Linked Surveys

Click this menu item to open a drop-down list as shown below.

Figure 1 - The Linked Projects drop-down list

The options are:

• New Registration Survey - click to create a new survey for panelists' initial registration to the Professional Panel. This functionality is also available via a button on the Linked Projects list. Refer to the Professional Authoring documentation for more information on creating surveys.
• New Update Profile Survey - click to create a new survey to allow existing panelists to update their profile. This functionality is also available via a button on the Linked Projects list. Refer to the Professional Authoring documentation for more information on creating surveys.
• Linked Surveys List - opens a list of those surveys that have been linked to the panel. The list shows registration surveys, profile update surveys, polls and surveys that have been sampled to - . Note that keywords are available for registration and update surveys, and can be used for filtering. This list can be filtered on the different categories: Sample surveys (regular surveys that you have uploaded sample to from the Professional Panel), Registration surveys and Profile Update surveys (the categories mentioned above) and Polls. Click on the survey name to open the survey in Authoring.

Note: Old registration and update surveys must be given these keywords to appear in the filtering (but they will appear in the list under sample surveys).

Figure 2 - Example of the Linked Projects list

Two buttons corresponding to the New ... Survey menu items are available in the upper-right corner of the list, to enable you to create new registration and update surveys. This greatly simplifies setting up these types of surveys from the panel, since the functionality will automatically set the correct category and link the survey to the panel. For the Registration survey, it will also automatically add the email and password questions that you need to create the panelist.

When working with a survey that is linked to a Professional Panel, the Professional Panel will automatically open in the Secondary Project toolbox. From here you can drag-and-drop variables from the Professional Panel into the survey. The variables dragged in will automatically be set as Visible panel variables. Also, if you have the Professional Panel add-on, two new Categories are introduced on the Project Overview page, allowing you to categorize surveys that are Registration Projects and Update Profile Projects.

Surveys linked to a panel will have a link on the Survey Overview page, enabling you to go directly to that panel from the survey - . In addition, the Hide Survey from Panelist check box is available. Normally, all surveys a panelist is sampled to (matching the status filter ) are listed in the survey list in a panel portal. Check this box to prevent the survey being listed

Example of the Professional Panel buttons and link on a linked survey's Overview page

Visible and Hidden Panel Levels

In Authoring, two Panel-related variable types are available in the question property sheets:

• Panel variable (hidden).
• Panel variable (visible).

Both can be used in surveys to which you have uploaded sample from a Basic Panel, and in surveys that are linked to a Professional Panel (through the “Professional Panel” setting on the Project Overview page).

Panel variable (hidden) can only be used to pull values from the corresponding field (with the same variable name/type) in the panel database - you cannot use this to push data back to the panel. This is done automatically at the point in the survey where the variable is placed. Hidden panel variables will not push any data back to the panel, so in the event you need to set different values for these hidden fields, you must write a script to submit those values to the panel database.

Panel variable (visible) will pull the value that is stored in the panel database (if there is a value there), and the question will then be displayed to the respondent with this value. The respondent can modify the value and submit a different response as required. For surveys linked to a Professional Panel, if the panelist exists in the panel database (profile update or regular surveys) then the new value will automatically be submitted to the panel database when the respondent moves to the next page. For Panelist Registration surveys, this means that the panelist must be added to the panel (using the CreatePanelist function call), before the visible panel variables will be able to push data to the panel. For Basic Panels, no data will be submitted back to the panel database.

When working with a project that is linked to a Professional panel, the Panel will automatically open in the Secondary Project toolbox and you can drag-and-drop variables from the Panel to the survey. The variables dragged into the survey will automatically be set as Visible panel variables.

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