Online Surveys

StatPac can create single page or multiple page Internet surveys from a codebook. In order to use the Internet survey feature you must have a Web site that supports CGI. Usually, this means you will have access to a cgi-bin folder on your server. Nearly all hosting services support CGI, so you may need to contact your ISP for more information. StatPac has a Perl script that you will install in your cgi-bin folder. If you do not wish to host your own survey, StatPac can provide a server for you.

Optionally, you will have a WYSIWYG HTML editor. StatPac will create aesthetically pleasing and fully-functional Internet surveys, but you may want to visually enhance their appearance with graphics or other design features. In order to do that, you must have a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get HTML editor. Microsoft Front Page and Macromedia Dreamweaver are examples of  WYSIWYG HTML editors. However, any WYSIWYG HTML editor will work… even recent versions of Micrososft Word.

After StatPac creates the HTML pages, you may edit them, but if you were to subsequently regenerate the pages with StatPac, all edits would be lost. Therefore, don’t edit the HTML until you are satisfied with StatPac’s pages. Test the StatPac generated HTML pages online before using an HTML editor to enhance the appearance of the pages.

Many of the features of Internet surveys will only work when the survey is online. Things like branching, cookies, piping, popup windows, help windows, and page submissions will not work on your local computer. Use your local computer to view and edit the pages, but the survey must be on a server to test the functionality of these features.

The basic process for creating and using Internet surveys is as follows. We suggest that you follow this process for each Internet survey you conduct.

Server Setup

If you will be using your own server to host the survey and you have not already setup your server, select Server > Setup to specify your server settings.

If you will be using StatPac's server to host the survey, you'll be able to select a private folder name when you design your first survey.

Create the HTML Survey Pages

1. Create a codebook.
2. Create a default script by selecting Design > Internet Survey.
3. Modify the Primary Settings and script as necessary.
4. Generate and view the HTML files. Repeat this step as necessary.

Upload the Files to the Web server

Select Server > Auto Transfer . Click the Upload Survey button.

Test the survey

Test the survey by repeatedly taking it online as if you were a respondent. Test branching and validity checks.

Download and import the test data

Select Server > Auto Transfer. Click the Download Responses button. The responses will be downloaded and imported into StatPac.

Alternatively, you may manually download the file of responses by selecting Server > FTP. In the top pane, navigate to the folder containing the responses (usually cgi-bin). Drag the response file from the top pane to the lower pane to download the file. After downloading the response file to your local computer, select Data > Import > Internet Response File to import the data into StatPac.

Delete the test data from the server

Select Server > Auto Transfer Select the Delete tab and click the Delete Responses button.

Alternatively, you can manually delete the responses using FTP.

If you are using the StatPac server, select Server > FTP > StatPac. Select View > Response Folder. Right click on the response file and select Delete.

If you are using your own server, select Server > FTP > YourServerName. In the top pane, navigate to the folder containing the responses (usually cgi-bin). Right click on the response file and select Delete.

Conduct the survey

Email invitations or somehow make respondents aware of the link to the survey.

Download and import the data

If you are using your own server, select Server > Auto Transfer > YourServer. Click the Download Responses button.

If you are using StatPac's server, select Server > Auto Transfer > StatPac. Select the Auto Transfer tab and click the Download Responses button.

Alternatively, you may manually download the file of responses by selecting Server > FTP. In the top pane, navigate to the folder containing the responses (usually cgi-bin). Drag the response file from the top pane to the lower pane to download the file. After downloading the  response file to your local computer, select Data > Import > Internet Response File to import the data into StatPac.

The server will always contain the entire data set unless you delete the response file on the server (i.e., downloading the response file does not erase it from the server). Therefore, you can download the data at any time from a survey in progress and the download would contain the entire data set from the beginning to that point in time. When you import the data, you would overwrite the existing file because the newly downloaded file contains the entire data set.

Display a survey closed message

Select Server > Auto Transfer . Select the Delete tab and click the Delete Survey button.  The survey will be deleted and the survey closed page will be shown to people attempting to access the survey. If you repeat this process, the survey closed page will be deleted.

Alternatively, you can use FTP to manually close a survey. Select Server > FTP. In the top pane, navigate to the folder containing the survey. Right click on the SurveyName.htm file and rename it to something else. Right click on the SurveyName_closed.htm file and rename it to SurveyName.htm,

Before you can create an Internet survey on your own server, you must tell StatPac about that server. Select Server > Setup .

If you already have setup a server or servers, use the arrow keys to scroll through your server list.

To create a new server profile, click the New button. To delete the server profile that is currently displayed, click the Delete button.

Your ISP will be able to tell you the following FTP login and folder information.

FTP Login Information

Server Type

There are basically two types of servers: 1) Unix / Linux and 2) Windows NT / IIS. When you make a Server Type selection, the most likely Paths and Folders settings will be filled in

Domain Name

The domain name should be specified without an http or www prefix. For example, statpac.com or webpoll.org.

FTP Server

The FTP Server is the address of the FTP server. It almost always your domain name with an ftp prefix. For example, ftp.statpac.com or ftp.webpoll.org.  It could even be an IP address.

Username and Password

Your Username and Password will be provided by your ISP. Usernames and passwords are usually case sensitive, so use care when entering the information.

Paths & Folder Information

Web surveys will not function properly unless you get all of the settings right. There is a good chance that the default settings are correct, but not necessarily. So please be careful. On a Unix or Linux server, this information is case sensitive and is typically lower case.

FTP Path to WWW Root Folder

When you log in to your server using an FTP program, you'll be sitting in a folder on the server. Your wwwroot folder is the folder where you put your Web site HTML files. You should see your Web site home page in that folder. It might be the FTP login folder or it might be a subfolder All of these are likely subfolder names.

public_html

wwwroot

docs

yourdomain name.com

If your FTP login folder is the same as your wwwroot folder, then leave this setting blank. If your wwwroot folder is in a subfolder, specify the subfolder name.

If you don't know, contact your ISP or try to discover it yourself by exploring your server. Select File > Exit. Select Server > FTP and select the server you are trying to set up. The top pane will be your FTP login folder. Do you see any HTML files in that folder? If not, do you see any of the above subfolder names?  You can double click on the subfolder names to see the contents of that folder. Your looking for the folder that contains files with extensions of .htm or .html (e.g., index.htm or default.html). Close the FTP program and return to the Server Setup program to enter the folder name.

FTP Path to CGI Script Folder

This folder is easy to identify because it is nearly always called cgi-bin or cgi. It is usually a subfolder of the wwwroot folder. Specify the path as the full path to the folder beginning at the FTP login folder.

Example 1 – The wwwroot folder is a subfolder (typical Unix/Linux server)

The server folder structure is:

       FTP Login Folder

              public_html

                     cgi-bin

The FTP path to the wwwroot folder would be:  public_html

The FTP path to the CGI script folder would be:  public_html/cgi-bin

Example 2 – The wwwroot folder is a subfolder (typical Windows IIS server)

The server folder structure is:

       FTP Login Folder

              wwwroot

                     cgi-bin

The FTP path to the wwwroot folder would be:  wwwroot

The FTP path to the CGI script folder would be:  wwwroot/cgi-bin

Example 3 – The wwwroot folder is the wwwrootfolder (e.g., godaddy.com)

The server folder structure is:

       FTP Login Folder is the wwwroot folder

                cgi

The FTP path to the wwwroot folder would be:  leave blank

The FTP path to the CGI script folder would be:  cgi

Example 4 – The wwwroot folder is a subfolder called mydomain.com and the cgi script folder is at the same folder level as mydomain.com

The server folder structure is:

       FTP Login Folder

              mydomain.com

              cgi-bin

The FTP path to the wwwroot folder would be:  mydomain.com

The FTP path to the CGI script folder would be:  cgi-bin

Response Storage Folder

This is the folder where respondents answers will be stored. It is specified differently depending of the type of server.

Unix or Linux Server

On an Unix/Linux server, it is expressed as either an absolute server path or a path relative to the cgi script folder. We highly recommend leaving the setting as ./  which means to store responses in the cgi script folder. The cgi script folder is not visible to the outside world on a properly configured server.

There are numerous ways to specify the storage folder on a Unix or Linux server. The setting may be specified as absolute server path or relative to the cgi-bin folder. Absolute server paths always begin with a forward slash.

All of these would store the results in the cgi-bin folder.

StorageFolder=/home/username/public_html/cgi-bin   (absolute server path)

StorageFolder=../cgi-bin     (two periods)

StorageFolder=./                (one period)

All of these would store the results in a folder called "storage" which is immediately below the cgi-bin folder.

StorageFolder=/home/username/public_html//cgi-bin/storage

StorageFolder=../cgi-bin/storage     (two periods)

StorageFolder=./storage                 (one period)

These would store the results in a folder called "private" which is at the same level as public_html (and therefore not accessible to the outside world).

StorageFolder=/home/username/storage    (absolute server path)

StorageFolder=../../private       (two periods)

These would store the results file in a folder called "storage" which is immediately below the public_html folder. Note that this may pose a security risk because the storage folder would be accessible to the world. 

StorageFolder=/home/username/public_html/storage    (absolute path)

StorageFolder=/public_html/storage

StorageFolder=../storage     (two periods)

NT, Windows, or  IIS Server

On an NT or IIS server the setting is specified using a DOS path (i.e., the full path beginning with a drive letter to the folder where responses should be stored). Users must have read/write access to the folder. An example might be:

StorageFolder=c:\inetpub\wwwroot\cgi-bin

In order to use FTP to retrieve the data, the wwwroot folder name must part of the StorageFolder path. For example, you would not be able to use FTP to retrieve this data because the storage folder is not below the wwwroot folder.

StorageFolder=d:\datastorage

Some older NT servers require that you use double backslashes instead of single backslashes. If you receive a “Server Busy” message after clicking the submit button on a survey, try changing the path to double backslashes in place of single backslashes:

StorageFolder=c:\\inetpub\\wwwroot\\cgi-bin

Server Path to Perl

Type the absolute path where Perl is installed on your server. Your ISP will be able to tell you this information. The default settings are most likely correct. The syntax for this setting is different for Unix/Linux and NT/IIS servers.

Unix or Linux server:

Perl=/usr/bin/perl

Windows (NT or IIS) server:

Perl=c:\perl\bin\perl.exe

Mail Method

There are 4 mail methods to select from. The defaults are probably correct. For Unix/Linux servers, we suggest Unix SendMail. For NT/IIS we suggest SMTP Mail Server.

Unix Sendmail

Use this method on Unix/Linux servers only. Set the server path to the mail program to pint to the absolute server path. Your ISP should be able to give you the path and name of your server mailing program. For example, usr/sbin/sendmail

Perl Mail: Sendmail

This method may be used with any kind of server. It uses the perl Mail::Sendmail module. You must have the perl module installed on your server to use  this method..

SMTP Mail Server

This method may be used with any kind of server. It uses your SMTP server to send emails.

Perl Net: SMTP

This method may be used with any kind of server. It uses the perl Net:SMTP module. You must have the perl module installed on your server to use  this method..

SMTP Port

When you choose one of the SMTP methods you must also specify the SMTP port. Port 25 is the default and it is most likely correct for your server although some servers use a different port.. Your ISP to will be able to tell you your SMTP mail port number.

The first step in any survey is to create a codebook. Generally, this would be done using the Grid. There are only a few special considerations in designing a codebook for an Internet survey.

1. Use a short lower case codebook name without dashes or special characters.

2. Keep your survey pages short. Responses are only collected when the user clicks the submit button. If the user gets frustrated and leaves your Web site without completing the survey, none of  her responses will be recorded. You can dramatically increase response by keeping your surveys short (e.g., under 20 questions). If your survey needs to be longer, use a multiple page survey so that responses are stored at the end of each page. Even if a respondent fails to finish the entire survey, data will be captured for each page they completed.

3. Allow missing response for most items. When you do not allow missing response and the user clicks the submit button without answering all the items, they will be presented with a message to complete the missing item. If they become frustrated and leave your Web site, none of their responses on that page will be recorded even though only one item might actually be missing.

4. Specify a variable name for each variable. Do not use special characters in the variable name except the underscore character. A good variable naming scheme is Q1, Q2, Q3a, Q3b, etc.

5. When creating multiple response variables, there must be the same number of variables as value labels, and all the value labels must be specified for each of the  variables of the multiple response variables. For example, if you have a survey with a question that says “Check all that apply”, and there are five response choices (value labels),  then the codebook must contain five variables with identical variable and value labels.

6. Limit branching to variables that will use radio buttons. Branching out of text boxes or check boxes is not supported. Both simple and complex branching are supported.

7. Test your survey online before going live.  This involves completing the survey several times and importing the data into StatPac. Do not assume that if the survey visually looks okay, it is okay. When you test the survey online, specify an answer for every question. For multiple response checkboxes, check every box. This is the only way to guarantee that you have not made any errors. Visually inspect the .asc response file. If any numeric fields have more than one value (with a comma separator) , it means that you have made an error in the codebook or StatPac script (two variables have the same name or the variable is specified twice in the script).

Testing is a mandatory component of every internet survey. Do not bypass this step!

There are three special variables for Internet surveys: IPAddress, Today, and RespondentID. If you add these variables to your codebook, you will be able to capture the IP address of the respondent, the date that they completed the survey, and a unique Respondent ID number. After generating an Internet survey, StatPac will ask  if you want to add these variables to the codebook. In most cases, you should answer yes.

Alternatively, you can manually add these variables to the codebook during the study design. The IPAddress and RespondentID variables should have an A15 format and the Today variable should have an N8 format. When capturing the date, it will be stored in the data file in YYYYMMDD format. These variables may be placed anywhere in the codebook. They will not be shown on the web pages and are for internal use only.

The RespondentID variable can be used to match respondents data with an existing data base of information. First, include RespondentID as an A15 variable in the codebook. When you generate the Internet survey, it will not appear on the survey.

The RespondentID variable must be included in the codebook if you intend to track who responded to the survey. In a typical web survey, you would use StatPac’s bulk e-mail program to send potential respondents an invitation to take your survey and there would be a link in the e-mail to the survey URL. In order to track who responded or to match respondents' data with the data base, the URL link must be appended with a question mark and the respondent's ID number. For example, when sending the e-mail to respondent whose ID in the data base was 91246, you would use this as the link URL in the email to that respondent. The respondent ID may consist of any alpha or numeric characters.

http://www.yourdomain.com/surveyname.htm?id=91246

Note: If you are using password protection for the survey, the link might be:

http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/surveyname.pl?id=91246

StatPac’s bulk e-mail program will automatically append an ?id= to the URL link in the e-mail invitation. If you use StatPac to send email invitations, ID handling is automatic.

The second step in creating an Internet survey is to create a script that defines all the characteristics of the HTML pages. The script is a set of commands that tells StatPac how to generate the HTML survey files that will become your Internet survey. The script language is quite easy to understand, and there are only a few commands that you'll need to know. In most cases, the default script created by StatPac will require only minor editing.

To create a default script, first open the codebook. Select Design > Internet Survey and the Internet script window will show the current script. If a script has not been previously created for this codebook, a default script will be created.  The default script is StatPac's best guess of how you want your survey to look, but in most cases you'll  be able to improve on its appearance by editing the script.

Again, you do not need to know or understand all the script commands. Usually minor editing will be sufficient. The script is divided into sections to make it easier to understand. There are three major sections: Primary Settings, Advanced Settings, and Survey Creation.

The Primary settings must be specified for each survey. They control parameters that are unique to a given survey.

The Advanced settings control text attributes such as fonts, colors, and spacing. These settings often remain the same from one survey to another. The Advanced settings can be saved in a style sheet so they can be used in a future survey.

The Survey Creation section has commands to control the order and appearance of objects (i.e., radio buttons, check boxes, text boxes, etc.) .

When Settings is not checked, only the Survey Creation section will show in the script. When Settings is checked, all the settings will be shown. The Primary and Advanced settings may be edited directly in the script window (if Settings is checked), or you may click the Edit button to use the Script editor.

The basic process is to let StatPac create a default script and generate the Internet survey HTML pages. Then view the survey pages and note the things you would like to change. Make changes in the script and regenerate the pages. View the HTML pages again and continue making changes to the script until you are satisfied with the survey.

Once you are satisfied with the appearance of a survey, you can click the Server button to upload it to the Internet.

You will want to make changes to the Primary Settings, but only the URL to survey folder is critical because it defines the server and folder that will host the survey online.

Most script commands have two parts. The part to the left of the equals symbol is a keyword for the script. The part to the right of the equals symbol is the text for the keyword. If the text part (to the right of the equals symbol) is longer than one line just continue typing without pressing [Enter], so the text automatically wraps to the next line(s). Unlike a procedure file, an indented line will not be interpreted as a continuation of the previous line.

While viewing the script, you can right click on any line to learn more about that command. If the command involves a file or color selection, the right click will also offer a settings choice.

The actual window for the script has standard editing features. Use Ctrl X, Ctrl C, and Ctrl V to cut, copy, and paste text within the window. There is also a semi-automatic copy and paste feature to expedite changes to the script. You may highlight text from other selected areas of the screen and then click in the script window to automatically paste them into the text (without actually selecting copy and paste).  The copy will work from the workspace or the Detail window. To copy a variable name, select the variable on the right from the list and double-click in the script window on the line where the variable name should appear. Variable names will always be added to the end of the line.

Once created for a given codebook, the script is automatically saved. If you subsequently select Design, Internet Survey for the same codebook, the previously created/edited script will be shown. The script itself is an ASCII text file with the name "codebookname.script". The script is created from the codebook, but once created, it is independent of the codebook. For example, say you are working on a codebook and then create a script just to see what the Internet survey will look like (so far). Then you go back to the Grid and add more variables.  The next time you select Design, Internet Survey, the previous script will be shown -- without the new variables. Click the New Script button to recreate Survey Creation portion of the script with the new variables. Alternatively, you can add the commands to the Survey Creation portion of the script.

If you want to completely start over with the default script for a given codebook, close StatPac, delete the codebookname.script  file, rerun StatPac, load the codebook, and select Design, Internet Survey.

The Advanced settings control the "look and feel" of a survey. Fonts and colors are part of the advanced settings.

You can save the “style” to a file so that you can recall and use the style on a future survey.  The style includes most of the advanced settings (colors, and page layout parameters).  The “Style Buttons” let you save the current style or load a previous style.  “Style files” have the extension of .style and the default folder for style files is the installation folder (although you can save or load styles to and from any folder).

While working on a survey, save the style by clicking on the Style Save Button and typing a name for the style. Load a previous style by clicking on the Style Open Button and select the style. When you generate the HTML files, the current style will control the appearance of the survey.

The actual style file is an ASCII text file that contains most of the Advanced settings. When you first select Design > Internet Survey, StatPac loads a style called Default.style from the installation folder. If you want to change your default style, save the desired style to the installation folder using the name "Default" and overwrite the existing Default.style.

Generally, the procedure you'll follow will be to first click the OK button. This will run the script that creates the Internet survey.  StatPac will create several HTML pages: a loader page, one for each page of the survey, a thank-you page, and a survey-closed page.  Other HTML files, including help and popup windows, and a cookie-cutter might also be created.

When the Preview box is checked, the survey will be shown in a preview window. In the Preview window, select View to select the page you want to look at.

You may also select the Browser Local button to launch Windows Explorer and view the survey you created. If your survey contains multiple pages, you will have to look at each page individually. After examining the appearance of the survey, close Explorer. If necessary, make changes to the script and repeat the process. You can continue making changes to the script until you are satisfied with the appearance of the Internet survey. It is important to note that many features (including the continue and submit buttons) will not work properly until the files are actually uploaded to the Internet.

Both the Primary Settings section and the Advanced Settings section of the script can be edited using the Script editor. For inexperienced users, this will be easier than editing the script directly, although both methods achieve the same goal. 

The Script Editor offers the ability to make changes to the Primary and Advanced sections of the script using a form interface. The tabs represent different sections of the script. Changes made using the Script Editor will be reflected in the script itself when you exit the script editor.

In the Primary and Advanced settings section of this manual that follow, the keyword in the script is specified. When using the Script editor, you do not need to be concerned with the keywords themselves.

Click the Edit button to evoke the Script editor.

HTML tags may be imbedded in text settings to control the appearance of the text. These are:

Start and stop bold:   <b> and </b>

Start and stop underlining:  <u> and </u>

Start and stop italics:  <i> and </i>

Insert a line break:  <br>

Thanks=<b>This entire text is bold.</b>

Text=Only one word is <u>underlined</u>.

Instructions=<b><i>This is bold & italics.</i></b>

Closed=Thank you for your interest.<br> <br> The survey is closed.

The Primary settings will always be shown at the beginning of the script. This is the only section of the script that you must complete. It specifies critical information that is likely to vary from survey to survey. There are seven Primary settings.

HTML Name (HTMLName=)

HTML Name sets the name for all survey pages. The default will be the same as the codebook name but you may change it. This will be the name of the survey on the Web and it will be part of the link to the survey. An example would be:

HTMLName=Research

The first viewable page of the survey is named HTMLName_1.htm. All subsequent pages of the survey (including the thank-you page) will have file names with an underscore and number suffix. The last numbered file is the thank-you page, which is the page that respondents will be shown when they click the final submit button.

A one-page survey would have the following files.

Research.htm  (Loader)

Research_1.htm (1st page)

Research_2.htm (Thank-you page)

A three-page survey would have the following files.

Research.htm  (Loader)

Research_1.htm  (1st page)

Research_2.htm  (2nd page)

Research_3.htm  (3rd page)

Research_4.htm  (Thank-you page)

Additionally, the HTMLName command is used to name several other files.

Research_closed.htm  (Survey is closed page)

Research_cookie_cutter.htm  (Delete the cookie)

Research_popup_1.htm  (1st popup window)

Research_popup_2.htm  (2nd popup window)

Research_help_1.htm  (1st help window)

Research_help_2.htm  (2nd help window)

Research_start.htm  (Loader page for password protected surveys)

The HTMLName_closed.htm page can be used after a survey has been closed. After a survey is closed you can delete the survey from your server. However, you probably also want to prevent late responders from getting a page not found message. Therefore, when you delete a survey, the survey closed page will be shown to respondents.

When cookies have been used to prevent visitors from taking the survey more than once, then you also need to upload a file named codebookname_cookie_cutter.htm. This file is necessary to test your installation. When a respondent finishes a page of the survey, they will be given a cookie as they advance to the next page. The cookie contains the ID number, and controls whether they will be able to return to a previous page and it will redirect their browser to the proper page if they quit the survey without completing it and come back to finish it at a future time. When you test your survey online, you too will receive the cookie. Thus, you could test it once but you might be unable to test it again. To delete the cookie from your computer, set your browser to  HTMLName_cookie_cutter.htm and the cookie will be deleted. You'll then be able to test the survey again.

Banner Image(s)  (BannerImage=)

BannerImage sets the image that will be shown at the top of the page. To select the image, right click on the BannerImage command line. If you're doing a survey for a client, BannerImage is probably your client's logo.

BannerImage=c:\images\logo.jpg

Multiple banner images may be show side by side. After right clicking on the line, select the first banner image. Then right click on the line again and select the second banner image. They will be separated on the command line by a semicolon.

BannerImage=c:\images\logoA.jpg;c:\images\logoB.gif

To erase any or all previously selected banner images, simple delete them from the BannerImage command line.

Tip: To capture a client's logo, go to their Web site. Right click on their logo and select Save Picture As. You may need to edit the logo with image editing software such as Photo Shop or Paint Shop Pro.

Heading  (Heading=)

Heading sets the text for the page heading. It is generally the title of the survey.

Heading=Acme Inc. Employee Survey

Finish Text & Finish URL (FinishText= and FinishURL=)

FinishText sets the text for a link on the thank you page and FinishURL sets the URL for the link. If you are doing a survey for a client, this is probably a link to their home page. If the survey is for your company, it's probably a link to your home page.

FinishText=Click here for the StatPac home page

FinishURL=http://statpac.com

If both are left blank, then the finish page will not have an outgoing link. If the FinishText is specified and the FinishURL is left blank, the text on the thank-you page will appear as text only without a hyperlink.

Cookie (Cookie=)

Cookie sets the type of cookie that will be used to prevent multiple submissions from the same computer. The valid settings are: None, ID, Partial, or Full.

Cookie=None

Cookie=ID

The respondent’s computer will be given a cookie so that a respondent who attempts to take the survey multiple times will be assigned the same ID number as previous administrations. If they finish the survey or quit prematurely and attempt to take it again, they will start at the first page of the survey and will be assigned the same ID number as their first access. If they change previously entered data, their most recent entry will be captured by the program.

Cookie=Partial 

A cookie will be given when the respondent reaches the thank-you page to prevent them from taking the survey again. Thus, the respondent will be able to page back and forth within the survey, but not after they have completed the survey. Once they’ve completed the survey, they will not be able to access it again.

Cookie=Full 

A cookie will be given when the respondent submits each page. Thus, if a respondent stops taking the survey on a given page and tries to take the survey again at a future time, their browser will automatically be redirected to the page where they left off. Setting Cookie=Full turns the survey into a “forward only” survey. Respondents will be able to go forward to the next page of the survey, but they will not be able to go back to a previous page. In other words, their browser’s Back Button will not work. Once they’ve completed the survey, they will not be able to access it again.

URL to Survey Folder  (WebFolderURL=)

WebFolderURL sets the server and optionally the folder where the survey will reside. It is the full URL to the folder that will hold the survey. All of the survey pages are uploaded to this folder.

If you will be using the StatPac server:

Specify StatPac as the WebFolderURL setting:

WebFolderURL=take-suvey.com

If you want to use StatPac's secure SSL server, add an https://www. prefix.

WebFolderURL=https://www.take-suvey.com

When you click OK to generate the HTML, the setting will be changed to reflect your current private folder on the StatPac server, and the HTML will be created using the modified setting. When using SSL, the www. prefix is required and will be added by the software if you inadvertantly omit it when using https://.

The link to your surveys on the StatPac server will be:

http://take-survey.com/foldername/surveyname.htm

or

https://www.take-survey.com/foldername/surveyname.htm

To change your private folder name (when Settings is checked), right click on the WebFolderURL line and select Server Folder Setting. Alternatively, select Server>Auto Transfer and click the Folder tab.

After you change you folder name, you must regenerate the HTML so that the survey incorporates the new folder name and not the old folder name. The WebFolderURL setting will be adjusted when to your new folder name when you generate the HTML.

If you will be using your own server:

Specify the full URL to the folder that will hold your surveys.

If your domain name is acme.com and you place the survey in the home directory, then you would set this parameter to:

WebFolderURL=http://www.acme.com

If you want to place your survey in a "survey" folder immediately below the home directory, then you would set WebFolderURL to:

WebFolderURL=http://www.acme.com/survey

If you want to run the submission process over a secure (SSL) server, then you must use the fully qualified secure socket URL:

WebFolderURL=https:// www.acme.com /survey

The Header & Footer settings let you control what will appear at the top and bottom of each page.

RepeatBannerImage

RepeatBannerImage sets whether the banner image (as defined in the Primary Settings) will be repeated on each page.  RepeatBannerImage may be set to Yes or No.

RepeatBannerImage=Yes

RepeatHeading

RepeatHeading sets whether the page heading (defined in the Primary Settings) will be repeated on each page. RepeatHeading may be set to Yes or No.

RepeatHeading=No

PageNumbers

PageNumbers sets whether page numbers will be shown at the top of each page. When a banner image is displayed, page numbers will appear in a small font below the banner image. If no banner image is displayed, they will appear below the page heading.  PageNumbers may be set to Yes or No.

PageNumbers=No

ContinueButtonText

ContinueButtonText sets the text on the continue button for multiple page surveys. On a single page survey, this setting is ignored.

ContinueButtonText=Continue

The ContinueButtonText may be used more than once in the Survey Creation section of the script  to change the continue button text on each page.

<Commands to create the first page go here>

ContinueButtonText=Click here for the second page

NewPage

<Commands to create the second page go here>

ContinueButtonText=Click here for the third page

NewPage

SubmitButtonText

SubmitButtonText sets the text on the final submit button for the last survey page. Clicking this button will take the respondent to the thank you page.