LimeSurvey Version 2.5 RC released!

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Details: Category: General; 08 October 2015

8 years ago

2. Tour LimeSurvey 2.5 still has a few ergonomic differences compared to LimeSurvey 2. Most of them were inspired by user requests. Let's have a look at these changes. 2a. Landing page After a fresh installation on LimeSurvey 2.0, the landing page was an info page presenting some “piece-of-cake steps to create your very own first survey”. Once a survey had been created, the surveys list was shown after login. In LimeSurvey 2.5, the home page is based on a design of six quick buttons, linking to the most used items. A link to the last survey/last question visited is on top of those boxes for a quick navigation. To come back to this home page, just click on the logo on the top right corner. LimeSurvey 2.5 Home Page If you disagree with the choice of the buttons, and want to change them, you can do it from global settings → Home page. In this page, you can change the title of a box, its link, its description, and its picture. It's still very basic and will be improved in the future (like adding as many boxes as you want, or linking to an external page, selecting a custome picture in a list, etc.) You can edit boxes from global settings A fresh LimeSurvey installation with no survey shows a modal box displaying the 'piece-of-cake' steps on this home page : LimeSurvey 2.5 welcome modale on fresh installation If the user clicks on “Create a new survey”, some new tips and tricks alert information will help him until the user created his first question. 2b. Admin menu In LS2, the main menu bar hosted the links to the pages concerning the global system: Manage administrators, user groups, global settings, label sets, etc. It also provided the possibility to list the surveys in a select box, to go to the surveys list, to create a new survey, and to log out: Admin menu in LimeSurvey 2.x All those links have been kept in LimeSurvey 2.5 admin menu, but reorganized in 3 categories : Configuration: for anything related to the global system Surveys: for anything related to survey User menu: for anything related to logged in user. We also added a notification system (only for update for now). Admin menu in LimeSurvey 2.5 The configuration menu provides all the links concerning the global system, and a system overview similar to the system overview which was displayed in the first tab of global settings in LS 2.0: Configuration submenus in LimeSurvey 2.5 Also, if you have active surveys, a link to those active surveys will be shown : Surveys menu and link to active surveys 2c. Layout types, menu types and save buttons There are two kinds of layout in LimeSurvey 2.5: the full page layout, and the survey layout with a side menu and a sticky contextual menu bar. The full page layout is used for the global system pages (the ones you can access from the main menu), like Global Settings. Its content takes all the width of the page, and its actions buttons are directly placed on top of the content: Full page layout for system pages : Content take 100% of the width, action buttons are placed on top of content The survey layout has a side menu and a sticky contextual menu bar. This layout is used for any page related to a survey (like survey summary, edit question, tokens, etc). Survey Layout : - The content is surrounded by a side bar on its left, a title bar on top, and a top sticky menu for actions The top menu bar is sticky, so Save/cancel buttons are now always easy to reach – even when scrolling down, 2d. Side bar and question explorer In LimeSurvey 2.0, the menu bars was stacked the one of top of others. So everything was reachable on a single click, but also, the interface was crowded of buttons, links, forms, select box, actions buttons. It was hard to understand and visually exhausting. Some of the functionalities were logical but counter-intuitive (like adding a new question from the question-group bar), and sometimes, it was just impossible to come back to some pages (like coming back to the survey summary after a group has been selected). For example, the 'Edit subquestions' page in LimeSurvey 2.0 A typical admin view in LimeSurvey 2.0 : many menus, submenus, icons, buttons, tabs, etc. In LimeSurvey 2.5, the side menu resolves this problem. The main idea is this one : only one menu bar is shown at the same time, and each menu bar is accessible via the side menu (see the example of edition mode at the end of this section). The side bar So if you click on the survey menu, the top menu will correspond to the usual survey menu bar. If you click on 'token management', the top menu will correspond to the usual token management menu bar. If you click on a question in the explorer, the top menu bar will correspond to the usual question bar, etc. etc. We selected a question in the question explorer in the side bar, so the top menu is the usual question menu bar. Also, when editing an element (most of the time by clicking on a button on the top menu bar, like 'edit survey settings'), only the action buttons of this edition will be shown on the top menu bar, and the left bar will be closed. Those action buttons are in the sticky bar, so its easy to reach them (for example when scrolling down): Survey page in edition mode : the side bar is closed, only the save buttons are shown, the menu bar stick to the top, so if you scroll down the page they are still reachable See here “Edit subquestions” page in LimeSurvey 2.5 (the very same one than show at the beginning of the paragraph ): A typical admin view in LimeSurvey 2.5: simple, clean, easy to understand One of the great advantages of the old LimeSurvey 2.0 design, is that it was easy to reach any question inside the current group. Thanks to the question explorer inside the side bar, it's even more easy in LimeSurvey 2.5. Just open it to explore the different groups and to open the wanted question. You even can add question directly to any group inside it! The question explorer, to quickly navigate between questions, or quickly add a question to a group 2c. Surveys, question groups, and questions lists The surveys list, so as the questions list and the question groups list, are now using the Yii Grid view system with dataprovider. In short : it provides pagination, search box, filters, and it will only load the item for the current page (so you will no more experience very slow loading for huge list of surveys or questions) : Surveys list in LimeSurvey 2.5 The question groups list provides three buttons for quick action such as “add add a question to this group”, or “edit text elements”, and of course, access to question/question group summary (with question group menu bar): Question group list: search box, pagination, add a question to this group, edit text elements, reach question group summary The questions list provides a filter to select the group of the questions, a button to preview the question, one to directly edit it, and another one to reach its summary page (with the question menu bar). Questions list : search box, group filter, preview button, edit text element button, reach question summary Of course, in the future, we could add more action buttons in those lists, and give user the possibility to activate/unactivate them. 2d. Graph rendering in statistics Now, LimeSurvey uses the chart.js engine to render the graphs of statistics. So you can use bar charts, pie charts, radar charts, line charts, polar charts, dougnuts charts :[widgetkit id="2" widget="switcher" panel=1] Conclusion The transition from LimeSurvey 2.0 to LimeSurvey 2.5 should be very easy for most users. We tested the interface with existing users of LimeSurvey, and usually they quickly got used to it. Also, new users should understand it quickly, thanks to the tips and tricks, but also thanks to a familiar interface. The main menu, the menu bars behavior, the sticky save buttons, the side bar, and the different lists are very common today, used in many web applications or CMS. So it's more intuitive than the ergonomy of LimeSurvey 2.0 which was so specific and unusual. Also, the question explorer keeps the advantage of the fast navigation of the old interface. Using more deeply Yii functionalities (such as the grid, or the asset manager), Bootstrap, and chart.js, the LimeSurvey admin interface is now much more modern. It can still evolve, and users are welcome to ask for new interface functionalities (like adding new boxes in front page, link in side menu, buttons in list, etc). Soon, we'll start the same kind of work for the survey template, and LimeSurvey 2.5 will then be completed.

The LimeSurvey team is proud to present you the LimeSurvey 2.5 Release Candidate!
Click here to download it!

1. Presentation

LimeSurvey 2.5 is based on the good old LimeSurvey 2 code, but using the famous front-end framework Bootstrap to render its admin interface. So now, you'll enjoy a modern and responsive admin interface to build your survey. If you're a loyal LimeSurvey user, you will not get lost, and you'll still find all the functionalities you care and love.

The development of the new admin interface pursued four goals:

Offer a modern graphical experience
Respect the habits of loyal LimeSurvey users and the global ergonomy of LimeSurvey 2
Easy to use for new users, thanks to an alert info system providing tips and tricks.
Keep as much as possible of the LimeSurvey 2 core code to get LimeSurvey 2.5 working as soon as possible

Soon, we'll also develop a bootstrap responsive template for surveys.

So, LimeSurvey 2.5 is fully compatible with LimeSurvey 2, and you'll can update to it simply using the brand new ComfortUpdate we just released a few weeks ago...

[widgetkit id="4" name="LimeSurvey 2.5 compared to LS20"]

2. Tour

LimeSurvey 2.5 still has a few ergonomic differences compared to LimeSurvey 2. Most of them were inspired by user requests. Let's have a look at these changes.

2a. Landing page

After a fresh installation on LimeSurvey 2.0, the landing page was an info page presenting some “piece-of-cake steps to create your very own first survey”. Once a survey had been created, the surveys list was shown after login.

In LimeSurvey 2.5, the home page is based on a design of six quick buttons, linking to the most used items. A link to the last survey/last question visited is on top of those boxes for a quick navigation. To come back to this home page, just click on the logo on the top right corner.

LimeSurvey 2.5 Home Page

If you disagree with the choice of the buttons, and want to change them, you can do it from global settings → Home page. In this page, you can change the title of a box, its link, its description, and its picture. It's still very basic and will be improved in the future (like adding as many boxes as you want, or linking to an external page, selecting a custome picture in a list, etc.)

You can edit boxes from global settings

A fresh LimeSurvey installation with no survey shows a modal box displaying the 'piece-of-cake' steps on this home page :

LimeSurvey 2.5 welcome modale on fresh installation

If the user clicks on “Create a new survey”, some new tips and tricks alert information will help him until the user created his first question.

2b. Admin menu

In LS2, the main menu bar hosted the links to the pages concerning the global system: Manage administrators, user groups, global settings, label sets, etc. It also provided the possibility to list the surveys in a select box, to go to the surveys list, to create a new survey, and to log out:

Admin menu in LimeSurvey 2.x

All those links have been kept in LimeSurvey 2.5 admin menu, but reorganized in 3 categories :

Configuration: for anything related to the global system
Surveys: for anything related to survey
User menu: for anything related to logged in user.

We also added a notification system (only for update for now).

Admin menu in LimeSurvey 2.5

The configuration menu provides all the links concerning the global system, and a system overview similar to the system overview which was displayed in the first tab of global settings in LS 2.0:

Configuration submenus in LimeSurvey 2.5

Also, if you have active surveys, a link to those active surveys will be shown :

Surveys menu and link to active surveys

2c. Layout types, menu types and save buttons

There are two kinds of layout in LimeSurvey 2.5: the full page layout, and the survey layout with a side menu and a sticky contextual menu bar.

The full page layout is used for the global system pages (the ones you can access from the main menu), like Global Settings. Its content takes all the width of the page, and its actions buttons are directly placed on top of the content:

Full page layout for system pages : Content take 100% of the width, action buttons are placed on top of content

The survey layout has a side menu and a sticky contextual menu bar. This layout is used for any page related to a survey (like survey summary, edit question, tokens, etc).

Survey Layout : - The content is surrounded by a side bar on its left, a title bar on top, and a top sticky menu for actions

The top menu bar is sticky, so Save/cancel buttons are now always easy to reach – even when scrolling down,

2d. Side bar and question explorer

In LimeSurvey 2.0, the menu bars was stacked the one of top of others. So everything was reachable on a single click, but also, the interface was crowded of buttons, links, forms, select box, actions buttons. It was hard to understand and visually exhausting. Some of the functionalities were logical but counter-intuitive (like adding a new question from the question-group bar), and sometimes, it was just impossible to come back to some pages (like coming back to the survey summary after a group has been selected).

For example, the 'Edit subquestions' page in LimeSurvey 2.0

A typical admin view in LimeSurvey 2.0 : many menus, submenus, icons, buttons, tabs, etc.

In LimeSurvey 2.5, the side menu resolves this problem. The main idea is this one : only one menu bar is shown at the same time, and each menu bar is accessible via the side menu (see the example of edition mode at the end of this section).

The side bar

So if you click on the survey menu, the top menu will correspond to the usual survey menu bar. If you click on 'token management', the top menu will correspond to the usual token management menu bar. If you click on a question in the explorer, the top menu bar will correspond to the usual question bar, etc. etc.

We selected a question in the question explorer in the side bar, so the top menu is the usual question menu bar.

Also, when editing an element (most of the time by clicking on a button on the top menu bar, like 'edit survey settings'), only the action buttons of this edition will be shown on the top menu bar, and the left bar will be closed. Those action buttons are in the sticky bar, so its easy to reach them (for example when scrolling down):

Survey page in edition mode : the side bar is closed, only the save buttons are shown, the menu bar stick to the top, so if you scroll down the page they are still reachable

See here “Edit subquestions” page in LimeSurvey 2.5 (the very same one than show at the beginning of the paragraph ):

A typical admin view in LimeSurvey 2.5: simple, clean, easy to understand

One of the great advantages of the old LimeSurvey 2.0 design, is that it was easy to reach any question inside the current group. Thanks to the question explorer inside the side bar, it's even more easy in LimeSurvey 2.5. Just open it to explore the different groups and to open the wanted question. You even can add question directly to any group inside it!

The question explorer, to quickly navigate between questions, or quickly add a question to a group

2c. Surveys, question groups, and questions lists

The surveys list, so as the questions list and the question groups list, are now using the Yii Grid view system with dataprovider. In short : it provides pagination, search box, filters, and it will only load the item for the current page (so you will no more experience very slow loading for huge list of surveys or questions) :

Surveys list in LimeSurvey 2.5

The question groups list provides three buttons for quick action such as “add add a question to this group”, or “edit text elements”, and of course, access to question/question group summary (with question group menu bar):

Question group list: search box, pagination, add a question to this group, edit text elements, reach question group summary

The questions list provides a filter to select the group of the questions, a button to preview the question, one to directly edit it, and another one to reach its summary page (with the question menu bar).

Questions list : search box, group filter, preview button, edit text element button, reach question summary

Of course, in the future, we could add more action buttons in those lists, and give user the possibility to activate/unactivate them.

2d. Graph rendering in statistics

Now, LimeSurvey uses the chart.js engine to render the graphs of statistics. So you can use bar charts, pie charts, radar charts, line charts, polar charts, dougnuts charts :
[widgetkit id="2" widget="switcher" panel=1]

Conclusion

The transition from LimeSurvey 2.0 to LimeSurvey 2.5 should be very easy for most users. We tested the interface with existing users of LimeSurvey, and usually they quickly got used to it.

Also, new users should understand it quickly, thanks to the tips and tricks, but also thanks to a familiar interface. The main menu, the menu bars behavior, the sticky save buttons, the side bar, and the different lists are very common today, used in many web applications or CMS. So it's more intuitive than the ergonomy of LimeSurvey 2.0 which was so specific and unusual. Also, the question explorer keeps the advantage of the fast navigation of the old interface.

Using more deeply Yii functionalities (such as the grid, or the asset manager), Bootstrap, and chart.js, the LimeSurvey admin interface is now much more modern. It can still evolve, and users are welcome to ask for new interface functionalities (like adding new boxes in front page, link in side menu, buttons in list, etc). Soon, we'll start the same kind of work for the survey template, and LimeSurvey 2.5 will then be completed.

To download the RC2 of LimeSurvey 4, click here. You can also access the live RC2 release of LimeSurvey 4 here. The new question editor panel A new question editor has been implemented (based on CKEditor 5 and VueJS 2). A script editor has also been added to help users increase the complexity of their surveys by entering JavaScript, HTML or CSS code. In terms of question attributes, you will see only the general ones next to the question and help text boxes. All the other question attributes have been moved below the text boxes, being located next to the subquestion and answer option menus. Together with the live preview feature, users can now see how the edits impact the question design live. Global & group survey settings In LimeSurvey 4 you can edit the survey settings at the global and group level. The participant and publication & access settings, presentation information, and notifications can be easily set up from the global and survey group menu: The inheritance level works in the following way: Global settings -> Survey group settings -> Survey settings Any change done in one of the upper levels will immediately be inherited by the survey as long as the inheritance attribute is activated. New file management system The panel for resource management has been replaced with a file management system that provides a complete overview of the files and folders from your instance. The ability to copy and move files from one place to another has also been implemented. Data encryption Data encryption is a new feature provided in LimeSurvey 4. It has been created to help survey administrators better cope with the new data-protection regulations adopted in different parts of the world (e.g., GDPR or HIPAA). This new capability permits the encryption of personal data located in the central participant database and/or survey participants table. Moreover, you can also encrypt the data you collect from your respondents if the encryption question attribute is enabled. User management panel and user roles The user management panel has been completely redone offering you the possibility to add dummy users, as well as importing/exporting users from other LimeSurvey instances. However, the biggest news is the appearance of roles – now you can simply create roles within your organisations (e.g., students, professors, research), and easily provide user groups the same role, which in turn assigns to each user group the same set of global permissions. What is missing? At the moment, the “question themes” feature is being integrated into the GUI. It will be much easier to add customized questions into your instance - you will be no longer limited to the default question types. In the meantime, we are also working at the development of our LimeStore - a market for plugins, themes, and question themes created by our community members. For more information, access the LimeStore page. Testing and testing! We are getting closer to the release of the first stable version of LimeSurvey 4. To fasten the process, join us in testing RC2 and report the potential issues on our bugs tracker. If you have questions about LimeSurvey 4 or you just simply want to show the gratitude to the community and developers who contributed to this release, join our forum discussion topic here.

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4 years ago

LimeSurvey Authorized Partners - Get Your Lime Job Done

Did you know that you can hire a professional for survey creation or customization? Or for support? Or to generate autom ...

LimeSurvey GmbH is a growing organization that governs the development of the LimeSurvey software. Two types of packages are provided on our platform: LimeSurvey Cloud and LimeSurvey ComfortUpdate. The former provides users a hosted software solution supported by us, while the latter comes with ComfortUpdate, premium plugins, survey templates, and themes. To better understand the difference between LimeSurvey Cloud and LimeSurvey ComfortUpdate, check out our blog post on different hosting solutions for LimeSurvey. However, the growth of our user base increases the number of special requests we receive that cannot always be fulfilled by us. Therefore, we have actively started to expand the services we provide via the creation of a group of service companies that provide a wide range of optional commercial services. These services may include individual support, consulting or training, installation and maintenance of LimeSurvey on your own server, integration of LimeSurvey in your software environment, custom code development, survey creation, and the design of individual themes. Who Are Our Partners? The partners network consist of individual and organizations located all over the globe: Africa, Australia, Asia, Europe, North and South America. Services & Support The services and support provided by our partners cover the following areas: Hosting: If case self-hosting is not for you, and LimeSurvey Cloud does not meet your demands, our partners can accommodate any time your individual LimeSurvey installation. Support: It covers many areas of LimeSurvey such as consulting services, and plugins. To better understand what each partner provides, visit their personal website. Training: While our manual and forum activity is high, sometimes you just need to find out about tricks and workarounds from professionals. That gives you the possibility to outperform your competition when it comes to survey implementation and analysis. Installation: Sometimes, you just wish to self-host your instance on the hosting of your organization. However, due to the existing server configuration of your organization, the installation process of LimeSurvey may need some additional tweaks. Moreover, you may also have to configure it properly in case you work with confidential data. Therefore, the possibility of hiring a professional for configuring web servers should definitely be taken into account. Integration: Automatizing workflows or the integration of LimeSurvey in the platforms used by your organization is a must-have for increased efficiency. After all, the usage of API and scripts may not be for everyone. Customization: LimeSurvey is a flexible software, feature acknowledged by everyone. With direct access to LimeSurvey developers, our partners are always informed about the development of the software, as well as about the features that will be implemented in the upcoming releases. Survey creation: Time is a scarce commodity. Not everyone has time to go through the manual and forum, and learn how to construct a survey. As a result, outsourcing this task may allow you to concentrate on more urgent things. Theme design: An eye-catching survey heavily increases the rate of completeness for your survey. Our professionals are always ready to meticulously work on the survey theme to provide you the best design possible or to create a layout in line with your corporate identity. Finding the Right Partner Now that you have an overview of the different services that can be contracted, you can start looking for the right partner for your organization. To do that, check first the list of partners list of partners from limesurvey.com, and explore the links on the left menu to find your matching partner for the service and country you are looking for. If a partner lives in the same country as you, (s)he will be displayed as featured partner on the same web page, being displayed at the top. As in any other Open Source project, the community continues to represent the most important part of LimeSurvey. However, with the growth of the project and its user base, many requests need to be fulfilled in a timely manner. Therefore, users seeking quick professional help can contact anytime LimeSurvey professionals who are eager to satisfy their project requirements anytime. We will introduce our partners on our blog in the upcoming weeks. In the meantime, you may start contacting them directly or you can write us via the limesurvey.org platform support tracker.

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4 years ago

Workshop report 5/2019 - What's up with LimeSurvey 4

We are constantly improving LimeSurvey, that is why we are working on a new edition that will come up with a new redesig ...

The new question editor Starting with LimeSurvey Developer Edition 4.0.0beta1, a new question editor will be provided. It has been completely redesigned, as it was split up and not very easy to use. The new system provides a live-preview mode to help users easily edit questions, as well as subquestions and answer option in the same window. The new design is based on VueJS2 and CKEditor 5. We have also added a script field to the question editing, where you can add scripts that should be run with the question. It is automatically wrapped in the necessary on:ready functions. New text- and source editor The popup editor has been removed. We have added in exchange a pure source mode based on the ACE-editor, the same one used in our theme editor. Now it is easier to work with the source code of your questions, subquestions, question groups, and any other text edition fields in LimeSurvey. The source mode can be set to the default mode in the personal options. Global survey options With LimeSurvey 4 you are able to change your global survey options. The global options will be inherited by any survey in the system. Moreover, you can see the inherited value in the overviews. This goes the same way as the design theme options introduced in LimeSurvey 3: Global survey settings -> Survey group settings -> Survey settings Other notable changes The most important changes are hidden from sight. The database has been restructured, languages are now fully normalized, providing us the opportunity to build the foundations of a limitless survey software.The first steps to a fully modularized survey rendering are also done with this version. The question types now consist of a data renderer, a view renderer, and a twig package, making it easy to correct and fix question-related issues. We’ve added a few other extra options, like question-based encryption settings, as well as soft-mandatory question attributes. Future development We are currently removing papercuts in the newly created functionalities and recreating the functions that were available before the changes. We will also add in the upcoming weeks a way to upload and use custom question themes in LimeSurvey 4.Some parts are still not working perfectly and we are in heavy testing to find all possible edge cases. If you wish to help us, please download the beta release, test it, and report all the issues found on our bugs tracker. Join our forum discussion about the new release and stay tuned for more information about the development of LimeSurvey 4!