upcoming end of the survey. This notification may be requested in the dialog used to create and change projects (Chapter 3.2.1, p. 58). If staff members have requested the notification in a given project, but no mail template has been selected (e.g. because the staff members do not have sufficient rights), they will receive a mail with default text. Only on installations with EFS Secure Exchange activated: Mail template used to notify staff of changes on the exchange platform. For more information on the optionally available platform refer to the special documentation EFS Secure Exchange. In employee surveys on EFS Employee installations only: Mail template that can be made available to users in the Org Processor. See EFS Employee: Project Managers Manual 8.0, Chapter 6.9.
Automatic Automatic
Only in EFS Panel installations: Automatically sent to the panelist after the registration has been submitted. Only in EFS Panel installations: If a panelist forgets their password, the content of this mail template will be sent automatically upon request. Only in EFS Panel installations: If the panel administrator performs the duplicates check and finds that this panelist apparently already exists, this mail template is used to contact the panelist via e-mail. Only in EFS Panel installations: If the panel administrator checks the data in the Candidates menu and wishes to send an inquiry mail to the respective panelist, this mail template can be invoked via the Registration error action. Only in EFS Panel installations: This mail template is displayed when you are inviting a panelist from the Candidates menu to the master data survey. Only in EFS Panel installations: This mail template is displayed when you are sending a reminder concerning the master data survey to a panelist from the Candidates menu. Only in EFS Panel installations: This mail template is displayed when you have conducted a prize draw and wish to inform the winners afterwards. Only in EFS Panel installations: Panelists can use this mail template within the scope of a campaign to recruit new panelists. Only in EFS Panel installations: This template is used to send vouchers to panelists. See EFS Panel 8.0, Chapter 24.4.4.
Master data invitation mail Master data reminder mail Winner mail
Tell-a-friend mail
485
11.4.1
Edit options
Click on the Add e-mail address button to open the dialog for creating a new sender. As of EFS 7.1, all you have to enter is the e-mail address, the corresponding real name, if desired, and the teams that are granted full access. Clickable links and icons allow you to edit existing mail templates: Rights: Opens the dialog where you can assign your staff teams read or write rights for the senders address. Delete: E-mail addresses can be deleted by ticking the checkbox in the Delete column and then clicking on the Delete button.
486
Before deleting mail senders, please make sure that they are not linked to from a live project. As of EFS 7.1, mail senders linked to a mail template cannot be inadvertently deleted anymore. When you try to delete mail senders that are still linked to a mail template, a list of the affected templates will be displayed. Only after the senders address has been changed in all templates is it possible to delete the address.
If the mail server does not accept a mail at all, the sytem will try to dispatch it again eight hours later. After four failed dispatch attempts, the mail will be deleted and the recipient will be assigned disposition code 14. The number of repeats can be configured, see Chapter 11.5.2, p. 488.
487
local_part@domain
Please not that domain must be an Internet domain with a valid syntax. If, despite all this, an invalid mail address has found its way into the database, e.g. through subsequent corrections, the mail will be checked again when it is actually sent. The sender will then be notified that the e-mails address is incorrect and, therefore, the e-mail cannot be delivered.
11.5.1
11.5.2
11.5.3
11.5.4
488
for project-specific mails: in the Survey menu of all project types. (Prior to EFS 7.0, it was not displayed for anonymous projects.) on EFS Panel installations: for mails sent from the Panel->Groups menu: in the Groups menu on EFS Panel installations: for mails sent from the Panel->Contacts->Send e-mail menu: in the Contacts menu. The mail queue displays all mails in the outgoing queue, sorted by sending operations. You have the following editing options: View: Allows you to display a mail that has been selected from the respective dispatch process at random with the wildcards replaced. Release: Allows you to release and execute a dispatch process with Hold status. Hold: The mail dispatch is interrupted, e.g. if a questionnaire requires re-editing. Delete: Mails are removed from the queue. In EFS Panel installations, this work process includes the option of saving the recipients of the deleted e-mails in a separate group. Caution: If you delete mails, the Globalpark Support department can no longer determine who has already received a mail and who has not in subsequent support requests.
11.6.1
489
Figure 11.9
Transmission report
In the overview list, the following information is displayed for the different sending processes within the respective project: Time: The time of dispatch. Details: The internal ID of the mail process. Via this link, you can retrieve information on all individual processes (see below). Subject: The subject line of the e-mail. Via this link, you can view the mail text sent (without wildcard replacements). Number of mails: The number of e-mails sent. Sent: The number of e-mails that were successfully transmitted. Canceled: The number of e-mails canceled. Staff member: The staff member who performed the dispatch. If you click on the ID of a dispatch process in the Details column, you will see detailed information on all individual processes: The Queued / Hold tab lists e-mails for which the dispatch process has not yet been completed. The Sent / Canceled / Other tab lists e-mails for which the dispatch process is completed, either by successful transmission, cancellation or otherwise.
Figure 11.10
490
11.6.2
Figure 11.11
Read rights for platform_cockpit are required to view and open the Options-> Platform cockpit menu.
491
492
12 Reporting
12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 12.6 12.7 12.8 12.9 12.10 12.11 Field Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495 Reporting and Statistic Tools for Individual Projects . . . . . 496 Field Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497 Online Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506 Open-ended Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507 Editing Individual Participant Records Online . . . . . . . . . 507 Deleting Result Data Selectively . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510 Protecting the Results of Selected Questions from Unauthorized Viewing511 Enabling Customers to View Survey Results . . . . . . . . . . 513 Creating Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514 Importing Data from Other Sources for Evaluation in EFS. . 515
493
494
12
Reporting
Figure 12.1
Field overview
The Status of projects table lists all activated projects in alphabetical order. Optionally, forum discussions can be displayed from EFS 8.0. The following information is displayed for each project: Title: By clicking on the title, you can open the detailed field report of the respective project (Chapter 12.3, p. 497). Type: Displays an abbreviation for the respective project type. See Chapter 3.1, p. 55, for an overview containing explanations of all project types. Status: Project status, see Chapter 3.6.1, p. 69. Project start and end Size of random sample: Displays the total number of participants. Completed interviews: Displays the number of participants who have completed the whole questionnaire. Active: Displays the number of participants who are currently active in the respective project.
495
12 Reporting
496
From release 8.0, EFS Reporting + will be available, in addition to the standard reporting. EFS Reporting + is Globalparks new complete solution for the evaluation of results of EFS Survey and EFS Panel projects. The manual is available for download in customer center. EFS Reporting + is optionally leasable. If you are interested, please contact your Globalpark sales representative for further information.
Figure 12.2 The Statistics menu with a part of the field report
497
12 Reporting
drop-out statistics which show you on which questionnaire page most participants dropped out. If the drop-out rate is too high, you can react by changing the questionnaire dramaturgy. Errors, for example in filter setting, can also be detected by analyzing the drop-out statistics. quota statistics You can invoke the field report by selecting the desired project from the project list and then clicking on the Statistics menu item.
12.3.1
Diagram
The diagram belonging to the field report gives you a quick overview of the progress made in the field phase.
Figure 12.3
The highlight colors indicate the participants disposition codes (see Chapter 12.3.3, p. 501).
12.3.2
Section
Line
Description
Disposition codes Anonymous projects Personalised projects 11, 14, 15, 12, 21, 22, 23, 31, 32, 35, 36, 37, 41
Total
Population (e.g. all cases in the list of participants or the number of popups) Please note the instructions regarding observance of disposition code 20 in Chapter12.3.3, p. 501.
(20),21,22,31,3 6,37
Table 12.1
498
(cont.)Section
Description Not yet invited participants. These include the sample-neutral drop-outs counted in the total sample. Participants to whom e-mail could not be delivered. These include the sample-neutral drop-outs also counted in the total sample. Participants marked manually as not available. These include the sampleneutral drop-outs also counted in the total sample. Participants rejected at login. These include the sample-neutral drop-outs also counted in the total sample. Rejected participants. These include the sample-neutral drop-outs also counted in the total sample. Screened out participants. These include the sample-neutral drop-outs also counted in the total sample. Participants filtered out prior to survey commencement These include the sample-neutral drop-outs also counted in the total sample. Errors in the address list, addresses that do not exist (anymore), screened-out participants (incl. those screened out by quotas) The value for sample-neutral dropouts is the sum of participants listed in the rows in this regard. These participants are counted in the overall sample but are not included in the adjusted overall sample. Gross 2 equals gross 1 minus the sample-neutral drop-outs explained above. Please note the instructions regarding observance of disposition code 20 in Chapter 12.3.3, p. 501. Participants with disposition code 12. These are counted in the adjusted overall sample. Participants with disposition code 20 if the project is configured accordingly. These are counted in the adjusted overall sample. Please note the instructions regarding observance of disposition code 20 in Chapter 12.3.3, p. 501.
Disposition codes 11
14
Cannot be reached
15
35
36
36
37
37
Quota closed
41
36, 37
Total
(20), 21,22,31
12,21,22,23,31, 32
Active
12
used-defined 20
Table 12.1
499
12 Reporting
(cont.)Section
Description This includes participants who are still unknown or have not begun the survey. This value is the sum of the participants listed in the two rows above with disposition codes 12 and 20 (if set accordingly). These participants are counted in the overall sample but are not included in net participation. The net sample includes the completed interviews as well as participants who are currently active or have interrupted the survey. Please note the instructions regarding observance of disposition code 20 in Chapter 12.3.3, p. 501. Participants with disposition code 31 and 32. These are counted in net participation. Participants with disposition code 21 and 23. These are counted in net participation. Participants with disposition code 22. These are counted in net participation. Participants with disposition code 20 if the project is configured accordingly. Please note the instructions regarding observance of disposition code 20 in Chapter 12.3.3, p. 501. Anonymous projects: With pop-up surveys, the number of pop-up call-ups is defined in a manner comparable with the number of invitations in the case of personalized questionnaires. With banner surveys and entry via a link, it is not recommended, from a methodological point of view, to calculate a response rate. Personalized projects:Percentage share of persons actually participating in the survey among those who were asked to participate.
Disposition codes 20 12
Net participation
Total
Completed
31
31, 32
Currently responding
21
21, 23
Suspended
22
22
used-defined 20
Key statistics
Response rate
Net / gross 2
Net / gross 2
Table 12.1
500
Description The completion rate equals the share of completed interviews in the adjusted sample. Anonymous projects: Ratio of the number of completely finished interviews to the number of persons who have received a pop-up window to the survey or clicked on a banner or the link to the survey (gross 2). Personalized projects: Ratio of the number of completely finished interviews to the number of participants who have been invited and could be reached (gross 2). The variable rate is calculated from the number of those interviews which have been completed up to the questionnaire page X that is marked with a variable page marker. See Chapter 12.3.8, p. 505. The number of participants per hour is indicated for all participants irrespective of their disposition code. additionally for all participants who have fully completed the survey. The number of participants per day is indicated for all participants irrespective of their disposition code. additionally for all participants who have fully completed the survey. The number of participants per week is indicated for all participants irrespective of their disposition code. additionally for all participants who have fully completed the survey. The mean processing time is the mean value of the processing time for all those respondents who have completed the questionnaire without interruption; i. e. it is the sum of the processing times (variable duration, see Table 13.2) for all respondents with disposition code 31, divided by the number of those respondents. Participants who interrupted the survey and resumed it at a later stage (disposition code 32) will not be included.
Key statistics
Variable rate
Key statistics
Key statistics
Key statistics
Key statistics
31
31,32
Table 12.1
12.3.3
Disposition Codes
Every participant in a field has a so-called disposition code which describes their status in the field. This records, for example, whether participants have already been invited
501
12 Reporting
and whether they have already begun the survey or completed it. The field statistics, which builds on these statuses, gives you extensive information on the status of your field, i.e. your survey, at any time. The disposition codes have two digits. The areas are defined as follows: 10s: before the survey 20s: during the survey 30s: after the survey The disposition codes are mutually exclusive: Any person can have only one disposition code at any given time. Therefore, the status variable can only assume one of the above characteristics at a time. The majority of disposition codes is assigned automatically and changed depending on the progress of the survey.
Overview
The following table lists the codes used in EFS.
Disposition code 11 12 13 Status Not yet invited Active Inactive The link has not yet been used. Only on EFS Panel installations: If you change the panel status of panelists to inactive or deleted, their disposition code will be changed to 13 in all samples in which they had disposition code 11 or 12 so far (i.e. they havent participated yet). Thus, the panelists can not start any new surveys, even if they have already been invited. Assigned automatically if the mail server does not accept a mail repeatedly or if it is not possible to connect to the mail server at all repeatedly. Per default, four attempts are made. The number can be configured, see Chapter 11.5.2, p. 488. This code is used in order to mark participants that cannot be reached. You will be notified that mails could not be delivered by a means outside the EFS system: through messages that take place offline (for example by post or telephone). through out-of-office mails, messages regarding a full mailbox, messages from the postmaster that an e-mail address no longer exists or that a further delivery attempt will follow, etc. Because these e-mails are directed at the sender of an invitation or follow a return path, they can not be documented by EFS. In all of these cases the assignment of the code must be done manually according to the instructions in Chapter 10.2.5, p. 422. You can use the trim participants function, described in Chapter 10.2.13, p. 432, to assist you. The first page of an anonymous project has been called or delivered (pop-up window) and cancelled. To find out what evaluation options this special disposition code involves, please see Chapter12.3.4, p. 503. Comment
14
15
Cannot be reached
Disposition codes
502
(cont.)Disposition code 21
Comment The participant is answering the survey at the moment. In anonymous projects, this disposition code is assigned if at least the first page has been viewed and confirmed by clicking on the Submit button. In all other project types, this disposition code is assigned as soon as the first page has been opened. At least 30 minutes of inactivity have been observed. The survey has been resumed after an interruption. The survey has been successfully completed. The survey was interrupted during its course, but has been resumed and successfully completed. Is set for respondents in personalized projects who want to use the link from the invitation mail to log into the survey after a quota has been closed. Status 36 and 37 are set in a project with quotas when an intermediate final page has been reached. The survey administrator can use these codes to mark respondents as rejected (i.e. screened out by quota; there are already enough participants with the respective features) or screened out (= unsuitable). The status to be set is manually specified by the administrator at the intermediate final page. Status 36 and 37 are set in a project with quotas when an intermediate final page has been reached. The survey administrator can use these codes to mark respondents as rejected (i.e. screened out by quota; there are already enough participants with the respective features) or screened out (= unsuitable). The status to be set is manually specified by the administrator at the intermediate final page. If a quota is full, this status will be assigned to all participants, who match the quota condition, but nevertheless have not started with the survey yet. If one of these participants tries to log in, then he will be rejected and the disposition code will be set to 35.
22 23 31 32 35
Suspended Resumed Completed Completed after break Rejected at login (quota closed) Rejected (quota closed)
36
37
Screened out
41
Filtered out before the beginning of the survey, because quota is already closed. Disposition codes
Table 12.2
Access to the disposition code of the survey participants is protected with the show_dispcode right. If you hold read rights to show_dispcode, you can view, use, or export the disposition code in various places of EFS.
12.3.4
503
12 Reporting
You can decide for yourself how participants with disposition code 20 will be allocated in a field report. To do so, switch to the Project properties->Survey options menu, and select the desired option from the field labeled This setting allows you to control how disposition code 20 is to be allocated in the field report.
12.3.5
12.3.6
504
Read rights for stat_split are required for accessing the split options.
12.3.7
Figure 12.4
If an Excel file is opened on a computer running with Windows 7 and Excel 2007, depending on the circumstances, a message may be displayed which notifies you that the file is corrupted. This problem is caused by an extension provided by a thirdparty supplier. Until further notice, please proceed as follows: Save the file locally. Then, open the saved file, allowing Excel to repair it. Finally, save the file again.
12.3.8
505
12 Reporting
4.5, p. 131) of the required page. Tick the Set universal page marker checkbox, and then confirm by clicking on Change. The respective page will then be marked with an M in the questionnaire view.
Figure 12.5
506
Please note: Online statistics have no anonymity boundaries. I.e. it is not possible to hide values if the return rate falls short of a given minimum requirement. If you compile data for customers you should therefore consider, depending on applicable data protection provisions, generating a report with appropriate anonymity criteria in the reporting (see Chapter 12.10, p. 514) instead of simply printing out the online statistics.
12.4.1
12.4.2
12.5.1
507
12 Reporting
12.6.1
Authorization for editing data: Editing of result data is protected by a specific right. Writing authorization to detail_view_edit is required.
12.6.2
508
Figure 12.6
12.6.3
12.6.4
509
12 Reporting
Figure 12.7
You can change open-ended answers by simply overwriting them. To change closed answers, change the data by selecting another value in the drop-down lists.
12.6.5
510
When deleting, the respective variable is set to its default value, i.e. -77 for numeric fields and NULL for text fields. Delete operations are logged in project info under project documentation. Please proceed as follows: 1. Click on the Delete data menu item. 2. Choose the variable whose content you wish to delete from the records of all participants. 3. Confirm by clicking on Delete data. For security reasons, this function is protected by a separate right: The menu item labeled Projects->{Selected project}->Statistics->Delete data is only visible to users who have read rights to report_erase_data.
12.8.1
12.8.2
511
12 Reporting
Figure 12.8
If you do not have read rights for the protect_questions right, you will be allowed to see which questions have been marked, but not to disable protection or mark a new question as protected. If the field is not shown in the question view, open the selection window by clicking on the more icon, and tick the desired checkboxes.
Figure 12.9
A page containing protected questions is marked in the questionnaire and page views
512
12.8.3
Open-ended answers
In the open-ended answers menu, a staff member without the corresponding read rights likewise will not be able to view protected questions. The related result fields will remain empty. The same restrictions apply to EFS Survey Status
Detail view
In the Detail view (see Chapter 12.6, p. 507), you can view the result data record for each respondent. Without read rights for the protect_questions right, the answers to protected questions will also be hidden here.
Data cleaning
If a staff member does not have read rights for the protect_questions right, he will be unable to see the values of variables from protected questions, neither in the cleaned column nor in the original column.
513
12 Reporting
EFS Survey Status provides the following functions: field report online statistics open-ended answers drop-out statistics respondent export: This export contains the so called respondents, i.e. all those participants who actually participated in a survey. Such a data record is useful, for example, if you want to inform an address provider which of his respondents actually participated: You can give your address provider an account for EFS Survey Status to log in and export lists of the respondents. EFS Survey reports: Result reports created with the EFS Survey Reporting (see Chapter 12.10, p. 514) can be published on EFS Survey Status. raw data export: export data records (the so-called raw data exports) can be created and automatically made available in EFS Survey Status at predefined intervals with the help of export macros. This can be useful, for example, when data have to be exported at regular intervals in a long-term study: You only need to configure the macro once, the exports are performed automatically. detail view, see Chapter 12.6, p. 507. For detailed information on EFS Survey Status, please download the dedicated manuals in customer center: The project managers manual explains how to set up EFS Survey Status accounts for your customers and how to make the features required available. The users manual can be passed on to those customers who have access to this platform. Please note: - From EFS 7.1, EFS Survey Status is available in French. - EFS Survey Status is an optionally leasable accessory tool. If you are interested in using it, please contact your Globalpark sales representative for further information.
514
The reports can be generated and exported in HTML or Excel format. If you are working on an EFS Survey installation with EFS Survey Status, you can make the reports available on it. Read rights for report_onlinereport are required to use the Projects->{Selected project}->Reporting menu. From release 8.0, EFS Reporting + will be available, in addition to the standard reporting described above. EFS Reporting + is Globalparks new complete solution for the evaluation of results of EFS Survey and EFS Panel projects. The manual is available for download in customer center. EFS Reporting + is optionally leasable. If you are interested, please contact your Globalpark sales representative for further information.
An import template is available in CSV format, which you merely have to download and fill in. Alternatively, you can import a result data file used in another EFS project: In this case, matching of the variables of source and target project is done via the external variable names. Read rights for ct42partadm are required to use the project data import.
515
12 Reporting
A Microsoft Excel worksheet can have a maximum of 256 columns, i.e. it allows the import of a maximum of 256 variables. If your project data import exceeds this value, you should use another program instead of Excel for editing your import file, then save this file in CSV format and import it. In some cases, import fails due to sheer file size of the Excel file. In this case, please save the file in CSV format and import it. Project data import is limited to 2,400 variables. The project data import is meant for importing the entire data of a project, in particular for evaluation purposes. If you wish to prefill individual variables with data from another EFS project, the Variable data import in the Project properties menu might be the better option. See Chapter 7.6, p. 346.
12.11.1
12.11.2
The first line usually contains the column label, i.e. in this case the names of the respective variables. This has the advantage that the software will automatically identify and assign the columns to the appropriate database fields. If your import data are values exported from another EFS project, you may alternatively use the
516
export file itself without re-formatting the column names: An option titled Use external variable names for matching is available for the import. As is the case with the normal participant import, the e-mail addresses must be unambiguous. Otherwise, please remember to activate the relevant option Allow duplicate e-mail addresses. If the participants do not have e-mail addresses, you have to create dummy accounts. You can use e-mail addresses on the @3uu.eu domain: these addresses are owned by Globalpark, mails sent to them are deleted automatically. Blank fields of the import file will be filled with default values: participant variables: text field = blank, selectbox = 0 project variables: Default missing values of EFS depending on data type default disposition code: completed = 31
517
12 Reporting
518
13 Export
13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 13.6 13.7 13.8 13.9 13.10 13.11 13.12 13.13 General Tips and Tricks on Exporting Data . . . . . . . . . . . . 522 Detailed Description of Result, Master and Address Data Export 522 Exporting Participant and Status Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528 Exporting Answers to Open Questions for Quantum . . . . . . 529 Special Functions for SAS Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530 Special Functions for Fixed Format Export . . . . . . . . . . . . 531 Special Features for the Evaluation in SPSS . . . . . . . . . . 531 What do the Exported Result Data Reveal? . . . . . . . . . . . 533 EFS Survey Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537 Defining Export Templates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541 Data Cleaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544 Quality Correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549 RelevantID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550
519
520
13
Export
In the Projects module, various options for exporting project-related records can be found under the Export menu item of each individual project: Result or participant data can be exported, and diverse options are available for setting the export file properties and limiting the record (see Chapter 13.2, p. 522). The questionnaire can be exported as an XML file, e.g. to transfer a project from one EFS Survey installation to another (see Chapter 3.2.3, p. 60). SPSS macros and SPSS labels designed to facilitate the evaluation in SPSS can be exported (see Chapter 13.7, p. 531). If you export result data from a project with loops (Chapter 7.4.6, p. 323), you can check the status of your export job or download the complete file in the Export tasks menu. In EFS Panel installations, the Export menu item in the Panel module allows you to additionally export panel-specific data (e.g. master data or address data of panelists). Below, you will be first given a general introduction to the export process. Subsequently, a detailed description will be given of the extensive functions for supporting the export of result or address data. See Chapter 13.8, p. 533, for an overview of result data and possible preallocations. Chapter 13.7, p. 531 contains specific notes on the evaluation in SPSS. Finally, Chapter 13.10, p. 541 explains how to create your own export templates.
521
13 Export
5. The download will begin. A pop-up window will open, in which you can choose to either open or save the file. Click on the Save button. 6. A further dialog window will open, in which you can choose the folder you wish to save the file to. You can also rename the file. Confirm by clicking on Save. 7. Once the download has been completed you can close the window by clicking on Close window.
1. Export duration
The exported data are not created in advance, they are created according to the settings you made the moment you click on the Export button. Depending on the desired content, selected format and number of records, the export can therefore take a considerable amount of time.
522
Format XLS
Properties The data can be directly exported to a file in the XLS format used by Microsoft Excel. As a maximum of 256 columns can be inserted into an Excel worksheet, the exported data are automatically distributed on several worksheets, as necessary. Please note: If you allow only numerical entries in an open answer (e.g. by using corresponding plausibility checks or input formats), these details will be exported nevertheless as strings. For evaluation purposes it occasionally makes sense to format these answers as numbers instead, Excel does not automatically make this format though. Please proceed as follows: In older versions of Excel you mark the corresponding cells first. Then choose in the Format->Cells menu the option number on the Numbers tab and confirm with OK. In newer versions of Excel the function for changing the cell format is hidden under the exclamation mark which you find beside the cells. For exports in Triple-S, an XML description file and a record file are generated. These files are always output in compressed format, by default as a zip file, unless other specifications were made. Please note: As Triple-S only supports character set ISO-8859-1, Triple-S exports are always in character set ISO-8859-1 even if another character set has been specified. As a result, problems may arise if non-ASCII characters are used. Should this occur, export the closed-ended question results as a workaround with Triple-S and select another format for open-ended answers. This export format provides an interface to TopComs offline evaluation software TopStud. Please contact TopCom directly at http://www.topcom.de if you have any questions about the TopStud format and the export interface. XML files can be converted into any other format, or displayed using self-written XSLT-style sheets. Address or result data exported as an HTML file have the advantage that they can be immediately opened and viewed in the browser. If you wish to forward survey data, this format has the advantage that it can be opened with an Internet browser without requiring a special program. File format for the SPSS evaluation program. Files in this format can be opened by SPSS and other statistics programs, such as Statistica. You can use it if you are editing the exported files in a statistics program other than SPSS. File format for the SAS evaluation program. In this format, the columns are separated by blank spaces. Fixed Format is employed, for example, if the Quantum program is being used for evaluation.
Triple-S
topStud
XML HTML
SPSS SPSS Portable file format SAS Fixed Format Table 13.1 File formats
523
13 Export
Format Quantum
Properties Data files for further evaluation in Quantum. The exported zip folder contains the actual result data and additionally the basic, tab, and axis files. To supplement this feature, the following optional settings are available: You can optionally adjust column widths or have them automatically expanded. The sys missings in the Quantum axis file can optionally be output. The text values can in be output in the Quantum data. The Quantum table names are automatically generated from the internal variable names. Please note: Quantum has limitations regarding the number of axes. If an exported file contains too many axes, you should edit them manually in Quantum. In the case of questions with multiple response lists, note the following: Quantum can only determine a name for the axis if the variable names for the items of a question begin with the same characters. (For example, Quantum can generate the name f1 from the variable names f1_1, f1_2 and f1_3). See Chapter 14.2.2, p. 561, for instructions on changing the variable names. File formats
Table 13.1
524
Please take into consideration that, due to manufacturers specifications, some export formats are subject to certain restrictions: - A maximum of 256 columns can be inserted into an MS Excel worksheet. If you open an exported CSV file in Microsoft Excel, all further columns will by cut off by Microsoft Excel. You can alternatively use the Excel export function integrated in EFS Survey, which automatically distributes the exported data on several worksheets. - If an Excel file is opened on a computer running with Windows 7 and Excel 2007, depending on the circumstances, a message may be displayed which notifies you that the file is corrupted. This problem is caused by an extension provided by a thirdparty supplier. Until further notice, please proceed as follows: Save the file locally. Then, open the saved file, allowing Excel to repair it. Finally, save the file again. - SPSS is not UTF-8 compatible Therefore, please note the details in Chapter 13.2.5, p. 526 on selecting a character set for an SPSS export. - SPSS truncates string variables after 255 characters. It is therefore recommended that you export the answers separately to open-ended questions in another format (e.g. XLS, CSV) and use a different program for viewing the answers. - SPSS will only transfer user-defined missing values for text variables, if the variables field is no more than eight characters wide. - Both in Microsoft Excel as well as in SPSS, the file size is restricted by the amount of available RAM. - Up to Excel 2000, the maximum size of a Microsoft Excel file is 64 MB. As of Excel 2002 the maximum file size is 128 MB. - The size of editable files is also restricted by the amount of RAM available on the computer in use. - Microsoft Excel as well as OpenOffice are known to not correctly render or process very long cell contents. - All columns in Fixed format export files have at least the size of the missing defined for the data type (e. g. size of 3 for the missing value -77).
13.2.2
Compressing Files
The following options are available for exporting a file in compressed format: No compression Zip format: commonly used format on Windows machines Tape archive (.tar.gz): commonly used format on UNIX machines The default setting is No compression. Compression is automatically performed for exports of result data in Triple-S format. If you have made no settings yourself, a zip file will be created.
525
13 Export
13.2.3
For panel surveys in EFS Panel installations, you have the additional option of exporting Master data for project: Only the master data of the participants assigned to the project will be exported. In the Template editor menu, you can create and save your own export templates. This is particularly recommendable, if you frequently only export data for a selection of variables: Selective export saves you from having to repeatedly choose variables.
13.2.4
13.2.5
526
Set the character set of the exported data record in the field Character set. This setting affects the entire export data record, i.e. for both the questionnaire texts and any existing open-ended questions.
13.2.6
13.2.7
13.2.8
13.2.9
527
13 Export
Available are the disposition codes greater than/equal 20 (you can find an overview of the disposition codes in Table 12.2). No result data exist for disposition codes < 20, therefore a result data export for such codes is not advisable. By default, the data of all participants with disposition codes between 21 and 42 will be exported.
Selective export
If you have ticked the checkbox for the Selective export (Please click here, if you want to specify which variable shall be exported) field, you have the option of performing a selective export, i.e. you can choose from the range of available variables. Once you have confirmed the selection by clicking on the Export button, the list of possible variables will be displayed and you can choose those desired. See Chapter 13.8, p. 533, for an overview of variables used in EFS Survey.
13.2.10
528
Tester variable: Does the participant have tester status? Last accessed: Date and time of when the survey was last accessed. The exported data record contains only the participant codes, but does not contain respondent-specific information or result data. This will guarantee the participants anonymity if, for example, you pass this data record on to the customer who commissioned the project.
Figure 13.1
The above figure shows an example of a record exported in CSV format and opened in Excel. Please note that the consecutive number is displayed right-aligned. Depending on the program used to open the record, the consecutive number will be positioned right next to the variable name.
529
13 Export
13.5.1
Notes on SAS
Since the SAS export is performed using an SPSS Portable file, it is subject to the technical default settings and restrictions of SPSS.
Character set
SPSS is not UTF-8-capable, i.e. in order to ensure, for example, that umlauts will be correctly output in the labels of the SAS table for a German survey, the SAS export must be performed in the appropriate Central European character set ISO-8859-1. For languages which require double-byte characters, the labels cannot be output correctly due to the technical restriction of SPSS.
Missings
The default settings for missing values (see Chapter 13.8, p. 533 and 13.2.6, p. 527) are interpreted as follows during SAS export: -77 is defined as a missing in both SPSS and SAS. Therefore, it is represented with a period (.) in SAS. -66, -99 and 0 are not defined as missings in SAS. Accordingly, they are interpreted and displayed as number values.
13.5.2
Making Default Settings for the Further Processing of the SAS Files
In order to apply the macro to the other files without any further configuration after the SAS export, you must make the following default settings in the Staff->Own account->Preferences menu on the Common settings tab before exporting the data: Standard directory for SAS exports on your computer: This directory path is copied into the SAS macro generated by EFS Survey. Therefore, the compressed file must be located in this directory for you to apply the macro to it successfully. Default setting: c:\Documents and Settings\user name\Desktop\ SAS library in which the SAS macro generated by EFS Survey is to store the converted data: The SAS macro will store the data temporarily in this library. You can access and then save the data from there. Default setting: work.export, where work is the name of the library and export is the user-defined name of the file.
13.5.3
530
3. Open the compressed file. It contains the three files export.por (SPSS Portable file containing the data), export.txt (text file with labels) and macro.sas (Macro). 4. Open the macro by double-clicking it. 5. To execute the macro, click on the Execute icon. If the macro is not executed correctly, check whether the right directory path has been set in the macro and whether the export files are located in the right directory. 6. The data table will now automatically be stored in the library you specified under Staff->Own account->Preferences. 7. Navigate to the library and open the file.
13.6.2
531
13 Export
13.7.1
For the 'match file' command, several records can be merged using a key variable (horizontal conjunction). Prerequisites for successful matching are: All files must contain the same number of cases. All files must contain a key variable with an identification number (e.g. lfdn). Each case must be assigned to a different identification number. A certain case must always have the same number in different files. All files must be sorted by identification number. In this case, the consecutive number 'Lfdn' is chosen as a key variable, and the records must be sorted by this variable. For an identical number of cases, syntax in SPSS is as follows:
001 002 003 004 005 006 match files file='c:\syntax\spss_1.sav' /file='c:\syntax\spss_2.sav'. /by lfdn. save outfile='c:\syntax\Final_match.sav'. execute.
Should problems occur when matching two EFS Survey data files in SPSS format, save the records in POR format (Portable Document) and repeat matching.
532
tester
tester
tester
status
dispcode
disposition code
last_page
lastpage
last page
time_to_comple te_survey
duration
Table 13.2
533
13 Export
Meaning Indicates the IP address of the computer via which the participant is connected to the Internet. Please also refer to the notes on the availability of remote_host and remote_addr in Chapter 3.7.8, p. 81. Indicates the name of the browser in the form in which it was transferred to the EFS Survey server. Examples can be found at http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_Agent. When filtering is done via browser types, it is advisable to use the matches regex condition, which is also new (see Chapter 4.7, p. 143). Indicates the Internet page from which the survey was invoked. Contains the ID of the allocated quota (i.e. the quota selected via allocation mode). See Chapter 10.4.11, p. 463. Contains the IDs of all quotas in which the respective participant has been counted. See Chapter 10.4.11, p. 463. Indicates the sequence of invoked pages. Here, the page ID (pgid) located beside the individual pages in the questionnaire editor is used. As of EFS 7.0, the current state of questionnaire processing is minutely recorded in the page history, i.e. the variable page_history will show you the movements of the participants within the questionnaire up to the last viewed page. In earlier versions of EFS, the page history only allowed you to track the state of questionnaire processing until the last submission, i.e. the variable page_history contained the sequence of visited pages up to the last submitted page. Please note: If a real Back button is activated in the form, and a participant leaves a page using this Back button, this page will be removed from page history. Variable for horizontal flipping, see Chapter 5.11.5, p. 226: 0 = not flipped 1 = flipped Variable for vertical flipping, see Chapter 5.11.5, p. 226: 0 = not flipped 1 = flipped Only on installations with EFS Mobile Extension: This variable is filled when the option Dynamically switch output format of survey depending on browser used by the respondent? in the Project properties menu has been enabled. It indicates the output mode in which the survey has been completed. 0: HTML 1: XHTML 2: WML 3: Offline
user_agent
browser
browser-id
hflip
hflip
hflip
vflip
vflip
vflip
output_mode
output_mode
output mode
Table 13.2
534
Description jscript
Meaning Contains the result of the check for JavaScript, which can optionally be performed at the beginning of the survey (see Chapter 3.7.7, p. 80): 0 = JavaScript switched off Other = Version number (e.g. jscript = 10 for JavaScript 1.0, jscript = 15 for JavaScript 1.5) When working on an EFS Panel installation, please note that the JavaScript check in master data and panel surveys has not been available until the release of EFS 6.0. Therefore, in older installations, the value of the variable javascript is always 0 for these project types. Contains the result of the check for the Adobe Flash plugin, which can optionally be performed at the beginning of the survey (see Chapter 3.7.7, p. 80) and is required for the Flash question types: 0 = Flash plugin not availablef Other = Version number (e.g. flash = 800 for Flash plugin 8.0, flash = 900 for Flash plugin 9.0) Indicates the session ID the participant received during the survey. The language in which the respondent has seen the questionnaire. The numbers correspond to the language ID (identification number) of the languages used in the project (see Chapter 15.2.1, p. 573). With the wildcard #language# you can display the language ID in the questionnaire or in templates. This is particularly important for language-dependent layouts and special programming. Indicates if the individual record has been cleaned, see Chapter 13.11, p. 544: 0= uncleaned data records and records of incomplete interviews which are excluded from the cleaning process 1 = cleaned 2 = checked but did not require cleaning Date and time of the last access to the survey. Date and time of the first invitation mail sent to the participant. The variable is used for all project types which include invitation processes, i.e. personalized projects, panel surveys, master data surveys and employee surveys. In anonymous projects , it is not filled. Only in panel and master data surveys from EFS 7.1 onwards: ID of the sample that the panelists belong in. For the SPSS export, the codes are labeled with the sample titles. Please bear in mind that the extra column added in EFS 7.1 may change the sequence of other columns in the export data record. Indicates the time in seconds elapsed since 01/01/1970 until the request of the first page of the questionnaire). Date and time of survey start, i.e. the invoking of the first page of the questionnaire.
flash
flash
flash
session_id language
session_id language
session id language
datacleaning
cleaned
datacleaning
sid
sample_id
sid
ats datetime
535
13 Export
Meaning Time variables. These indicate the time in seconds elapsed since the ats until submission of the respective page. If the pgid (installation specific ID of a questionnaire page) is bigger than 99.999, the name of the variable is changed to ts_xxx, to prevent problems caused by the length of the variable name when exporting for SPSS. rts variables from non-standard pages can only be exported in projects that were created later than November 2004. If you would like to export rts variables to such a page from older projects, please contact Globalpark support. Random selected information. For each random selected block in the project, a variable rndPGID is created. PGID is the page-ID of the random-selected-page. In this variable, the PGIDs of the selected pages are stored, separated by commas. Random rotation information. For each random rotation block in the project, variables rnd_pg_PGID_NR are created. PGID is the page-ID of the random rotation page, NR is the number of randomized subpages. Each of these variables contains the PGID of that subpage which has been placed on the respective position in the current cycle. Example: The PGID of the random rotation page is 123, the subpages have PGID 124, 125 and 126. In the questionnaire, they are displayed to a participant in the following order: 126, 124, 125. Then, you will find the following data in the export file: r123_1 = 126, r123_2 = 124, r123_3 = 125
rnd_pg_PGID
rnd_pg_PGID
rnd_pg_PGID_x
rnd_pg_PGID_x
Table 13.2
13.8.2
-66
Table 13.3
536
Meaning Project variables of the v_000 type that refer to text fields: The participant saw the respective question, but did not respond to it. Prior to EFS 5.2 this missing was set if the participant had seen the page but not the respective question with the text field. System variable lastpage: The participants last page was the default last page of the survey.
Table 13.3
Preallocation of variables
You can specify the missing values in the export data records yourself. See Chapter 13.2.6, p. 527, for further information.
537
13 Export
13.9.2
13.9.3
538
In a live questionnaire never delete a question or answer option or amend a coding later on. Otherwise already encoded information will be lost or it will no longer be possible to assign it correctly. Filters and other features that refer back to variables and codings might also be damaged. Make all these changes prior to commencing with the survey: When compiling prior to survey commencement you can have variables that were deleted during preparation removed.
13.9.4
13.9.5
13.9.6
539
13 Export
Undoing changes
Changes to external variable names can be undone applying the Restore original variable names options.
540
13.10.1
Figure 13.2
The default templates of the Static template type cannot be changed or deleted. Even though it is possible to download these templates, the modified templates must then be uploaded under a different name, in a newly created user-defined template. Templates of the User-defined template type can be edited and deleted. The following icons are in the Action column: Upload definitions for template ...: This function is only available for user-defined templates you have created. You can use it to upload an edited definition file. Download template as CSV file: The downloaded file has the .csv file type. Download template as Excel file: The downloaded file has the .xls file type and can be edited in MS Excel. Save as new template: You can save the selected template as a new template, allowing you to download and edit it afterwards. View template: The export template will open in a table. Delete template.
13.10.2
541
13 Export
Figure 13.3
Position Width Alignment Ext. varname Description Quantum table name Question type Int. varname Data type Table 13.4
For user-defined templates, you will find that there are two additional buttons: Sort fields by position: Sorts the rows by the content of the Position column. Shrink column widths to width of actual data: This function is required for Fixed Format and Quantum exports.
542
13.10.3
Figure 13.4
In the next window, enter the name of the template and confirm by clicking on Save as new template. The new template of the User-defined template type will be created and displayed in the list of templates.
13.10.4
Figure 13.5
3. Click on the Upload definitions for template ... icon. Locate the definition file on your hard disk, and then confirm by clicking on Upload. Open the export template, and check the result. In the example shown, all variables after u_group were deactivated. You can use the buttons labeled Sort fields by position and Shrink column widths to width of actual data to edit the template further.
543
13 Export
13.10.5
544
case, the routing that the respondent took erroneously or for test purposes cannot be unambiguously identified. Action pages. Depot questions. EFS-side Back buttons. Please mind: browser-side Back buttons are not fully supported. If a respondent skips back several pages using the browser Back button first, and then skips forward several pages using the browser Forward button ignoring the system warning, these steps cannot be tracked and stored correctly. I.e. pages might be missing in page history, though valid data from these pages exist.
Random rotation branches, loops (see Chapter 7.4, p. 314) and conjoint blocks are not supported.
13.11.1
13.11.2
Figure 13.6
The General information area shows whether data cleaning has already been performed and how many records were processed.
545
13 Export
Status data cleaning in this project: Data cleaning is activated from the Project properties menu (see Chapter 13.11.1, p. 545). Number of cleaned records: The records that were changed during data cleaning. Number of data records that were checked but did not require cleaning: The records that would not be / are not affected in the event of data cleaning. Number of uncleaned records: If data cleaning has not taken place, this value will contain the uncleaned records. After data cleaning has taken place, all records that could not be checked and cleaned because the interviews were not completed remain in this field. If further questionnaires were filled out after a manual data cleaning, this value will be the total of all uncleaned records, as well as all records that were not checked during the manual data cleaning because the interviews were not completed.
Please note that data cleaning only takes completed interviews into consideration, i.e. records with status 31 or 32. In the Data cleaning for the whole project area, you can trigger or undo data cleaning: If you select Clean all data and then confirm by clicking on Execute, the cleaning operation will be triggered. If you select Recover all data and then confirm by clicking on Execute, the original state will be restored.
13.11.3
546
Figure 13.7
Display options
Number of datasets per page: If you enter the corresponding value and then confirm by clicking on Apply, you can change the number of records displayed on one page. Display only datasets with a particular variable: This search function identifies all records containing the given string. After entering the string, you can trigger the search by clicking on Apply. Display routemap: Ticking the checkbox and then clicking on Apply will show the so-called routemap in the log. The routemap is a comma-separated page list reflecting the participants valid route through the survey (see the Example section below). It is extracted from the page history (phistory is the variable used in the export record, page history is the label used in the SPSS export record).
547
13 Export
Example
A respondent takes the following route: 2101-> 2102-> 2103 (filter)->2104 (filtered question) -> back to 2102 -> change of answer in 2102 -> 2103 (filter) through the questionnaire shown. -> 2105
Figure 13.8
Sample questionnaire
The valid clickpath in the routemap is 2101 - 2102 - 2103 (filter) - 2105. Page 2104 is filtered and was no longer displayed after the change of the answer in 2102. In the data cleaning log, the data affected by the change in the clickpath are displayed in the Original column: dt_send_pg_2104='2004-06-24 11:21:33',v_3='1' dt_send_pg_2104='2004-06-24 11:21:33 = timestamp v_3='1': answer given by the respondent on page 2104 The Cleaned data column displays how these data are changed by cleaning: dt_send_pg_2104=NULL,v_3='-77' dt_send_pg_2104=NULL: The timestamp for page 2104 is set to zero. v_3='-77': The question on page 2104 is classified as a missing value because the respondent has not seen it on the second valid pass through the filter. The answer yes in the Cleaned column indicates that, in the example, data cleaning is activated for the project and the data have already been cleaned.
Figure 13.9
548
13.11.4
13.12.1
549
13 Export
not make any changes to the actual survey data, rather it expands the data record to include the variable quality. Quality correction should not be triggered when large surveys are being conducted simultaneously in the installation.
13.12.2
13.13 RelevantID
In quite a number of surveying scenarios, especially where there is an anonymous pool of participants, you may wish you were able to examine the participants more closely: System variables collected in the background and questionnaire entries may provide some information, but in many cases this is not sufficient to reliably identify and exclude duplicate participation or malicious manipulation. EFS supports an external validation of survey participants by the service provider Imperium, a market leader in digital watermarking and fingerprinting (http:// www.imperium.com/). Its RelevantID technology checks the participants origins and identities and identifies unwanted participants, i.e. participants from countries/regions/cities not allowed for the survey duplicate respondents. You can identify such participants by a marking in the data record and take appropriate measures, e.g. deleting duplicates or excluding data records from further evaluation. From EFS 8.0, RelevantID will also provide various additional information on the participants which you can use to validate their input. The RelevantID check is optionally available for a special charge. This charge is based on the number of requests sent to RelevantID at the start of each survey. If you are interested in this function, please get in touch with your Globalpark sales contact or with Globalpark Support. If you operate a panel, you can use the EFS-integrated duplicates check to automatically identify any new registrations that are very likely to come from already-registered panelists. See EFS Panel 8.0, Chapter 6.6.2. Using a blacklist, you can bar participants with specific IP address ranges from registering and thus from participating in the panel. See EFS Panel 8.0, Chapter 9.6.
550
13.13 RelevantID
The RelevantID check is available in anonymous and personalized surveys, panel surveys, and master data surveys. The RelevantID service cannot be used for the project type employee survey. Survey runs in preview mode and automatic participations generated with the Project test do not trigger the calling up of the RelevantID service. RelevantID checking occurs at the start of the survey. This means: A number of redirect operations are required at the start of the survey, which may slow down the starting process considerably. If a personalized project, a panel survey or master data survey is resumed on the start page, the RelevantID check will be repeated. When resuming on the followingi pages, the check will not be repeated. If an anonymous project with cookies is resumed on the start page, the check will be repeated, too. When resuming on the followingi pages, the check will not be repeated. Without cookies, participants cannot be identified as resuming in principle, therefore the check will always be repeated. If you reset with deleting data in a personalized project, a panel survey or master data survey, the respective participants will be checked anew. If participants cannot start the survey at all, no RelevantID check will be executed. This might, for example, happen due to project status no further participations or if participants are allocated disposition code 41 or 42 because they match a filled external quota.
RelevantID checking can only be performed when the participants have activated JavaScript and when the JavaScript check of EFS Survey has been activated (see Chapter 3.7.7, p. 80). If JavaScript is not active, the check cannot be performed and the RelevantID variables remain at the default value -77. Furthermore, the participants browsers have to be compatible with JavaScript. Otherwise, the participants may see JavaScript error messages. In theory, it is possible for survey participants with programming skills to manipulate the process by decompressing and decoding the RelevantID source code or by manipulating the transferred data. To execute the RelevantID check, EFS must be able to connect to the RelevantID server. If this is not possible, e.g. because the RelevantID server is not available for a few minutes due to maintenance works, so far the participants were not able ito participate in the survey. In spring 2011, this behavior has been changed retroactively in EFS 7.0, 7.1 and 8.0. From now on, at the start of the survey, EFS will wait if the RelevantID server responds - if it does not respond, the participant will be allowed to pass and to complete the survey anyway. If delays of the server response have offurred for four participants in a six minute interval, the check will be deactivated and during the next six minutes, all participants can access the survey without delay. Afterwards, the availability check cycle will start anew. Please pay special attention to your companys applicable privacy regulations and to the privacy regulations governing the respective survey.
13.13.1
551
13 Export
participant counts as a duplicate when he has already participated in the same survey (either with the same invitation code or link, or with a different code). Checking for country, region, or city is done by comparing the participants IP address against a RelevantView IP address database. The checking algorithms are the property of RelevantView. Globalpark neither has any access to details nor any influence on the methodology used.
13.13.2
Check Results
The results of the RelevantID check are recorded in user-defined variables, which you can create and select yourself when configuring the project (Chapter 13.13.3, p. 553).
Geo IP verification
Depending on the check result, the selected variable contains the following values: 0: invalid geo IP, i.e. the participant is participating from a country/region/city not allowed for the current project. 1: valid geo IP, i.e. the participant is participating from a country/region/city expressly allowed for the current project. 2: other -77: default missing which is used if the check cannot be executed. This may happen, for example, if the Globalpark Web Service cant establish a connection to the RelevantView server or if the participants have deactivated JavaScript.
FraudProfileScore
A score indicating the probability of fraud as a number between 0 and 100. A higher score indicates a higher level of confidence that there is fraudulent activity. For details on the calculation, please contact RelevantView. This score is available in EFS since version 8.0.
552
13.13 RelevantID
Additional information
From EFS 8.0, RelevantID returns additional information (country, region, city, domain) which can be used for validation as well.
13.13.3
Figure 13.10
553
13 Export
554
555
556
14
14.1.1
557
Figure 14.1
3. Optionally, you can select various additional information and activate their display by clicking on Save settings, see Chapter 14.1.2, p. 558. 4. In multilingual projects, you can specify the language and confirm your selection by clicking on Save settings. 5. Use the Print function of your browser to print the questionnaire.
14.1.2
558
Show triggers Show plausibility checks Disable randomization Hide internal links: Usually, the page ID is displayed as a clickable link to the page view of the questionnaire editor, in addition to that the L link allows you to switch directly to the language editor. If necessary, you can hide these links. Print questionnaire only: Usually, the sections Display options and Information on survey x are included when printing the questionnaire. If necessary, these sections may be excluded from printing.
14.2.1
559
Figure 14.3
An excerpt from the codebook. Various additional options are hidden under the [+] icons.
It lists the question texts and answer options for each page of the questionnaire, along with the variable names (e.g. v_1) data type (see Table 14.1) and the various characteristics (codes, e.g. 1-4). In the upper part of the codebook, you will find several fields containing additional options which allow you to show further information, change the language of text elements displayed, edit variables and export the codebook. These fields can be displayed or hidden by clicking the [+] and [-] icons. The features will be explained in more detail in the following Chapters 14.2.2, p. 561 to 14.2.5, p. 562.
560
14.2.2
Figure 14.4
14.2.3
561
14.2.4
14.2.5
Figure 14.5
562
563
14.5.1
Archiving Projects
If you want to archive several projects at once, please proceed as follows: 1. Search for the appropriate projects in the project list and use the Actions checkboxes to mark them. 2. Select the action Archive projects. 3. Click on the Execute button. 4. After a confirmation window, all data for the selected projects will be backed up from the database, compressed into downloadable zip files and then deleted from the database. The archived projects with their zip files will be listed in the Projects ->Archive menu. Alternatively, if you want to archive a single project, you can proceed as follows: 1. Find the project to be archived in the project list and click on the title, in order to be taken to the Survey menu. 2. Click on the links in the To-do field until the Archive link is displayed. 3. Click on the Archive link. 4. After a confirmation window, all data for the project will be backed up from the database, compressed into the downloadable zip file and then deleted from the database. The archived project with the zip file will be listed in the Archive submenu.
14.5.2
564
Please note: The downloaded data is not a backup copy of the entire project, and cannot be viewed outside of EFS Survey or recreated using an import function. File upload: This icon becomes visible, when the zip file with the result data has been deleted (for example in the above figure in the project Website Check). If the zip file was saved externally, then this icon enables you to upload again. Pay careful attention that you upload the correct file, otherwise reactivation of the project will not be possible. Should you upload the wrong zip file, delete it first by clicking on the Delete button, and then upload the correct file. Reactivating: See Chapter 14.5.3, p. 565.
14.5.3
565
566
15 Multilingual Projects
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 Tips for Your Project Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571 Specifying and Editing General Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . 572 Centrally Editing Text Elements and Logos. . . . . . . . . . . . 578 Setting Up a Language Selection Question . . . . . . . . . . . 585 E-Mail Dispatch from Participant Administration . . . . . . . 586 Export. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587 Evaluation of Multilingual Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587 Tips, Tricks and FAQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588
567
568
15
Multilingual Projects
EFS enables you to create multilingual surveys in a single project and centrally access the questionnaire pages in the various languages. The following options are available: You can create any number of languages in one project. Language administration and language editor allow you to centrally edit the various language areas of your project. The language in which a participant sees the questionnaire can be determined during the interview by means of a language selection question, or defined in advance using information from URL parameters, participant administration or panel master data. You can instruct the system to display different logos corresponding to the questionnaires in the various languages. The language in which a respondent has completed the questionnaire will be saved to the record in a special variable. This language variable can be used as a filter, i.e. certain questions will only be displayed if a respondent has selected a certain language. By defining hiding conditions depending on the language variable, further variations between the questionnaires can be realized. The field report can be configured to display only the results for interviews in a specific language. The optionally leasable EFS Translator Interface provides additional support for the translation of questionnaires in large international projects. Your translation service providers can use it to access all the EFS features that are used in the translation of questionnaires, such as the language editor and the external editing function. You can download a manual for translators using this tool in customer center. For more detailed information please contact your Globalpark sales representative. The following topics will be explained in the next chapters: Tips for your project planning (Chapter 15.1, p. 571) Managing general properties of multilingual projects (Chapter 15.2, p. 572) Centrally editing text elements and logos (Chapter 15.3, p. 578) Language selection question with question type 111 (Chapter 15.4, p. 585) E-mail dispatch from participant administration (Chapter 15.5, p. 586) Export and evaluation of multilingual surveys (Chapters 15.6, p. 587, and 15.7, p. 587) Tips, tricks and FAQ (Chapter 15.8, p. 588)
569
15 Multilingual Projects
the title of the project the titles of questionnaire pages the titles of questions This is irrelevant for the respondents who complete the questionnaire, as this information is for internal use only and does not appear in the questionnaire. However, during project preparation, it is advisable to consider in which language the titles of questionnaires and questions should be entered, in order to make the evaluation easier for the project team: If the data are, for example, to be evaluated by an international team in the admin area after the survey, it would be helpful for the staff if all this information were in English. It is also possible to number the pages and questions. If evaluation is performed outside EFS using an evaluation program such as SPSS, the data can be subsequently re-labeled. The title editor allows you to subsequently change the page and question names of a project without much effort. See Chapter 6.7, p. 287.
3. Character sets
The EFS admin area is coded in UTF-8. In addition, since version 4.0 all newly created projects are also set by default to the UTF-8 character set. This makes it possible for you to carry out multilingual surveys in every language in the world with only one character set. Alternatively there are a number of other character sets that you can choose from (see Table 3.17). Globalpark recommends the use of the UTF-8 in general, this is true in particular with surveys that otherwise would require several character sets. Further information on character sets can be found in Chapter 3.7.17, p. 100.
570
up-to-date Office Suite and, if necessary, current versions of the operating system extensions installed, the administration of surveys in complex languages (e.g. Chinese) is possible. However, there is no rule without an exception. If anomalies occur while working with the multilingual module, e.g. characters cannot be correctly represented, please also check the other software components you are using, or work with alternative PCs, browsers or tools.
Is it advisable for your project to manually insert the text elements in the various languages in the questionnaire, or is it more convenient to use the function for external editing? If, for example, the texts for your multilingual questionnaire are to be created by an international team of translators, it is more convenient if each translator enters the texts for their language into an Excel file exported from EFS which can then subsequently be saved in CSV format and imported into EFS. For tips on external editing, see Chapter 6.6, p. 280.
Does the use of EFS Translator Interface make sense for your project? As of EFS 6.0, the optionally leasable EFS Translator Interface provides additional support for the translation of questionnaires in large international projects. Your translation service providers can use it to access all the EFS features that are used in the translation of questionnaires, such as the language editor and the external editing function. You can download a manual for translators using this tool in customer center. For more detailed information please contact your Globalpark sales representative.
What is the composition of the project team that is going to program the questionnaire and perform evaluation? If an international work group is to create the questionnaire in the admin area and evaluate it after the project has been completed, unchangeable data (titles of questionnaire pages and questions) should perhaps be entered in English from the very beginning or numbered. This is irrelevant for respondents viewing the questionnaire, as they will not see this information.
571
15 Multilingual Projects
15.1.2
572
Figure 15.1
15.2.1
573
15 Multilingual Projects
Print: Opens a view of the questionnaire in the respective language optimized for printing. Rights: Opens the dialog for assigning read or write rights for the respective language to particular user teams in a targeted manner. Delete: The respective language will be deleted after a confirmation prompt. Caution: Once you delete a language, all text elements and other settings of this language will be deleted and cannot be restored. Deleting a language will also cause errors in settings already made for the language selection question and language selection variable, as well as for language information entered in participant administration. The ID of the deleted language will no longer be subsequently re-assigned. If you re-create the same language, it will be assigned a new language ID. You can use the View button to hide particular columns of the table or limit the number of rows.
15.2.2
15.2.3
Creating Languages
1. Click on the Create language button. 2. In the label field, assign a name to the new language. 3. Optionally, you can initialize the new language with phrases from an already existing language. To do so, specify your desired source language in the field Copy language phrases from. 4. Assign a language identifier to the new language. 5. Finally, confirm by clicking on Save.
15.2.4
574
The copy function is useful if, for example, many answer categories are identical and do not require translation, e.g. if questions concern products that are marketed internationally or the names of music artists and song titles.
15.2.5
575
15 Multilingual Projects
wants to save his or her changes to the German-language questionnaire. However, while saving, the changes will not be entered in the originally set default language of German, but will instead overwrite the English text elements. In order to avoid such overlapping, the change function will be blocked for all users after a change of the default language, and the Activate language button will no longer appear.
Figure 15.2 Language selection blocker from the perspective of the staff member who triggered it and can unblock language selection
Only the staff member who last made the change as well as staff with root rights will now see a button labeled Enable language selection instead of the Activate language button, and can unblock language selection by clicking on this button. The blocker remains active until the user who made the change logs out or their session ends. After language selection has been unblocked or the last users session has ended, the default language can be changed again by any staff member. You want to change the default language, but the language selection blocker is active. How are you now supposed to find out which staff member last triggered the blocker and is thus also responsible for unblocking language selection? This information is also displayed in language administration, in the Language selection log section (see Chapter 15.2.7, p. 578).
15.2.6
576
Personalized projects: The standard variables in participant administration with the exception of c_date and m_date, and all additionally created participant variables as well as URL parameters. If you would like to use a participant variable especially for saving language information, then use the standard variable u_language which was introduced especially for this purpose. Panel and master data surveys: Participant data, master data, system data and URL parameters. You cannot set the language via a language selection variable if you are using a static start page. Another way of pre-setting the language is to create a language selection question. See Chapter 15.4, p. 585, for further information.
Figure 15.3
2. Confirm your entry by clicking on Save. 3. Switch to Participant administration. 4. If you select the Add participant button, you will find that the data item that was defined as the language variable (in the example shown below, the language version stored in u_language) can no longer be freely entered but only selected via a drop-down list.
Figure 15.4 In this example, the data in the language version field are used as the language selection variable. They can be set via a drop-down list.
577
15 Multilingual Projects
5. Now proceed entering or importing the participant data as usual (see Chapter 10.2.6, p. 423 and 10.2.7, p. 424). Please note: If the participant data were entered before setting the language variable, the drop-down list will automatically be completed and set to the default language. Then, it is necessary to add the language data for the participants. Therefore it is strongly recommended to configure languages and participant variables before adding participant data.
15.2.7
15.3.1
578
Figure 15.5
All text elements in the text element editor which have been filled in the default language should be filled in the additional languages, too. I.e. the pages of the default language will always be marked OK. Until all the text elements of an additional language have been completed in the text element editor, the table will output the Edit message for the respective page. Once all the text elements of a language have been completed, the table will output the OK message for the respective page. You can click on the OK and Edit messages and switch directly to the appropriate page of the text element editor, the functions of which will be described below. Once you have configured this according to the instructions given in the next section, you can start entering the translated text elements. Please note that the list of translation to-dos will only indicate whether or not a text element is filled with text it is not possible to check automatically whether the text is in the correct language and has been translated correctly. Also, this list does not indicate whether survey messages and wildcards have already been translated or whether translated logos or form elements have been uploaded (see Chapters 15.3.3, p. 582, and 15.3.4, p. 583).
15.3.2
579
15 Multilingual Projects
Figure 15.6
580
Figure 15.7
581
15 Multilingual Projects
You can select languages for editing. By default, when you open the language element editor for the first time, it will display the default language and the second set-up language. For projects in three to four languages, it is advisable to display the text elements in all languages simultaneously. By contrast, for projects with a dozen or more languages, it may be more advisable not to show all the languages simultaneously but to edit the respective text elements successively or in groups. When you have completed the text elements on one questionnaire page, you can click on the Arrow icons in the top right corner of the window to navigate to the text elements of the previous or next questionnaire page.
Figure 15.8
15.3.3
582
The right-hand column shows the text elements in the target language. They can be changed as desired. If the desired survey language should be coded with character sets other than the international character set UTF-8, then you should set up the appropriate character sets in the field character sets. Further information on this topic can be found in Chapter 3.7.17, p. 100.
15.3.4
583
15 Multilingual Projects
Figure 15.9
584
the form elements for the default language according to the instructions given in Chapter 8.3.4, p. 358. After that, you can upload the form elements of the other survey languages according to the instructions given above for logos, using the language editors Logos and form elements tab.
Figure 15.10
Please note that you can only create one language selection question in a multilingual project. Once you create a second language selection question within the same project, the first one will lose its function. Moreover, inside titles, grouping, randomization, manual definition of new columns and setting missing values cannot be used for language selection questions.
585
15 Multilingual Projects
5. Among the options, you will find a new checkbox labeled Use question as language selection. Tick this checkbox.
Figure 15.11
6. Save your changes. 7. After saving, you will no longer see the usual answer options, but a drop-down list containing the project languages that have already been created.
Figure 15.12
8. Select the first language and save. 9. Repeat the operation for the other existing languages. 10. After saving, you can change the text of the answer category. For example, you can replace the English titles with the words English, Deutsch and Francais. Via the text element editor, you can also create multilingual text elements.
586
15.6 Export
meet certain criteria and combinations of criteria, and then write to these participants collectively. To select participants whose language was defined via a language selection variable, select the appropriate characteristics in the Language version drop-down list.
15.6 Export
15.6.1 Exporting Result Data for Evaluation in SPSS
When exporting the projects result data for evaluation with SPSS, you can specify in which language you wish to output the questionnaire texts. See Chapter 13.2.5, p. 526, for an explanation. The one language that cannot be changed is the language in which the titles of questionnaire pages and of questions will be output. However, evaluation programs such as SPSS allow you to re-label these data after the data export.
15.6.2
587
15 Multilingual Projects
15.7.2
15.7.3
15.8.2
588
Anonymous survey
If your project begins with a language selection question, you can enter it via the questionnaire preview or the URL and test all available language areas in succession. If you enter the survey via pre-defined URL parameters, you will also access the corresponding language area.
Personalized survey
If, for a personalized survey, you specify the language of the data displayed via information in participant administration, it is recommended that you construct accounts for test persons and visit the questionnaire using their codes. If you activate the language changing function described in Chapter 9.6, p. 397, you can switch directly back and forth between the various languages.
15.8.3
15.8.4
15.8.5
15.8.6
15.8.7
589
15 Multilingual Projects
15.8.8
15.8.9
Can I access the ID of the current language from the questionnaire or from templates?
With the wildcard #language# you can display the ID of the language currently used by the participant. This is particularly important for language-dependent layouts and special programming.
590
16 Administrating Staff
16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 The EFS Rights System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593 Creating and Managing Teams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605 Setting up and Managing Staff Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 610 Changing Own Account Data and Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . 617
591
592
16
Administrating Staff
This chapter explains the staff administration. In Chapter 16.1, p. 593, you are introduced to the rights system of EFS. If you are in charge of a large survey project or even an entire EFS installation, this rights system allows you to control the access of staff to information and functions in a very precise manner. Chapter 16.2, p. 605 tells you how to create teams and how to configure their access rights. Chapter 16.3, p. 610 explains how to create new staff accounts and how to assign them to the appropriate teams. In Chapter 16.4, p. 617, you learn how you can customize the functions of EFS to your personal working habits to a certain extent. Staff administration is protected by its own set of rights. With restricted rights, you can only change your password and configure the settings for your account. Table 16.4 provides a detailed list of rights related to staff administration.
16.1.1
593
16 Administrating Staff
The configuration of the teams reflects the respective rights and responsibilities of entire staff groups with identical responsibilities. Staff members can be members of several teams. The ACL rights of his teams are added up, i.e. he may access all information and functions that at least one of his teams has access to. If, for example, one of his teams holds write rights for ct42partadm, i.e. it can create participants in the participant administration, while another of his team has only read rights, he can create participants. With regard to individual objects, he also has the widest access that is configured for one of his teams, i.e. if one of his teams holds write rights for project x while another team only has read rights, he has write rights.
Each staff member belongs to one primary team. The primary team is always automatically granted read and write rights for projects created by this staff member. In new projects created by this staff member, the survey URL contains the name of the primary team.
In new EFS installations, teams reflecting the most frequently required staff roles have been created and preconfigured by default. These roles includes: Project manager: The project manager is responsible for conducting survey projects. However, he generally requires no access to panel administration functions and often has no access to staff administration, either. Panel administrator: In EFS installations, the panel administrator is mainly responsible for panel administration. He may also be in charge of the CMS and the panel community. System administrator: This role is reserved for support operations by Globalpark. It contains special functions which, if applied incorrectly, can cause damage to the system.
16.1.2
Object rights: EFS allows for the precise control of the access to a number of individual objects. An object may be a particular project, a layout template, or a set of survey messages. With object rights you can define which team is entitled to view, use, or edit the respective object. Object rights are also granted to staff teams. Object rights are not assigned in the staff administration, but directly via the respective object. For example, object rights for projects are assigned via the
594
project list, see Chapter 3.5.8, p. 68. The dialog for assigning rights is usually called up via a Rights link or a Rights icon. Object rights also include read and write rights. Read rights usually grant passive access to information, while write rights permit the active use of functions.
16.1.3
With write rights, you can change the URL of a project (Chapter 3.7.3, p. 77). With write rights, you can create a new language. With write rights, you can create or copy new projects. With write rights, you can create, edit or delete participants.
del_project export_with_lfdn For personalized projects, the [Project]-> Export->Address and result data option is visible. With read rights, you can access and use the combined export of participant and result data in personalized surveys. You can also view the combined data in the menu Statistics->Detail view. With read rights, you can use the monitoring mode in personalized surveys, employee surveys, panel surveys and master data surveys (Chapter 10.2.17, p. 436). With read rights, you can print the survey. With read rights, you can view and export the results of protected questions (Chapter 12.8, p. 511). With read rights, you can access the option Reset without deleting survey data in participant administration (Table 10.6).
With write rights, you can assign the status erasable to projects.
monitor_mode
print_survey protect_questions
r_without_deleting
Table 16.1
595
16 Administrating Staff
(cont.)Right show_dispcode
Read
Write
With read rights, you can view and export the disposition code of survey participants. In a personalized survey, the disposition code is shown in participant administration. In a panel survey, it is shown in the respective sample on the tab Sample contents. With read rights, you can access the Export menu of specific projects.
show_export
Table 16.1
mail_attachment
mail_cc
mail_passwords
mail_reply
Table 16.2
596
(cont.)Right options
Read With read rights, you can access the menu Options->Mail templates->Mail senders. See Chapter 11.4, p. 486.
Write
Table 16.2
config_fieldreport
With read rights, you can restrict field report, online statistics and open-ended answers to a variable which you can define yourself (Configuration button in the respective menus). With read rights, you can access the data cleaning. This right is new in EFS 7.1. During the upgrade, it will be allocated to all teams which have write rights for at least one project. With write rights, you can edit the result data (Chapter 12.6.4, p. 509). With read rights, you can export the participants' access code in the respondent export on EFS Survey Status. With read rights, you can activate the determination of hostname and IP address for a project. You can access the hostnames and IP addresses of survey participants in the menu Statistics->Detail view and via export. Furthermore, you can change your own preferences for hostname determination in new projects. Please also refer to the notes on the availability of hostnames and IP addresses in Chapter 3.7.8, p. 81. With read rights, you can use quality correction (Menu Statistics-> Quality correction). With read rights, you can delete the results for selected survey variables for individual or for all participants (Menu Statistics-> Detail view and Statistics-> Delete data). With read rights, you can access the open-ended answers (Menu Statistics->Open-ended answers).
data_cleaning
detail_view_edit export_code
ip_addresses
quality_correction
report_erase_data
report_onlinerep
Table 16.3
597
16 Administrating Staff
(cont.)Right
Read
Write
report_onlinereport report_onlinestat
With read rights, you can access the EFS Survey reporting tool. With read rights, you can access the submenu Online statistics in the menu Statistics. With write rights, you can access EFS Reporting +. With read rights, you can access the participants survey results (Menu Statistics->Detail view). With read rights you can view the field report (menu Statistics). If the employee has neither this nor one of the rights report_erase_data, report_onlinerep, report_onlinereport, report_onlinestat and report_testdata which are described above, then the link to the Statistics menu will be hidden. If he does not have this right but one of the rights named above, then the field report graphics will be hidden and he will be directly switched to the corresponding submenu. With read rights, you can split field report and online statistics.
report_reporting report_testdata
report_view_fieldrep
The Rights of the team (whole system) link is displayed. With write rights, you can assign or change the access rights to the area EFS Secure Exchange. With write rights, you can assign or change the access rights to the area EFS Mobile GUI. With write rights, you can assign or change the access rights to the area EFS Survey Status. With write rights, you can assign or change the access rights to the area EFS Translator Interface. With write rights, you can assign or change the access rights to the EFS admin area.
cr_area_mobile_gui
cr_area_report
cr_area_translations
cr_area_www
Table 16.4
598
Read
Write
With write rights, you can create new staff accounts. With read rights, you can view all teams, including teams you are not a member of. With write rights, you can edit teams (except the team System Administrator) and assign object rights (e.g. for projects, project languages, reports etc.) to all teams. Furthermore, you can edit the account data of members. When you create a new project and have write rights, you can assign all existing teams to it, and not only the teams that you are a member of. With write rights, you can administrate all staff members of your own organization (e.g. create accounts, edit account data or delete accounts). With write rights, you can edit the accounting organizations on this installation in the Staff->Organizations menu. Additionally, you can change the assignment of staff members and projects to organizations.
org_groupadmin
With read rights, you can access the account data of your own organizations staff members.
orgadmin
Table 16.4
Access rights
Right create_macro
Read Write
With write rights, you can define new macros and assign the rights to execute them. With write rights, you can create new folders for the project list. See Chapter 3.5.6, p. 65. With read rights, you can view the history of the exchange platform. With read rights, you can access the platform cockpit (menu Options->Platform cockpit). Only on installations on which the receipt functionalities are activated (special programming): With read rights, you have access to the receipt admin. With read rights, you can access the field overview in the Projects module. Furthermore, if you want to authorize staff to access reports or automated exports via EFS Survey Status, these read rights are required as well, in addition to read rights for the respective report or export file. With write rights, you can create exchange teams.
create_project_cat
exchange_teams platform_cockpit
receipt_admin
reportlist
Table 16.5
Access rights
599
16 Administrating Staff
Read
Write
With read rights, you can access the scale library. With write rights, you can activate and configure web services. With read rights, you can see the active users in the system. With write rights, you can also see which parts of the software the users are currently working in.
Table 16.5
Access rights
With write rights, you can administrate categories for ways of entry in the panel.
panel_add_account
panel_config
panel_update_rule
Table 16.6
600
(cont.)Right panelbonus
Read
Write
With read rights for this ACL right newly introduced in EFS 7.1, you can access the Bonus system menu.
With write rights, you can grant bonus points to individual panelists or panelist groups. Depending on the menu in which you want to grant the bonus points, you might need additional rights, e.g. access rights for the Panelists administration or for the Groups menu. With write rights, you can send mails and you have access to the panels contact request list (Panel-> Contacts).
panelemail
panelexport panelgrat
With read rights, you can export panelists. With read rights, you can access the prize draw system and create prize draws. With read rights, you can access the group administration of the panel (Menu Panel->Groups). With write rights, you can import panelists. Until EFS 7.0, read rights were needed for granting bonus points to the members of a panel group. From EFS 7.1, this function is controlled by the new right panelbonus. With read rights, you can run tella-friend campaigns. With read rights, you have access to the statistics of the master data. With read rights, you can view panel information after logging in. Without these rights, only information on active projects will be displayed. To gain access to the menus Website log and Session statistics, you need additional read rights for panelstats. With write rights, you can administer the conditions and codes for the PCI calculation in the Panel configuration ->PCI configuration menu. With read rights, you can access the menu Panel->Panel configuration->Ways of entry. With read rights, you can access and edit existing samples in panel survey. With write rights, you can create additional samples. With write rights, you can access the Panel->Master data menu.
panelgrp_admin
panelimport panelmasterdata
pci_admin
reg_code
sample_access
Table 16.6
601
16 Administrating Staff
Read
Write
With read rights, you can create new languages in the panel CMS. With read rights, you can administer forums.
With write rights, you can also create add new websites. With write rights, you can export the posts of a forum. With write rights, you can enter the module Website, which contains the Panel CMS.
With read rights you can edit the panel news. With read rights, you can administer panelist blogs. With read rights, you can administer chats. You need both read and write rights to access the panel CMS. With read rights, you can publish pages and set pages offline in the panel CMS. With read rights, you can check websites and language versions for common issues in the panel CMS. With read rights, you can export the content of panel websites in Excel files. With write rights, you can import modified content back into the Panel CMS. With write rights, you can administer download lists. With write rights, you can access the media library of the panel to view existing media or upload new media. With write rights, you can manage bonuses, bonus categories and voucher code lists in the module Website. With read rights, you can administer discussions. With write rights, you can export the posts of a discussion. With write rights, you can edit the panel website directly in the preview. With read rights, you can administer quick polls. Write read rights, you can administer external feed subscriptions. With write rights, you can export quick polls. With write rights, you can export the posts of a blog. With write rights, you can export the posts of a chat. You need both read and write rights to access the panel CMS. With write rights, you can activate and deactivate websites and language versions.
panel_cms_tests
panel_incentive
602
Read
Write
With read rights, you can access the website forms. With read rights, you can access the website messages. With read rights, you can access the website wildcards.
export_ppasswd panel_email_bonus
panel_email_ contacts
panel_email_export
panel_email_search
Table 16.8
603
16 Administrating Staff
Lesen With read rights, you can view the e-mail addresses of panelists in a panel or master data surveys detail view statistics. With read rights, you can export the e-mail addresses of panelists with the survey results export. With read rights, you can view the e-mail addresses of panelists in the community content menus of the panel website. With read rights, you can see the passwords of panelists. Furthermore, you can access panelist codes and login links and generate new panelist codes.
Schreiben
panel_email_survey
panel_email_ website
show_ppasswd
Table 16.8
604
Only in installations with EFS Survey Status: area_report Only in installations with EFS Translator Interface: area_translations area_www Table 16.10 Access rights to areas
With write rights, you can access the EFS admin area.
16.1.4
605
16 Administrating Staff
Without this ACL right you see your primary team and all other teams you are a member in, regardless of whether you are a simple member or the owner. Select a team to change this teams ACL rights (groupadmin ACL right required). view a list of members. configure the internal team structure.
16.2.2
Status
Description
Owner
To receive the highest ranking status of owner, you must either create your own team, or another owner must assign a team to you. As an owner you can: add members to your team delete members delete the team change team information display the list of members in your team or team resources. As an owner, you may not leave your team. This is only possible once you have abandoned team leadership, i.e. the status owner, and have become a normal member. With the status admin, you can execute all owner functions, except the deletion of team and individual members. Anyone with the member status can leave the team at anytime. They can also view the list of member and the list of team resources. Statuses of team members
16.2.3
Creating Teams
With the groupadmin ACL right, you can create and configure new teams. 1. Switch to the Staff->Teams menu. 2. Click on the Create team button.
606
Figure 16.1
Creating a team
3. The following details are required: Team name: This is used in surveys in the standard URL. If you create a team entitled Test account for student interns, projects for members of this team will be created under the URL http://www.mydomain.com/sc/ Test_account_for_student_interns/something/. As umlauts and blank spaces are not permitted in URLs, EFS automatically replaces impermissible characters upon team creation. Team title: Internal name. Description: Serves internal purposes as well.
4. When creating a new team, you can define the owner. You have a choice of yourself as the creating administrator and the team Administrator. 5. Assign access rights to the desired areas of EFS to the new team. It will then receive write rights to the corresponding area rights, see Table 16.10. 6. In the drop-down list Rights template, you can select a user-defined rights template. By default no rights template has been selected. 7. A list of the teams you have created is displayed under the caption Which teams shall receive free access to the new team?. If you grant an existing team access to the new team, the existing team will see the new team in staff administration. 8. Click on the Create team button to confirm the operation. Now you have created a new team that moreover does not have any members and no ACL rights (except those for areas defined in step 4), unless you did not expressly choose any in step 5. Your next steps are to: Create accounts and assign them to this team as a primary group. Configure the ACL rights of the team. Change owner of the team, in case one of the newly created employees should be owner of the team.
16.2.4
Editing Teams
You can edit all teams in which you have owner status. Choose Staff->Teams and click on a team name in the list.
607
16 Administrating Staff
Figure 16.2
Editing teams
General meta information on the team, such as creation date, total number of members and owners. Special function: Notify team via e-mail. Depending on the status within the team, either all or some functions will be displayed: Add members Delete team Change team info Change ownership Leave team E-mail Who is currently a member of the team? What are the rights of this team in EFS? (ACL rights)
List of members Rights of the team (whole system) Table 16.12 Editing teams
608
Adding members
Click on the Add members button in the detail view of your selected team. A list of staff in the system appears from which you can select new members. If you wish to add a certain staff member to your team, you can easily locate them using the Search function above the list of members. Once located, select the staff member by ticking the checkbox in the Add column. Now just click on the Add member button to add the staff member to your team. Members added are initially assigned the status Member.
Deleting teams
To delete a team you must have owner rights (Staff->List of teams->{Selected team} ->Delete team). This deletes all team members from the team. The team cannot be restored. Deleting a team does not necessarily delete the pertinent account. An account is only deleted if the staff member is no longer a member of any other team after the team has been deleted.
Transferring leadership
To change leadership for a team, navigate to Staff->Teams->{Selected team} ->Change ownership. To do so, you must have the owner status in the team. You are thus transferring the leadership to another team member. It is irrelevant whether this person is an admin or a simple member in your team. As an owner may not leave their team, you must transfer leadership if you wish leave your own team.
Leaving teams
The Leave team function removes you from the list of members for the selected team. You may not leave the team if you are the team owner. You must first Change owner.
609
16 Administrating Staff
16.2.5
16.2.6
16.3.1
Staff List
In the menu Staff->Staff you will find a list of all accounts created in the system.
610
The following information is displayed for each account: Account name: Name: The content of this field is composed of the separate fields First name and Name. The most important address data of an employee Failed attempts to login: Number of consecutive failed login attempts. Brute force protection until: After a defined number of consecutive failed login attempts, the account will be blocked automatically for likewise a defined period. See Chapter 16.3.7, p. 615. Logins: Number of logins made by the employee. This counting takes place only as of the date of the update. Last login: Date of the last login. Member of the following teams: All of the teams that the employee belongs to. Login expiry date: With limited time accounts, the date when the login expires will be displayed. The account can be used up until the day before expiration. Can login? If a login has expired or it has been deactivated by brute force protection, then a red lamp will be displayed. If you are missing information, open the dialog for changing the display by clicking on View and activate the desired column. You have the following editing options: By clicking on the account name, you can open the detail view of an employee and for example view information on team affiliation and available rights (the information detail page lists ACL rights as well as rights to layouts). By clicking on the login expiry date, you open a dialog, in which you can change the login expiry date and the password expiry date. Furthermore, from EFS 7.1,
611
16 Administrating Staff
you can deactivate the login, i.e. block a staff member from accessing EFS. If blocked staff members try to log in, they will be asked to contact the person responsible for the EFS installation. Clicking on the Send password icon opens the dialog for sending an e-mail containing a link for setting a new password. See Chapter 16.3.6, p. 615. You can delete accounts that have not yet expired and are not owner of a team.
16.3.2
5. Select the team to which the new staff member should be added. The team affiliation defines the rights of the staff members (Chapter 16.1, p. 593). 6. Select the staff members primary team. Among other things, the primary team is always automatically granted read and write rights for projects created by this staff member. 7. The Organization field indicates to which accounting organization the new staff member belongs. If the wrong organization is indicated, please contact the person responsible for the installation. If you hold the right orgadmin, you can alter the accounting organization yourself.
8. Choose the expiry date of the account. See Chapter 16.3.4, p. 614 for further information regarding time restriction of accounts. 9. You can optionally select the time zone to be displayed in the Local date field of the left-hand menu.
612
Figure 16.4
10. You may store additional information in the section Additional data. 11. Define the next editing steps: You can have the password displayed on the next page, e.g. in order to copy it to a notification mail. If you wish to add more accounts afterwards, tick the corresponding checkbox: Only then will a blank Create staff account form be opened directly.
12. Confirm by clicking on Create account. 13. The account will be created. Please note: Account names and e-mail addresses of employees must be clear. In the case that an account name or an e-mail address is already being used by another employee, a corresponding error message will be displayed.
16.3.3
613
16 Administrating Staff
In order to use this function, you need write rights to cr_teamaccount. Please proceed as follows to perform the import:
The first row of the CSV file may optionally contain the column headings.
16.3.4
614
unwittingly. At the same time this standardization makes the administration of large staff teams and collective installations easier: Setting the expiry dates carefully when creating accounts saves you from having to tidy up old accounts manually later . Accounts without a time limit can only be created by administrators with a root account. (Normally only Globalpark Support and customers with their own server have root accounts.) As an owner of a root account, you will find in the above shown form a checkbox entitled Is this an account with a time limit? which must be deactivated to cancel the time limit.
16.3.5
16.3.6
Figure 16.5
16.3.7
615
16 Administrating Staff
staff account for a predetermined period. The person logging in will then see an error message, in which the remaining waiting period will be displayed. By default the account will be suspended after six incorrect entries, the waiting period is 30 minutes. A suspended account can be reactivated by the system administrator (root team) or by a staff member with write rights to groupadmin. If you have leased your own installation and you would like to have the values changed, please contact Globalpark Support.
Figure 16.6
616
If these column are not visible, open the dialog for configuring the overview table by clicking on View, activate the checkboxes for these columns and confirm with Send.
16.3.8
16.4.1
Standard character set you are using Save last entries in search form and preset search forms Table 16.15
General settings
617
16 Administrating Staff
(cont.)Option Additional time zone whose current time is displayed in the left menu Standard directory for SAS exports on your computer
Explanation The desired time zone will be shown in the menu below your name in the Local date field. Default setting: Universal Time. This is the directory on your local computerin which the zip file will bestored on SAS export. The directory name will also be copied into the SAS macro generated by EFS Survey. Therefore, if you do not make any changes of your own, the export file generated by EFS Survey will automatically be located in the correct directory once the macro is executed. Default setting: c:\Documents and Settings\user name\Desktop\ The SAS macro will temporarily store the data in this library. You can access and then save the data from there. Default setting: work.export You may choose whether an SVG or PNG graphic is to be displayed in Projects->{Selected project}->Statistics. SVG requires a special plugin and cannot be output by the Browser. Default setting: No. You may set your preferred view when you open Projects->{Selected project}->Reporting. Overview of GUI reports (Reports tab) Overview of Syntax reports (Syntax templates tab) Reports tab preset as default. Path to Readsoft FORMS can be preset on local PC.
SAS library in which the SAS macro generated by EFS is to store the converted data: Should the field report graphic be displayed as an SVG graphic?
When using EFS Hybrid Extension only: Path to Readsoft FORMS Size of preview window Positioning of preview window x-offset upper left Positioning of preview window y-offset upper left Table 16.15 Option Standard character set to be used for new projects.
You can resize the preview window to fit your screen size. You can reposition the preview window. Offset is indicated in pixels. Default setting: 0. You can reposition the preview window. Offset is indicated in pixels. Default setting: 0.
General settings Explanation Chapter 3.7.17, p. 100 explains how to specify the character set. It is recommended that you use the international character set UTF-8. Default setting: UTF-8. Chapter 3.7.17, p. 100 explains how to specify the character set. It is recommended that you use the international character set UTF-8. Default setting: Use character set of the selected language. You can specify which project type is automatically suggested when creating projects. Default setting: Personalized survey. You can preset the folder in which new projects are to be placed. 572 Default setting: Default
618
Explanation The following statuses are available: 572 survey compiled active inactive Default setting: survey compiled. The layout you choose will automatically be used as the standard layout. The selected set of messages will automatically be used as the default message set. Makes work a little easier: if this option is activated, a first page will automatically be entered in each new project. Default setting: No. See Chapter 3.7.7, p. 80.
Default layout when creating new projects Default suvey messages when creating new projects Create a first survey page when creating a new project Beim Anlegen neuer Umfragen JavaScriptCheck fr die Umfrage aktivieren? Determine participant hostnames and IP addresses and store them in survey results
You can specify whether the hostname lookup function is to be activated by default in your new projects (provided that hostname lookup is possible for the respective project type). Also refer to Chapter 3.7.8, p. 81. Please note: Certain network constellations may allow only restricted determination and storage of hostnames and IP addresses. Please note the corresponding information in Chapter 3.7.8, p. 81 and check the functionality before taking the project into the field. This option is useful for those who have access to a very large number of projects from the project list, thus slowing down project list loading. Only the search form in the upper section of the project list is displayed, the project list is displayed once the search has been initiated. Default setting: No. If you usually perform surveys without cookie support, you can make the relevant settings here. Default setting: Yes. You can preset whether on opening the layout editor you usually go directly to the standard editor or the pro editor. Default setting: standard editor Increases project list and archive reading clarity. Options: after 35 characters after 50 characters after 100 characters Default setting: after 35 characters.
When opening the Projects menu show only the search form for the project list
Layout editor area to be opened by clicking on the Layout editor menu item Abbreviate project title in project list and archive using ...
Projects Explanation This option activates the TinyMCE rich text editor for direct editing of the website. See EFS Panel 8.0, Chapter 20.1.
Only in EFS Panel installations: Use rich text editor when editing content on the panel website Table 16.17 Panel
619
16 Administrating Staff
Option Only in EFS Panel installations: Use rich text editor for news etc. Only in EFS Panel installations: Use editor with syntax highlighting for templates Only in EFS Panel installations: Standard panelist
Explanation This option activates the TinyMCE rich text editor for editing FAQ, news, and quick polls. See EFS Panel 8.0, Chapter 22.1.2. The editor activated with this option provides more comfort when editing templates and includes. See EFS Panel 8.0, Chapter 25.4.
Optionally, you can mark your personal moderator or tester account as your standard panelist account. Whenever you call up the website from EFS (e.g., from the website editor), this account will be used automatically, eliminating the need for entering your login details. Please note: Available are panelist accounts with moderator and tester status. It does not matter whether your standard panelist account is assigned to the selected website. Multiple staff members may use the same standard panelist account, but only one at a time.
Panel Explanation The page title will automatically be offered as the title of the first question on the respective page. Default setting: Yes.
When creating the first question on a page, automatically suggest the page title as the question title Immediately insert first blank sub page when creating a new routing page (Filter, Random selected, Random rotate or Loop type)? When creating questions, mark directly as Mandatory question
The branches below the new routing pages will automatically be filled with a first sub page. You can also activate this function each time you create a new routing page. Default setting: No.
Newly created questions will automatically be marked as mandatory questions. (This relates only to the Mandatory question function and not to the item-specific dac. See Chapter 5.12.1, p. 228. Default setting: No. You can predefine your own default text for question texts. You can predefine your own default text for fill-in instructions.
Default question text for newly created questions Default fill-in instruction for newly created questions Show search text field in questionnaire editor
A search function is available under Projects->{Selected project}-> Questionnaire editor. You can use it to search the content of the questionnaire view. See Chapter 4.2.1, p. 122. Default setting: No. If this option is activated the questionnaire editor is opened by default in Drag&Drop mode. Default setting: No. The image select box needs a lot of space. Depending on the situation you may not always wish to see this select box displayed. Default setting: No.
Activate Drag&Drop mode for questionnaire editor Should the image select box be hidden for image question types? Table 16.18
620
Explanation Customers with their own server can access a second installation-wide library in addition to the default project-related media library (activated by Globalpark Support). See also Chapter 5.17.2, p. 255. You can preset which library you usually wish to use when opening media library. Current project: Project-related media library. Default setting. Overall: Installation-wide media library. Optionally, you can deactivate the Ajax drop-down list used to select question types. Then, the old drop-down list ist displayed instead. See Chapter 4.10.1, p. 161.
Activate Ajax drop-down list for the selection of question types Table 16.18 Option Default display settings for the questionnaire editor
Behavior of questionnaire editor Explanation In this section you can specify which question options are to be displayed or hidden by default. You can find an overview of the permanent or most frequently available options in Chapter 4.10.3, p. 164. Further question type-specific options are explained in Chapter 5, p. 175 by respective question type.
Display of questionnaire editor Explanation In this section you can specify which items of information are to be shown or hidden by default when codebook is opened. See Chapter 14.2.2, p. 561, for an overview of the options.
Table 16.20
Codebook
621
16 Administrating Staff
622
623
624
17
17.1.1
625
17.1.2
17.1.3
17.2.1
626
17.2.2
17.2.3
17.2.4
17.2.5
627
Below, the individual tabs of the platform cockpit will be described in detail: Cockpit Database report Login log Admin log OSPE watchdog Survey mail overview: See Chapter 11.6.2, p. 491. Interview count Installation check
17.3.1
Cockpit
The Cockpit tab, shown in the foreground of Figure 17.1, gives an overview of the key data for the installation.
628
Meaning The graphical representation of the load, i.e. server load. The green area corresponds to a load of 0 to 3. The yellow area ranges from 3 to 5, above which the red area begins. The current load on the front end server. For multi-core servers, the load per core is indicated (indicated load value = measured load / number of cores). On a server with up-to-date hardware, the load should be below 3. See Chapter 17.1, p. 625, for a detailed explanation of the server load issue. The name of the front end server. E-mails posted for dispatch will not be immediately retrieved and sent, but automatically at 10-minute intervals. Database maintenance is performed daily. The major and minor EFS versions which are currently installed. The EFS version which was originally used when setting up the installation. The domain at which you will find the EFS installation on the Internet. The name of the database. The results of requests sent to the database by a participant during the completion of the questionnaire will be cached to the so-called query cache. If a request has already been executed by the database once (e.g. a request about a question text), it will not be executed again the second time. Instead the cached result will be delivered. This use of the cache brings significant advantages in terms of speed. The specified effectivity value indicates how often a cached result has been delivered. It is calculated from the number of requests executed by the database / number of requests answered from the cache. Thus, a value of 100% indicates that each request has also been retrieved from the cache once. Usually, values are above 100%.
Front end Date of last mail dispatch Date of last database maintenance EFS version Initial EFS version Name of installation Database name MySQL query cache effectivity
Table 17.1
Cockpit
17.3.2
Database Report
On the Database report tab, you will find general information on the state of the database as well as on completed and scheduled maintenance operations.
Section Number of tables Number of projects Size of sample_data Meaning The total number of database tables in the EFS installation. The total number of projects in the EFS installation. The sample_data table holds all sample data drawn in the installation. This means that the table includes both the data of all respondents who are authorized to participate in personalized surveys and the data of all respondents who have participated in anonymous surveys. The number of interviews started on the previous day.
629
(cont.)Section Number of finished interviews (yesterday) Participants denied access (load limit) Participants denied access (participant limit) Watchdog mean (yesterday) Number of delivered pages (yesterday) Admin_log mean (yesterday) Number of delivered admin pages (yesterday) Table 17.2 Section Number of deleted and backed-up watchdog entries Addresses for sending the status report on automatic database maintenance
Meaning The number of interviews finished on the previous day. Number of participants denied access due to the load limit being exceeded (see Chapter 17.1, p. 625) Number of participants denied access due to maximum permissible number of participants being exceeded (see Chapter 17.2, p. 626) for the entire installation. The mean execution time for loading a questionnaire page on the previous day. The number of questionnaire pages delivered to survey participants on the previous day. The mean execution time for loading a page in the installations admin area on the previous day. The number of pages in the installations admin area that was delivered to staff on the previous day.
Database report - database report of the previous day Meaning If entries archived in watchdog are deleted after the specified deadline has expired, this is displayed here. If the installation is hosted at Globalpark, deleted entries will automatically be backed up. If you wish to continuously monitor the status of your installation, you can subscribe to a database report that will be e-mailed on a daily basis: See Chapter 17.4, p. 634 for more information on the contents of this report. The recipients addresses must be entered comma-separated. In the text field, you can set for how long the performance data displayed in the OSPE watchdog (see Chapter 17.3.5, p. 632) are to be archived. For performance reasons, the archiving duration you can set is limited to a maximum of 30 days. The tables in the list are optimized automatically every day during the usual low traffic times. If you want to add another table, enter them into the Add table for optimization field and Save. To remove tables from the list which were manually added by you or other users, tick the Delete checkbox and Save.
Table 17.3
17.3.3
Login Log
The archived login data informs you on which staff member logged in when, including rejected login attempts. If you click on the column titles of the table, the information will be sorted by the respective column. This makes it easier to search for, e.g., a specific staff member.
630
Meaning In this area, you can specify which period of time you wish to search. Clicking on the Calendar icon to the right of the date will open a dialog containing a calendar, and clicking on the Cancel icon will delete all entries. In the text field, you can enter the staff account whose logins you want to search for. In the drop-down list, you can set which accesses are to be displayed: all accesses, only accesses granted or only accesses denied. In this field, you can increase or reduce the number of records that will be displayed on one page of the login log.
Login log - search Meaning The staff account. The IP address from which the staff member logged in. Please note: Certain network constellations may allow only restricted determination and storage of hostnames and IP addresses. Please note the corresponding information in Chapter 3.7.8, p. 81 and check the functionality before taking the project into the field. This field indicates whether access was granted or denied. If the access was denied, the corresponding rejection message from the system will be displayed in this field. The date and time of the login attempt. Login log - login
17.3.4
Admin Log
The Admin log tab not only provides a detailed log of the actions executed by the staff in the system, but also allows an insight into the performance in the installations admin area. Similar to the login log, you can click on a column title in the Matching log entries area to sort the entries by the respective column. This function makes it easier to search, e.g. for actions in a specific module. If you click on the icon in the Functions column, you can also display a detail view of the respective entry with all identification data, including request parameters.
Field Log date from... to Execution time from... to Meaning In this area, you can specify exactly which period of time you wish to search. Clicking on the Calendar icon to the right of the date will open a dialog containing a calendar, and clicking on the Cancel icon will delete all entries. In the text field, you can enter the staff account whose log entries you want to search for. If you only want to observe the actions in a specific module, enter the module name in this field.
631
Meaning If you want to view the existing logs for a specific action, enter the name of the action in this field. The request parameters characterize a certain action of a specific staff member in a user session.
Admin log - search for log entries Meaning Every single action executed in the installation receives an entry ID by which it can be uniquely identified. The account of the respective staff member. The date and time of the log entry. The name of the module in which the action was executed. The name of the executed action. The time needed to execute the respective action. A detail view of the respective entry with all identification data, including request parameters. Admin log - matching log entries
Column title Entry ID Account Log date Module name Action Execution time Functions Table 17.7
17.3.5
OSPE Watchdog
The OSPE watchdog tab provides details on overall system performance as well as on the performance of each project and each questionnaire page.
Field Start date; End date Meaning In this area, you can specify exactly over which time interval you want to calculate the performance data. Clicking on the Calendar icon to the right of the date will open a dialog containing a calendar. Please note that the time interval over which you can request evaluations must not include more than seven days for performance reasons. Furthermore, the permissible evaluation period is limited by the maximum period for which data can remain in watchdog, which is limited to a maximum of 30 days. You can change the archiving deadline in the Maximum of days in watchdog field on the Database report tab. However, the maximum of 30 days cannot be exceeded.
Table 17.8
OSPE watchdog - restricting performance data Meaning The current load on the server. The total number of questionnaire accesses in the specified period. The average server load in the specified period. The average execution time for building and delivering a questionnaire page (sum of the average values for Incl. time, DB time and Outp. time) in the specified period.
Table 17.9
632
(cont.)Overall perforMax. exec. time Median Std. dev. Incl. time DB time Outp. time Participants denied access (load limit) Participants denied access (participant limit) Actions Table 17.9 Column Project
Meaning The maximum execution time for building and delivering a questionnaire page in the specified period. The median of the execution time in the specified period. The standard deviation of the execution time in the specified period. The average time it takes to load all modules required to build a questionnaire page. The average time it takes to load all data from the database required to build a questionnaire page. The average time it takes to output a questionnaire page. Number of participants denied access due to the load limit being exceeded (Chapter 17.1, p. 625) per installation, project and questionnaire page. Number of participants denied access due to maximum number of participants being exceeded (Chapter 17.2, p. 626) per installation, project and questionnaire page. By clicking on the envelope icon, you can send an e-mail to the Globalpark Support department.
OSPE watchdog - overall performance Meaning The project whose average performance values are described in the respective row. By clicking on the project title, you can display a detail view of the individual pages in the project. Indicates whether the respective project uses a static start page (Chapter 4.5.9, p. 136). The number of accesses to questionnaire pages of the respective project. The average server load during execution of the respective project. The average execution time for building and delivering a questionnaire page of this project. The maximum time for building and delivering a questionnaire page of this project. The median of the execution time for this project in the specified period. The standard deviation of the execution time for this project in the specified period. The average time it takes to load all modules required to build a questionnaire page of this project. The average time it takes to load all data from the database required to build a questionnaire page of this project. The average time it takes to output a questionnaire page of this project. By clicking on the envelope icon, you can send an e-mail to the Globalpark Support department. OSPE watchdog - performance by project
Stat. start page # Accesses Load Exec. time Max. exec. time Median Std. dev. Incl. time DB time Outp. time Actions Table 17.10
You can check the performance of the individual questionnaire pages of your project by clicking on a certain project in the Performance by project area.
633
By default, the data available to you for evaluations in the watchdog will be archived for 15 days. However, you can configure this period yourself in the Maximum of days in watchdog field on the Database report tab (see Chapter 17.3.2, p. 629).
17.3.6
Interview Count
On the Interview count tab, you can check how many interviews your organization has realized. The statistics tool allows to display interview numbers for individual projects. interview numbers from a specific period iterview numbers for disposition codes > 30 in detail. The following rules apply for billing: Interviews with disposition codes > 30 are billed (i.e. 31, 32, 35, 36, 37, 41). If you reset participants and they participate again, this will be counted as two interviews. If external survey start is used and source and target projects are both EFS projects, the interviews will be counted twice: the participants reach the final page in both projects. Interviews uploaded with project data import do not count.
17.3.7
Installation Check
The check mechanisms on the Installation check tab allow you to check the data consistency in your installation. If errors are detected that you dare not fix yourself, please contact Globalpark Support. Optionally, you can have the results e-mailed to you. Please bear in mind that the running of installation checks may affect your installations performance. Especially in the case of large installations, these checks should therefore be run during weak-load periods, if possible.
634
In order to subscribe to the database report, simply enter the desired recipients address in the respective field on the Database report tab (17.3.2, p. 629).
17.4.1
Figure 17.2
Basic data
Row DB report of... Server Name of installation Database name Version DB report version Table 17.11 Meaning The title and date of the report. The name of the server. The domain at which you will find the domain on the Internet. The name of the database. The major and minor EFS Survey version. The version number of the database report.
Survey performance
In this section, you can check whether the questionnaire pages of the surveys in the installation are displayed at a satisfactory speed.
635
Row Number of started interviews (yesterday) Watchdog mean (yesterday) Number of delivered pages (yesterday) Table 17.12 Row Delivery time Pages Day Hour Table 17.13
Meaning The number of interviews started on the previous day. The mean execution time for loading a questionnaire page on the previous day. The number of questionnaire pages delivered to survey participants on the previous day.
Survey performance Meaning The average delivery time, calculated from the delivery time and the number of questionnaire pages delivered during the respective hour. The number of pages delivered during the respective hour. The date of the previous day. The hour for which the respective average delivery time is calculated. Delivery time for questionnaire pages
Overall evaluation
The overall performance is evaluated using a point score:
Overall score <5 5 20 > 20 Table 17.14 Performance good improvable tuning recommended Overall evaluation of platform performance Keep track of the overall performance development over the next few days. A detail analysis by Globalpark Support might be helpful. Conclusion
The point score serves to illustrate the importance of thresholds for the survey performance on the platform. The overall score includes the watchdog mean from the previous day (the average execution time for questionnaire pages) and the delivery time for questionnaire pages, which is determined hourly:
Watchdog mean (yesterday) 0 0.99 1 1.99 >2 Points 0 3 10
636
Points 0 1
The overall score is computed from the sum of watchdog mean and hourly delivery times, which is used to assess the overall performance of the platform.
Database size
Here you will find general information on the state of the database and of the most important tables.
Row Number of tables Number of projects Size of sample_data Meaning The total number of tables in the EFS Survey installation. The total number of projects in the EFS Survey installation. The sample_data table holds all sample data drawn in the installation, i.e. it includes both the survey data of all respondents who are authorized to participate in personalized surveys, as well as the survey data of all respondents who have participated in anonymous surveys.
Table 17.16
Database size
Performance in the admin area Meaning The average delivery time, calculated from the delivery time and the number of questionnaire pages delivered during the respective hour. The number of pages delivered during the respective hour.
637
Meaning The staff account. The IP address from which the staff member logged in. Please note: Certain network constellations may allow only restricted determination and storage of hostnames and IP addresses. Please note the corresponding information in Chapter 3.7.8, p. 81 and check the functionality before taking the project into the field. This field indicates whether access was denied or granted. If the access was denied, the corresponding rejection message from the system will be displayed in this field. The date and time of the login attempt.
Database maintenance
The row entitled Backed-up watchdog entries lists the entries that were deleted from the watchdog after the specified deadline expired. If the survey installation is hosted at Globalpark, deleted entries will automatically be backed up.
638
18 Appendix
18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 18.5 Technical Requirements for Using EFS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641 Accessibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642 Session, Session IDs and Cookies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643 Firefox Plugins for Working in EFS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 644 Overview of the Question Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645
639
640
18
18.1.1
Appendix
If you access the admin area via proxy server, e.g. from inside a company network, the access should not be restricted by time limitations. Furthermore, intermediary proxy servers should not manipulate any requests.
18.1.2
Questionnaire Area
For the questionnaire area, i.e. the questionnaire as seen from the perspective of a survey participant, Globalpark supports all current browsers with a noteworthy market share. For questionnaires created with EFS 8.0, these are: IE 6 on Windows IE 7 on Windows IE 8 on Windows Firefox 3.6 on Windows Opera on Windows Safari 4 on Mac OS X Chrome 4.0 Depending on the question types and questionnaire features used, the participants browsers may have to meet additional requirements. For sliders and ranking questions, for example, JavaScript is required. Flash question types require JavaScript and a current Flash version. For details, please check the chapters dealing with the respective features.
641
18 Appendix
18.1.3
Portal Solutions
For portal solutions, as e.g. panel websites or the download area of employee surveys, technical requirements are realized according to individual agreements with the customer.
18.2 Accessibility
18.2.1 Navigating via the Keyboard in a Questionnaire
Respondents can navigate an EFS questionnaire not only with the mouse, but also using the keyboard. This function will be used especially by respondents, who participate in a questionnaire via Blackberry or via mobile phone. Here are the rules for keyboard navigation in brief: With the Tab key <Tab>, respondents can jump from entry field to entry field. With a question with a single response list, the cursor will jump to the first radio button, the next <Tab> click will switch you to the next question. With questions with multiple response lists, <Tab> will direct you to the next checkbox. With <Shift>+<Tab> you can navigate backwards. With the arrow buttons in a question with a single response list, respondents can switch from one radio button to the next. In select boxes respondents can navigate by typing in the first letter of the desired term and then, if necessary, jumping forward or backward using the arrow buttons. The radio button or checkbox of a answer category + text field will be clicked only when leaving the entry field, and that only when respondents have written something in the entry field.
18.2.2
18.2.3
In the case of the Flash question types for single and multiple response, the clickable area can be modified as required.
642
In the case of the simple Flash matrix, the entire area around the radio button is clickable.
Setting a cookie
A cookie is a small text file cached on the users computer. This cookie is transferred to the website operator every time a page is invoked. This information is not made available to other domains. However, some users refuse to accept cookies because cookies are also abused to trace a users path across several websites. For example, the websites www.abc.com and www.def.com might both contain an image from www.ghi.com. If a cookie were hidden behind the image and you visit both websites, www.ghi.com would know that you have visited both websites because you would transfer the cookie information to www.ghi.com every time. This enables the creation of detailed statistics, which many users consider too much of an invasion of privacy. In the context of EFS Survey, setting cookies has the advantage that users, even when they have closed their browsers and subsequently invoke the survey URL again, can be re-identified immediately and are able to directly resume the survey they interrupted, without having to enter a code or password. Please take into consideration that, in rare cases, browsers with very restrictive cookie settings may require you to place not only the DNS entry for the domain, but also an entry for the next higher part with the same IP address.
643
18 Appendix
to be unambiguously recognized. However, should the user close the browser and then try to resume the survey, they will have to log in again because, naturally, they will not enter the session ID that was previously appended to the URL.
IE TAB
http://ietab.mozdev.org/
JS View
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2076/
Palette Grabber
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2290/
TableTools URLParams
Table 18.1
644
Description Adds a menu and a toolbar containing a range of developer tools to the Browser. Facilitates, for example, switching in table borders, displaying CSS classes or matching screen size for a specific resolution.
Download: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/60/
Table 18.1
Firefox plugins
This type can be supplemented by one or more open-ended fields at the end. Optionally, this question type can be expanded to include inside titles and / or an answer category with an open-ended text field.
This type can be supplemented by one or more open-ended fields at the end.
645
18 Appendix
This type can be supplemented by one or more open-ended fields at the end. Optionally, this question type can be expanded to include inside titles and / or an answer category with an open-ended text field. (See the figure of question type 111.)
646
647
18 Appendix
648
Question types 511, 521, 522: Single and multiple response list with images
649
18 Appendix
Slider
650
Index
Index
A absolute timestamp 535 access codes 86 accessibility 642 accounts expiry date of staff accounts 614 Action Planner 20 actions participant administration 422 activating projects 49 ad hoc statistics for samples 448 admin log 631 Adobe Flash player plugin check before start of survey 80 AN 56 AND 152 anonymous surveys 35, 56 answer options mass import 269 mirroring on the centerline 226 randomization 169, 219 archive 563 archiving projects 563 Array field 337 ats 535 authentication codes 86 e-mail and password 85 IP address 87 author 58 Autofill Forms 644 automation 108 B Back button 363 displaying 79 on resumption 80 saving data 80 BMP files 355 bonus trigger 330, 345 brackets 153 browser 534 detection 379 logging browser during pretest 403 brute force protection 615 bulk edit 422, 429 buttons button generator 361 changing labels 43 close window 207 showing and hiding 79 C Cancel button 134, 363 CATI 85 changing options 617 character sets character sets that can be chosen 101 conversion problems 102 editing externally with SDLX 285 exporting 526 page-specific 135 selecting charset in SDLX 285 SPSS 526 standard character set 100 standard character set UTF-8 285 UTF-8 100 checkbox matrix 196 cleaned (variable) 535, 549 close window 207 Closed response list 177 code_complete 86, 478 codebook 559 exporting 562 groupings 225 printing 562 codes 86 selecting code types 86 coid 139 columns displaying answer options in columns 169 combination check 236 combination check (range) 236 compiling 50, 62 condition editor triggers 331 conditional replacement in e-mails 480 conjoint 20 static start page 136 conjunction 149 conr 140 consistency check 394 container ID 139 contains 151 contains any 151 conversion problems 102 cookies 85, 643 copyright 259 count function 157 CSV export format 522
several
651
Index
customer center 29 D dac 169 data cleaning 73, 544 database database report 634 subscribing to database report 634 datacleaning (SPSS variable label) 549 date_of_last_access 535 deactivating protect sheet 285 debug mode layout 373 depot questions 279 detail view individual respondent records 507 dispcode 533 disposition codes 501 15 423 restricting range of data by disposition codes 527 double-scale matrix 194 E editing externally page, question and trigger names 287 variable names 540 editing variable names in questionnaire editor 539 EFS Conjoint Extension 20 EFS Employee 19, 56 EFS Mobile Access 605 EFS Mobile Extension 20 EFS Panel 19 EFS Qualitative Analysis 19, 507, 526 EFS Reporting + 19, 497, 515 EFS Secure Exchange 20 EFS SMS Extension 20 EFS Survey Status 20, 513 EFS Translator Interface 19 link from questionnaire 397 links in questionnaire 76 EFS Web Services 20 e-mail address authentication 85 e-mails address check 236 code_complete in HTML mails 478 conditional replacement 480 deleting 489 duplicate use of addresses in personalized projects 432 mail template types 484 notification prior to the end of the field period 59 preview 469 recipient address with real name 474
status "hold" 480 subject 475 transmission report 469 with attachment 477 employee surveys passwords 596 end of the field period e-mail notification 59 Excel deactivate sheet protection 285 defining the file structure for external editing 285 external editing 283 password 284, 285 password protection for sheets 285 sheet protection 285 To do column 285 execution position triggers 330 exporting character sets 526 codebook 562 data 51 export templates 526 field report 505 language 526 layouts 382 projects 60 restricting the range of exported data 527 selectively 528 text elements 281 variables in result export 533 ext_host 533 external editing 170, 280 Excel 283 password for Excel files 284 version control 286 external survey start session time 88 external variable names making changes retrospectively 540 external_lfdn 533 F FD 57 feedback 30 field overview 495 configuring 496 field report 51, 497 diagram 498 export 505 splitting 504 file formats 522 file upload layout 373 filter 143 AND 152
652
Index
brackets 153 count function 157 filter list 153 filter test 154 flowchart 147 item level 250 LUA 158 operators 151 OR 152 page level 143 question level 249 setting filter for sample 438 filtering loop variables 321 final page 48 Firefox 23 plugins 644 Fixed Format 523 Fixed format technical restrictionis 525 Flash check before start of survey 80 Flash question types and static start pages 136 plugin 535 question types 19 flash (variable) 535 flipping 226 horizontal 226 vertical 226 form elements 358 form elements generator 361 graphical form elements 358 HTML form elements 358 form elements generator 361 format check 236 formats of export files file formats 522 forum discussions 57 G generating passwords 424 projects see compiling Get parameters session ID 643 Get variables 338 GMT 79 gpx 61 graphical form elements 134, 358, 359 groupings 220 codebook 225 group items 222 gto 84 H hflip 227, 534 hiding conditions 249
item level 250 question level 249 horizontal flipping 226 hostnames restricted determination only 81 HTML 523 HTML form elements 358 HTML mail 475 HTML question type 206, 254 I image archive 252, 255 image protection 259 image question type 253 images in HTML Mails 477 importing elements of static lists 306 layouts 382 participants 424 quotas 458 text elements 282 individual records 510 installation check 634 internal 452 internal organization activating features 75 Internet Explorer 23 inviting participants 407 anonymous projects 50 personalized survey 467 IP addresses 84 restricted determination only 81 ip_addr 534 item texts 168 maximum length 168 items limiting the number of visible items 167 J JavaScript 178 JavaScript check before start of survey 80 JavaScript plausibility checks 239 L language change 29 export 526 language editor link from questionnaire 397 links in questionnaire 76 language ID 573 language identifier 573 lastpage 533 layout 259 debug mode 373 exporting 382
653
Index
importing 382 layout editor 351 lfdn 533 library for graphical form elements 360 line breaks in e-mails 476 list of projects 36 lists filtering by list elements 150 filtering by the data variable of a list 150 importing elements of static lists 306 interleave 314 list trigger 343 outputting whole lists in questionnaire 313 load limit 625 login login log for staff members 630 logos inserting 355 logout trigger 334 long variable names making changes retrospectively 540 loops 314 filtering on loop variables 321 nesting 320 outputting different text versions 320 result data export with SPSS 324 low bucket fill 456 LUA filters 158 M macros 108 mail administration 488 mail preview 481 masking passwords 482 mail queue 488, 489 mail templates 470 editing 483 managing 483 overview of types 484 mail transmission report 490 mail trigger 332 mails CC and BCC 473 defining mail sender 486 hold 480 images in HTML mails 477 mail volume per mail interval 488 mails see e-mails main template 375 mandatory questions 166 mass import 269 master data in plausibility checks 239 master data surveys 56, 57 changing the label in the survey list 105 controlling the display in the survey list 105
hide from the survey list 106 user-defined labels 106 matches regex 151 matching in SPSS 532 matrix 189 creating 46 multiple response 196 MD 56 media library 255, 259 menu 29 missing values 168 default values 536 user-defined missing values for SPSS 527 mixed-external page 140 modules 29 monitor mode 595 monitoring 436 monitoring a survey 51 multilingual projects 569 language-dependent layouts 380 multiple response matrix 196 multiple response list 44 horizontal 185 horizontally ordered images 215 vertical 183 N navigation bar 29 negation 148 NoRegEx check 236 nviz 410 O OML 242 onClick 178 online statistics 496 OnlyNumbers check 236 open response list 180 open-ended answers 496, 507 OpenOffice technical restrictions 525 OR 152 Org Processor 56 other field 44 P PA 56 page design 375 page import 272 page preview 140 page structure 368 page trigger 333, 334 page types 130 page view 39, 120 page_history 534
654
Index
pages 130 editing page names externally 287 importing 272 Panel Partner Program 68 panel surveys 56 changing the label in the survey list 105 controlling the display in the survey list 105 hide from the survey list 106 user-defined labels 106 participant administration 86 participant and status code export 528 participant data in plausibility checks 239 participants counting 103 deleting 423 importing 424 informing about current state of participation counter 105 inviting 407 recruiting 407 selecting via e-mail addresses 432 status 501 participate again 85 participation counter 103 participation limit 74, 626 project-specific 627 system-wide 627 passwords 85 authentication 85 employee surveys 596 for Excel files when editing externally 284, 285 generating 424 masking 482 of Excel files for external editing 284 sending passwords to staff 615 pgid 536 PHP plausibility checks 239 platform cockpit 628 plausibility checks 140, 366 JavaScript plausibility checks 239 layout 240 PHP plausibility checks 239 pro editor 241 via participant, user or master data 239 plugins Firefox 644 pop-up generator 408 pretest activating features 75 browser used 403 deleting pretest comments per macro 114 displaying pretest comments in print version of questionnaire 558 displaying pretest symbol in questionnaire 75 pretest comments 401 status of pretest comments 403
preview mails 469 masked passwords 482 questions 169 triggers in preview 170, 330 print version displaying pretest comments 558 printing codebook 562 questionnaire 557 questionnaire in a specific language 574 pro editor 368 plausibility checks 241 productive mode testing triggers 330 progress bar 364, 377 algorithm 365 in preview 170 project archive 563 project check 387 project ID 69 project information 68 project list 63 project properties 71 project status 69 project test 388 project types 35, 55 anonymous 56 anonymous surveys 56 changing 62 forum discussions 57 master data surveys 56 panel surveys 56 projects activating 49 archiving 563 compiling 50, 62 copying 59 creating 36, 58 exporting 60 marking as important 65 module 36 multilingual 569 project URL 77 reactivating 565 status 69 protecting Excel sheets 285 questions 511 Q QR code 407 quality (variable) 549 quality correction 549 Quantum 524 question ID 139 question import 267
655
Index
question library 275 question list 169 question type 362 196 522 215 ranking question 180 Question type 111 175 Question type 112 176 Question type 113 176 Question type 121 183 Question type 122 185 Question type 131 177 Question type 132 180 Question type 141 185 Question type 142 186 Question type 143 187 Question type 144 187 Question type 311 189 Question type 312 191 Question type 321 191 Question type 322 191 Question type 340 191 Question type 351 194 Question type 361 195 Question type 362 196 Question type 363 197 Question type 511 210 Question type 521 210 Question type 911 203 question type 911 203 question types 41, 182, 183 changing 169 Flash 19 overview 645 user-defined 203 with a multiple response list 183 with a single response list 175 question view 39, 121 questionnaire 169 exporting as XML file 60 pages 130 printing 557 translating 280 translating with Excel 283 translating with SDLX 285 questionnaire pages creating 40 submit automatically for single response questions 133 questionnaire view 39, 119 questions changing the order 140 editing question names externally 287 protecting 511 randomization 219 searching for questions 127 quota (variable) 534
quota statistics 462 quotas 453 importing 458 recalculating 464 R radio buttons de-select 363 random select repeating the random selection 160 random trigger 342 randomization 169, 218 answer groups 220 answer options 169, 219 questions 219 scale items 219 range check 236 Range check old 236 ranking question 180 rate variable 505 raw data export loops 324 read confirmation 472 recoding trigger 338 re-defining question types (output) 376 referer 534 RegEx check 236 reinvitation trigger 335 RelevantID 550 Reply-To 471 Reporting 19, 495, 514 result data selective deletion 510 resumption 85 Back button 80 Return-Path 472 rights system 593 types 594 rights templates importing and exporting 605 Routemap 547 routing 143 RTS 536 runtime compilation 62 S sample trigger 334 samples ad hoc statistics 448 internal 452 searching 449 SAS 523 scale items randomization 219 scale library 198
656
Index
scale matrix 191 SDLX 281, 285 selecting a character set 285 searching projects 64 questions 127 samples 449 variables 127 select matrix 195 vertical 195 selecting participants 432 selective deletion of result data 510 selective export 528 semantic differential 191 sender 474 selecting sender addresses 474 server load 625 session 643 session ID 85, 643 session time 88 setting 89 session validity period 88 session_id 535 showing variable sources 156 Single response list 43, 175 horizontal 176 scale above 176 vertical 175 slide show 203 slide show slider 203 sliders static start pages 136 Smarty 381 sorting category 106 Spaces (layout) 363 Special options 179 splitting field report 504 online statistics 507 SPSS 523 character set of export file 526 character sets 526 creating SPSS labels for syntax jobs 532 exporting loop data 324 exporting SPSS macros 531 merging SPSS records 532 not able to handle UTF-8 526 special features for evaluation 531 technical restrictions 525 SPSS Portable file format 523 SSL 137 no hostname lookup possible 81 staff 593 expiry date of accounts 614 staff administration overview 610 standard character set UTF-8 285
standard check 236 standard matrix 46, 189, 191 star icon 65 static start pages 136 static_hidden 137 status participants 501 pretest comments 403 projects 69 status of a project 70 subject e-mail 475 survey types 35 survey menu 37 survey messages 43 no further participations 105 participation limit 627 survey pages 131 survey URL 86 surveys anonymous 56 in framesets 379 switch language 617 T target value 498 team 59, 60 teams assigning read rights to a single team 610 rights templates 605 template system 368 templates exporting 526 layout 382 testers 533 creating 435 importing 435 in personalized projects 434 testing 387 mail dispatch 435 projects 50, 388 user-defined questions in live operation 204 text field multiple rows 186 single row 185 text field matrix 197 horizontal 187 vertical 187 text fields changing the position of text fields in surrounding text 217 creating 217 validating 247 to do in a project 71 to-do management 399 to-do markers 75, 399
657
Index
topStud 523 translating Excel 283 SDLX 285 translating questionnaires choice of character set in SDLX 285 Excel 280 SDLX 280, 285 triggers 325 bonus trigger 330, 345 editing trigger names externally 287 execution position 330 list trigger 343 logout trigger 334 mail trigger 332 page trigger 333 random trigger 342 recoding trigger 338 reinviation trigger 335 sample trigger 334 testing in productive mode 330 trigger types 330 triggers in preview 170, 330 variable split trigger 336 Triple-S 523 U uniform distribution 342 uploading images 252 URL 77 URL parameters 89, 136 Use stratification criteria for search 449 user data in plausibility checks 239 user-defined missing values for SPSS 527 question 203 question type 203 user-defined labels 106 user-defined questions 203 testing 204 UTF-8 100, 285
V variable showing variable sources 156 variable page marker 505 variable rate 505 variables 537 change variable names 539 changing variable names retrospectively 540 external variable names 539 internal variable names 539 maximum number for each project 538 searching for variables 127 selective deletion of result data 510 variable names 204 variable split trigger 336 variable types 204, 537 variables log 563 version control external editing 286 vertical flipping 226 vflip 227, 534 W website settings 105 wildcards e-mail wildcards 477 incorporating list wildcards into loops 320 insert in questionnaire 169 number of participants left 105 outputting different text versions in loops 320 outputting dynamic content 297 outputting predefined content 293 outputting whole lists in questionnaire 313 participant variables 414 X count 157 XLS export format 523 technical restrictions 525 XML 523 exporting questionnaire as XML file 60 X-Priority 472
658