Setup and Configuration
Personal Demo Server
Survey Solutions users may familiarize themselves with the Headquarters/Admin functionality using a personal demo server (PDS). Personal demo servers are managed through the self-service portal. You start by submitting a corresponding request. Before you proceed, make sure you understand the purpose and limitations of the PDS: Every Survey Solutions user may request one PDS. There are no forms to fill and the server becomes available shortly after the request is submitted.
July 19, 2021Data Server Errors
The following errors may be encountered when working with a data server: 1. “Unable to import new questionnaire: Could not connect to Designer. Please check if Designer is available and try again." Your Headquaters installation is trying to contact the Survey Solutions Designer server to import the questionnaire, but can’t reach it. It is very unlikely that the Designer is not responding or is not working read how to check here so the problem is most likely with your network configuration.
June 23, 2021DB connection errors
The following error may be encountered during the server startup, when it fails to establish connection to the database server: Note, that since the message is displayed on a publicly accessible page, it does not elaborate the specific reason for the problem. When the server displays the above message, it is incapacitated and the error needs to be fixed asap. This is especially critical if the server is being utilized for CAWI surveys, where the respondents following the link in the invitation will likely be lost if they encounter this message instead of the survey form to fill out.
June 23, 2021AWS setup
Installation of Survey Solutions on Amazon AWS The installation consists of the following steps: Create security group for web server and RDS to be able to communicate Create PostgreSQL instance Create EC2 instance for running Survey Solutions Install Survey Solutions Create security group In order to have connection between Survey Solutions and PostgreSQL you can create new security group as described in here. From the AWS Management Console: Click on EC2 under the Compute heading Scroll down the left-hand navigation to Network & Security Click on Security Groups Click on Create security group In the create security group specify name and description:
May 31, 2021Configuring export to external cloud storage.
Survey Solutions may be configured to export data to major international cloud storage providers: DropBox Google Drive Microsoft OneDrive To enable export to the external storages the following configuration changes need to be done to the configuration file appsettings.Production.ini: Add section: [ExternalStorages:OAuth2] RedirectUri="https://YOURSERVERNAME/data-export-storages.html" ResponseType="code" Note that you need to substitute-in your server name in the RedirectUri parameter. Decide which external storages you want to make available to the users of your server (this is shared across all workspaces) from the above mentioned list of cloud providers.
April 29, 2021Support packages
Support packages are also known as tablet information packages. These terms are used interchangeably in this documentation. Survey Solutions contains a built-in mechanism for collecting the data from tablets and transmitting it to the HQ server. This helps to investigate the issues where the interviewers can not supply any detailed problem report and commonly describe the problem with “it doesn’t work” or “it crashes” and it is difficult or not possible to access the device directly.
March 18, 2021Device Logs
Survey Solutions contains a built-in mechanism for logging the problems and transmitting the log data from tablets to the HQ server. This helps to investigate the issues where the interviewers can not supply any detailed problem report and commonly describe the problem with “it doesn’t work” or “it crashes” and it is difficult or not possible to access the device directly. The information contained in the device logs is rather technical and should be interpreted by IT personnel or software developers.
March 18, 2021Survey Solutions Server
This article describes the main steps to setup your own Survey Solutions server. Study the requirements for a server. These requirements are minimal and may be periodically revised. Your survey may require a different hardware configuration. You may need to calibrate for a few months before the survey to determine the optimal configuration. Follow the installation instructions to install the prerequisites and the Survey Solutions itself. Note: there is only one installation set regardless where you want to install: to a physical server or to a cloud-based server.
November 20, 2020Azure setup
Installation of Survey Solutions on Microsoft Azure In order to install - register on azure portal and login. Installation steps are going to use azure shell. After loggedin into azure shell execute command with variables that are going to be needed later. Feel free to change them as you need: RG=surveysolutions \ LOC=westeurope \ STOREACC=surveysolutions \ SHARE_NAME=surveysolutions \ PGSERVER=suso-postgres \ PGPASS=password \ WEBAPPNAME=surveysolutions-webapp \ SRVPLAN=AppSvc-SurveySolutions-plan RG - resource group where all survey solutions related resources are going to be grouped LOC - location where you will run survey solutions software.
November 5, 2020Export Service
Version 20.08 and newer Version 20.08 is delivered with export service embedded within Headquarters application. No separate windows service is installed in the system, only IIS website. All the information regarding startup of export you can find in logs folder. You still need to have BaseUrl configured properly, but no need to manage ExportServiceUrl configuration. Version 20.07 and older Survey solutions comes in two parts. Headquarters user facing web application (usually executed within IIS web server) and Export background windows service.
August 12, 2020