How to Use Our Server to Host Your Online Survey
This server may be used by anyone using the
free or registered versions of StatPac's online survey software. There are no costs, hidden costs, or additional services to purchase.
You may host your online survey for as long as you like; however, we periodically remove surveys that have not not shown any activity for the previous two months. Feel free to contact us if you need to make other arrangements. Also, please help us conserve disk space by using the Online Survey Control Panel to delete your surveys and response files after you are finished using our server.
Online Survey Control Panel
If you are using a free version of StatPac or if you do not have a private folder, use the Login name of "guest" and a Password of "guest".
How to...
Download the required software
Prepare your online survey for hosting
Upload your survey to our server
Download respondents' answers
Delete an online survey from the server
Delete a response file from the server
How to Download StatPac's Online Survey Software
Click here to learn more about StatPac's online survey software.
If you have not already done so, download the required software.
If you do not know how to use StatPac to create an online survey, click here for a tutorial.
How to Prepare Your Online Survey for Hosting
There are only a few settings that must be made to the StatPac script to generate a survey for this web site. The settings are made in StatPac when you select Design, Internet Survey. If the settings are not correct, the survey will not run properly or you will not be able to retrieve your data.
The settings must be exact, so please be careful to include all periods and slashes!
Special Release Note 1: StatPac Version 10 was released on September 25,
2005. The following settings are for version 10. If you are using version 9,
then the CgiBin setting should be:
CgiBin=http://www.webpoll.org/cgi-bin/statpac.pl
If you are uncertain which version you have, select Help, About StatPac for
Windows. VERY IMPORTANT: DO NOT OMIT THE TRAILING SLASHES IN THE FOLLOWING !
If you are using the free version, the settings are: 13
CgiBin=http://www.webpoll.org/cgi-bin/statpac10.pl
Method=file
Directory=../cgi-bin/guest/
WebFolderURL=http://www.webpoll.org/guest/
If you are using the registered version, the settings are: 23
CgiBin=http://www.webpoll.org/cgi-bin/statpac10.pl
Method=file
Directory=../cgi-bin/yourfolder/
WebFolderURL=http://www.webpoll.org/yourfolder/
Note 1: The guest folder is a public folder. This means that all StatPac users can upload and download from this folder. Do not use the guest folder for confidential surveys. If you planning to use the guest folder, be sure to choose a unique name for your codebook so it will not conflict with other users. In other words, please don't name your codebook something like "test" or "survey".
Note 2: Registered users with a current technical support agreement can request their own private folder rather than using the "guest" folder. "yourfolder" refers to the name of the private folder that will be given to you upon request. Registered users will also be given access to an SSL secure folder.
Note 3: On February 24, 2007 we changed our secure SSL server. If you
want SSL encryption for your surveys, use the above settings (except the CgiBin
and WebFolderURL settings should begin with "https://"
instead of "http://").
How to Upload Your Survey to Our Server
1. Generate the survey using StatPac for Windows and view it on your local computer. When you are satisfied with its appearance, use our Control Panel to manage your survey.
Online Survey Control Panel
2. Select "Upload your survey to our web site" in the Control Panel.
3. Type your username and password.
Use the Browse buttons to select each .htm page of your
survey. This will involve at least four pages:
yourcodebookname.htm
yourcodebookname_1.htm
yourcodebookname_2.htm
yourcodebookname_closed.htm
If you have used cookies, then also upload:
yourcodebookname_cookie_cutter.htm
If you have used help windows, then also upload each help file:
yourcodebookname_help1.htm
yourcodebookname_help2.htm
If you have used popup windows, then also upload each help file:
yourcodebookname_popup1.htm
yourcodebookname_popup2.htm
If you have used a graphic, then also upload the .gif, .jpg, or .bmp file.
4. Click the Upload button
5. Test the survey in your browser. Depending on whether you have a private folder, the url to your survey will be either of these:
http://www.webpoll.org/guest/yourcodebookname.htm
http://www.webpoll.org/yourfolder/yourcodebookname.htm
How to Download Respondents' Answers
Respondents' answers to the survey will be stored in a .asc file on our server. After people have responded to the survey, you can download their responses with the following procedure.
1. Select "Download responses to your computer" in the Control Panel.
2. If you want the responses e-mailed to you, please type your e-mail address carefully. The survey responses will be sent to this e-mail address.
3. Use the Browse buttons to select the codebook on your local computer.
4. Use the radio buttons to select whether the responses will be e-mailed to you or whether you want to load them into your browser.
5. Click the Download button.
If you selected the e-mail method, our server will send you the responses as an attachment to an e-mail. Note that the name of the attached file might be changed by your e-mail program if you download the responses more than once.
If you selected the browser method, the responses will be shown in your browser. Select File, Save As, set the Save As Type to Text File, and save the results in the same folder as your codebook using a file name of "codebookname.asc" (be sure to include the quotes around the file name).
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6. Run Statpac and open your codebook. Select Data, Import, Internet Response File. Click the "Name of Internet File to Import" browse button to navigate to the .asc file. If you used the e-mail method this will be the folder where your e-mail program saves attachments. If you used the browser method this will be the folder where your codebook resides. Select the .asc file and click OK to import the responses into a StatPac data file.
How to Delete a Survey from the Server
The .htm files that make up the survey should be removed from our server after you no longer need it hosted on the Internet. After you remove the .htm pages from our server, a "survey closed" page will be shown to visitors who attempt to access the survey. Use the following procedure to remove the .htm files from our server.
1. Select "Delete a survey from our web site" in the Control Panel.
2. Type your Login name and Password
3. Use the Browse buttons to select the codebook on your local computer.
4. Click the Delete button and all the survey .htm pages will be removed from our server. This will not delete the file of responses (the .asc file). It will only remove the .htm pages.
How to Delete a Response File from the Server
The .asc response file can be deleted at any time. For example, after testing a survey, you'd delete the response file (of test data) before going live. You'd also want to delete the response file at the completion of a survey. Use the following procedure to delete a response file.
1. Select "Delete responses to a survey from our web site" in the Control Panel.
2. Type your Login name and Password
3. Use the Browse buttons to select the codebook on your local computer.
4. Click the Delete button and survey responses will be erased from our server. This will not delete the survey itself (.htm files). It will only remove the responses received to date (the .asc file).
For additional assistance, please contact us.
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