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SSI Web

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How SSI Web Works

Compose Survey
Load Survey Onto Web Server
Respondents Access Survey
Collect Survey Results

1. Compose Survey

Once you have installed SSI Web and have it up and running, you are ready to compose a web survey! Start the program and go to File, New Study and create a new study.

Each study carries a four character study name. For this example we will use TEST as our study name. As you compose the study, SSI Web creates study-specific files in your study directory on your local computer. All of these files will have the study name as a prefix to their own names. Here are the files that will be created (using TEST as our study name):

TESTlogn.htm -- Login page (1st page of survey)
TESTadmn.htm -- Administrator login page
TESTpath.cgi -- File path information
TEST.pwds -- Respondent passwords file
TESTqst.cgi -- Questionnaire file
TESTpacc.cgi -- Administrative passwords file
TEST_CBC[exerciseID]_[designID].cgi -- Design file for CBC / Web studies
TEST_MXD[exerciseID]_[designID].cgi -- Design file for MaxDiff / Web studies

2. Load Survey Onto Web Server

When you have created your web survey, the study specific files (and any additional files such as graphic files) must be uploaded to a web server. SSI Web automatically assembles the needed files and places them in the proper director structure to upload to your server.

SSI Web supports both UNIX and Microsoft IIS web servers. You can host your web survey on your own web server or you can use a 3rd party web hosting service provider. Sawtooth Software also provides web hosting for SSI Web surveys.

SSI Web uses a computer programming language called Perl to run your surveys up on the web server. Most web servers already have Perl installed. You must have permission to run Perl scripts and to read, write, and delete files on your web server.

In addition to uploading your study specific files you must also upload SSI Web's Perl Scripts. These files enable all of your studies to run on the web server. It is important that you upload these files to the web server in "Binary Mode". You can find these files in Program Files\Sawtooth Software\SSI Web\Server.

SSI Web - Web Server Setup Documentation

3. Respondents Access Survey

Your respondents need to know how to get to your web survey. Your survey can be accessed by your users clicking on an E-mail link or by typing in a web address (URL) into a web browser.
You will generally want to point your respondents to your STUDYNAMElogn.htm page (this page can be renamed). An example of a web address would be:
http://www.MySite.com/myStudyRoot/TESTlogn.htm

You might want to issue your respondents User Names and Passwords and make it so they will be able to login to your survey with one click. An example of this would be:
http://www.MySite.com/myStudyRoot/cgi-bin/ciwweb.pl?studyname=TEST&username=135243

This method also allows you to seamlessly integrate SSI Web with a third party system. You can pass information from another system by setting up "pass-in" variables in SSI Web, for example Q1 and Q2, and then including them in the link. For example:
http://www.MySite.com/myStudyRoot/cgi-bin/ciwweb.pl?studyname=TEST&username=135243&Q1=value1&Q2=value2

For a detailed walk through on how links work see SSI Web Help Movies

4. Collect Survey Results

You can manage your web survey once it goes "live" using the On-line Data Management Module. This module can be accessed by going to:

http://www.YourSite.com/yourStudyRoot/STUDYNAMEadmn.htm

Use Study Summary to view the current status of your web survey. To retrieve respondent data records click on Get Data and then click on Download Finished Surveys.

The file STUDYNAMEdat.dat should be downloaded to the directory where your study is located on your local computer. To reduce risk of lost data we suggest that you download and backup on a regular basis.

Once your data has been downloaded you can export it using SSI Web. The menu option File, Export Data, All Data will allow you to export to Excel or SPSS.

ACA data can be exported using the menu option Analysis, Calculate ACA Utilities. CBC data can be exported using File, Export Data, Prepare CBC Data Files.