In this article
A special survey is used to register new panelists - . This survey must include two scripting functions, while a third is optional though strongly recommended:
- One function must check the database before the panelist is registered to ensure the panelist is not already in the database, and close the survey if he/she is already included.
- The second function must register the new panelist’s information.
- The third function can remove the panelist's details from the survey on completion of the registration to prevent the database continually growing as panelists register (as this will waste space on the server).
Figure 1 - Example of a simple Panelist Registration survey
Note: Security standards built into Forsta Plus mean that passwords are validated according to the rules specified for the panel. The validation procedure will be run whenever a password is changed. Refer to the separate Professional Authoring documentation for further information.
Checking for Previous Registration
A panelist must only be registered in a panel database once. The script shown in the figure below - - checks the email address of a prospective panelist against the database and closes the survey if the email address already exists. If the email address is unique, then a new row is added to the panelist database. This script is written into the Email question’s Question Details > Validation tab.
Figure 2 - Example of script to check whether the email address already exists
Updating the Information
Once a new panelist has completed the survey, the information he/she has provided must be uploaded to the database. An “update” script, an example of which is shown in the figure below, performs this function - .
Figure 3 - Example of the database registration script
Removing the Respondent Data from the Survey
Once the database is updated, the script example in the figure below - - deletes all the current respondent information from the survey (not the panelist database) to prevent database overload, and then redirects the survey. The redirect script is required to prevent the survey returning an error when it notices that it contains no data for the current respondent.
Figure 4 - Example of script to delete the information from the survey