Instructions for the Translators of the Survey Solutions Interface

• Start by downloading the following Excel file (Download Excel file corresponding to v24.06.6 of Survey Solutions) and then follow the rest of these instructions. You deliver just the translated Excel file and the title of the new language.
• Do not rename the spreadsheet. Do not convert to any other file format.
• Translate text from column E (titled INVARIANT) to column F (titled with your language).
• If you can’t translate the original text for any reason, the translation should be left blank (do not copy text from column E to column F in this case).
• Do not modify any other text/cells anywhere else in the spreadsheet, even if there is a typo in the original text (feel free to notify about any discovered typos or problems in your email message, but not in this file).
• Do not add or remove any lines.
• Do not distort the HTML tags, such as: <br/>
• Do not touch anything inside the curly brackets {}, for example "{value}" must remain "{value}" , do not translate the word “value” inside the curly brackets.
• Some texts may contain terms in dual curly brackets {{}}, for example "{{count}} interviews will be approved.". Maintain the nesting in the translation. Do not reduce to {}.
• The translation MUST HAVE all the same entries {0}, {1}, … as the original! (If there were three in the original, must be the same three mentioned in the translation). The order of mentioning may be changed, however, for example: “File {0} may not be sent to {1}” –> “May not sent to {1} the following file {0}”
• The meaning of placeholders {0}, {1} may only be guessed from the texts. The same placeholder may be mentioned several times in the message, for example: "{0} is wrong, enter any other value than {0}!". In which case {0} means the same thing and it must be mentioned AT LEAST ONCE in the message, but for convenience MAY BE mentioned more than once.
• Messages may contain text that shouldn’t be translated, for example: “Optionally can specify the following columns:<br/> _responsible - username of a headquarters, supervisor or an interviewer who will be responsible for the assignment;” In this case the text "_responsible" is a specific column name and must remain the same word in any translation. Same applies to:
  • emails: e.g. someone@mysurvey.solutions;
  • web addresses: https://designer.mysurvey.solutions (do not translate each word);
  • file extensions: .pdf, .zip, .xlsx, .dta, .sav, etc;
  • names of programs: Stata, SPSS, Survey Solutions;
  • terms that are internationally known under English abbreviation: GPS, UTF-8, Unicode, etc.
• You may decide to translate units Kb, MB, GB, or keep them in English, whichever is more prevalent/intuitive.
• Pay attention to details. There may be very similar terms with minute differences.
• The terms questionnaire, interview, and assignment mean different documents in Survey Solutions and the difference must be maintained in the translation.
• The terms interviewer and enumerator mean the same thing in Survey Solutions. Translators may opt to use a single term do denote either.
• You may want to refer to the glossary online to double check the meaning of some of the terms as we apply them.
• Use of quotes: different languages have different conventions to quote the text. In some places (such as in HTML tags: <font color=“red”>No internet connection</font> ) specifically the unicode quotation mark character is expected (") (Unicode number U+0022) and should not be replaced with any other type of quotes, such as («) („) etc.

External Service Providers

Survey Solutions, while being an open-source product, is capable of consuming various services from external providers to deliver specific functionality to the end users.

Among these services some are free, some are charging per unit consumed, some require a payment plan, some allow for a limited use.

Survey Solutions Server Hosting

Here are just some of the options you may have for placement of your Survey Solutions data server:

• for The World Bank projects request the server using the eServices request :
  “Integrated Survey Solutions Infrastructure Provisioning”
  (internal link, accessible for WB staff/consultants).

• for studying Survey Solutions application use a PDS (personal demonstration servers).
  Do not use PDS for any real data collection.

• for new surveys setup a server as described in Survey Solutions Server using any of the following hosting options
  (any service providers below are mentioned as examples and should not be interpreted as a recommendation):

  February 13, 2024

Language

The Survey Solutions questionnaire can be designed in any language supported in Unicode. See details in this article.

A questionnaire may be multilingual. See details in multilingual questionnaires

For the langauges applicable to Survey Solutions software components refer to the following table:

	Language	Interviewer (App)	Headquarters	Designer
	English	+	+	+
	Russian	+	+	+
	French	+	+	+
	Spanish	+	+	+
	Chinese	+	+	+
	Czech	+	+	+
	Ukrainian	+	+	+
	Arabic	+	+	-
	Portuguese	+	+	-
	Georgian	+	+	-
	Romanian	+	+	-
	Indonesian	+	-	-
	Khmer	+	-	-
	Thai	+	-	-
	Vietnamese	+	-	-
	How to switch the language?	readme	readme	readme

See also: Instructions for the Translators of the Survey Solutions Interface

What tablets should I buy?

Technical Requirements

Survey Solutions software works with Android tablets with the following specifications:

• Version of Android OS:

  • Android 7.0 or better is required;
  • All versions of Android below 9.0 are no longer supported by the manufacturers and correspondingly tablets that can’t be updated to Android 9.0 or above should be considered unsafe for the World Bank projects.

• RAM: Minimum 1.5GB

• Storage: 8GB of flash memory storage. At least 1GB of available space must be available for Survey Solutions’ use. The Survey Solutions software installation package (.apk) is less than 200MB, but more space will be required during the operation of the software. The ultimate requirements for space depend on the kind of survey (questionnaire) and the mode of use of the tablet (number of assignments, simultaneously started interviews, rejections, use of offline maps, audio recording, etc.

  September 19, 2023

Server Requirements

Server requirements are periodically revised. The characteristics below are outlined for a server facilitating a survey of no more than 100,000 interviews. You may need a more powerful server if:

• your survey is larger, or
• you plan to host several surveys, or
• if you plan to collect any multimedia data (photos, audio recordings, etc), or
• there are other non-standard circumstances.

Requirements for the server depend on the use and the type of the survey. Below is a minimal configuration. Better hardware allows better performance.

Password issues

Click on the description of the case (1-15) below. Instructions vary depending on the type of password/login you are having an issue with.

Changing password

This article describes who can change passwords and for whom in the hierarchy of Survey Solutions users.

In the following table users assuming the role mentioned in the rows can change passwords of users mentioned in the columns.

Note also:

1. To change own password the user needs to enter the old password in addition to the new password. To change the password of another user (when permitted) there is no need to enter the value of the old password.

   June 22, 2023

Navigation to Destination

This article describes the features of Survey Solutions related to guiding the field workforce (interviewers and supervisors) to the particular destinations (typically dwellings/households).

This is especially useful when the target location for interview is known (coordinates known), which helps finding the proper way to the destination in the situations of:

• panel surveys (coordinates are known from previous wave of the survey);
• cross-sectional surveys on geo-coded frames (households comprising the sampling frame are recorded with their coordinates during the precedeing listing or census enumeration);
• cross-sectional multi-visit survey (coordinates are recorded during the first visit, then re-used for subsequent visits);
• audit survey (coordinates are recorded by the interviewers during the main survey, then reused by auditors during the audit survey).

While we are mainly thinking of the location of the household or dwelling, it is not essential for Survey Solutions, and the destination can equally be the location of an enterprise, farm, plot, school, hospital, a generic facility, a landmark, a water source, etc.

Android App Permissions

Android permissions regulate access of apps to particular functionality. When it comes to Survey Solutions the following permissions are requested:

1. Access to camera: is used to:

• recognize qrcodes when setting up the application (enter synchronization point address);
• recognize qrcodes/barcodes when answering the corresponding question type in the interview;
• take pictures (answer picture type question).

2. Access to microphone is used to:

• answer audio type question;
• record audio audit data during interview (all the time from the point of opening the interview to the point of closing the interview).

3. Access to location is used to:

• answer GPS location question;
• answer geography question with automatic or semiautomatic modes;
• permit near field communication for synchronization between the Interviewer and Supervisor apps.

4. Access to files and media is used to:

• pick photographs from the gallery as answers to picture questions;
• store maps received from the HQ;
• store troubleshooting packages.

5. Access to nearby devices is used to:

• establish connection for synchronization between the Interviewer and Supervisor apps.

The apps generally request the permissions when they are about to execute the action, for which the permission is needed. For example, a camera permission may be requested when the user wishes to answer a picture question.