Survey and Conversation Data and Versioning
Each time an instrument (e.g., survey or conversation) is saved, its version number increases by one. Below the instrument name, you can see the current version number and when it was last updated.
W2H handles instrument versioning by updating the existing data source rather than creating a new data source.
If a question is updated or added to an instrument, a new column will appear in the dataset. Participants who answered the question prior to the addition will have data in the original column, and participants who answer the question after the addition will have data in the new column.
If a question is deleted from an instrument, the data column will not be deleted. Participants who answered the question prior to the deletion will have data in the column. Those who complete the instrument after the deletion will not have data in the column since the question was deleted.
Manage data and reports for instruments use certain symbols to help users understand how survey versioning impacted instrument completion.
Symbol | Meaning | Example(s) |
|---|---|---|
. | Question was asked but not answered | Optional question that a participant skips |
- | Question was not asked | Survey page that participant never reaches because they close out of the survey on an earlier page. Branching logic or skip logic resulted in the participant not meeting the condition(s) to be asked a question. |
? | Question not relevant to the current instrument version OR error | Participant completed instrument and then a new question was added. Question was deleted and then a participant completes the instrument afterwards. |