Difficulty level: Easy
What does the functionality do?
In Survalyzer we have only two types of survey status: inactivated and activated. Basically, an activated survey can no longer be modified, but Survalyzer offers the possibility to still modify an activated survey using versions. The following diagram illustrates this:
The following notes will explain how to change from one status to the other; the effect of these changes; and also which participants will see these effects.
A newly-created survey will be inactivated. You can open the survey, test it as much as you want and all changes will be seen immediately after a refresh of the survey.
Note: This status is for creating, designing and testing your survey, before you activate it.
To test the survey you can send out up to 20 invitations with personal links, or you can send out an anonymous URL. For testing purposes, we recommend also checking the Analyze page. You can analyse up to 5 responses and see if the collected data is the data you need to achieve your goal.
If the survey meets your requirements, you can activate your survey. The survey status will then change to activated.
Note: By activating a survey you delete all previously collected test data. Your survey will be clean and all previously generated personal links will be invalid.
Once the first version of your survey is activated, it can no longer be changed. You can now collect and analyse an unlimited amount of responses and invite as many participants as needed.
If you want to change your survey, you’ll need to click on Edit survey.
When you click on Edit survey, your already activated version stays active and your respondents can still open and answer your survey by using this initial version.
Note: All respondents will continue to use the same version they started with until they complete the survey.
In the meantime, you are able to change whatever you need to in your survey.
Attention: A change of data type and/or value range of a question will result in data loss for that question. Restoring these lost data will incur a charge.
In order to activate your changes, just click on Activate survey.
After having activated your changes, a new version of the survey will be generated. Each respondent, who starts a new interview, will see the new version.
Note: All respondents will continue to use the same version they started with until they complete the survey.
You can have an infinite number of activated survey versions, but keep in mind that a high number of versions may result in loss in performance.
Once the survey has collected sufficient data, you can close it.
As soon as you close your survey, data will no longer be collected. Each respondent will see the message The survey has been closed, defined in the language settings of your survey.
In order to open your survey again, you’ll need to click on Edit survey. As soon as the survey is active again, it can collect additional data. No data is lost by closing or reactivating a survey.
If you move a survey to the survey archive, your survey will be closed automatically and will no longer collect data. Each respondent will see the message The survey has been closed, defined in the language settings of your survey.
In order to reopen your survey, you’ll need to move the survey from the archive to the normal/active survey list. As soon as the survey is active again, it can collect additional data. No data is lost by moving your survey out of the archive.
If a survey reaches its defined end date, your survey will be closed automatically. Consequently, data will no longer be collected for the survey. Each respondent will see the message The survey has been closed, defined in the language settings of your survey.
In order to reopen your survey, you’ll need to extend or disable the end date. As soon as the survey is active again, additional data can be collected for this survey again. No data is lost by either extending or disabling the end date of a survey.