Page Comparison

Questionnaire

Before you actually start working with the questionnaire editor, it is worthwhile to get an overview of its structure. As shown in the following diagram, the questionnaire editor has three levels: the questionnaire, list and detail views. (previously questionnaire, page and question views).

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The questionnaire view

Selecting the Questionnaire editor menu item will take you to level 1, the questionnaire view. It provides an overview on the questionnaire, including all pages, the key routing elements and (if they exist) questionnaire branches. Optionally, the questions on the pages can be displayed, too.

The list view

Clicking on a page title in the questionnaire view will take you to level 2, the list view (previously: page view). It shows a list of all questions on the selected page.

The detail view

Clicking on one of the question titles will take you to level 3, the detail view (previously: question view). It shows all details for the selected question, including all texts and configuration options.

Planning the structure of the questionnaire (Routing)

An online survey is a sequence of HTML pages. In contrast to written surveys, there is no need to determine a respondent’s way through the questionnaire at the start of such a survey. For example, you can ask women other questions than men in a part of the survey. Or, if you are surveying visitors to your website, ask those respondents who 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 respondent’s 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 survey’s 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.

Creating the questionnaire structure in the Drag&Drop editor

The structure of your questionnaire, i.e. its dramaturgy, is created on the topmost level of the EFS questionnaire editor using modern Drag&Drop technology. The most important features in brief:

• The behavior of the editor complies with basic logics for questionnaire structuring. For example, you can only place questions on a page, you cannot place a page on another page. You can only move type 998 or 999 questions to a final page, you cannot place a page after a final page and cannot interleave more than three loops within one another.
• If a dynamic element (e.g. filters, random order, random selection or loop) is moved, all pages in the levels beneath are also moved along with it.
• The Drag&Drop questionnaire editor has an undo function which can be used to reverse moves.
• The complexity of the questionnaire affects both the performance of the questionnaire view in the admin area and the performance experienced by participants. Therefore, it is recommended to plan the questionnaire in such a way that it does not need more than 10 functionally required levels. (I.e. levels which are required for functional reasons, e.g. for filter branches. If you use more levels to just improve the overview, it won’t affect the performance.)
• If two users are working simultaneously in Drag&Drop mode, the software ensures that their actions do not collide. If one of the users has made a change and the second user also tries to make a change on their screen which has not been refreshed, the software will prompt them to update their individual questionnaire.

Options for creating the questionnaire structure

There are various ways of assembling the structure of your questionnaire:

• You can start with the first page, filling it with the desired questions, and then proceed to the next page.
• You can create all pages and dynamic elements as e.g. filters first, and specify questions, filter conditions etc. in a second step.
• You can use a questionnaire from the survey library.
• You can import a questionnaire from another survey on the same EFS installation, or parts thereof.
• You can create the questionnaire or parts therefore in a word processor of your choice (e.g. Word) and then import it into EFS.

Drag&Drop-Features in detail

The questionnaire view provides you with the following tools for displaying and editing the questionnaire structure (dramaturgy):

• Show all: This display offers a good overview of complex routing structures, especially if combined with Show all.
• Hide all: This version offers a quick overview, which makes it very useful especially when working on longer questionnaires.
• Show questions: If you wish to see and sort not only the pages, but the questions per page as well, combine Show all and Show questions. The question type will be displayed as well. Furthermore you can display the related variables by scrolling over the V icon.
• Hide questions: Only the page structure is displayed.
• Show filter conditions: This feature is particularly useful when specifying or checking routing conditions.

Finding pages, questions and variables

Locating a specific page, question or variable in a complex questionnaire without searching the codebook can be a tedious and time-consuming task. If you frequently face such a task, combine the following features:

• A search field is displayed on the right hand just above the questionnaire view, allowing you to search the contents of the questionnaire view.
• Click on the Show questions and Show all icons.
• When you now enter a question or variable as the search term, the page and question containing that variable will be identified.
• The “ID” column lists the unique identifiers of pages (“pgid”) and question containers (“coid”). The identifiers are covered by the search feature, too.

Finding routing elements and other features

Various icons and other small visual aids are used to facilitate orientation, particularly in questionnaires with complex routing.

Questionnaire view

In the questionnaire view, the following questionnaire features 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: Master data allocations

The following additional information is displayed:

• The disposition code allocated on final pages.
• Only for EFS Panel installations: The panel status allocated on final pages.
• Only for EFS Panel installations: The amount of bonus points allocated on final pages.

The colors of elements provide orientation, too:

• The titles of standard pages, mixed-external pages and final pages that do not contain any questions yet are colored in red.
• The titles of filters and other dynamic elements are colored in red, too, as long as no dedicated questionnaire branch has been created for them.
• The background color of filters and other dynamic elements is grey.
• The background color of final pages depends on the disposition code assigned:
  • completed (31) = green
  • rejected (quota closed) (36) = grey-red
  • screened out (37) = red

Page view

In the page view, the existence of questionnaire features and, if possible, the specific question are marked with icons, too.

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 condition editor to modify the respective definition.

Moving pages, dynamic elements and questions

To change the position of a page, a dynamic element or a question, click on the icon in front of the title, keep the mouse button pressed and drag the element to the desired position. Place the mouse in the gap that opens and allow the page to “drop” as shown in the figure below. 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.

Creating branch structures

Pages can be arranged on several levels. This is of particular importance in combination with dynamic elements: Questionnaire branches e.g. below a filter or a random selection element are mapped in the editor by an indention, i.e. by moving them one step to the right.

Please note:

• To speed up the creation of branch structures, simply select “Insert a blank standard page into the new branch” when creating new filters or dynamic elements. Then, the branch will automatically contain a first, properly indented page.
• when creating a filter for screening out or quoting out participants, use “Insert a blank final page into the new branch” to create a final page automatically.
• If a dynamic element (e.g. filters, random order, random selection or loop) is moved, its whole branch i.e. all pages in the levels beneath are also moved along with it.
• If you delete the page or dynamic element on which the questionnaire branches – in most cases a filter, a random selection element or a random order element - 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 element, you must first move the pages contained in the branch back to the main section of the questionnaire.
• The complexity of the questionnaire affects both the performance of the questionnaire view in the admin area and the performance experienced by participants. Therefore, it is recommended to plan the questionnaire in such a way that it does not need more than 10 functionally required levels. (I.e. levels which are required for functional reasons, e.g. for filter branches. If you use more levels to just improve the overview, it won’t affect the performance.)

Creating pages and dynamic elements

You have already learned how to create questionnaire pages. When creating the mock-up questionnaire, you created several standard pages which you filled with questions, you created a filter to direct selected participants to a special branch of the questionnaire, and you may have noticed already that, upon reaching the final page, the participants are counted with disposition code “31 = completed” in the field report.

Overview of page types and dynamic elements

The elements you see in the questionnaire view have different functions:

• Survey pages contain the actual questionnaire content.
• Dynamic elements (previously “routing pages”) control the course of the survey on page level.

Survey pages

Dynamic elements

Container depot

Depot questions significantly facilitate the creation of questionnaires. If a specific question is used repeatedly in your questionnaire, you can define a depot question and reference it at all appropriate pages. This may be useful, for example, if identical demographic data are queried in several filter branches. Variables are created only for the depot question. The reference questions do not have dedicated variables, but refer to the variables of the respective depot question. This simplifies, among others, filter conditions referring to the repeatedly-occurring question. If you have to change these frequently recurring questions, it is not necessary anymore to edit each of them individually: need to betage is that changes to the depot question directly affect all other reference questions based thereon.

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.

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• To create the depot question, click on the Container depot menu item.
• Enter the title (e.g. “Gender”) and type of the depot question.
• Confirm by clicking on Save.
• Then, enter the question text and answer options in the standard question view as usual.

Referencing a depot question

You want to use the question defined in the depot on every page of the survey.

• Open the page “Demographics 1” in the first filter branch.
• Enter a suitable question title and select question type “921 - Reference question” from the question types list.
• In the following entry dialog, first select the question component to be shown, i.e. the question “Gender”.
• If you wish to assume the whole question from the depot, click directly on Save.If, instead, you wish to change the question text, enter the desired text in the lower field: it will be combined with the answer options of the depot question.
• You have now created a reference question on the page “Demographics 1”, which is based on the depot question “Gender”. To reference the depot question “Gender” from the page „Demographics 2“ in the second branch as well, repeat the procedure. Then, you can create additional depot questions and reference them in both filter branches, too.

Text elements

Under the Text elements menu item  you edit the text elements of the questions available under the menu item Questions of the Container depot. This is how you create translations for the various survey languages for the questions listed here.

Codebook

The codebook contains an overview of all variables and all encodings used in a project. I.e. it shows which memory locations have been created for your questions and how the answers have been encoded. The codebook is used, for example, whenever you want to incorporate control information into your survey, e.g. when setting filters or defining triggers, and when analysing the survey results.

Filter list

You can use the Filter list menu link to display an overview of all the filters in a specific project. The display contains the respective variables and the questions the filter refers to as well as the defined characteristics.

Testing Filters

Before conducting a test survey, you can test the functionality of your filters. To do so, please proceed as follows:

• Open the Questionnaire editor → Filter list menu.
• In the “Test” column, you can invoke the function test separately for each filter by clicking on the test tube icon.
• 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.)
• Then, click on Test to run the filter test.
• Check in the newly-opened results section whether the filter is functioning as expected.
• After successful end of the test, change the filter’s test status in order to mark those filters that function correctly for your further work.
• After that, click on Change status to assign the respective new status to the filter.

Search and replace

The “Search and replace” function allows you to search the question texts, answers, and fill-in instructions of a project for a certain keyword and to optionally change the text in one step. Various small features round out this function:

• Optional case sensitivity
• Optional search for regular expressions
• Searchability of default and other language versions in multilingual projects

Search and replace is invoked via the menu item in the questionnaire view. The search text is entered in the search form. The search results will include any terms which contain the keyword (e.g. „questionnaire“ when searching for „question“). Optionally, you may also specifiy the following restrictions or criteria:

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• Page to be searched: This option allows to restrict the search to a specific questionnaire branch.
• Survey language: By default the search is performed in the default language.
• 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.
• Text type: You can, for example, restrict your search to scale titles or long variable names.

To trigger the search, click on the Search button.

Viewing the results

In the results table the results are listed, sorted by page, with the following information:

• Type: Text type
• This “Search and replace” dialog allows you to perform a specific search within a questionnaire branch under a particular page.
• Content: The text of the respective question, answer option or fill-in instruction. The keyword is highlighted.
• Replace: see below.
• Actions:
  • Edit page: This icon allows you to call up and directly edit the respective page in the questionnaire editor.
  • Preview: Opens the respective page in the questionnaire preview.
  • Edit language elements: In multilingual projects, this icon allows you to switch to the relevant page in the Language editor.

Replacing text elements

If you wish to edit text elements centrally, first select the search results for modification in the “Replace” column. Then enter the new text element in the “Replace with” field. Your changes will be performed once you click on the Replace button.

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.

• Via the Quotas menu item you access the Quotas tab, the Configuration tab and the Quota statics tab.

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The EFS 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.
• 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.
• Quota statistics and field report will always give you an up-to-date overview of the quota status.
• The ACL right quotation_admin allows to control access to the quotas. Read rights are required for accessing the quota statistics in the field report. Write rights are required for using the quotas.

Creating a quota

Plan the quota. Create your quota schedule and calculate the target values for the various quota cells. Target values are always absolute numbers. Define the exact sequence of the quota process. Please bear in mind that values for all variables used in the quota conditions must already exist when you perform the quota check.

• 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.
• Define the quotas in the Survey menu → Questionnaire editor → Quotas menu.
• Specify the sequence of the quota process on the Configuration tab.
• 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.
• 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, open its Properties menu and select the option “Check internal quotas”.
• 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.

Basics: The quota schedule

The quota schedule is fundamental to defining quotas. In this schedule, you list in detail which characteristics are to be displayed by how many participants. To create such a schedule, you enter the relevant characteristics into a matrix. Then you specify the target values for the individual cells. There are two options, producing different results:

• interlocking: The quotas are defined by means of the inner cells. Thus, the feature combinations for the total of 100 participants admitted in the example shown below will be specified in detail: 25 young men, 25 old men, etc.
• non-interlocking: The quotas are defined by means of the margin values, without regard to the distribution in the inner cells. In the example shown below, this means: a total of 100 participants will be admitted, among them, firstly, 50 men and 50 women and, secondly, 50 young people and 50 old people. The internal distribution of the quota is not defined, i.e. there may be, for example, 40 young men and 10 old men, 10 young women and 40 old women participating.

Basics: Internal and external quotas

There are two types of quotas that are processed at different times and therefore configured in different ways to some extent:

• Internal quotas: These quotas contain variables whose value is determined only in the course of the survey.
• External quotas: These quotes refer solely to variables originating from external sources and existing beforehand, i.e. variables that are not determined in the course of the survey. External quotas are used only in surveys with a predefined pool of participants.

If a quota condition contains both survey variables and external variables, it will be treated as an internal quota, i.e. it will not be automatically executed before login.

Basics: Quota timetable

Depending on what kind of quota there are in a project and which process has been configured, events can be triggered at different stages in the course of the survey.

• Optionally, the participants can be checked for external quotas already before the start of the survey. To do so, select the Configuration tab. The checking procedure is as follows:
  • Every time a participant has completed the questionnaire and the allocation figures in the quota statistics are changed accordingly, all those participants that have not yet started the survey (disposition code < 20) will be checked for external quotas.
  • Of these participants, the system will exclude those that fall within a full external quota from participating, i.e. they are assigned disposition code 41
    (“quota closed”) in the participant administration. Any data accumulated by the participant (during the respective survey) will be deleted in this process and will not be considered in the survey. 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.
• If the check for external quotas is not performed beforehand as described above, it will be carried out at the start of the survey.
• The check for internal quotas is triggered by sending a questionnaire page predefined by you.
• 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.
  • 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).

Basics: The most important quota processes

Survey offers a great degree of freedom in designing the quota process.

• The following table presents the most frequently desired scenarios.
• The “Configuration” column lists the combination of options and allocation mode that allows you to realize the respective scenario.

Managing quotas

The quotas of a project are managed in the Projects → {Selected project} → Questionnaire editor → Quotas 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.
• Quota statistics: On this tab, you will find the current allocation figures.

Quota overview

When you open the Projects → {Selected project} → Questionnaire editor → Quotas 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. 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.
• 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, the status will be deactivated, the allocation figures will not be copied, i.e. the new quota is initially open, deactivated, and empty.
• Delete: The quota will be removed following a confirmation prompt.

Creating quotas

Please proceed as follows:

• Click on the Create quota button.
• Enter the name and the size of the new quota.
• Confirm by clicking on Save.
• 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.)
• After saving, the quota overview will be displayed. There you will find the new quota. It will already be activated.

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. Quotas can then easily be imported via copying and pasting the table contents. It does not matter if semicolons or tab stops are used as a separator in the imported file.

Configuration options for the quota process

You are allowed to specify in detail the sequence of the quota process in your project. You will find the configuation options on the Configuration tab.

• The following table lists all available setting options.
• By combining these options, you can realize a wide range of processes.
• By default, all options are activated for new projects and the pre-set allocation mode is “First matching, open quota”. This corresponds to the previous standard mode.

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 “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.
• Matching, open quota with the most allocated participants: The system will select the matching open quota with the highest current allocation. If two quotas have the same number of participants, the system will select the one that is first in the sorting order.
• First matching, open quota with the lowest filling ratio: The participant is allocated to the matching quota first in order with the lowest filling ratio.
• First matching, open quota with the highest filling ratio: The participant is allocated to the matching quota first in order with the highest filling ratio (recorded in quota).

Selecting a suitable point in the questionnaire for checking internal quotas

Whether the participants fulfill internal quotas can only be checked when there are values for all required variables, i.e. in the course of the survey. For reasons of performance, this check will not be done automatically after each questionnaire page, but only after a page that you have tagged accordingly. The Figure below shows a sample questionnaire. On the page marked with a Q icon, the internal quota are checked.

Selecting the appropriate questionnaire page(s)

• At the time that the check is to be performed, there must be values for all required variables. As the check is triggered when the page is sent, you can, for example, select the page which contains the last question needed for the quota.
• You should select a page which all participants will have to view, i.e. it should not be located in a filter branch, for example.

Tagging the appropriate questionnaire page(s)

• In the questionnaire editor, locate the page following the processing of which the quotas are to be analysed, and open its list view.
• Open the Properties menu.
• Select the option “Check internal quotas”.
• Click on Save. The page will now be marked with a Q icon in the questionnaire view.

Screening out unsuitable respondents by quota

Respondents that are identified as unsuitable due to the quota must be screened out. They are usually redirected to an intermediate final page by means of a filter:

• On this intermediate final page, the survey supervisor will thank the respondents for their willingness to participate.
• Upon reaching the intermediate final page, the participants can optionally be assigned a special disposition code (36, 37) by which they can be recognized in the subsequent analysis.

You can see this typical routing structure in the sample questionnaire shown in figure.

Selecting a suitable point in the questionnaire

Please note:

• The screening out should not be performed until all quotas have been checked.
• You should select a point in the questionnaire which all participants will have to pass, i.e. it should not be located in a filter branch, for example.

Setting up filter and intermediate final page

• In the questionnaire editor, locate the page following the processing of which the unsuitable respondents are to be screened out.
• Create a filter. In most cases, the filter condition will be “quota = 0”, i.e. the system will screen out all those respondents who have not been allocated to an open quota. If you want to screen out respondents that have been allocated to the quota with the ID 1, you will select “quota = 1” instead.
• Create an intermediate final page under the filter and open its list view.
• Open the Properties menu.
• 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.
• Confirm by clicking on Change.

Viewing the quota statistics

You will find the current allocation figures of the project

• in the Quotas menu on the Quota statistics tab
• in the section “Quota statistics” of the field report

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
• 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.

Using quota Data for routing and evaluation

The quota results will be recorded in two variables:

• quota: This variable contains the ID of the allocated quota (i.e. the quota selected via allocation mode). It is used to screen out unsuitable participants.
• quota_assignment: This variable contains the IDs of all quotas in which the respective participant has been counted. It may help with the evaluation if you have activated option 3, for example, and thus allocated participants to all matching open quotas. In this case, “quota” will contain only the quota selected via allocation mode. “quota_assignment” will contain all the quotas to which the participant has been allocated, i.e. it allows you to understand exactly how the allocation figures are generated. Please bear in mind that “quota_assignment” cannot be used for filtering and other routing processes.

Disposition codes of screened out participants

At which point in the quota process a participant has been excluded from participation will be recorded i.a. in the field report, in the participant administration, and in the export data record via the following disposition code.

Reactivating participants when increasing size of an external quota

Under certain circumstances, it may be necessary to subsequently increase the quota size during the field phase. In projects with a preset pool of participants (personalized survey, panel and master data surveys), this is problematic if external quota is used, the option to reject participantts on survey start is activated and one of the external quotas has already been closed. That is because, in this case, all respondents who have not yet participated but fall under the quota which has already been closed are automatically set to the “Quota closed” status.

In projects that use external quotas exclusively, it is possible to reactivate the respondents in such a case, thus allowing them to participate. To do so, increase the quota size, change the status to “active”, and confirm by clicking on Change. After that, you can choose for which of the changed quotas the participants are to be reactivated. After you have confirmed by clicking on Submit, the participant’s status is changed to “active”.

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:

• The quota statistics will be reset automatically if you compile the project completely, i.e. with deletion of all result data (see Chapter 3.3, p. 71). But when deleting individual participants who have already taken part or apply Reset and delete data, the actual value in the quota statistics will be updated automatically. Only when executing a reset without deleting data will the actual value not be updated automatically as there have been results accumulated which are displayed e. g. in the detail view of the survey statistics.
• If you 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 Quotas menu.

Scale library

Matrix scales are frequently used several times: It may be that a specially developed scale is used several times in a survey or that a popular scheme such as, for example, school marks, crops up time and time again. The scale library available across the entire installation saves you the trouble of creating a scale repeatedly: You only need to create a frequently requested scaling scheme once in the scale library. From there you can import it into the matrix questions and then adapt it to the specific situation.

Imagine, for example, that in your survey you have evaluated the skills of ten wellknown football players each in a matrix question. For the purpose of evaluation, you choose the following scale:

'Football wizard – Good technique – Acceptable average – Useless – Don’t know'

Instead of rebuilding this scheme for each of the ten matrix questions only create the scale once in the scale library and then import it into the corresponding matrix questions.

Scale overview

To access the scale library, go to the Libraries → Scale library menu. Various icons allow to open these scales for viewing or editing as well as to copy or delete them.

Creating a new scale in the scale library

Please proceed as follows:

• Click on the Create scale button.
• Enter the name plus a short description of the scale to be created, then click on Save.
• As with Paste from Word, enter all desired scale options into the “Scale options” field. Each row in the input field is interpreted as an answer option.
• Usually, the options are automatically numbered and encoded. If you want to specify your codes yourself, enter the desired value before each option, using a semicolon. Then, specify this separator in the “The separator for the code” field.
• Confirm by clicking on Save.
• In the next dialog, you can edit the new options or define graphical form elements.

From now on, you can use this scale when creating matrix questions.

Exporting a scale from a question into the scale library

As an alternative to creating a scale in the scale library, you can also export a scale from a question into the scale library.

• In the question view, open the “Scale options” section.
• Click on the Export scale button.
• A pop-up window will prompt you to enter the title under which the scale is to be stored in the scale library.
• 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.

Inserting scales from the scale library into the questionnaire

All matrix questions containing a scale allow you to access the scale library:

• To do so, open the “Scale options” section in the question view.
• Click on the Import scale button.
• A pop-up window will open. In it you can select scales from the scale library using a drop-down list.
• Confirm by clicking on Save.
• The desired scale will be inserted into your matrix question, and you can continue editing the characteristics as desired.

Language editor

Language administration can be found in the tab in the Projects → {Selected project} → Project properties → Survey languages menu. It includes the following functions.

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• Create and edit languages
• Assign language identifier
• Set active default language
• Set language selection variable
• Copy language elements
• Language selection log

These will be described in detail in the following sections.

Overview of existing languages

The overview table in the “Edit languages” section lists all existing languages of the project along with the following information:

• ID: Each language receives an identification number from the system. This number cannot be changed. In the export data record, you will find this language identification number in the form of the “language” variable indicating the language version of the questionnaire that was displayed to the respondent
• Language: Language label. The default language is marked accordingly.
• Language identifier: Serves as unique identification of language and region.
• Default language: This column indicates the current default language of the project.

Depending on your access rights the following actions are available:

• Edit languages: Opens a dialog where you can change label and identifier of the respective language.
• 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.
• Use as default language
• Delete: The respective language will be deleted after a confirmation prompt.

You can use the View button to hide particular columns of the table or limit the number of rows.

Uniquely characterizing languages with a language identifier

The language identifier allows you to uniquely identify languages and regions. For example, de_DE: German / Germany; en_US: English / USA; en_GB: English / Great Britain. Using the identifier is particularly helpful when a questionnaire is to be localized for different dialects of the same language, e.g. British and American English.

The identifier is composed of

• language ID according to ISO 639. A list can be found at http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/code_list.php
• country ID according to ISO 3166. A list can be found at http://www.iso.org/iso/country_codes/iso_3166_code_lists/english_country_names_and_code_elements.htm
• For example, de is the code for German, DE is the country ID. Accordingly, the language identifier of a German language text localized for Germany is de_DE.

Creating languages

Proceed as follows

• Click on the Create language button.
• In the “label” field, assign a name to the new language.
• 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”.
• Assign a language identifier to the new language.
• Finally, confirm by clicking on Save.

Copying language elements

Survey allows you to copy texts from an already existing language into another language.

• The “Copy language phrases from” function allows you to initialize a new language with existing phrases from another language. See the section “Create language” above.
• In order to fill or overwrite an already existing language with language elements from another language, specify the source and target languages in the “Copy language elements” field and confirm by clicking on Execute.

Setting the active default language

Among the existing languages of a multilingual project, one language will be treated as the default language. That means the following:

• This language will automatically be used in the output questionnaire, unless an individual language preference for the respondent has been set by defining a language selection variable or unless a language selection page has been set up.
• The language elements of the default language will appear in the questionnaire editor, whereas you can only edit the language elements of the other languages via the language editor.
• The language elements of the default language will always appear in the first column of the language editor.
• If a language element has not been filled in for another language, the finished questionnaire will show the corresponding language element of the default language instead.

To find out which language performs the function of default language, check the column “Default language” in the overview of languages. When creating a project, the system will automatically set the language that is used in the admin area by the user creating the project as the default language. I.e. if the project is created by a staff member using the English-language admin area, the default language will automatically be set to English.

Changing the default language

instead of using the simultaneous central access to the language elements of all languages via the language element editor, you will need to change the default language. It is usually not advisable to proceed in this way because the Language editor provides convenient central access to the language elements of the various languages.

In order to change the default language, find the desired new default language in the list and click on the Use as default language icon. This change will simultaneously trigger a language selection blocker. Please observe the notes on this feature in the following section.

Blocking changes to the default language

If several staff members are working in the admin area at the same time, problems might occur. These can be prevented by incorporating the language selection blocker:

Let us assume that user A sets his or her native language, German, as the default language and starts work in the questionnaire editor. User B does not know about this and changes the default language to English. Now, user A 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.

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Only the user who last made the change as well as users with “root” rights will now see a button labeled Enable language selection instead of the Use as default language icon, 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 user’s session has ended, the default language can be changed again by any user. You want to change the default language, but the language selection blocker is active.

Setting the output language via a language selection variable

The language displayed at the start of the survey can be set via a data item known in advance, such as information from participant administration. In the “Read language selection by survey start from” drop-down list, you can define the variable from which the ID of the displayed language will be read at the start of the survey. Which variables are available depends on the project type:

• Anonymous projects: URL parameters
• 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

Entering the language-setting variable in participant administration

• In language administration, specify from which variable the language setting is to be read.
• Confirm your entry by clicking on Save.
• Switch to Participant administration.
• 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.
• Now proceed entering or importing the participant data as usual.

Tracing changes made in language administration via the log

The “Language selection log” section displays important operations within language administration (e.g. creating and deleting languages and changing the default language) in chronological order. Therefore, you can also see here, among other things, who last changed the default language and is thus responsible for unblocking the language selection.

Centrally editing text elements and logos

All text elements the respondent sees in the questionnaire can be displayed in the various languages of the project:

• Question text, fill-in instructions and help text
• Answer options, dimensions and scale titles
• Texts in the HTML code of question types 911 and 998
• Survey messages
• Only in projects with classic system layout: Logos and buttons

There are two possible ways of editing the multilingual text elements

• You can centrally edit text elements, survey messages and (only in projects with classic system layout) logos for all languages via the language editor. This work process will be described in detail in the following sections.
• Alternatively, you can edit the text elements externally, e.g. in Excel, and then reimport them.

Overview of the translation process

Clicking on the Questionnaire editor → Language editor → Text elements menu item will take you to the overview of translation to-dos. Here, you can see where there are still untranslated text elements in your questionnaire.

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• 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.

The text element editor

If you want to edit the text elements of your multilingual project directly in EFS instead of using the “External editing” function, the text element editor will be central to your work, because here you can edit the text elements of your questionnaire page by page.

The following will be explained below:

• How you can reach the language element editor.
• How you can change text elements in the language element editor.
• How you can configure the language element editor.

Ways to the text element editor

Once you have created more than one language for a project, there are three possible ways of accessing the text element editor:

• As described above, clicking on the Language editor → Text elements menu item in the questionnaire editor will take you to the overview of translation to-dos. Selecting one item from the to-do list will open the text element editor for the corresponding page.
• From the page view, you only have to click on the Text elements menu to access the text elements of the current page.

Editing text elements

The text element editor is structured as follows:

• The text elements of the questionnaire page displayed will be grouped by questions and listed in the order in which they appear in the finished questionnaire. The type of the respective text element (“Question text”, “Item text”, etc.) will be displayed in the “Element” column.
• The middle column of the text element editor contains the text elements of the default language, i.e. the texts that you can also, as usual, enter and view via the questionnaire.
• In the other columns, the text elements of the selected page will be entered for all other languages. They can be changed as desired (for information on how to open the text elements of another language or all available languages, see the following section, “Configuring the language element editor”).
• By clicking on the Preview icon, you can open the preview of the questionnaire in the respective language.

You can change the text elements both in the default language as well as in the other language(s) shown. After you have finished, you must save your changes by clicking on Save.

When saving, however, only those changes containing a string will be transferred to the language table. Empty strings will be ignored. Fields of the language table that do not have an entry will show the text for the default language.

Configuring the text element editor

Using the View function you will be able to edit the display of the language element editor.

• You can change the size of the input fields. Both the number of rows and the number of characters per row can be modified. By default, each input field has three rows and is 40 characters wide.
• You can select languages for editing. By default, when you open the language element editor for the first time, it will display the first language that was created. 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.

Editing survey messages

Similar to the language elements in the questionnaire, the survey messages of the project can be edited in several languages. To do so, click on the Survey messages menu item in the language editor.

In the top section of this dialog, in the “Which language do you want to edit?” field, you can select the language in which you want to edit the survey messages. Select the desired language, and then confirm by clicking on Apply.

If there is already a complete set of survey messages in the library, you can select it in the “Copy text elements from survey messages library” field and accept by clicking on Apply.

In the “Survey messages of language x”, you can edit the survey messages:

• The left-hand column, titled “Element”, explains in which situation the respective survey message will be used.
• The middle column contains the survey messages of the default language, i.e. the texts that you can also, as usual, view and enter under Project properties → Survey messages.
• The right-hand column shows the text elements in the target language. They can be changed as desired.

Exporting, editing and importing text elements

The tabs for importing and exporting files for external editing are located in the menu Projects → {Selected project} → Questionnaire editor → Language editor → Import / Export.

• Click on the Export file tab.
• Set the file format for the export. The following options are available:
  • XLS for editing with MS Excel
  • HTML for editing with SDLX
• If you wish to use the versioning features, you have to tick the checkbox labeled “Save exported version for later comparisons”.
• If you have chosen XLS as the export format, you will have several special options available to you for defining the file structure.
• Click on the Export button on the right-hand side to download the file.
• 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.
• Confirm by clicking on Save.

External editing of text elements

You can open and edit the exported file in MS Excel or SDLX depending on which format you chose.

Importing edited text elements back into EFS

After completing the editing process, switch back to your EFS project and select in the Import / Export submenu the Import file tab. Specify the target language and import conditions:

• In the drop-down list labeled “Into which language do you wish to import the new text elements?”, you can select the target language for the import. If the
  default language is selected, the elements will be imported directly into the questionnaire editor’s data tables.
• In the “Back up old elements in another language?” field, the “Overwrite old elements” function will be selected by default. However, if you do not want to lose text elements you have already inserted, you can also back them up in another language.

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• Only those elements containing a string will be transferred to the language table or the editor tables. Empty strings will be ignored.
• If you wish to import text elements in another language, but do not notice that this language has not yet been set up until you reach the tab for re-importing the files, you can still do this in the bottom section “New language”. Specify the name of the new language, and then click on Save. After that, you can perform an import into this new language.

You will use Browse to select the edited file and you will click on Next page to import the changes. The changes will be documented in the overview "Import finished".

Title editor

Even though the titles of pages, questions and triggers are not displayed in the questionnaire, they do facilitate orientation in the questionnaire editor. Thus, these titles must occasionally be edited, e.g. to adjust them to a project-wide standard.

Instead of having to click on each element individually and change it step-by-step, EFS makes it possible to export the titles of pages, questions or triggers, edit them externally and then reimport them.

• Switch to the Questionnaire editor → Title editor menu.
• Select the desired element titles, and specify the file type (CSV or Excel) and character set.
• Confirm by clicking on Export.
• Save the export file locally.
• 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.
• After that, you can use the Import tab to reimport the file into EFS.

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Wildcards

The questionnaire editor’s menu (Projects → {Selected Project} → Questionnaire editor) contains a menu item called Wildcards. This opens an overview of the wildcards defined for the project. 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.

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Defining new wildcards

• To create new wildcards, click on the Create wildcard button.
• In the dialog that opens, enter the name of the new wildcard in the “Wildcard” field. It may contain the characters a-z, A-Z and 0-9 and must be enclosed in two hash signs (#). Furthermore, the name should not be reserved for variables or other wildcards (e.g. project variables v_xxx, participant variables u_xxx, system variables).
• In the “Text” field, enter whatever you wish to replace with the wildcard. This may be text, but you can also enter, for example, an HTML tag for an image file.
• You can then save the new wildcard by clicking on the Create wildcard button.

Transferring wildcards from other projects

Clicking on the Import wildcards from other survey button will open a list of the projects on the platform. If you select the radio buttons for the project(s) whose wildcards you want to transfer, you can import the wildcards by clicking on the confirmation button.

Wildcards in multilingual projects

If you are using the wildcard to incorporate text in multilingual projects, you can click on the Edit language elements button to insert and change the corresponding text elements in the various languages.

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

Using static wildcards in the questionnaire

Once you have defined wildcards for a project, you can access them via the Wildcards tab in the question view and integrate them into the questionnaire.

• Create a question as usual.
• First, click on the field in which you wish to insert the wildcard.
• Next, select the Wildcards tab.
• The wildcard overview shown in Figure 8.19 will open. Here, you will now find an additional icon representing the Insert wildcard function.

Lists

Usually, the steps will take you from the source question to the dialog for list creation. However, you can also choose Questionnaire editor → Lists and then
either select an existing list or click on one of the buttons labeled Create dynamic list and Create static list.

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Then, proceed as follows:

• 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.
• Give the new list an internal name, in this example “TV channel”.
• 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. 325) or integrated in a loop (see Chapter 7.4, p. 326). The name must be unique. It should contain only the the letters a-z and A-Z, numbers and “_”.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Confirm by clicking on Save.
• The list will now be created, and the dialog in which you can specify inclusion conditions will appear.

Adopting item-specific properties from source questions

Optionally, various item properties from source questions can be automatically adopted in the list. They can then be displayed with target questions in the editor but cannot be edited. Automatic property and content adoption is enabled when creating a new list or manually on the General settings tab in the list editor. The table below provides an overview of available options.

Specifying properties of the list elements

After you have created a list and made the general settings, the Inclusion conditions tab will appear. It lists the following information and setting options for each list element:

• Variable name: The variable and label of the respective option in the source question.
• Editable text field: List element no.
• Fixed number: The sort number of the option in the source question.
• 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.)

Specifying inclusion conditions for individual list elements

By making the appropriate settings in the drop-down lists in the “Inclusion condition” column, you can choose between the following options, separately for each element:

• if selected, always in list: If the respondent has chosen the list element from the source question, it will always be displayed from that point on.
• if not selected, always list element: If the respondent has not chosen the list element from the source question, it will always be displayed from that point on.
• always in list: The list element will always be displayed, even if the respondent has not chosen it from the source question.
• never in list: The element will never be displayed. This setting can be used for elements which are to appear only in the source question.
• in list 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.
• 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.

Specifying global inclusion conditions

Alternatively, you can also define or change all inclusion conditions with a single click.

• To do so, click the Define global inclusion conditions button.
• Select the desired condition in the pop-up that opens.
• 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.
• Save the settings. All list inclusion conditions are now changed accordingly.

Defining the default setting for all new list elements

You can define in advance which inclusion conditions newly created list elements shall have by default in dynamic lists. To do so, select the desired preset from the “Advanced options” section in the Inclusion conditions tab and then Save. If you select a complex condition you can, as described above, open the condition editor and formulate the condition in generalized terms using the #varname# and #code# wildcards.

Creating static list

A static list is not composed using the items of source questions or source lists, but the list elements are directly entered. Open the Questionnaire editor → Lists menu and click on the Create static list button.

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• Give the new list an internal name, in this example “Subjects”.
• Enter a wildcard.
• Confirm by clicking on Save.
• 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.

Importing static list elements

You can import the elements of static lists or copy out elements that have already been created in a special format, edit them externally and then reimport them.

Formatting import data

The following format should be used:

List element ID;list element number;wildcard 1;wildcard 2;wildcard 3; wildcard 4;wildcard 5;inclusion condition The inclusion conditions must be encoded as follows:

• 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.

Performing the import

Navigate to the Projects → {Selected project} → Questionnaire editor → Lists menu, and create a new static list. Open the List elements tab. Instead of creating elements manually, you can click on the Import list elements button.

• 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.
• Confirm by clicking on Import.
• Click on the List elements tab to switch to the overview of the list elements that have been created.

Editing and exporting list elements

List elements that have already been created will be output in the input field and can then be edited. If you wish to delete an element, simply remove it from the list.

External editing is also possible:

• Copy the content of the input field into Excel.
• 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.
• Choose the separator, and confirm by clicking on Next again.
• Check the display, and then confirm by clicking on Finish.

Specifying properties of the list elements

In the case of static lists, you also specify the inclusion conditions for the list elements on the List elements tab, in the “Inclusion conditions” column.

• always in list
• never in list
• in list if...
• always in random selection
• in random selection if...

By default, the “always in list” option is preset. Alternatively, you can also define or change all inclusion conditions at once, using the Define global inclusion conditions function, as described above. If the static list is to be used in a loop at a later time, you can use the Wildcards tab to set up several wildcards with alternate texts.

Scoring

Scoring opens up a wide range of different uses. You can define scoring for each answer option of a question. If a respondent selects answer options, the corresponding points are assigned to him/her. Based on the score, i.e. the score of the survey participant, you can then initiate follow-up actions, for example, using triggers. Potential application scenarios would be a quiz, personality tests or other qualification tests, for example for the acquisition of suitable job candidates.

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Almost unlimited categories of scores can be created for a question. This makes it possible to use multi-dimensional parameters to evaluate a participant. Scoring is available for the following question types in all layouts: 111, 112, 113, 121, 122, 131, 132, 141, 142, 311, 312, 313, 321, 322, 511, 522, 611, 621, 641, 661

Scoring in Detail

To configure the scoring, click on the Scoring button in the questionnaire editor. Scores can be defined for each question in the scoring window. All questions to be included in the scoring can be selected successively. You can use the wheel icon to toggle between scoring a question and creating new categories. You can define score values:

• for each scale option in the single choice and standard matrix question types listed above.
• for the status "selected" and "not selected" in multiple choice question types.
• for different phrases (including upper and lower case) for single-line and multi-line text fields.

The score values must range between -999 and 999, decimal numbers are not allowed. Please avoid plausibility checks that use score variables from a loop page: The score values are only available after the loop has been completely processed. After you have defined the desired scores, click on the scoring button again to close the scoring window. 

Use Scoring Data

The values assigned to participants are defined in specific scoring variables.

• The variable name is s_000x.
• The values can be displayed in the questionnaire with the placeholder #s_000x#.
• The scoring variable names can be used for filtering, fade-out conditions, triggers, etc.
• The scoring variables are included in the export data record.

Loops

“Loops” differ from normal questionnaire branches insofar that their 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.

Creating a loop

• Create a new dynamic element titled “Questions about known TV channels”, choosing the “Loop” type.
• Confirm by clicking on Submit.
• The new loop page will be displayed in the questionnaire view.

Choosing a list

• Click on the link No list selected.
• The list selection dialog will open.

• 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.

• Then, click on Save.

Defining processing rules

In order to configure the output rules for lists that have been placed within a loop, click on the title of the loop in the questionnaire view.

• The additional option “Randomize list elements” is available for loops.
• Furthermore, you can specify a condition for cancelling the loop. To open the condition editor, click the Edit link in the “Cancel loop, if” field.

Creating a Looped Page

• Your next step is to create a looped page, i.e. a page that will be displayed repeatedly, displaying one element of the loop list after the other. The procedure for this is similar to that for creating a filtered questionnaire page: In the row containing the loop page, click on the Create new page or filter icon, enter “Favorite programs” 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.

• Create one or more questions on the page. Insert the question text, using the #TVchannel# wildcard.

• 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.

Applications

1. Creating a second looped page

You can create several looped pages for one loop.

2. Creating answer items on looped pages via further lists

As usual, you can manually enter answer items for pages in a loop. However, it is also possible to access a dynamic or static list.

For example, you can enter the answer items for the “Assessment by subject” page shown in the figure as with the standard procedure, but you can also retrieve the items from a 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” area and enter the scale for the matrix. Then, click on Save.
5. Open the “Dynamic answers” area and then click on the Select button.
6. Choose the list you wish to use to determine the answer options, 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 options, 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.

4. Incorporating wildcards into answer options

You can incorporate the wildcard of the list controlling the loop both into the question text, as explained above, and into an answer optionss. Furthermore, you can incorporate several versions of the wildcards into the same question (see the following section for details).

5. Outputting different text versions via wildcards

When you formulated the question text so that the names of all list elements fit in, this can often pose difficulties. If, for example, you are using several looped pages, you may wish to insert the list elements in the singular in one question and in the plural in another. That would not be possible with only one wildcard.

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 editor’s Wildcards tab.

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#.

Filtering on Loop Variables

You can access variables in a loop branch from all filters, regardless of whether the filters are placed within or outside of the loop branch.

Filtering based on loop conditions within a loop branch

If the filter is located in a loop branch, you only have to select the desired variable. The filtering will occur automatically based on the current loop condition.

Filtering on the basis of loop variables from outside a loop

If the filter is located outside the loop branch, simply selecting the variable will not be enough: If you did that, you would automatically perform the filtering based on the last current loop condition, which is not necessarily the condition you want to use. To clearly specify the desired loop condition, please proceed as follows:

1. In the condition editor, select the loop variable, and click on Save.
2. A new checkbox labeled “Restrict to list elements” will be displayed, allowing you to filter based on a single, clearly defined loop condition.
3. Tick the checkbox, and click on Save.
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.

Describing loop conditions

The codebook describes the conditions on a loop, e.g. variable combinations belonging to each looped page and the outputted list elements:

If, for example, a looped page contains the variable “v_6” with four characteristics (1=“Very satisfied”, 2=“Satisfied”, 3=“Partly satisfied”, 4=“Not satisfied”) and four elements of a dynamic list are to be output, then the conditions of this loop will be described by the following variables:

• v_6_1: results for the question in the loop condition, in which the first list element selected for the display was displayed, with characteristics 1=“Very satisfied”, 2=“Satisfied”, 3=“Partly satisfied”, 4=“Not satisfied”.
• v_6_2: results for the question in the loop condition, in which the second list element selected for the display was displayed, with characteristics 1=“Very satisfied”, 2=“Satisfied”, 3=“Partly satisfied”, 4=“Not satisfied”.
• v_6_3: results for the question in the loop condition, in which the third list element selected for the display was displayed, with characteristics 1=“Very satisfied”, 2=“Satisfied”, 3=“Partly satisfied”, 4=“Not satisfied”.
• v_6_4: results for the question in the loop condition, in which the fourth list element selected for the display was displayed, with characteristics 1=“Very satisfied”, 2=“Satisfied”, 3=“Partly satisfied”, 4=“Not satisfied”.

Exporting and Evaluating Loop Data

The export process

When loops are used, large amounts of data must be processed. Accordingly, generating the export record will be very time-consuming. Therefore, if you only need specific data, it is recommended that you use the selective export described in the following section. When exporting, please proceed as follows:

1. You can initiate the process from the Export menu as usual: first, choose the “Data (all answers)” option.
   
   

   Info
   title Information
   When selecting the export format please note the following: The SPSS export’s 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.
   
   

   Info
   title Information
   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

When one loop is nested into another, this becomes:

v_variablenumber_listelementnumberlist1_listelementnumberlist2

Raw data export

Raw data of the loops in a project allow you to trace exactly what and in which order a respondent has seen and answered in the loop.

In order to export the raw data selectively, you must first choose the “Raw loop data” option in the Export menu. Then choose the desired basic and advanced options, as usual.

For each participant, the raw loop data record contains a column for every list element used, comprising the following information:

EFS Features with Limited or No Functionality in Loop Projects

• The Back button cannot be used within a loop branch due to the dynamic creation of the loop pages.
• If randomization and/or random selection are applied to the list elements of a loop and a participant resumes the questionnaire after an interruption, randomization 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.
• If the answer options of the source question of a loop are grouped, 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 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, you cannot access loop variables.
• It is not possible to use a page trigger to redirect to a page located within a loop branch.

• In the case of the variable split trigger, variables located within a loop branch cannot be used as a split attribute.

• If the recoding trigger is used to recode variables that are located within a loop branch, these variables are overwritten with each pass.

• 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 Data import.

• 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.

• Data from variables located within a loop branch cannot be cleaned using the Data cleaning function.

• It is not possible to split the field report using variables located within a loop.

• From EFS 10.2, loop data can be analysed in EFS Reporting+. Please mind: Up to 1,000 loop variables can be imported. But a high number of variables may have a negative impact on the installation’s performance. Until EFS 10.1, it is not possible to analyse loop data in EFS Reporting+.

• 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.