LimeSurvey 4 RC2 - What Is Left to Be Done?

Our team and community members are working actively on the development of LimeSurvey 4. Last week, version RC2 was released. In this blog post we will quickly present the novelties, as well as the features we are working on at the moment.

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:

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.