Panelists Administration

The panelists’ data is captured in panelists administration. Powerful auxiliary functions are available for managing and editing:

• The search function allows you to locate both individual panelists and panelists who meet specific common criteria and then edit them.

• You can view and manually edit the data of each panelist in the panelist database.

• When administrating a panel, you usually do not work with individual panelists, but with larger groups of panelists and project-specific samples whose members are selected according to specific criteria.

The People → Panelists administration menu allows you to view and edit the data of all panelists, including candidates. The content area of the menu contains its centerpiece: The function for searching panelists administration and – after a search has been performed - the results list.

Open

• When you open the Panelists administration menu, only the search dialog is displayed, but not the entire list of panelists. If you wish to list the data of all panelists, just enter an @ into the search field, and then trigger the search.

Executing a search query

1. Switch to the People → Panelists administration menu.

2. In the field “Search text”, enter a term or part of a term, e.g. the name of a panelist.

3. Confirm by clicking on Search.

4. If the search term is contained in a panelist’s data record, this panelist will be displayed as the result. However, deleted panelists will be ignored by this process.

5. Click on the name of the panelist who was found: The detail view will be opened.

How the search function works

• Upper and lower case spelling will be ignored.

• The following fields are not included in a simple search or when using “Search in all fields” in the extended search: “WWW” (u_www), “street” (u_street), “place” (u_city), “PLZ” (u_zip) and “phone number” (u_phone).

• The search will return all entries containing the term entered as its result.

The Extended search function, which you can open by clicking on the link of the same name, offers you diverse options for narrowing the search in your panelist data. The search criteria listed in the following table can be either used individually or combined.

Making a manual entry is advisable if you wish to enter a single person into the panel, e.g. to create a test account.

1. Open the People → Panelists administration menu and click the Add panelist button.

2. Fill in the form. The details marked with an * must be entered.

3. If you wish to create a tester account, select the “Tester” status.
   

4. When using panelist profiles, you can define the visibility of the profile data for the new panelist in the “Profile visibility” section. In the example shown below, the profile will not be made visible to others immediately after the creation, the reception of private mails is deactivated initially.
   

5. Confirm by clicking on Create account.

You can import externally created lists of future panel members, which include their participant data, their master data as well as selected system data and use them to generate new panelist accounts.

Please proceed as follows:

1. Switch to the People → Panelists administration menu.

2. The dialog where the import takes place is opened by clicking on the Import panelists button.
   

3. EFS provides a preformatted import template already containing all necessary columns. It can be downloaded by clicking on Download import template.

4. Open the template in a suitable program, e.g. in Excel, and enter the data.
   

5. Save the file in Excel or CSV.

6. Prepare the import: 
   > If you want the imported panelists to be characterized by a common way of entry, create this way of entryaccording to the instructions given in Chapter "Recruiting Panelists". This is recommended because subsequently, it will be easy for you to recognize the imported panelists in the overall pool and, if required, organize them in special groups. 
   > If you wish to group the imported panelists together into their own group immediately, create this group according to the instructions given in Chapter "Creating and Editing Groups".

7. Go back to the import dialog.

8. Select the appropriate character set.

9. In the “Source (CSV and Excel)” field, select the name of the file containing the import data.

10. Verify that the checkbox in the field “First row includes column labels” is set appropriately. Normally, it should be activated.

11. Optionally, you can select a way of entry.

12. Optionally, if you wish to group the imported panelists together immediately, you can specify the category and group.

13. Select the panel status to be assigned to the imported panelists.

14. Specify the language version through which the panelists are going to enter the panel.

15. When using panelist profiles, you can define the visibility of the profile data for the new panelist in the “Profile visibility” section. In the example shown below, the profile will not be made visible to others immediately after the creation, the reception of private mails is deactivated initially.
    

16. Click on the Send file button to start the import operation.

17. In the next step, all columns of the import file must be matched with the appropriate database fields. For the panelist import, the database fields are displayed on two separate tabs Participant data and Master data. If you have used the template without changing the column labels, as recommended, the software will carry out the allocation automatically.

18. After checking the allocations on the Participant data tab, confirm by clicking on Save allocation.

19. Switch to the Master data tab. After checking these allocations, confirm by clicking on Save allocation. Then, click on Proceed to preview.

20. In the import preview all the data records are displayed as they will be imported into the project. The traffic-light icon in the “Status” column indicates whether the data record is complete and logically coherent. If the icon is red, i.e. if an error occurred, the reason for this will be indicated when hovering the cursor over the icon. In one of the data records shown in Figure 6.8, for example, the e-mail address has not been entered properly.
    

21. 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.

22. Start the import by clicking on the Import button.

1. After completion of the import operation, you will be shown how many data records have been created and how many have not been created due to problems.
   

2. 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.

3. 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.

Before performing the import, you must specify which data will be imported and how they will be saved. The following data must or can be entered for a panelist import:

• Participant data: The e-mail address must be present, all other data is optional.

• Optionally, you can import passwords, bonus points and a reason for the allocation of bonus points. See the following sections.

• You can optionally import either all master data or selected master data.

• The system data listed in the table below is created automatically.

Importing passwords

Usually, initial passwords for imported panelists are generated automatically during the import process. Then, a reset link is dispatched. But it is also possible to import existing passwords.

• Enter the initial passwords in the “u_passwd” column of the import file.

• Length and content of the passwords must match the security criteria defined for the respective language version.

Importing an start value for bonus points and a reason

Optionally, you can credit the accounts of the panelists with bonus points during import. Just enter the desired number of bonus points in the “credit_points” column of the import file.

A reason for the allocation of points which will be displayed in the account statement and the bonus points log can also be imported g. To do this enter the desired text in the “descr” column. If you import bonus points without adding your own text, the default text “Balance on YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS” will be used.

Importing master data

Optionally, you can include either selected master data or all of them in the panelist import. The master data variables must be created in advance according to the instructions given in Chapter "Master Data".

System data that are automatically set during import

Some system variables are set automatically during import. The following table describes which values they take on during import.

The list of panelists shows all found panelists, plus the following information:

• Name: The participant's names are active links. Clicking on a participant will open the detail view

• E-mail: Clicking on a panelist’s e-mail address will open the standard mail dialog, allowing you to write an e-mail to that particular panelist.

• The other address and system data listed in the table above, and a few additional data (e.g. bonus points, gender).

• Mark: Clicking on the Mark icon will open a separate window displaying an input field, allowing you to record comments on the respective panelist. For example, you can note specific agreements or anomalies. You can identify a marked panelist by a red square displayed in the first column.

Display Functions

As most lists of results contain very large amounts of data, they will usually show excerpts only. However, there are several functions that enable you to pre-determine which panelist data and how many panelists per page will be displayed.

• By clicking on the View button you can display a dialog that allows you to specify whether the various table columns are to be shown or hidden. You can also change the number of rows per page. After you have confirmed by clicking on Send the table will be expanded accordingly.

• The links labeled > (Next page) and < (Previous page) allow you to scroll forward and back through the list of panelists.

• Clicking on a column title allows you to sort all panelist data by the content of the respective column. For example, clicking on “Name” will sort all panelists alphabetically by their names.

You can use the search function to view information about individuals. However, you will use it more frequently to apply actions to individuals or to a set of persons found: To change the panel status, to write an e-mail to the selected persons or to assign these persons to a group.

You will find the actions under the list of panelists in the “Select action” drop-down list.

In addition, you must choose to which panelists the action is to be applied:

• If you wish to apply the action to an individual panelist, tick the checkbox for that panelist in the “Actions” column.

• If you wish to edit all panelists displayed on the current results page, tick the “Mark all entries on this page” checkbox. All panelists in the current display will then be marked via JavaScript.

• If you wish to apply the action to all panelists found, tick the “Mark all entries found” checkbox.

The actions listed in the following table can be applied to selected panelists or all.

Clicking on a panelist’s name in the list of panelists allows you to open the detail view of that panelist’s data.

Open

Distributed across several tabs, you will find the following:

• Detail view: detail data, as e.g. account data, visibility settings for the profile, bonus points, contact history etc.

• Tracking information: The panelist’s tracking data (see Chapter 11.6, p. 211).

• Groups, SurveysandTasks: Information on membership in groups and samples (with the option of making manual changes) and list of assigned tasks.

• Sessions: Information on the most recent sessions.

• History: History of changes made to address data and master data by panelists themselves.

Overview

TheDetail viewtab itself provides an overview of the most significant data of the panelist selected, as e.g. account data, visibility settings for the profile, bonus points and contact history. Various buttons open dialogs with further information and editing options.

Account data

The “Account data” section lists participant data.

• Excluded here is the password which - given appropriate authorization - can be viewed and changed in special dialogs.

• Also displayed are the language version, PCI value, duplicates status, panel status, e-mail verification status and e-mail verification code.

With the exception of the last change of panel status and e-mail verification code, all these data can be edited.

Profile settings

In the “Profile settings” section, you can change the following settings for the selected panelist:

• visibility of profile data.

• permission to send and receive private messages.

• permission to tag posts.

Status information