Survey Versioning and Publishing

Surveys support version control, which allows you to track, compare, and even revert changes. Once a survey has been published to a project, a tag on the Surveys tab will indicate the project name and version published to that project. Note that different versions of a survey can be published to different projects.

Surveys which are scheduled for a particular project include a "calendar" icon, and surveys set as the Enrollment Survey will show a "document" icon.

Review

As you configure your survey and are ready to save and or publish a new version, you may be prompted with a Review button.

By clicking on it, you'll be presented with some suggestions on possible improvements to make to your survey, such as using better naming conventions or ensuring you don't inadvertently have null fields.

You do not need to resolve the suggested edits in order to save or publish a survey version.

Save New Version

After you have updated a survey, you can save a new version of your survey via the "Save New Version" button at the top. You're encouraged to save frequently to avoid losing your work.

You can always revert to a previous version of the survey by clicking on the version drop-down.

Below is an example of saving a new version and going back to a previous version.

Publish Current Version

Before a survey can be included in a project, it must be published. You can publish a survey by clicking "Save and Publish", or "Publish This Version" if you've already saved the version.

Publishing a survey version will make it visible to all relevant participants (i.e., participants who have access to the survey via MyDataHelps will see the most recently published version). This allows you to make changes to the survey that take effect immediately, even for participants to whom the survey has already been delivered. Note that this will have no effect on already completed surveys.

When you go to publish a survey, a pop-up window will outline changes made from the currently published version to the new version. If you have multiple projects, you can choose which projects you'd like to publish the current version to by clicking the checkbox next to the project's name.

We recommend testing your surveys before delivering them to participants.

Revert Changes

If you've made changes to the current version that you wish to discard, you can click "Revert Changes," which will remove all unsaved edits.

Compare Versions

As you create additional versions of your survey, you might find that you wish to compare and review the differences between versions. This might be useful if someone else made the edits or if you are looking to know when a change was introduced. To compare survey versions:

1. Click the branch icon in the top left of the survey builder.
2. Then select the versions you wish to compare- a differential will be displayed.

Copy a Survey

When your project's surveys have similar formats and steps, copying an existing survey allows you to use those elements without having to create a new survey from scratch. Copying an existing survey can save time when building out your project.

To copy a survey, navigate to the Surveys tab and select the copy button. Only the most recent version is copied to the new survey.