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Designer’s Guide Apian DirectCollect

Version 3.1

October 6, 2003

Designer’s Guide

© 2003 Apian Software, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2003 Apian Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

SurveyPro , NetCollect and SurveyHost are registered trademarks, and Apian, DirectCollect, TeleInterview, FindInterview and CollectMgmt are trademarks of Apian Software, Inc.

Companies, names, and data used in examples herein are fictitious unless otherwise noted. Information in this document is subject to change without notice.

All other product and company names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.

Disclaimer This documentation is meant for use under an Apian DirectCollect license agreement. Use outside this agreement is not covered under any explicit or implied warranties.

Apian Software, Inc. 400 North 34th Street Suite 310 Seattle, WA 98103

www.apian.com

http://www.apian.com

Designer’s Guide


Contents: 1 Overview 4

A. Self-Administered Example 5

B. Interviewer Example 6

C. Touchscreen Kiosk Example 8

D. Programs and Files 9

2 Surveys for Interviewers 11

A. SurveyPro Document Properties 11

B. SurveyPro Screen Layouts 15

C. Publish Template for DirectCollect 17

D. DirectCollect Deployment and Data Management 20

3 Surveys for Kiosks 22





E. Embedded Launch from Other Software 37

4. Surveys to be Self-Administered 38





5. Interview Team Support 47

A. Programs and Files 47

B. TeleInterview Telephone Surveys 50

C. FindInterview Database Preloads 58

Appendicies:

A. Registering an Access .mdb Database 66

B. Launching from another Program 69

C. Multiple Language or Questionnaire Projects 71

Designer’s Guide


Chapter 1: Overview DirectCollect provides a way for people to easily answer a survey on a computer directly themselves, or through an interviewer. The survey entry screens are intuitive and work well with a mouse or touch screen as the primary input device. Answering can be done on the respondent’s own computer, say over a LAN or survey-on-disk, or a laptop or PC tablet carried by a consumer retail interviewer, or a desktop PC used by a telephone interviewer, or a dedicated touchscreen or kiosk system in a trade show or HR department.

Other options for collection available in the SurveyPro family are to use the web through their browser with NetCollect or SurveyHost, do key-data-entry for entering a stack of paper surveys efficiently with KeyCollect, scan “#2 pencil forms” in with Remark or other OCR software or conduct the survey on PDAs like Palm Pilots using a service provided by SurveyHost.

A survey can be conducted entirely in the DirectCollect format, or combined with data using the same questions in any of the different collection media. SurveyPro lets you design the core survey once and then make it available in more than one distribution.

DirectCollect 3.1 is an add-on to SurveyPro 3.0 for designing the on-screen questionnaires, producing a template file that is used by the DirectCollect DC31.exe run-time program to present the survey to respondents and collect the data. The data files are imported back into SurveyPro to do the analysis and reports.

There are several basic modes of operation for DirectCollect:

Self-administered survey on the respondent’s own PC. The DC31.exe and the .sddt template file can be accessed on a LAN server, or using a floppy for a survey-on-disk, or delivered via email (email is subject to limitations discussed in Chapter 4; generally NetCollect will be a better internet solution).

Interviewers in person or over the phone, transcribing respondent’s answers on a desktop, laptop, notebook or tablet PC (PDAs available through SurveyHost). This mode also works for mystery shoppers who may be evaluating a retail site or observing consumer behavior.

Respondents walking up to a dedicated computer, touch screen or kiosk. They would see just the survey with the Windows system hidden and locked out.

Each of these has its own combination of screen layout, file handling, delivery, security, etc. While the underlying design tools are the same – a variation on the techniques used for paper surveys—there are enough differences in detail that each scenario has been documented in its own chapter.

The DirectCollect documentation assumes you have a working knowledge of SurveyPro from projects on paper or the User Guide tutorials on questionnaire design and importing data.

The next section shows how DirectCollect looks to the respondents in the three scenarios. The instructions for running these examples hands-on are in the DirectCollect 3.1 Samples Guide.

Designer’s Guide


A: Self-Administered example

Figure 1-1 – An IT department’s user survey conducted over a LAN. The second screen shows the progress indicator as a ‘thermometer’ on the right side.

This is an example of a users survey conducted over a LAN from each respondent’s own system by running a shared copy of DirectCollect on the server.

They survey is in normal windows screens with minimize-maximize buttons at the upper-right and a set of survey navigation buttons along the bottom. At the left is a Quit to abort. At the right are Next and Back buttons. The center optional Comment button appearing in every screen is for general feedback by popping the dialog below, which is attached to one general text question in the survey database.

Figure 1-2 – Popup box for entering general comments along the way, so respondents do not need to search around for an appropriate open-ended question. In a paper survey these would gather the comments people sometimes write in the margins.

When the respondent completes the survey the program exits after saving the one form.

With the wide availability of web access this mode of DirectCollect has become less useful, however there remain cases where it may be the best solution, such as users who may have LAN access but do not have web browsing ability. Consult with Apian Software Sales or Support for advice on DirectCollect versus NetCollect for your application.

Designer’s Guide


B: Interviewer Example

Figure 1-3 – an example of a survey that might be conducted by an interviewer intercepting shoppers. The screen at the right shows a very compact way of getting data available only in DirectCollect layouts. The third screen shows a skip question with a must-answer warning. The zip code is checked too but was ok. The last screen has a steerable bar graph setting method and pulldown lists handy for lots of choices like countries.

This is the sort of survey that might be done by roving interviewers in a store or mall using a notebook or tablet PC, perhaps with the respondent looking over their shoulder but with the experienced interviewer handling mouse and keyboard.

The screens are similar to the self-administered ones with some detailed differences. At the top the interviewer has information about the file, form and screen numbers.

The first screen of an interviewer’s survey has a Files/Forms button which pops an administrative dialog.

Designer’s Guide


Figure 1-4 – Interviewer’s administrative popup

The top selections let the interviewer find an earlier form for editing and then go to it. The bottom buttons archive a data file or open another survey.

This is intended for simple searches to correct or add comments. Complex data cleaning is better done in SurveyPro during or after import.

Figure 1-5 – The dialing screen from TeleInterview. Depending on how the call goes to the possible respondent, the interviewer can launch the appropriate survey, mark the phone number for a callback or mark it to not call again.

TeleInterview and FindInterview help manage interview teams using a database to find respondents and preload the survey form. In Figure 1-5, the name, zip code and a unique ID are going to be passed to the survey.

Designer’s Guide


More than one survey can be launched, here for different languages, or perhaps different product lines or services. The surveys themselves are designed according to Chapter 2 first. TeleInterview and FindInterview are “wrappers” to launch the survey. See Chapter 5 for how.

C: Kiosks Touchscreen Example

Figure 1-6 – A touch screen survey using large buttons, full custom screen colors and a graphic at the right. There is a progress bar at the top. There are none of the usual Windows buttons so the respondent cannot get into the system.

A “kiosk” for DirectCollect purposes is any dedicated Windows computer running the survey locked in full-screen mode. The respondent usually answers questions entirely by touching a screen to click big buttons like the ones above. The touch screen can be set up on a desk, say in a work area or trade show booth, with the computer hidden away underneath. Touch screens are available from companies like EloTouch or 3M Microtouch or their dealers. In environments requiring more protection or styled appearance there are a number of vendors who produce standard or customized kiosks.

DirectCollect can be used for checkbox questions purely with a touchscreen. If keyboard entry is required for text answers to the survey then a special text-only keyboard will be needed to maintain the locked security

By having no Control or Alt keys on a keyboard and no minimize or system buttons in the survey frame, the respondent is locked out of other Windows programs. To lauch the survey you plug a normal keyboard and mouse into the kiosk computer, start the survey and expand it to full-screen. Then the keyboard and mouse are removed or locked awaywith the computer itself leaving respondents with the touchscreen only.

As the designer you have control over all the fonts, colors and the button size used in the survey. The XABZ title on the right is a graphic from a .jpg file. In other words, you have full SurveyPro questionnaire layout tools and appearance overrides.

The kiosk mode includes a timeout option. If the respondent walks away leaving an incomplete survey a warning will pop up after a time you preset. That warning will countdown for a few seconds, then quit back an empty first screen unless the respondent reacts to the warning.

The kiosk mode is an extension of the existing DirectCollect 3.0 screen design tools, and the features can be mixed-and-matched even though they are described here in the touch screen kiosk environment. For example, you could setup a Windows computer in an HR area with a mouse and keyboard lacking Ctrl-Alt

Designer’s Guide


running normal Windows-style screens for a complex survey, but with the kiosk locking features for security.

D: Programs and Files

Figure 1-7 – Overview of the relationship between the DirectCollect programs, SurveyPro and the files that connect them. Ultimately the questionnaire designs, data and reports reside in the .sp3 files at the left.

The DC31.exe is the program that presents the respondent screens shown in Figures 1 to 4 and 6. It draws them from a “template” file published by SurveyPro, the design program. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 cover how to setup and publish the template to get the look you want, how to deliver the template and DC31.exe to your respondents, and how to manage the answer files.

TeleInterview (Figure 1-5) and FindInterview are ways of feeding a survey to DC31.exe, and thus to an interviewer, preloaded with information about the respondent. TeleInterview drives a phone bank where numbers are drawn from a pool for dialing out. FindInterview is for looking up a respondent’s background in a database to pre-load their survey. These accessories are covered in Chapter 5.

DirectCollect saves answers to a “work-in-process” file whose name always ends in WIP, like CustQ3_WIP.sdd. In the interviewer mode this can be searched and updated as shown in Figure 4. In the self-administered and kiosk modes the answers are not available to them once the survey is finished. While the WIP file can be imported directly into SurveyPro, best practice is to “archive” the answers periodically, say daily or weekly, and resume collecting answers into a new WIP file.

The archived files are actually renamed copies of the WIP file with the date and time collection started, such as CustQ3 [2003-08-23 170531].sdd.

When the next respondent comes along DirectCollect creates a new WIP file from the template for the new answers. The archived files are made read-only for additional safety. Answers may be archived by DirectCollect when you open a template – its asks if you want to start a new file or not.

CollectMgmt is a background utility for archiving the answer files on a schedule across more than one survey project. Its use is covered in the Collect Management Guide.

SurveyProSP30.exe

Design and Reporting

Getting Answers

.sp3 Survey Project file

Questionnaires, Database and

Reports

DirectCollectDC31.exe

.sddt Survey Template file

.sdd Answer filesWIP and Archived

Publish Open

Creates and SavesImport

CollectMgmt(optional)

TeleInterviewFindInterview

(optional)

Designer’s Guide


Obviously the data files need to be handled meticulously as they contain your valuable answers; there is no paper copy to fall back on. Design the flow of the data files to backup and import as carefully as you designed the survey itself!

Two other cautions about on-line surveys before getting into the details: TEST and FREEZE. Be sure to do a final end-to-end test of any survey just before putting it into production service. Make sure all the skips and branches work as expected and all the answers flow into the database. Then clean out the test data and freeze everything. Do not make edits to the survey once it goes on-line or you are likely to give yourself serious headaches.

Figure 1-8 Folders installed by SurveyPro with DirectCollect 3.1. See figure 5-2 for the details under TeleInterview and FindInterview

Consult the DirectCollect Tutorial Guide to experience the capabilities hands-on. It will give you a guided tour from the viewpoint of the respondent/interviewer and then the designer’s viewpoint. This will be especially helpful before developing your own TeleInterview or FindInterview project, but is very useful for the interviewer and kiosk modes as well.

Designer’s Guide


Chapter 2: Surveys for Interviewers An interviewer may be someone carrying a laptop or tablet PC around talking with people they meet or have appointment with, or it may be someone conducting surveys over the phone.

A: SurveyPro Document Properties:

If you have a new project with one questionnaire, select it and the Document, Properties menu item to bring up the properties dialog described here. In a multi-media project you would select your master document, then Document menu item Copy Document. It will bring up this dialog for the copy.

If these menu items are disabled and the visible document is a questionnaire, then most likely it is locked – use the Edit menu, Locking to un-lock it (assuming it is not in production, in which case it was locked for your benefit).

Figure 2-1 – General tab for the Document, Properties menu item.

Set the Questionnaire Medium to DirectCollect, and give it a meaningful name if there will be more than one questionnaire in this project. If you have copied a questionnaire document using another medium from within this project, you will get a warning that the layouts are likely to change. The underlying questions and scales—and thus data fields – are shared. The appearance shifts to fit the medium.

The “Typical run-time window” selection lets you pick the best approximation for scaling during design. SurveyPro shows buttons and fonts that you specify in points and inches at a nominal size for the target respondent system. Up to now it has assumed that the survey would run in a window on the desktop roughly 7 inches across, the first option above. If it is likely your interviewers will run it full screen, which is more like 13 inches across, use the second choice.

Note that these are approximate scale factors for scaling text line wraps, fonts, indents, etc during design. At run-time the screen will expand or contract to fit the Window the interviewer has made available.

Designer’s Guide


Figure 2-2 – Screens tab for the Document, Properties menu item.

For interviewers the default settings above are convenient – the screens and popup dialogs will appear in the colors the interview selected for their system. Normal windows checkboxes and radio buttons are also appropriate, not big touch screen buttons.

A white background is going to provide the best visibility in most cases. However you can override this with colors or images – see Figure x in the kiosk Chapter for an example.

Figure 2-3 – Frames/Dialogs tab for the Document, Properties menu item.

Using the default Windows colors is generally best for interviewers. If you elect to override the frame color, you should customize the rest as well like Figure x.

The Progress Indicator can display a bar at the top of the screen showing how many pages have been completed or as a thermometer vertically at the lower-right. It works on the current screen number as a fraction of the total which may jump when you have skips or branches. The sample in Figure 1-1 shows the bar at the top-center with the default colors, which you can override.

Designer’s Guide


Figure 2-4 – Welcome screen tab for the Document, Properties menu item.

This is an easy way to setup the first screen of a survey since the layouts are taken care of for you. You can convert them to ordinary tiles when you wish by setting the checkbox here.

Checking the logo option requires that you also select an image as in Figure 2-6.

A password is optional, but generally not used for interviewers since access is easily controlled by who gets templates and sends data files. See the SurveyPro password documentation

Figure 2-5 – Thanks screen tab for the Document, Properties menu item.

Similar to the Welcome screen above, but appears as the last screen of the survey.

Designer’s Guide


Figure 2-6 – Logo Graphic tab for the Document, Properties menu item when the Welcome or Thanks screen uses a logo.

This would attach a graphic to the logo checkboxes in Figure 2-4 or 2-5 above if they had requested one. The image can come from a file or the clipboard by the Get buttons. If the welcome or thanks do not use this logo it will be forgotten when you click Ok.

Figure 2-7 –Buttons tab for the Document, Properties menu item.

The Help and Comment buttons are optional. Help pops up a dialog you can use like an “About” box with legal notices, etc set in the publish dialog in Figure 2-14. Typically not used with interviewers.

Comment pops a general text question that can be added to at any point, handy when the respondent has an idea some screens away from the question that triggered it. Instead of having to step around to find an appropriate written answer question the thought can be captured immediately. It is also a good place for an interviewer to add their private observations about the respondent.

The Label Text style applies to these button labels, and can be increased if you like bigger buttons in the frame.

Designer’s Guide


Figure 2-8 – Autonumber tab for the Document, Properties menu item.

Autonumbering sets the document-global rules for how the numbers will look when you chose to use them in questions or grids. For each question and grid you specify if there is a number or not, and if there is whether it is outline level 1, 2 or 3. SurveyPro applies the numbering rules above to show the next sequential number for that question. See SurveyPro help and guide for more information.

B: SurveyPro Screen Layout

Once you switch a document from paper to DirectCollect (document properties menu dialog) the questions are organized into screens instead of paper pages.

Design techniques are generally the same as used for paper questionnaires. Refer to the SurveyPro for tutorials and reference materials on designing surveys in general.

If you have published and are returning for design changes things will be locked – use Edit, Lock Changes to unlock the questionnaires.

Designer’s Guide


Figure 2-9 – Typical full-screen during survey design with the object tree at the left and the survey itself at the right. The editing is very similar to paper surveys describled in the SurveyPro documentation except you are creating screens instead of pages.

Note the dotted lines crossing the frame near the bottom of screen 3. These show about how much room you have for questions before the screen will need to be scrolled. For interviewers there is no particular harm in using scrolling rather than breaking it up into more screens, its a matter of personal taste with the exception of skips.

Figure 2-10: Skips or branches jump to screens not questions in a page (Document, Skip Patterns)

Skips and branches operate at the screen (page) level instead of questions. Thus a target question on paper would need to be at the top of a DirectCollect screen. The skip or branch rules can still use any question on the from screen or before, not just the last one before the skip.

The “dimensions” are in subjective inches for typical screen sizes; do not take them literally. What the interviewer actually sees depends on their own system and window sizing. DirectCollect expands or contracts the design to fit, adding scroll bars if needed. Within the DirectCollect screen you do have precise control of relative screen layouts and can place fixed graphics like paper (unlike HTML web browser screens which take considerable liberties with your design).

Since this is a design for an interviewer you are free to provide scripts and hints to the interviewer along with the actual questionnaire. You might want to adopt a distinctive Text Style to separate the two purposes: what gets read to respondents versus instructions.

Designer’s Guide


Answers from one screen can be used in the question text of later screens (“piping”). Note the Q number from the question tree at the left and use it by typing a coded _ANSWER_Q#_ in the question text. For example

Figure 2-11 – Piping respondent’s first and last name answers from a previous screen into the text of this one.

In this survey Q1 and Q2 are the first and last name of the respondent, so each screen has a reminder of their name at the top. Note the use of the underbars and be sure there are no embedded blanks. _ANSWER_Q1_ will be replaced exactly by the answer to Q1, then a space, then the answer to Q2.

C: Publish Template for DirectCollect

When you are ready to test or deploy the survey, select the Document, Publish menu item to prepare the questionnaire template .sddt file. The .sddt file is what DirectCollect opens to conduct the survey.

A template file is created for the currently selected document when there is more than one in the survey project. Any graphic files used in the design for logos will be copied into the template file so it is self-contained. An .sddt and the DC31.exe are enough to run a survey.

Figure 2-12 – DirectCollect questionnaire publish Run-time Operation tab

Select the interviewer mode and decide where the questionnaire template file is going.

Interviewing data always goes into a shared multi-respondent file and the email option is disabled. You may elect to not collect partial interviews, although sometimes these can provide ideas about what causes people to break off to improve your response rates in future projects.

Designer’s Guide


Figure 2-13 – DirectCollect questionnaire publish Password tab

Normally passwords are not used for interviewers, but if a password question had been selected in Figure 2-4 then the password value would be set here.

Figure 2-14 – DirectCollect questionnaire publish Notices tab

Designer’s Guide


Figure 2-15 – DirectCollect questionnaire publish interviewer startup tab

The Session ID is the required name or initials of the interviewer which will be saved in each completed form in the field named Creator. Pre-assign these exactly to your interviewers to assure they will be unique and standardized. Note: the SessionID will be used to limit interviewer searches for earlier forms to their own entries, another reason for consistency (see Figure 1-4).

The hidden questions are optional, loaded automatically into each form for the session.

Figure 2-16 – DirectCollect questionnaire publish Answer Tests tab

This screen enables testing of answer values during the survey.

NB: The default is to not test, so be sure you enable the ones you want. With interviewers you probably want to be pretty strict since they are trained users. Direct respondent entry is usually “softer” to avoid reducing response rates over frustrating requirements for non-critical answers, particularly on dates.

After you publish the template, the questionnaires in SurveyPro will be locked so the questionnaire structure – scales, question order, etc—cannot be changed in ways that would affect the import of answers. If you are going ‘live’ you should leave it locked until the answer are imported. While in the design phase just unlock the questionnaire as you test and fix things. You can work on reports at any time, whether the questionnaire is locked or unlocked.

Designer’s Guide


D: DirectCollect Deployment and Data Management

If interviewers are accessing the survey over a LAN, put the DC31.exe and the data template(s) in a folder of their own. Give them permission to execute the run-time and for it to create/read/write the data files, but otherwise restrict permission to change the data files accidentally or on purpose. If interviewers are using independent laptops then make a folder for their system with the DC31.exe and survey template(s).

When DC31 starts it will check whether there is only one template in the same directory as the .exe and use it automatically. Otherwise you get the usual file open dialog to pick a template.

DirectCollect sends its answers to a file with the same name as the template, but with _WIP added to it and the .sdd extension. The first time you start from a template or after archiving, it makes a _WIP (work-in-process) file and uses it during the session.

Answers always flow into the current _WIP file. By archiving these periodically they get renamed with their creation date/time and then marked read-only. The next answers go into a new _WIP file. So you would see two data files where the second can be copied and imported:

SomeAnswers _WIP.sdd SomeAnswers[2003-09-18 084516].sdd

Archiving periodically, daily or weekly, is a good idea for several reasons: it separates out a subset of the answers in a dated read-only file for safety, the archived data can be imported for interim “first-look” reports, and it keeps the size of the WIP data file down. There are two ways to archive:

Use the File/Form button in the first survey screen to pop a dialog with an Archive button (figure 1-4)

The CollectMgmt accessory will do archiving on a time schedule you set, particularly handy in a LAN environment where the data files are kept on a shared server. The archives can be scheduled for an off-shift. These files can then be backed up and imported as needed. CollectMgmt has its own documentation since it is a multi-project server tool.

When your interviewers are using a server file you should handle the archiving yourself. If they are mobile, you should set an archiving schedule and procedure for returning the data files.

Import the archived files into SurveyPro normally. See the SurveyPro documentation for how to do it. Assuming you have left the questionnaire locked after publishing, SurveyPro will automatically link up the data fields to questions so the data imports with a few clicks of your mouse.

A reminder that the search and update functionality (Figure 1-4) is only available within the WIP file. Once it is archived the answers are locked.

A revision change note from 3.0D: earlier releases had created separate target questions for the Comments popup when there was more than one DirectCollect document in a project. 3.0E uses one target question for the project, so be careful if using an earlier file to sort out which becomes the automatic target.

Designer’s Guide


Once your survey is designed, you can elect to launch it using TeleInterview or FindInterview. Go to Chapter 5 now to setup these team interviewing tools.

The most important installation step of an on-line survey is the testing! Just before the survey project is turned over to the interviewers,

do a final careful end-to-end test.

Enter a few respondent’s worth of answers and keep a note of what they are,

import the answers, check the import log and verify the answers all came into SurveyPro’s data table figure correctly.

Please do this test carefully no matter how “tiny” the last change was.

Then clear out the test data and give your interviewers the green light. To keep importing simple and reliable,

do not edit your survey design until all the data is imported.

Designer’s Guide


Chapter 3: Surveys for Kiosks A kiosk is a Windows system dedicated to conducting a survey, where the respondents do not have access to any of the normal Windows operations or other programs. The respondent may only have a touch screen with big buttons or mouse, or they may also have a simple text keyboard (no control or alt keys hence no system access). Touch screens are common in retail, trade shows or work areas, and generally have relatively few questions compared to a paper survey.

Because DirectCollect lets you mix and match features to fit your unique situation, you can also have a “kiosk” consisting of a dedicated PC with and mouse and text keyboard which may fit applications needing a lot of input but with the security of being able to lock out system access.

Once a kiosk survey is running it takes a Control-k plus an administrative password to change the window size or stop the program. See figures 3-19 and 3-20 below for the mechanics.

A: SurveyPro Document Properties


If these menu items are disabled and the visible document is a questionnaire, then most likely it is locked – use the Edit menu, Locking to un-lock it (assuming it is not yet in production, in which case it was locked for your benefit).



The “Typical run-time window” selection lets you pick the best approximation for scaling during design. SurveyPro shows buttons and fonts that you specify in points and inches at a nominal size for the target respondent system. Your kiosk will run full screen in order to have the security, which is more like 13 inches across, so generally use the second choice.

Note that these are approximate scale factors for scaling text line wraps, fonts, indents, etc during design. At run-time the screen will expand or contract to fit the actual Window the interviewer has made available.

Designer’s Guide


Figure 3-2 – Screens tab for the Document, Properties menu item.

Touch screen big buttons replace the usual Windows-style checkboxes and radio buttons with large square buttons (see kiosk screen figure 1-6) by clicking [x] Use. The sizes are nominal or approximate according to the screen size selection above, with the size setting the height and width and the gap providing a clear area between. A 0.5” button and 0.2” gap is a good starting point. When you get to the Buttons tab (figure 3-7) be sure to increase the font size for the frame buttons too.

For a kiosk it is normal to take full control of the color scheme and backgrounds. This is partially for eye-appeal but also to help make it look less like a general-purpose computer, more like an appliance. Compare the settings here with Figure 2-2 which uses the defaults.

A pattern can be used for the questionnaire background inside the frame, say to help the eye focus on the survey screen pixels instead of touch screen cover fingerprints, or simply provide more visual interest. It will take any SurveyPro compatible graphic from a file or the clipboard and embed it in the published template. The graphic is tiled across behind the questionnaire at the pixel-size of the graphic. Tiled Image means it will scroll with the questionnaire as if the questions were printed on the images. Normally these are abstract patterns designed to tile smoothly at the edges; many can be found in web design libraries. Fixed Watermark leaves the background fixed while the questions scroll, perhaps showing a logo as if it were a watermarked paper. A fixed watermark image should be large enough to fill the screen once at the highest expected resolution. Patterns are intended to provide a subtle design behind the questionnaire. Strong designs make it hard to read and may reduce response rates!

Windows color will use whatever the target system has set for buttons, or you can set custom colors which will override the target system settings. The first three are the button top surface and its bright and dark edge 3D button colors; the last two are the on/off color inside.

Designer’s Guide


Figure 3-3 – Frames/Dialogs tab for the Document, Properties menu item.

Once you elect to override the frame color for a kiosk, you should probably customize the rest as well. Mixing some custom colors with some Windows defaults can lead to bizarre appearances.

Frame button colors can be set like the touch screen buttons above with a choice of three colors.

Blink Start Button makes Start blink on page one to help attract respondent attention to it. Normally we discourage the use of blinking text but a kiosk can be an appropriate exception. Also consider using screen savers or multimedia shows as attention getters; see section 3-e.

Dialog box colors apply to the run-time DC31.exe dialogs. You customize the background color of the dialog and then the buttons that sit on it.

The Progress Indicator can display a bar at the top of the screen showing how many pages have been completed or as a thermometer vertically at the lower-right. It works on the current screen number as a fraction of the total which may jump when you have skips or branches. Or you can select a thermometer at the right side.

Designer’s Guide



This is an easy way to setup the first screen of a survey since the layouts are taken care of for you. You can convert them to ordinary tiles when you wish by setting the checkbox here. Checking the logo option requires that you also select an image as in Figure 3-6.

The kiosk example did not use this feature because it wanted more control over the location of the decorative graphics.

A password is optional, but is rarely needed for interviewers since access is more easily controlled by who gets and returns the required files.


Similar to the Welcome screen (figure 3-4), but appears as the last screen of the survey.

Designer’s Guide



This would attach a graphic to the logo checkboxes in Figure 3-4 or 3-5 above if they had requested one. The image can come from a file or the clipboard by the Get buttons. If the welcome or thanks do not use this logo it will be forgotten when you click Ok.


For kiosk surveys it is best to change the default Quit button name to something else such as “Restart”, because it makes more sense to the respondent who wanders up to an abandoned survey session.

The Help and Comment buttons are optional. Help pops up a dialog you can use like an “About” box with legal notices, etc set in the publish dialog in Figure 3-14. Generally not used with kiosks since the idea is to make it not look like a general-purpose computer.

The Comment button pops a general text question that can be added to at any point, handy when the respondent has an idea some screens away from the question that triggered it. Instead of having to step around to find an appropriate written answer question the thought can be captured immediately. This will require a text-only keyboard for the typing.

The File/Form button label appears but only applies to interviewer surveys not kiosks, a choice you will make later during publish.

Designer’s Guide


The Label Text style applies to these frame button labels, and should be increased for bigger buttons in the with a touch screen. 20 points seems to work nicely. Click the pencil body to edit the Frame Button Text Style.



B: SurveyPro Screen Layouts




Designer’s Guide


Figure 3-9 – Typical full-screen during survey design with the object tree at the left and the survey itself at the right. The editing is very similar to paper surveys described in the SurveyPro documentation except you are creating screens instead of pages.

For pure touch screen “big button” operation, respondents must be able to complete the survey by just pressing buttons. Use ‘discrete’ scales like checkboxes, ratings or rankings without any written answers. Text should oversized. Questions, scale labels, explanations and the number of screens should be kept short and easy to understand, or people will simply walk away. A kiosk is not the place to resolve deep philosophical questions.

Screens with big buttons must be designed without scrolling since the touch screen mode disables the Windows scroll bars. Avoid pulldown lists for checkbox entries too. If you do elect to have a numeric or alphanumeric keyboard, note that the confirmation entry will be normal Windows sized (this version does not have a “soft-keyboard” or oversized confirmation blanks).

In the Text Styles you will probably want to create a font for questions and scales that is larger than the defaults. If you are doing a kiosk-only project you can change the question and scale default styles, otherwise create a new kiosk style so that paper or web surveys can have their own settings. The usual good graphic design practice to use very few styles applies here as in any other survey. Try a 26 point fonts.

In the rare case where the respondent is going to use a keyboard and mouse with normal Windows-sized buttons, then the full range of layout options are available to you. Screens may be scrolled although you may want to limit the height, using more screens instead.

Note the short dotted lines crossing the frame near the bottom of the screen in 3-9. These show about how much room you have for questions before the screen will need to be scrolled.

Designer’s Guide


Figure 3-10: Skips or branches jump to screens not questions in a page (Document, Skip Patterns)

Skips and branches operate at the screen (page) level instead of questions. Thus a target question on paper would need to be at the top of a DirectCollect screen. The skip or branch rules can still use any question on the from screen or before, not just the last one before the skip.

Any “dimensions” are in subjective inches for typical screen sizes; do not take them literally. DirectCollect expands or contracts the design to fit, adding scroll bars if needed. Within the DirectCollect screen you do have precise control of relative screen layouts and can place fixed graphics like paper (unlike HTML web browser screens which take considerable liberties with your design).

Answers from one screen can be used in the question text of later screens (“piping”). Note the Q number from the question tree at the left of figure 3-9 and use it to type a coded _ANSWER_Q#_ in the question text. For example

Figure 3-11 – Piping respondent’s first and last name answers from a previous screen into the text of this one.

In this survey Q1 and Q2 are the first and last name of the respondent, so each screen has a reminder of their name at the top. Note the use of the underbars and be sure there are no embedded blanks. _ANSWER_Q1_ will be replaced exactly by the answer to Q1, then a space, then the answer to Q2.

Designer’s Guide






Select the kiosk mode and decide where the questionnaire template file is going.

Kiosk data always goes into a shared multi-respondent file and the email option is disabled. You may elect to not collect partial interviews, although sometimes these can provide ideas about what causes people to break off to improve your response rates in future projects.


If a password question had been selected in Figure 3-4 then the password’s value would be set here (these are passwords for respondents as opposed to the administrative password in figure 3-15). A public retail or trade show kiosk probably will not use a password, while an employee survey might use

Designer’s Guide


the employee number or an anonymous PIN code to limit access. See the SurveyPro password documentation.


Figure 3-15 – DirectCollect questionnaire publish interviewer startup tab

The Session ID is the required name or initials of the interviewer which will be saved in each completed form in the field named Creator. The SessionID is presumably the person who turned on the kiosk for this session. In a multi-location survey you might want to add a hidden question for the current location.

The hidden questions are optional, loaded automatically into each form for the session.

Designer’s Guide


Figure 3-16 -- DirectCollect questionnaire publish kiosk tab

The Administrator Access code is what you will use to expand, shrink or close the run-time survey window, the lockout that prevents respondents from getting access to the system even if they know the Control-K convention to pop the access dialog (see section 5-d for how this works). This administrative password is case-sensitive, alphanumeric only, no blanks or punctuation.

Walk-away abandoned surveys sets the timeout conditions when people do not complete a survey, generally assuring that new potential respondents will see your start screen. The first delay is like a screen saver, the time of no mouse/touch/keyboard activity before a warning dialog pops up which looks like this:

Figure 3-17 – This is the message your kiosk respondents will get after the 60 second delaywait, counting down for 15 seconds, as set in Figure 3-15. When it gets to 0 the survey clears back to a blank screen one.

Designer’s Guide




NB: The default is to not test, so be sure you enable the ones you need. Direct respondent entry is usually “softer” to avoid reducing response rates over frustrating requirements for non-critical answers, particularly on dates. In the case of the kiosk example the branching question Q1 was intentionally not made a must-answer even though a skip is based on it. Instead the skip handled the no-answer case to make the respondent experience flow easier.



Connect a full keyboard and regular mouse to the kiosk system to copy files and get the system ready. Connect the touch screen and install its driver. It will usually be the only display on the system.

Touch screen drivers differ for each vendor in detail so consult their manuals, but most seem to provide a mode where a “touch” becomes a mouse left-click at that spot on the screen, the mode appropriate for these DirectCollect surveys. You will not need drag or double-click. Leave the mouse/touch cursor on to aid setup—DirectCollect has a way to turn it off when you are ready for full-screen kiosk operation. If available in the driver you will probably want to enable some sort of sound when the screen is touched as additional respondent feedback. Do an alignment if available to get the sensing and display matched so a finger touch shows the screen cursor in the right spot (with CRT displays this may need to be re-set periodically).

Copy the DC31.exe into a folder on your kiosk system or into a LAN server along with a copy of the .sddt template file published above. No other files should be required. For convenience you can make a shortcut icon on the kiosk desktop.

Start the DC31.exe run-time program normally from Windows – you will need a full Windows keyboard and mouse at this point.

When DC31 starts it will check whether there is only one template in the same directory as the .exe and use it automatically. Otherwise you get the usual file open dialog to pick a template.

Designer’s Guide


Enter your session ID code and whatever site information is requested to mark the forms, such as today’s location for a kiosk that moves around (there are the hidden fields from Figure 3-14).

If you are still in development, you can cycle thru the survey using the mouse if testing on your design system, or either a mouse or touchscreen if on the kiosk hardware.

Since you do not have system or minimize/maximize buttons on the survey frame you will need to get to the Administrative dialog to close the survey or change the window size. Click Control-K to get this:

Figure 3-19 – Administrative popup after Cntl-k, waiting for a password.

If for some reason a respondent got to this point they would just cancel out. Type in your access code set during publish and either press the Entry key or click Go. This opens up the controls.

Designer’s Guide


Figure 3-20 – After supplying the password you have control over DirectCollect (the controls you do not want your respondents to have).

Clicking the Mouse/Touch Cursor buttons will show or hide the cursor, including in this dialog. If you hide the cursor on a system without a touch screen, use the Tab key to move the active button dotted outline marker to the button you want and click the Enter key to “push” it.

Clicking the Expand Window causes it to fill the screen, or Show Inside Desktop shrinks it back down so you can get to the start menu and the rest of Window’s tools for system management.

Clicking Exit DirectCollect shuts down the run-time program when you are done with it. It is the only way to exit a kiosk-mode survey without using the Windows Task Manager.

See the discussion below regarding Archive Answer File.

The Open New Data File button lets you change to a new questionnaire .sddt template, or simply re-open the current .sddt template to create a new dated .sdd. The latter is the way to split data files so you can copy off the data received so far for analysis and/or backup while letting the survey continue with more respondents.

You can access the dialog in figure 3-20 any time with Control-k.

Once the survey is expanded to full screen and the cursor shut off, you can lock up or remove the full keyboard and mouse until ready to collect the data files.

Plug in the full PC keyboard and mouse to offload or upload the data file using your usual email, FTP or Windows file management tools.

DirectCollect sends its answers to a file with the same name as the template, but with _WIP added to it and the .sdd extension. The first time you start from a template or after archiving, it makes a _WIP (work-in-process) file and uses it during the session.

Answers always flow into the current _WIP file. By archiving these periodically they get renamed with their creation date/time and then marked read-only. The next answers go into a new _WIP file. After archiving you would see two data files where the second can be copied and imported:

SomeAnswers_WIP.sdd SomeAnswers [2003-09-18 084516].sdd

Designer’s Guide


Archiving periodically, daily or weekly, is a good idea for several reasons: it separates out a subset of the answers in a dated read-only file for safety, the archived data can be imported for interim “first-look” reports, and it keeps the size of the WIP data file down. There are two ways to archive:

Use the Archive button in the administrative dialog (figure 3-20)

The CollectMgmt accessory will do archiving on a time schedule you set, whether the data files are kept on a shared server or in isolated kiosks. The archives can be scheduled for an off-shift. These files can then be backed up and imported as needed. CollectMgmt has its own documentation since it is a multi-project server tool.


A revision change note from 3.0: earlier releases had created separate target questions for the Comments popup when there was more than one DirectCollect document in a project. SurveyPro 3.0E uses one target question for the project, so be careful if using an earlier file to sort out which becomes the automatic target.

The most important installation step of an on-line survey is the testing! Just before the survey project is turned over to the respondents,


Enter a few respondent’s worth of answers and keep a note of what they are, import the answers, check the import log and

verify the answers all came into SurveyPro’s data table figure correctly.




Designer’s Guide


E: Embedded Launch from Other Software

DirectCollect can always be launched from other software, particularly useful for a kiosk to provide a “wrapping” around the survey for marketing or appearance reasons. The details are in Appendix B but here are some ideas to consider.

Use with Screen Savers

It is ideal to pair up DirectCollect in its kiosk mode with a screen saver to provide some visual attraction and dynamics while idle, especially if the kiosk is to attract customer entry at a trade show or retail location.

Set the timer for the screen somewhat longer than the one for the walkaway survey timeout. Then if a respondent abandons a survey, the DirectCollect dialog will popup first and return to the new survey screen before the screen saver kicks in. When someone touches the screen to reactivate DirectCollect a blank new survey will be waiting for them.

Launching from Another Program

You can launch the run-time program using a command-line string to pass the file name, preload fields, etc. There are two uses for this:

Embedding a survey in some larger process the respondent is engaged in, for example running an advertisement video for them and then asking for their reaction. The run-time can be launched as a sub-program so it returns to the larger process on completion. Since the file name can be specified for each step you could run several surveys to evaluate more than one ad design.

Using a full graphics system to produce a Shockwave, Flash or other striking visual environment to run while the kiosk is idling (a fancy screen saver in effect) that launches into the survey when the respondent pushes a button. It could also pre-qualify the respondent by interest or language to launch the appropriate survey.

See Appendix B for the command line launch specifications.

Designer’s Guide


Chapter 4: Surveys to be Self-Administered A self-administered survey has each respondent using the program once to take the survey, obviously with no training or documentation. Unlike the kiosk example in Chapter 3, the survey runs on the respondent’s own computer, so the DC3.1 executable and a template file must be made available to each respondent. For an application-level, this is much the same as a user taking a survey using a browser with NetCollect, so both should be considered. Chose DirectCollect or NetCollect based on detailed feature differences and your network configuration. Technical Support may be able to provide some guidance.

When the survey is being taken over a LAN as the IT User sample assumes, the file reside on the LAN server and answers flow back into a shared file on the server. This is a straightforward application, easy to install and administer.

If the respondents are remote, DC31.exe and the template have to be delivered by disk or email, and each respondent generates their own answer file which they need to be return for processing. Via disk it can be saved to the floppy and physically returned. EMail is more complex or even infeasible because security concerns have caused IT departments to place restrictions on receiving executable files via email or programs sending files by email. In most cases, NetCollect will be a better solution for wide-area surveys, but the capability has been left in DirectCollect to allow an email survey in the exceptional cases.

A: SurveyPro Document Properties


If these menu items are disabled and the visible document is a questionnaire, then most likely it is locked – use the Edit menu, Locking to un-lock it (assuming it is not in production, in which case it was locked for your benefit).

Designer’s Guide




The “Typical run-time window” selection lets you pick the best approximation for scaling during design. SurveyPro shows buttons and fonts that you specify in points and inches at a nominal size for the target respondent system. The first option assumes the survey will run in a window on the desktop roughly 7 inches across, above. The second choice applies if your respondents are likely to run it full screen, which is more like 13 inches across.

Note that these are approximate scale factors for scaling text line wraps, fonts, indents, etc during design. At run-time the screen will expand or contract to fit the Window the interviewer has made available. Since you have no control over what the respondent will do, pick the most likely.

Figure 4-2 – Screens and Frames/Dialogs tabs for the Document, Properties menu item.

For self-administered the default settings above are best because the screens and popup dialogs will appear in the Windows colors the respondent is used to for their system. Normal windows checkboxes and radio buttons are also appropriate, not big touch screen buttons.

A white background is going to provide the best visibility in most cases. However you can override this with colors or wallpaper images.

Designer’s Guide


The Progress Indicator can display a bar at the top of the screen showing how many pages have been completed or as a thermometer vertically at the lower-right. It works on the current screen number as a fraction of the total which may jump when you have skips or branches. The sample in Figure 1-1 shows the thermometer at the right in the default colors, which you can override.


This is an easy way to setup the first screen of a survey since the layouts are taken care of for you. You can convert them to ordinary tiles when you wish by setting the checkbox here.

Checking the logo option requires that you also select an image as in Figure 4-5.

A password is optional, but not used for this in-house user survey. If you check Enable Password, it would let you select a question to use for it and inform the publish operation to set up the test conditions in figure 4-10. See the SurveyPro password documentation for more.


Similar to the Welcome screen above, but appears as the last screen of the survey.

Designer’s Guide



This attaches the graphic to the logo checkboxes in Figure 4-3 and 4-4 since they had requested one. The image can come from a file or the clipboard by the Get Logo buttons. If the welcome or thanks do not use this logo it will be forgotten when you click Ok.


The Help and Comment buttons are optional. Help pops up a dialog you can use like an “About” box with legal notices, etc set in the publish dialog in Figure 4-10, but not used here.

Comment pops a general text question that can be added to at any point, handy when the respondent has an idea some screens away from the question that triggered it. Instead of having to step around to find an appropriate written answer question the thought can be captured immediately.

The Label Text style applies to these button labels, and can be increased if you like bigger buttons in the frame.

Designer’s Guide




B: SurveyPro Screen Layouts




Designer’s Guide


Figure 4-8 – Typical full-screen during survey design with the object tree at the left and the survey itself at the right. The editing is very similar to paper surveys described in the SurveyPro documentation except you are creating screens instead of pages.

Note the dotted lines crossing the frame near the bottom of the screen. These show about how much room you have for questions before the screen will need to be scrolled. For Windows system respondents there is no particular harm in using scrolling rather than breaking it up into more screens, it’s a matter of personal taste with the exception of skips.

Skips and branches operate at the screen (page) level instead of questions. Thus a target question on paper would need to be at the top of a DirectCollect screen. The skip or branch rules can still use any question on the from screen or before, not just the last one before the skip. See figure 2-10 for a skip setup.

The “dimensions” are in subjective inches for typical screen sizes; do not take them literally. What the respondent actually sees depends on their own system and window sizing. DirectCollect expands or contracts the design to fit, adding scroll bars if needed. Within the DirectCollect screen you do have precise control of relative screen layouts and can place fixed graphics like paper (unlike HTML web browser screens which take considerable liberties with your design).

Answers from one screen can be used in the question text of later screens (“piping”). Note the Q number from the question tree at the left and use it by typing a coded _ANSWER_Q#_ in the question text. See figure 2-11 for an example.




Designer’s Guide



Select the self-administered mode and decide where the questionnaire template file is going.

Since this survey will be conducted over a LAN set the Data Output to collect the answers in one Shared file on the server. If you were distributing the survey on disk or via email you would check the New File each repondent option.

The option to return self-administered files by email is offered, but has a number of practical restrictions. Not all email programs will respond properly to the Windows service used by DirectCollect for sending, and concerns over security have led to a number of restrictions on email sent by executables, or the sending of an executable like DC31.exe by email. In general, the web and NetCollect offers a better solution for conducting surveys over a wide area, using email as the invitation to take the survey. Contact Technical Support for more information.

You may elect to not collect partial interviews, although sometimes these can provide ideas about what causes people to break off to improve your response rates in future projects.


If a password question had been selected in Figure 4-3 then the password value would be set here. See the SurveyPro password documentation for more on using passwords.

Designer’s Guide



The Message for manual return would apply if the email option had been selected in figure 4-9.



NB: The default is to not test, so be sure you enable the ones you want. Since this is direct respondent entry we would be fairly tolerant to avoid reducing response rates over frustrating requirements for non-critical answers, particularly on dates. However if you have critical answer be sure to test for it.


Designer’s Guide



If the respondents are accessing the survey over a LAN, put the DC31.exe and your published .sddt data template in a folder of their own. Give them permission to execute the run-time and for it to create/read/write the data files, but otherwise restrict permission to change the data files accidentally or on purpose. When DC31 starts it will recognize that there is only one template in the directory and use it automatically. Otherwise you get the usual file open dialog to pick a template. Generally you want the startup to be automatic so you would put just the .exe and .sddt in a folder of their own.

For surveys on disk or via email, deliver the DC31.exe and template to the respondent. Here each respondent creates a file (figure 4-9 set to New file for each) tagged with a date and time in the name like MyAnswers[2003-09-18 084516].sdd. When the files come back for import there is very little chance they will have been taken at exactly the same second so you should not have any with the same name. Use SurveyPro batch import to bring them all in automatically. See the SurveyPro documentation regarding import.

When the shared file option in figure 4-9 is selected, DirectCollect sends its answers to a file with the same name as the template, but with _WIP added to it and the .sdd extension. The first time you start from a template or after archiving, it makes a _WIP (work-in-process) file and uses it during the session.

Answers always flow into the current _WIP file. By archiving these periodically they get renamed with their creation date/time and then marked read-only. The next answers go into a new _WIP file. So you would see two data files where the second can be copied and imported:

SomeAnswers _WIP.sdd SomeAnswers[2003-09-18 084516].sdd

Archiving periodically, daily or weekly, is a good idea for several reasons: it separates out a subset of the answers in a dated read-only file for safety, the archived data can be imported for interim “first-look” reports, and it keeps the size of the WIP data file down. The CollectMgmt accessory will do archiving on a time schedule you set, particularly handy in a LAN environment where the data files are kept on a shared server. The archives can be scheduled for an off-shift. These files can then be backed up and imported as needed. CollectMgmt has its own documentation since it is a multi-project server tool.




Enter a few respondent’s worth of answers and keep a note of what they are, import the answers, check the import log and

verify the answers all came into SurveyPro’s data table figure correctly.




Designer’s Guide


Chapter 5: Interview Team Support

A: Programs and Files There are two programs included with DirectCollect™ 3.1 to aid teams of interviewers either find respondents to survey from a database or to conduct telephone polls. These are part of the SurveyPro®

family of products from Apian Software®.

FindInterview might be used by customer service people doing followup surveys after handling a call initiated by the customer – they can use a couple criteria to find that customer in the database and start a survey preloaded with the basic customer information.

TeleInterview is driven by a list of phone numbers and any other information known about the respondents. It picks a number to call, goes to the survey if the interviewer finds the respondent is willing, or presents choices for the interviewer to indicate an invalid number or set a callback later. The call pool can be filtered based on a couple of criteria so you can select time zone, daytime-evening number, respondent’s language or whatever. TeleInterview can present the number for manual dialing, fine for a quick one-time survey , or can autodial the number using Windows Telephony with the right hardware and setup.

The fundamental difference is who controls the respondent search. With FindInterview the interviewer asks to search for a particular person. TeleInterview does the search on its own to pick a phone number from a pool at random.

Either system can access up to 8 different surveys at the choice of the interviewer, such as different languages, or different product or service areas.

The respondent information can come from any source including SurveyPro, exported as an .mdb file, or perhaps single-table-database accessible with Microsoft ADO/SQL. All the answers and edits flow into SurveyPro when it imports the survey results. In addition corrections to the survey preloads can be fed back to the respondent database if desired.

The programs are driven by a simple interviewer profile text file (.itv) to identify the database, match database fields to SurveyPro questions, enable features, etc. There is one of these files per possible interviewer to personalize their access, say to have different surveys available to them, plus a shared file for common properties. Only one person can be using a particular .itv at a time to enforce correct identification of the interviewer for tracking purposes.

A .log file record is created for each call attempt and survey completion to facilitate tracking and troubleshooting.

Beyond the interviewer profile .itv controls, FindInterview and TeleInterview are written in Visual Basic so they can be customized further as needed. These provide a useful CATI capability for temporary phone banks or use in moderate sized workgroups; they are not intended as large intensive call center management systems.

Designer’s Guide


Figure 5-1 – Interaction between FindInterview or TeleInterview which get the respondent ready to interview, and DirectCollect which conducts the survey.

The interviewing setup involves two programs and set of support files. DirectCollect provides the actual survey environment using templates designed in SurveyPro. The procedures for creating the surveys and handling the data is described in Chapter 2 which covers the left side of this flow chart. Compare 5-1 to Figure 1-7.

TeleInterview feeds phone calls to one or more interviewers, drawing each number from a respondent pool table in a .mdb (Access) file or SQL database. FindInterview does a database lookup for the preload. This respondent pool database has fields to support the call management: survey completions, callbacks, etc.

Each interviewer has an .itv file with their profile, such as their SurveyPro form name/initials, and which survey language versions they will use. There will generally be a shared .itv that contains commands used by all the interviewers in a project, like the database name and question-field matchups.

The CollectMgmt10A.dll provides Windows and SurveyPro interface functions for Visual Basic which was used to code these two interview programs.

When a respondent is ready to be surveyed, information about the respondent can be forwarded to DirectCollect to preload some answers. The handoff is via a .tmp file in the same directory as the .log which records events from TeleInterview. At your option, preloaded answers that are changed in the survey, such as correcting an address, may be fed back to update the .mdb/SQL database too.

The tmp file passed between FindInterview and DirectCollect is intended for passing a modest amount of demographic information. Only single-line answers (use the box labels) are permitted to questions in the SurveyPro design (which may be hidden fields). The file size is limited to 20kb.

Installing a project requires that you prepare the .mdb or SQL respondent pool database and the .itv files, plus the survey .sddt template or templates. TeleInterview or FindInterview and DirectCollect create the rest of the files.

The files for a project can all be in one directory for simplicity. They can also be spread around for multiple project efficiency or security.

Respondent Pool.mdb/SQL Database

FindInterviewOr

TeleInterview.itv I(nterviewer Files

.log tracking file

DirectCollect

Preload

Exit CodeOptional Updates

.sddt survey templates

.sdd survey answers

SurveyProDesign and

Reports.tmp file

CollectMgmt10A.dll

Shared .itv file

Designer’s Guide


Figure 5-2 – Folder structure as installed with SurveyPro and DirectCollect

Designer’s Guide


B: TeleInterview Setup Steps to developing a phone interview survey:

Design the survey itself in SurveyPro as described in Chapter 2, which produces your .sddt survey template file

Prepare your phone number pool database – combines your respondent data with some fields TeleInterview will use for call management

Prepare the interviewer (.itv) configuration files for your team

Install TeleInterview for the interviewer’s systems, copy your survey files and connect the database

Test, clear test data, and launch

Be sure to allow yourself time for setup on the first project, until you get a feel for how long each of these tasks is going to take. We highly recommend the Tutorial Guide to see the pieces and how they fit together for a sample project.

Preparing the Respondent Pool Database

The database contains information to drive and track the interview process. It can be any ADO SQL accessible database type, including Access .mdb files which are particularly convenient for an application of this type.

The information must be a single database table to use the program as supplied. Reaching into relational multi-table databases requires modification of the Visual Basic source code supplied, an investment that may be appropriate in some circumstances. Usually it is simplest to derive or maintain a single table from the relational set for TeleInterview to use so programming is not required. That could be a table within a larger SQL database system that is maintained as an interchange point between TeleInterview and the main data, perhaps even with off-hour updates between the two in SQL.

Fields may be in any order. Since the names are mapped in the .itv file you can use any legal SQL or Access name in the database. Extra fields in the table, ones not specified in the .itv file, are ignored.

The database includes the respondent’s phone number plus any information you want the interviewer to see and/or forward to the survey as a preload. For example passing along the respondent’s address for corrections.

The database must have one field (table column) as a unique key. This is what TeleInterview will use to read and update the respondent’s record. The value must not be empty, must not be null and must not be duplicated. It can be anything, even just the record number. Making it an Indexed No Duplicates field in Access will help enforce this and speed searches.

The New Car Sample was exported from a SurveyPro database we want to update later by using the unique form ID. It is in the .itv file, exported to the .mdb, and is passed into the survey – then it becomes the SurveyPro import key later. Note that this SProFormID must be a legal SurveyPro ID so it is best if you only use the ones exported with SurveyPro forms. For other kinds of keys create a hidden question for it and pass the value through that question to be the import key.

Designer’s Guide


Thus the database will have two required fields for your potential respondents:

Key Field – Normally a Text or Number field, but may be any type. Make this an index for fast lookups and be sure it has no duplicates.

Phone Field – the phone number in a Text field, required

Extension Field – a required Text field containing the phone extension, if any

To autodial follow the Microsoft rules in formatting the phone numbers. For best control use the canonical form which looks like

+1 (425) 882-8080

with a plus sign, country code, optional area code in parenthesis and the number following this strict format. Otherwise normal numbers should do. These are combined with the dialing rules on each interviewer’s system to make the call. For more details consult your IT department or find Microsoft Telephony canonical or dialable rules on their web site (TeleInterview uses TAPI 2.2).

Extensions which you are certain are direct dial can be part of the Phone field, but generally extensions are left for the interviewer to handle in case an operator answers or manually dial at the appropriate point if they get a phone menu tree.

Plus there are some fields you will need to add for the use of TeleInterview:

CheckedOut Field – a Yes/No or Boolean field for marking a record while an interviewer is working with it, cleared after the phone call or interview is completed with that respondent. Should be No or False when no one is logged in. If an interviewer’s computer exits the TeleInterviewer program abnormally (power failiure or system crash) then this field could be stuck True. If so, simply wait until everyone is logged off and clear them using MS Access.

Done Field – A Text or Memo field to accumulate survey completion(s), a comma-separated list of the survey numbers 1 to 8.

NewPhone and NewExtension Fields – Empty text fields reserved for any updates to phone numbers

CallStatus Field – a Number field starting at null or 0 (zero) to indicate the number has not been tried the first time. This will become 1 for a successful interview completion, 2 if the respondent asked to be removed from the call list, 3 if the number was not usable and 4 while a callback has been scheduled.

CallbackAt Field – an empty Date field the program will use for callbacks when CallStatus is 4

Attempts Field – an empty Text or Memo field to accumulate the call attempt list

Notes Field – an empty Memo field for callback notes

LogTiming – optional, default off, can be set to On or True to add elapsed time records to the log file for certain database operations. Used for troubleshooting only.

If you have exported the .mdb file from SurveyPro, open it in MS Access. You may need to confirm it is ok to update it to the latest release. You will find it has one table named “Exported”. Add the extra field columns above using the design mode and save the .mdb to be your respondent base.

Designer’s Guide


The itv Interviewer Files

TeleInterview is driven by a text file with the .itv extension, one per interviewer per project plus an optional shared included .itv for a project.

Prepare these with a plain text editor that does not add formatting information like Notepad, a Windows Accessory program. It is convenient to have a desktop icon for Notepad. If you need one, right-click the Windows Program Notepad menu item, select Create Shortcut, and drag the new shortcut onto your desktop.

A typical interviewer file for TeleInterview looks like this:

InterviewerID = "Sally Ballou" Survey1 = "TeleInterview New Car English.sddt","English Survey" ' reserved: Survey2 = "TeleInterview New Car Spanish.sddt","Spanish Survey"

IncludeFile = "TeleInterview Shared New Car.itv"

A second interviewer, bilingual in French instead of Spanish, might be like:

InterviewerID="Sam Jones" Survey1="TeleInterview New Car English.sddt","English Survey" Survey2="TeleInterview New Car Spanish.sddt","Spanish Survey"

IncludeFile="TeleInterview Shared New Car.itv"

Making the command values line up for clarity is optional. The two interviewer files refer to a common set of settings in this TeleInterview Shared New Car.itv file:

' Shared file to be included in New Car Followup interviewer files ' DirectCollect link and respondent database MaxScreen = False LogFile = Calls.log UpdateSource = False ConnectionDB = "DSN=TeleInterview New Car" SourceTable = "Exported"

' Respondent field matchups KeyField = "Form ID"

PhoneField = Phone ExtensionField = Ext

DoneField = Dones,ANYONE CheckedOutField = "Checked Out" CallStatusField = Status AttemptsField = Attempts CallbackAtField = Callback NoteField = Notes NewPhoneField = "New Number" NewExtensionField = "New Ext" SelectOn1 = Language,"Owner's Language",English,Spanish SelectOn2 = Day_Eve, "Day-Evening Number",Day,Evening

Autodial = False

' Answer fields to preload (pipe) into survey Q02 = "Last Name" Q01 = "First Name" Q03 = ZIP SProFormID = "Form ID"

These are taken from the New Car sample which you can run for yourself. See the DirectCollect 3.1 Samples Guide.

Designer’s Guide


Blanks lines and ones starting with ‘ (single quote mark) are ignored so you can organize the entries. Comments must start in the first column; they cannot be after a command entry.

Each script line starts with a keyword, like InterviewerID and an equal sign, one per line.

Double-quotes around the parameters to the right of the equal sign may be used at your option. In the rare parameter that has a comma or equals inside it or has blanks before or after the value the double-quotes are required. None of the quotes in the samples above were required except for the “DSN= TeleInterview New Car” because of the second = sign. File parameters may be just the name when they are in the same folder as the .itv file, so the LogFile could be Calls.log or E:\some\place\else\Calls.log. If they are elsewhere the whole path starting with the drive letter is required. Remember to use the drive and folder designations for the interviewer’s system with mapped drives.

Many of the parameters are field names in the database table. The last section covered the database structure. Since the .itv tells TeleInterview what the names are you can use whatever are easy to understand or naturally fit the source of the database.

All the entries are required unless noted as optional and they can be in any order:

InterviewerID – 1 to 12 characters identifying this interviewer. Must be unique among the interviewers on the project, and used consistently, for tracking and management purposes. It will be passed to DirectCollect as the creator for each form. It appears in each log file record.

Survey1 through Survey8 – The .sddt template file and button label for each of the 8 buttons on the interviewer’s screen, comma separated. One of the eight must be supplied, normally Survey1, but you can set any or all of the 8. In the Sam Jones sample above, Survey1 and Survey3 are active but Survey2 is commented out for this bilingual interviewer. The eight surveys might be different language versions like this example or perhaps surveys tailored to a particular product like the FindInterview example. Only buttons for the surveys defined for an interviewer will show on their screen.

While the numbers could theoretically be assigned arbitrarily between interviewers on a project, the completion tests and log files use the numbers. Tracking becomes confusing if they are inconsistent plus the completed surveys option will not work. Best if 2 is reserved for French for all interviewers.

IncludeFile – optional, names a file containing settings common to all the interviewers.

DC31File – Optional location of the DC31.exe file if not kept with TeleInterview.exe

MaxScreen – Optional. If missing or False DirectCollect opens in a normal window on the desktop. If True DirectCollect opens maximized, filling the screen.

LogFile – the name of the log file to use. May be shared between interviewers and/or projects as you wish, or kept separate. The .tmp files used by TeleInterview to pass any survey preload values to DirectCollect will go in the same folder. If use want the log file to be archived with the data files by CollectMgmt (see Collect Data Management.pdf) then end the file name with _WIP.log.

UpdateSource – True when you want any changes to the answers preloaded from the respondent database into the DirectCollect survey to be fed back to update the database in addition to the survey answers. False does not send the changes back, only forward though the survey answers. Note this is intended for short demographic answers not full surveys with open-ended answers.

ConnectionDB – the ADO connection string to reach the respondent database. If you elect to register the file as an ODBC source then the DNS name goes here, officially starting with DSN= although the plain name may also work. The name can be up to 32 characters long. See Appendix A for the details. Otherwise you follow the ADO connection string rules to set the driver, file name, permissions, etc to get to any ADO database, .mdb or SQL.

SourceTable – the name of the database table to use for respondents.

CheckedOutField—field for the program to mark a record while in use by an interviewer.

KeyField—field for the program to locate a particular respondent’s record uniquely and quickly.

Designer’s Guide


DoneField – field for the program to accumulate a record of the survey numer or numbers completed. After the field name put a comma and one of these required keywords: UNLIMITED to allow any combination of surveys, ANYONE to restrict it to doing just one of the eight numbered surveys once, or EACH to allow any combination of the eight surveys but each one only once.

Autodial – optional, defaults off, set to On or True to enable autodialing. Requires the interviewer’s system have the appropriate hardware and system configuration, in the simplest case a modem with a headset will do but it could also work through some PBX systems. Basically if their system will support the Windows Phone Dialer found under Accessories, Communications then TeleInterview should be able to use that same setup (via TAPI 2.2). Consult with your Windows support people or IT department for Windows Telephony configuration help.

PhoneField –field with the number to dial

ExtensionField – has the extension number if manually dialed or verbal

CallStatus –field for tracking the progress of the respondent through the calling process

NewPhoneField and NewExtensionField – fields for changes to phone numbers

AttemptsField –field for call attempt history

NoteField –field for notes on callbacks

CallbackAtField –field for the date and time for callbacks

SelectOn1 and/or SelectOn2 – optional to allow the interviewer to subset the respondent pool. After the database field name, put a comma and the label you want to show on the dialog for the interviewer. After that comes a comma-separated list of the exact answers the interviewer will be able to pick from in the dialog.

SProFormID – optional, used when a SurveyPro form ID is being passed into the DirectCollect in order to server as a SurveyPro import key later.

The last set are the question preloads for the DirectCollect survey form, with the Q number as used in SurveyPro equal the respondent database field name. Be sure the leading zeros are correct, ie Q003 will not work if the SurveyPro assignment is Q03.

Values for checkboxes can be the box number, an unambiguous subset of the box label or the full box label. Use a semicolon-delimited list to set multi-answer checkboxes. The other box of a scale can be set but the text other answer cannot be preloaded. If updating the database the answer(s) will always be returned with the full labels. Thus if one had a scale with the boxes Alpha, Beta and Gamma these would all work to set the 2nd box:

2 b Beta

The Beta answer would be returned. If this were a multi-answer scale you could set the 1st and 3rd boxes with:

1;3 a;g Alpha;Gamma

Be sure that date/time values are formatted to match the target scale.

NB: the Q numbers may change as you edit the design in SurveyPro. Be sure to test carefully!

Designer’s Guide


Installing TeleInterview

Install TeleInterview on each system that will run it by double-clicking InstallTeleInterview.exe. It will normally be found in the \Programs\Apian Software\SurveyPro\DirectCollect\TeleInterview folder after SurveyPro is installed. Since TeleInterview will probably be run from a LAN server, make a copy of InstallFindInterview.exe there to use when installing on the workstations, or you can email the file or copy it to disk for standalone workstations. It will place three files (TeleInterview.exe, DC31.exe and CollectMgmt10A.dll) where you wish as well as adding any system support needed for its operation.

Place the data base, survey templates and the .itv files where everyone can get at them. Usually these would all go into one LAN server folder, but in fact only the database file must be shared by everyone in order to coordinate the call records.

The shared respondent database needs to be available to everyone using the TeleInterview program for a particular poll. If this is a .mdb Access file it can simply be copied to a server directory with the appropriate user permissions (remember it will be written by the program). The most universal way to make it available the program is to register it with the ODBC system since this lets you set security, driver name, etc once with the help of the Windows dialogs. Consult the Appendix A for instructions.

Keep a clean copy of the database to restore the system after testing is complete when you are ready to start the real interviews.

It may be easier for your interviewers to have shortcuts on their desktop including their .itv name. Right-click the shortcut installed with TeleInterview and select Properties. Where it has the Target: entry type a space after the .exe name and put the .itv file name in quotes.

Using the autodial capability will require Windows Telephony to be configured on each interviewer’s system. Given the wide range of hardware and software available to implement telephony, you will need to consult Microsoft and your IT personnel for setup. It is beyond the scope of this Guide or Apian support staff. Once the Windows default Phone Dialer accessory works, so should TeleInterview.

The most important installation step of an on-line survey is the testing!

Just before the survey project is turned over to the interviewers, do a final careful end-to-end test.

Take a few phone numbers into surveys, check the preloads are correct, add some answers and keep a note of what they are,

close TeleInterview down, check it’s log file, import the answers, check the import log and verify the answers all came into SurveyPro’s data table figure correctly.

If doing updates verify these have fed back to the database.


Then clear out the test data and give your interviewers the green light. To keep importing simple, do not edit your survey design until all the data is imported.

Designer’s Guide


Log File

The normal log file looks like this:

07-21-2003,12:01:44,”Sam J”, ,”Log On”, 07-21-2003,12:02:57,”Sam J”,vvrp-g32x-7tm,”Calling 222-2222”, 07-21-2003,12:03:05,”Sam J”,7vy6-f32x-732,”Calling 111-1111”, 07-21-2003,12:04:40,”Sam J”,7vy6-f32x-732,”Survey 1 returned 0”, 07-21-2003,12:04:46,”Sam J”,vvrp-g32x-7tm,”Calling 222-2222”, 07-21-2003,12:07:00,”Sam J”, ,”Log Off”,

Records are appended as things happen so you will see activity from more than one interviewer interleaved when the .log is on the server. The date and time are according to the interviewer’s system clock, which will generally not be the same across team members, leading to times appearing out of order.

The interviewer ID is given, then the respondent unique key value and an event. A survey returning 0 was completed normally, 1 means the respondent quit, 2 is a kiosk timeout and 3 is a program error.

When LogTiming is enabled in the .itv file for troubleshooting, the log will look like:

08-13-2003,13:26:12,”Darcy J”,””,”TIMER OpenItvSession”,”0.328”, 08-13-2003,13:26:18,”Darcy J”,””,”TIMER OpenRespDB”,”6.070”, 08-13-2003,13:26:18,”Darcy J”,””,”Log On”,””, 08-13-2003,13:26:18,”Darcy J”,””,”TIMER DoSearch”,”0.172”, 08-13-2003,13:26:38,”Darcy J”,”39”,”TIMER CheckoutRecord”,”0.129”, 08-13-2003,13:26:38,”Darcy J”,”39”,”TIMER DoSurvey Setup”,”0.199”, 08-13-2003,13:27:19,”Darcy J”,”39”,”Survey 2 returned 0”,””, 08-13-2003,13:27:19,”Darcy J”,”39”,”TIMER DoSurvey Wrapup”,”0.039”, 08-13-2003,13:27:19,”Darcy J”,””,”TIMER CheckinRecord”,”0.012”, 08-13-2003,13:27:19,”Darcy J”,””,”TIMER DoSearch”,”0.020”, 08-13-2003,13:27:21,”Darcy J”,””,”Log Off”,””,

The extra records reflect execution times for database access in fractions of seconds. The 6 seconds to OpenRespDB is typical of the first logon to the database, after that it appears to happen in a second or two. Niether is a problem since these are once per session. The times to access records and do searches should are fractions of a second.

Designer’s Guide


Customization

Sources are supplied and you are welcome to modify to meet your specific needs. Apian support can obtain clarification on how our own function calls and code work, but cannot supply general programming advice. Support on Visual Basic, ADO, TAPI and Windows may be obtained through Microsoft Software Developer Network on the web or their support services.

The functions are tested within the Apian environment and are not intended for general use. Please test your modifications carefully.

TeleInterview is written in object-oriented Visual Basic 6.0 with Service Pack 5 or later. The project uses some addons that need to be available to Visual Basic through two menu items:

Project, References:

MS ActiveX Data Objects 2.7

MS ADO Extensions 2.7 for DDL and security

MS Scripting runtime

MS DAO 3.6 Object Library

Project, Components:

MS ADO Data Control 6.0 (SP4) (OLEDB)

MS Common Dialog Control 6.0 (SP3)

MS Common Controls 6.0 – all versions through (SP5)

Designer’s Guide


c. FindInterview Setup Steps to developing a searchable interview survey:

Design the survey itself in SurveyPro as described in Chapter 2, which produces your .sddt survey template file

Prepare your respondent database – combines your respondent data with some fields FindInterview will use for survey management

Prepare the interviewer (.itv) configuration files for your team

Install FindInterview for the interviewer’s systems, copy your survey files and connect the database

Test, clear test data, and launch

Be sure to allow yourself time for setup on the first project, until you get a feel for how long each of these tasks is going to take. We highly recommend the Tutorial Guide to see the pieces and how they fit together for a sample project.

Preparing the Database

The database contains information to drive and track the interview process. It can be any ADO SQL accessible database type, including Access .mdb files which are particularly convenient for an application of this type.

The information must be a single database table to use the program as supplied. Reaching into relational multi-table databases requiresw modification of the Visual Basic source code supplied, an investment that may be appropriate in some circumstances. Usually it is simplest to derive or maintain a single table from the relational set for FindInterview to use so programming is not required. That could be a table within a larger SQL database system that is maintained as an interchange point between FindInterview and the main data, perhaps even with off-hour updates between the two in SQL.

Fields may be in any order. Since the names are mapped in the .itv file you can use any legal SQL or Access name in the database. Extra fields in the table, ones not specified in the .itv file, are ignored.

The database includes the respondent’s phone number plus any information you want the interviewer to see and/or forward to the survey as a preload. For example passing along the respondent’s address for corrections.

The database must have one field (table column) as a unique key. This is what FindInterview will use to read and update the respondent’s record. The value must not be empty, must not be null and must not be duplicated. It can be anything, even just the record number. Making it an Indexed No Duplicates field in Access will help enforce this and speed searches.

That this SProFormID must be a legal SurveyPro ID so it is best if you only use the ones exported with SurveyPro forms (see TeleInterview for example). For other kinds of keys create a hidden question for it and pass the value through that question to be the import key.

Designer’s Guide


Thus the database will have two or three required fields for your potential respondents:

Key Field –Normally a Text or Number field, but may be any type. Make this an index for fast lookups and be sure it has no duplicates.

SEARCHABLE Fields – one or two fields of any data type that the interviewer can use as search criteria

Plus there are two fields you will need to add for the use of FindInterview:

CheckedOut Field – a Yes/No or Boolean field for marking a record while an interviewer is working with it, cleared after the interview is completed with that respondent. Should be No or False when no one is logged in. If an interviewer’s computer exits the FindInterviewer program abnormally (power failiure or system crash) then this field could be stuck True. If so, simply wait until everyone is logged off and clear them using MS Access.

Done Field – A Text or Memo field to accumulate survey completion(s), a comma-separated list of the survey numbers 1 to 8.

If you have exported the .mdb file from SurveyPro, open it in MS Access. You may need to confirm it is ok to update it to the latest release. You will find it has one table named “Exported”. Add the extra field columns above using the design mode and save the .mdb to be your respondent base.

Interviewer Profile .itv File

FindInterview is driven by a text file with the .itv extension, one per interviewer per project plus an optional shared included .itv for a project.

Prepare these with a plain text editor that does not add formatting information like Notepad, a Windows Accessory program. It is convenient to have a desktop icon for Notepad. If you need one, right-click the Windows Program Notepad menu item, select Create Shortcut, and drag the new shortcut onto your desktop.

You can add and edit these at any time. The changes will take effect the next time the file is used to start a TeleInterview session.

A typical interviewer file for FindInterview looks like this:

InterviewerID = “Darcy J”

IncludeFile = “FindInterview Shared Customer Service.itv”

A second interviewer might be like:

InterviewerID=“Fred S”

IncludeFile=“FindInterview Shared Customer Service.itv”

Making the command equal signs and values line up for clarity is optional.

Designer’s Guide


The two interviewer files refer to a common set of settings in this Shared New Car.itv file.

‘ Shared file to be included in Customer Service interviewer files ‘ DirectCollect link and respondent database MaxScreen = False LogFile = CustCalls.log UpdateSource = True ConnectionDB = “DSN=FindInterview Customer Service” SourceTable = “Customers”

‘ Surveys by product line Survey1 = “Home Gardener Sample.sddt”,”Home Garden” Survey2 = “Farmers Sample.sddt”,”Farm” Survey3 = “Industrial Sample.sddt”,”Industrial” AllowNewForm = True

‘ Respondent field matchups CheckedOutField = “DC_Using” KeyField = “CustID” DoneField = Completions,EACH

Q02=”LastName”,SEARCHABLE,”Last Name” Q01=”FirstName” Q03=”ZIP_Postal” Q04=”CustID”,SEARCHABLE,”Customer Code Number (5 digits)”

SortOnFields=”LastName”, “ZIP_Postal”

These are taken from the Customer Service sample which you can run for yourself. See the DirectCollect 3.1 Tutorials Guide.

Blanks lines and ones starting with ‘ (single quote mark) are ignored so you can organize the entries. Comments must start in the first column; they cannot be after a command entry.

Each script line starts with a keyword, like InterviewerID and an equal sign, one per line.

Double-quotes around the parameters to the right of the equal sign may be used at your option. In the rare parameter that has a comma or equals inside it or has blanks before or after the value the double-quotes are required. None of the quotes in the samples above were required except for the DSN= Customer Service Sample because of the second = sign. File parameters may be just the name when they are in the same folder as the .itv file, so the LogFile could be CustCalls.log or E:\some\place\else\CustCalls.log. If they are elsewhere the whole path starting with the drive letter is required. Remember to use the drive and folder designations for the interviewer’s system with mapped drives.

Many of the parameters are field names in the database table. The next section covers the database structure. Since the .itv tells FindInterview what the names are you can use whatever are easy to understand or naturally fit the source of the database.

All the entries are required unless noted as optional and they can be in any order:

InterviewerID – 1 to 12 characters identifying this interviewer. Must be unique among the interviewers on the project, and used consistently, for tracking and management purposes. It will be passed to DirectCollect as the creator for each form. It appears in each log file record.

Survey1 through Survey8 – The .sddt template file and button label for each of the 8 buttons on the interviewer’s screen, comma separated. One of the eight must be supplied, normally Survey1, but you can set any or all of the 8 as you like. The eight surveys might be different language versions like the TeleInterview example or surveys tailored to a particular product like this example. Only buttons for the surveys defined for an interviewer will show on their screen.

While the numbers could theoretically be assigned arbitrarily between interviewers on a project, the completion tests and log files use the numbers. Tracking becomes confusing if they are inconsistent plus the completed survey options will not work.

Designer’s Guide


AllowNewForm – optional. Missing or False processes surveys only for respondents with preload information in the database. True permits the interviewer to conduct a survey for a new respondent. The KeyField must be an autoincrementing number such as in the sample above. If you have a unique respondent identifier of your own, like a customer number, treat these as a normal question and data field to be assigned by the interviewer now or with some other method later.

IncludeFile – optional, names a file containing settings common to all the interviewers.

DC31File – optional location of the DC31.exe file if not kept with FindInterview.exe

MaxScreen – optional. If missing or False DirectCollect opens in a normal window on the desktop. If True DirectCollect opens maximized, filling the screen.

LogFile – the name of the log file to use. May be shared between interviewers and/or projects as you wish, or kept separate. The .tmp files used by FindInterview to pass any survey preload values to DirectCollect will go in the same folder. If use want the log file to be archived with the data files by CollectMgmt (see Collect Data Management.pdf) then end the file name with _WIP.log.

UpdateSource – True when you want any changes to the answers preloaded from the respondent database into the DirectCollect survey to be fed back to update the database in addition to the survey answers. False does not send the changes back, only forward though the survey answers. Note this is intended for short demographic answers not full surveys with open-ended answers.

ConnectionDB – the ADO connection string to reach the respondent database. If you elect to register the file as an ODBC source then the DNS name goes here, officially starting with DSN= although the plain name may also work. The name can be up to 32 characters long. See Appendix A for more details. Otherwise you follow the ADO connection string rules to set the driver, file name, permissions, etc to get to any ADO database, .mdb or SQL.

SourceTable – the name of the database table to use for respondents.

CheckedOutField—field for the program to mark a record while in use by an interviewer.

KeyField—field for the program to locate a particular respondent’s record uniquely and quickly. In the sample above it is the customer ID.

DoneField – field for the program to accumulate a record of the survey number or numbers completed. After the field name put a comma and one of these required keywords: UNLIMITED to allow any combination of surveys, ANYONE to restrict it to doing just one of the eight numbered surveys once, or EACH to allow any combination of the eight surveys but each one only once.

SortOnFields – Optional, give one, two or three field names to use in sorting the results of a search.

AllowNewForm – optional, default off, can be set to On or True to let the interviewer start a blank new form if they do not find the respondent in the database.

LogTiming – optional, default off, can be set to On or True to add elapsed time records to the log file for certain database operations. Used for troubleshooting only.

SProFormID – optional, used when a SurveyPro form ID is being passed into the DirectCollect in order to server as a SurveyPro import key later. See Setup Teleinterview.pdf for an example of how this would be done.

The last set are the question preloads for the DirectCollect survey form, with the Q number as used in SurveyPro equal the respondent database field name. Be sure the leading zeros are correct, ie Q003 will not work if the SurveyPro assignment is Q03.

Designer’s Guide


Values for checkboxes can be the box number, an unambiguous subset of the box label or the full box label. Use a semicolon-delimited list to set multi-answer checkboxes. The other box of a scale can be set but the text other answer cannot be preloaded. If updating the database the answer(s) will always be returned with the full labels. Thus if one had a scale with the boxes Alpha, Beta and Gamma these would all work to set the 2nd box:

2 b Beta

The Beta answer would be returned. If this were a multi-answer scale you could set the 1st and 3rd boxes with:

1;3 a;g Alpha;Gamma

Be sure that date/time values are formatted to match the target scale.

Specify one or two fields to be the ones the user can search on using the SEARCHABLE keyword and the FindInterview screen label. For example

Q03=”CustID”,SEARCHABLE,”Customer Code Number”

The preload values for each search item will be displayed in the same field order as the Q numbers are listed in the .itv file.

NB: the Q numbers may change as you edit the design in SurveyPro. Be sure to test carefully!

Designer’s Guide


Installing FindInterview

Install FindInterview on each system that will run it by double-clicking InstallFindInterview.exe. It will normally be found in the \Programs\Apian Software\SurveyPro\DirectCollect\FindInterview folder after SurveyPro is installed. Since FindInterview will often be run from a LAN server, make a copy of InstallFindInterview.exe there to use when installing on the workstations, or you can email the file or copy it to disk for standalone workstations. It will place three files (FindInterview.exe, DC31.exe and CollectMgmt10A.dll) where you wish as well as adding any drivers needed for its operation.

Place the data base, survey templates and the .itv files where everyone can get at them. Usually these would all go into one LAN server folder. However only the database must be shared in order to handle completed survey control (EACH or ANYONE options for DoneField), otherwise the survey files may be anywhere accessible to the interviewers.

The shared respondent database needs to be available to everyone using the FindInterview program for a particular poll. If this is a .mdb Access file it can simply be copied to a server directory with the appropriate user permissions (remember it will be written by the program). The most universal way to make it available the program is to register it with the ODBC system since this lets you set security, driver name, etc once with the help of the Windows dialogs. Consult the Registering a Database.pdf for instructions.

Keep a clean copy of the database to restore the system after testing is complete when you are ready to start the real interviews.

It may be easier for your interviewers to have shortcuts on their desktop including their .itv name. Right-click the shortcut installed with TeleInterview and select Properties. Where it has the Target: entry type a space after the .exe name and put the .itv file name in quotes.



Find a few respondents, carry them into surveys, check the preloads are correct, add some answers and keep a note of what they are,

close FindInterview down, check it’s log file, import the answers, check the import log and verify the answers all came into SurveyPro’s data table figure correctly.

If doing updates verify these have fed back to the database.


Then clear out the test data and give your interviewers the green light. To keep importing simple, do not edit your survey design until all the data is imported.

Designer’s Guide


Log file

The normal log file looks like this:

07-21-2003,12:01:44,”Sam J”, ,”Log On”, 07-21-2003,12:02:57,”Sam J”,vvrp-g32x-7tm,”Calling 222-2222”, 07-21-2003,12:03:05,”Sam J”,7vy6-f32x-732,”Calling 111-1111”, 07-21-2003,12:04:40,”Sam J”,7vy6-f32x-732,”Survey 1 returned 0”, 07-21-2003,12:04:46,”Sam J”,vvrp-g32x-7tm,”Calling 222-2222”, 07-21-2003,12:07:00,”Sam J”, ,”Log Off”,

Records are appended as things happen so you will see activity from more than one interviewer interleaved when the .log is on the server. The date and time are according to the interviewer’s system clock, which will generally not be the same across team members, leading to times appearing out of order.

The interviewer ID is given, then the respondent unique key value and an event. A survey returning 0 was completed normally, 1 means the respondent quit, 2 is a kiosk timeout and 3 is a program error.

When LogTiming is enabled in the .itv file for troubleshooting, the log will look like:

08-13-2003,13:26:12,”Darcy J”,””,”TIMER OpenItvSession”,”0.328”, 08-13-2003,13:26:18,”Darcy J”,””,”TIMER OpenRespDB”,”6.070”, 08-13-2003,13:26:18,”Darcy J”,””,”Log On”,””, 08-13-2003,13:26:18,”Darcy J”,””,”TIMER DoSearch”,”0.172”, 08-13-2003,13:26:38,”Darcy J”,”39”,”TIMER CheckoutRecord”,”0.129”, 08-13-2003,13:26:38,”Darcy J”,”39”,”TIMER DoSurvey Setup”,”0.199”, 08-13-2003,13:27:19,”Darcy J”,”39”,”Survey 2 returned 0”,””, 08-13-2003,13:27:19,”Darcy J”,”39”,”TIMER DoSurvey Wrapup”,”0.039”, 08-13-2003,13:27:19,”Darcy J”,””,”TIMER CheckinRecord”,”0.012”, 08-13-2003,13:27:19,”Darcy J”,””,”TIMER DoSearch”,”0.020”, 08-13-2003,13:27:21,”Darcy J”,””,”Log Off”,””,

The extra records reflect execution times for database access in fractions of seconds. The 6 seconds to OpenRespDB is typical of the first logon to the database, after that it appears to happen in a second or two. Niether is a problem since these are once per session. The times to access records and do searches should are fractions of a second.

Designer’s Guide


Customization

Sources are supplied and you are welcome to modify to meet your specific needs. Apian support can obtain clarification on how our own function calls and code work, but cannot supply general programming advice. Support on Visual Basic, ADO and Windows may be obtained through Microsoft Software Developer Network on the web or their support services.

The functions are tested within the Apian environment and are not intended for general use. Please test your modifications carefully.

FindInterview is written in object-oriented Visual Basic 6.0 with Service Pack 5 or later. The project uses some addons that need to be available to Visual Basic through two menu items:

Project, References:

MS ActiveX Data Objects 2.7

MS ADO Extensions 2.7 for DDL and security

MS Scripting runtime

MS DAO 3.6 Object Library

Project, Components:

MS ADO Data Control 6.0 (SP4) (OLEDB)

MS Common Dialog Control 6.0 (SP3)

MS Common Controls 6.0 – all versions through (SP5)

Designer’s Guide


Appendix A: Registering an .mdb Database The following screen shots are for Windows 2000. Other versions of Windows will need the same information but may have somewhat different dialog boxes to get there. This registration process must be done for each user system.

Step-by-Step:

Select Control Panel

Select Administrative Tools

Select Data Sources (ODBC) to get this dialog:

Stay on the User DSN tab as we have done here or switch to the System DSN tab depending on who needs access on their system.

Click Add.. for the dialog on the next page:

Designer’s Guide


For an MS Access .mdb file you would normally select the driver above because it is optimized for fast access. For other database types select an appropriate driver for your system configuration.

Click Finish, which leads to:

Type the name for the database. This the name that programs will use to refer to the database instead of the underlying file name.

It must be the name expected by the user program or its .itv interviewer file. If you are registering a file of your own, assign a unique name here and use it for the DSN= setting of the profile or ADO connection string. For the sample files use the name in the shared .itv per the Tutorial Guide.

The name is limited to 32 characters – exceeding this may get an “illegal character” message when it really means “too many”.

Click the Select… button to attach a file.

Designer’s Guide


Point to the actual database file that you want to use for the “Your Source Name” in the previous screen.

Click Ok three times to save the settings.

Cautions:

Copying or renaming an .mdb file requires that Select Database be updated to point to the new one. Otherwise you will get connection errors or will be updating the wrong file.

The sample .mdb files are marked read-only, be sure to turn this off in the working copy. It’s a good practice for your own “clean” copy of your databases.

The database connection must be made for each user.

Designer’s Guide


Appendix B: Launch from another Program There are two ways to launch a DirectCollect survey from another program:

Do a command line run with the parameters below

Use a VisualBasic call like TeleInterview and FindInterview do

Command Line:

An example if you were starting a touch screen kiosk survey from a graphics “screen saver” program:

DC31.exe /SDDT=”MySurvey” /CREATOR=”LobbyKiosk” /ONEFORM /MAXWIN /CURSOROFF

The parameters that can appear on a command line are:

/SDDT is the template file name. This can have a path on it if desired, otherwise it is assumed to be in the same folder as the DC31.exe. The quote marks are optional unless there are blanks in the name. The .sddt extension is optional, however the reference must be to an .sddt template file.

/CREATOR is the session identifier used for each new form added. May be up to 12 characters, quotes optional unless there are blanks in it.

/ONEFORM processes one respondent and exits when done. This would be used when the survey is to be a sub-program to a larger process which provides the respondent attraction and intro function.

/MAXWIN opens the survey in full-screen mode.

/CURSOROFF turns the cursor off for a touchscreen application. DirectCollect automatically restores the cursor on exit.

/Q presets a question’s answer, like /Q1=2 would set the checkbox question Q1 to the second checkbox. There can be as many of these presets as will fit in a command line.

/FID sets the form’s unique ID. This must be a valid SurveyPro form ID, generally taken from an exported for and fed back to use as an import key. Only usable with /ONEFORM.

/CMDFILE passes the name of a file containing question and/or FID settings in place of passing them through the command line itself. They go one-per-line in a text without the /. Files can be up to 20kb long.

/RETURNUPDATES writes any changed fields back into the CMDFILE. It remembers the preloaded questions, so if you want a returned value for something that has not preload be sure to include an empty Q99= in the CMDFILE to get the answer to Q99 returned. The FID is always returned whether preloaded or not.

Designer’s Guide


VisualBasic Function:

In the CInterviewLogon.cls shared by TeleInterview and FindInterview you will find a call like this where it calls the survey:

nExitDC = ExecuteDirectCollect31(sDC31File, sSurveySddt(nSvy), _

sInterviewerID, sFID, sPreload, sLogFile, _

bMaxScreen, bUpdateSource, sUpdate)

This same call can be used in your own program. The .tmp file to pass values back and forth is handled for you, sPreload is a string of question values, sUpdate is a string returned if the project .itv sets the update flag.

Designer’s Guide


Appendix C: Multiple Questionnaires There are several reasons why one survey project with a shared database and report set might have more than one questionnaire:

1. You have one survey but are using several distribution methods, like DirectCollect or NetCollect and paper. The Kiosk example in Ch 3 would turn into this case if you also wanted to hand out paper surveys.

2. Surveys with a different purpose to the same population. The FindInterview Customer Service sample in Ch 5c has several different kinds of questionnaires depending on the customer’s product line, with some common questions across all the surveys and some different.

3. Surveys that will be administered in different languages. The TeleSurvey New Car example in Ch 5b allows owners to be interviewed in English or Spanish but asks the same questions in each language.

The core issue for all three is making sure that the database that results from the questionnaire designs supports all the questionnaires properly during data entry and import. This means that you want the underlying questions to have the same numbers and scales, though they will appear to respondents through different tiles or media.

SurveyPro requires that one of the questionnaires be the “master document”. This questionnaire contains all the questions that will be needed in all questionnaires and can be thought of as controlling the data base and reporting. It would not necessarily be used as a respondent questionnaire. It should contain a superset of all the questions and sets the question number order (Q#) when all the questions do not appear in all the questionnaires, like case 2 above.

When you are using multiple languages or distribution methods, but all the questions are the same for all surveys (case 1 and 3 above), the best policy is to get one media or one language entirely right first, including all the required reviews and edits. It naturally becomes the master questionnaire. Once the master is solid, make copies for the media or language translations:

For mixed media, make a Document Copy and change its properties to the second media. Import or data entry goes into the shared database.

For multiple languages, save a copies of the .sp3 under different names and translate them. When data is entered or imported it all goes to the original .sp3; the others are only for publishing the translated questionnaire.

If you do have to make edits after making the copies, be careful that things stay aligned. When they are all in one .sp3 this is taken care of by SurveyPro for the most part, but when using multiple .sp3 files you need to edit them all the same way and double-check that the question numbers in the tree stay matched.

In the second case of overlapping questionnaires, the easiest thing is to draft one of them fairly quickly to have a good chunk of the questions you will use in roughly the right order. Call this your Master. Make a copy of this using Document Copy. Now you have the first as the Master questionnaire, and the second is named one of the separate surveys “Home Gardeners”. Make copies for the other specialized surveys and give them appropriate names. Now when you remove questions from one survey the master and the others stay intact because you are only removing a tile, not the underlying database field. When you add a question tell SurveyPro to add it to the Master as well. Eventually you will have a master questionnaire with all the questions, whose tiles can be sorted into the desired default order for reports. The respondent questionnaire’s tiles refer to those underlying data fields needed, in whatever tile order and layout is appropriate. For more on editing with multiple questionnaires see the SurveyPro 3.0 Users Guide Chapter 3.

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