Are there any plans to import surveys from the QueXML format? It's great that LimeSurvey can export to QueXML, of course it'd be nice to have the import ability as well.

Is that a 2.0 feature? It's possible that we'd be able to contribute that to the codebase.

Thx,

Tac

As far as I know, this is not planned. The QueXML file was created by the team around QueX to make the creating of questionnaires easier. So they used Limesurvey for the creation of the questionnaire structure and created this export.

However, as there is no way to create a questionnaire in QueX and to export it, it wouldn't make much sense to implement the import of QueXML into Limesurvey, because the questionnaire was created by Limesurvey in the first place (or maybe by hand, but...).

But maybe I just don't see the point behind it.

I was looking for a supported XML format to use to define our surveys. Right now, we use a YAML file (uses line breaks, indentation and colons to describe hierarchical data, pretty nicely). We're adding things like branching and assessment values, and rather than invent our own we were hoping to use some standard that already existed.

So even though QueX doesn't export it, we have a bunch of surveys that we would simply write to QueXML and then import into lime. Of course, we could go from our format directly into limesurvey, or to the .lss file, but we're trying to pick a comprehensive standardized format, so we can use other tools with it (e.g. PDF creation, scanning, IVR, etc.)

After looking at QueXML though, I'm concerned that the way it represents answer sets (aka labels or categories) isn't very sophisticated, that you have to use subquestions to repeat an answer, rather than referencing what I think limesurvey calls a label set. So maybe QueXML isn't the way to go.

Alas, limesurvey's XML (the lss file) is really a csv dump in XML, with index references between the questions and answers, rather than the more nested structure I was hoping to see.

QueXML also doesn't seem to have a very good way of describing the Question Type -- even things like a radio v. multiple checkboxes aren't explicitly spelled out, you have to derive it from the was the response varName is set. At least reading the one pdf document, that's what it looks like.

So what I'm hoping for is a combination of the two -- all the details of limesurvey, with the nested structure of QueXML.

Thoughts?

Thx,

Tac

Well, I agree, it would be nice to have human readable syntax that makes it easy for experienced users to describe their survey in XML rather than clicking through the GUI.

I have to admit I have never looked into the source of a Limesurvey XML file so far, because I thought it was made to read easier than the former CSV files. Reading your comments, I guess it is not that way.

Let's see if one of the developers shows up. But, I think in the current version there won't be any change to the import/export files, as this has been changed only recently.

@holch
This is not correct. queXML files can be imported in to Limesurvey using the queXML to Limesurvey stylesheet. This is included in the queXML download package. Otherwise, there is a web based interface you can use to apply this stylesheet to a queXML file called "Generate a CSV import file for Limesurvey"

Due to this ability to generate a Limesurvey CSV import file, there is no direct import in Limesurvey. Also, it is to avoid Limesurvey users choosing queXML as the format to save their Limesurvey instruments, as it is not a complete description but a generalised description applicable to multiple modes. queXML was implemented separately to Limesurvey (or phpSurveyor as it was then) and it is possible to create queXML files using an XML editor.

Also, queXML does not describe the question style or formatting as it leaves this up to the data collection system. This means that the questionnaire can be described once for multiple modes (i.e. paper based, web based, CATI) and as long as the collection software collects the data to those specifications, there can be a single data set over multiple modes.

Thanks ammit for the clarification on this.

But there is no way in the newest versions of Limesurvey to import CSV files, is there?

It is possible to import Limesurvey CSV files in the latest 1.9.1 release candidate, so I assume this will continue through the 1.9.x series. I have not tested it on the 2.x development branch.

I have tested using the queXML tools website to produce a Limesurvey CSV file from the example questionnaire in the queXML download package, and then imported it in to Limesurvey 1.9.1 RC, and it worked.

You are right. It is possible to import CSV files, but there is no export of CSV files anymore (at least I didn't find it). In 1.9 I could only find export to LimeSurvey XML survey file (*.lss) and
queXML survey XML format (*.xml).

I must have mixed up import and export. Sorry!