To check-in a survey means to return a copy of the survey to the Illume server. Once a survey is checked in to the Illume server, the survey can be checked out by others for review and editing, can be approved for publication, and can be made available to participants. Checking in a survey also ensures a copy of the survey now lives on the server, rather than solely on a user’s desktop. It is a good practice to check in a survey at the end of your workday to ensure a copy resides on the server.
When a survey is first created, it will appear in the My Surveys list with a version number of zero, and a status of new survey. The host will be listed as ‘localhost’, meaning the survey exists only on the user’s local computer — the Illume server does not have a copy of it. If working with an existing survey that has been checked out from an Illume server, the version number will be greater than zero and the host will match the name of the Illume server from which the survey was checked out.
A user must be logged into the Illume server in order to check-in a survey. If not connected, reconnect by choosing “File Reconnect” from the Illume Survey Manager.
When connected to the Illume server, follow these steps to check a survey in:
- Right click on the name of the survey in the My Surveys tab.
- Select Check-in from the context menu.
- (New Surveys Only) Type a description of the survey. This will be useful to help any survey editors distinguish this survey from others.
- Choose one of the check-in options. These options appear for existing surveys only; these options will not be seen if checking in a new survey.
Check-in only: Return the survey to the Illume server. Choose this if there will be further revisions made to the survey.
Check-in and request approval: Return the survey to the Illume server and request approval from a user with the Reviewer role. Choose this if the survey is ready for publication but requires a reviewer’s approval.
Check-in and approve for publication: Approve the survey, making it nearly ready for publication. Only users with the Review or Administrator role can do this.
Check-in, approve, and publish: Check the survey in, approve it, and publish it, meaning it is now ready for publication NOTE: When this option is chosen, a time period for publication must also be selected. See “Understanding Time Periods”.
Check-in as template only: Check this survey in as a template. A template is not a survey that is made available to participants. Rather it is used as a foundation on which to build other surveys. For example, the template may include a logo or branding that can be used as a basis for future surveys.
Check-in as template only and request approval: Check this survey in as a template and request that the template be approved for use by others.
Check-in as template only and approve: Check this survey in as a template and approve it immediately so others can start building surveys with it. When this option is selected, as users create a new survey they will see the template listed in the Choose Template dialogue.
- For the first Check-in, select the project where the survey will be checked in. The Project is important because that will determine which users are able to view and edit both the survey and the associated data. The location of a survey within a project can be changed at a later time.
- (Optional) Add check-in comments. These comments apply only to the current version of the survey. Every time a survey is checked in, new comments can be added. The comments are accessible through the survey’s Show History option.
- Click OK.
Once OK is clicked, the survey is moved from the My Surveys tab, as Illume removes the local copy from the user’s machine. The survey will be moved to the Survey Administration tab.
To make further edits to the survey, it will have to be checked out from the Illume server. See Checking Out a Survey.
More on Survey Templates
Survey templates are special surveys that cannot be published for live data collection, but can be used as the basis for future surveys. A survey template may include a login page, header/footer, logos, frequently used images, or even a few stock questions that an organization may use on a regular basis.Templates can save survey designers the trouble of having to hunt down commonly used resources and can help to ensure that surveys maintain a consistent look and feel.
When an Illume user creates a new survey, they are presented with a list of templates upon which to build the survey. Initially, this list only includes Illume‘s Default Template. Any survey that is saved as a template and approved will be added to the list of available templates and users will be able to create new surveys from those templates.