Hi,
I’m testing the CAWI functions on the Demo Server and I’ve read this interesting post.
For our needs, an important requirement is to allow a CAWI respondent to suspend the filling of a questionnaire and resume it later. I’m trying to simulate this situation, without using invitation and reminders via email, because I’m on Demo Server.
I access for the first time using the link provided to an assignement with web mode, and I compile partially the questionanaire and close the browser.
When I access for the second time with the same link, I found this error:
According to the article, the cause is that that questionairre has status “Interviewer assigned”, But I’m not so sure about the error message.
In general, I wonder if a CAWI respondent can never re-enter his questionnaire, since it seems possible instead to send differentiated reminder emails according to whether the questionnaire has been partially filled in, or if the respondent has never accessed.
I take this request to compliment all the Survey Solutions staff: really a great job !!!
Hi,
the post you refer to has started long before the recent improvements to the CAWI mode, so while historically interesting may not be accurately reflecting the current situation.
Clearly the CAWI respondent must be able to re-enter the interview to finish what he/she hasn’t completed yet. The interface of Survey Solutions allows you to configure the welcome text as well as the texts of various reminders sent to the respondents. This is handled automatically when the mass mailer is set up - both the link to start and to continue the interview will be sent out by the system depending on the status whether that respondent has already started responding or not.
You don’t describe much of the survey you are doing. Here is one possibility:
- Request the server and import the questionnaire.
- Create one of each HQ, Supervisor, and Interviewer.
- Create an assignment for the survey to that Interviewer, set assignment size as -1, don’t fill out the email and password, but mark that this is a web assignment.
- Activate the web mode for that survey and download the links.
You will get a file with a single link corresponding to the assignment you’ve done in step #3 above. (in my experiment in ended up being: https://demo.mysurvey.solutions/WebInterview/WUKP238R/Start ) Now you can create a web page at your organization and put that link with text, such as “Take part in our survey”.
Every visitor clicking the link will get a screen similar to the one shown here:
where he/she is asked for an email exactly for the purpose to be able to continue the survey.
She will have the possibility to disregard and fill out everything in one session or specify the email and fill out in multiple sessions following the link that she receives to her mailbox. Again the mass-mailer must be set up for this.
Note that all the visitors will access your survey using one link, but the system will unfold that into an individual interview address, which in my experiment turned out to be
https://demo.mysurvey.solutions/WebInterview/b1a4e2113fb44f77a89e545050e3729a/Cover
https://demo.mysurvey.solutions/WebInterview/0f100870600643859ba687a3cd6b9457/Cover
for two cases that I’ve tried.
When you are done, simply deactivate the web mode for that survey.
There are many different permutations depending on what is known about the respondents, what is preloaded and how the links are delivered. The above is perhaps the simplest to set up.
Finally, it is still possible to return to the interview by retaining the interview link (not the assignment link), but I wouldn’t set up a survey relying on respondents to copy/paste/preserve the link, most of them will forget to do this even if reminded 3 times 
Regards, Sergiy
Hi,
there is still something I don’t understand and I still have the same error, even after having a server (testitat) and set up the mail service. These are the individual steps I take:
- I have imported a questionnaire and activated the web interview for the survey
- I have created a new assignment with these values:
- size = -1
- Web Mode = Activated
- Email & Password=empty
- With the “Survey setup / Download web links” menu I retrieved the link of this new assignment:
https://testitat.mysurvey.solutions/WebInterview/5SVJ27VE/Start - I opened that link with a different browser in a new session, and as a first step asks me for an email. I entered my email, partially filled out the questionnaire, and closed the browser, to simulate the respondent
- I received the email (see screenshot below). Please note that the “Continue Interview” button points to this URL:
https://testitat.mysurvey.solutions/WebInterview/Continue/Z9KT83RZ
- When I click this button, or copy this link to another browser, I’ve this page:
- After this error, I have other malfunctions, and in particular when I try again to do “Download web links”, I get this page:
- to clean up, I found the solution to archive that assignment, and from that moment the “download web links” works correctly
From your answer, I would have expected the link in the mail to be of the type:
https://demo.mysurvey.solutions/WebInterview/b1a4e2113fb44f77a89e545050e3729a/Cover
(taken from your example).
It also seems to me that the links of this type (permutations?) are not available to the HQ or SuperVisor, since, from what I understand, they are the only URLs that ensure correct achievement with the questionnaire assigned to the respondent.
To replicate this error, I’ve created these two assignments with the links below:
https://testitat.mysurvey.solutions/WebInterview/RZHSK36M/Start
https://testitat.mysurvey.solutions/WebInterview/JHZJKPNF/Start
Thanks for your patience…
Luciano
Thank you for reporting. We are able to reproduce this issue and will fix it as soon as possible.
Thank you for solving the problem. I tried to access a web questionnaire several times using the same link sent by email, and now I reach the page correctly:
I also verified that the compilation of the web questionnaire on several occasions works correctly even in the absence of e-mail delivery and also with unlimited number of responses (size = -1).
Thank you very much for the excellent work.
Luciano
Hi
Is it possible to undertake a survey in web mode or by individual email to a respondent without bulk email functionality?
Yes!
The web survey may be universal (e.g. one assignment for the whole country, link advertised on TV, newspaper, and/or website) or person-specific.
If the bulk mailer is not set to Amazon SES or SendGrid, then the Survey Solutions will rely on you delivering the link(s) to your participants. You can download the links as a single file and then utilize your own distribution mechanism for delivering the links.
This is not related just to the demo server. It applies equally to any Survey Solutions data server.