Welcome to the LimeSurvey Community Forum

Ask the community, share ideas, and connect with other LimeSurvey users!

Deactivated survey data

  • mitch54
  • mitch54's Avatar Topic Author
  • Offline
  • New Member
  • New Member
More
10 years 8 months ago #98033 by mitch54
Deactivated survey data was created by mitch54
How do I retrieve data from a survey that has been deactivated more than once? A client was tweaking a survey and deactivated it, tweaked it some more, then deactivated it again and did the same a third time. Now they need the data from the first deactivation. How can I get that?
The topic has been locked.
  • DenisChenu
  • DenisChenu's Avatar
  • Offline
  • LimeSurvey Community Team
  • LimeSurvey Community Team
More
10 years 8 months ago #98036 by DenisChenu
Replied by DenisChenu on topic Deactivated survey data
And you don't use export to lsa before deactivate .....

You can add/remove some columns in your sql-admin-system to the ols survey table. If The old survey table and new survey table have same column, then you can import from an ols survey.

Denis

Assistance on LimeSurvey forum and LimeSurvey core development are on my free time.
I'm not a LimeSurvey GmbH member, professional service on demand , plugin development .
I don't answer to private message.
The following user(s) said Thank You: mitch54
The topic has been locked.
  • holch
  • holch's Avatar
  • Offline
  • LimeSurvey Community Team
  • LimeSurvey Community Team
More
10 years 8 months ago #98042 by holch
Replied by holch on topic Deactivated survey data
I am always very suprised how little people care about their data until they need it. ;-)

Me on the otherside, I export the colected data every few days, just to make sure that I don't loose everything. Because it might be some work to fit the different datafiles together, but at least you can.

But that doesn't help your client now.

I think the data is still stored in the MySQL-database, so it might not be lost. But after so many changes, I don't think that you will get it back into LS again directly via the GUI. But to be honest, I am not an expert in this, because I try to avoid situations like this as much as possible.

However, I am also not too happy how LS treats activating/deactivating and old data. I hope that we can find a better solution for 2.1 maybe.

I answer at the LimeSurvey forum in my spare time, I'm not a LimeSurvey GmbH employee.
No support via private message.

The following user(s) said Thank You: mitch54
The topic has been locked.
  • Mazi
  • Mazi's Avatar
  • Offline
  • Official LimeSurvey Partner
  • Official LimeSurvey Partner
More
10 years 8 months ago #98045 by Mazi
Replied by Mazi on topic Deactivated survey data

holch wrote: I am always very suprised how little people care about their data until they need it. ;-)

And I am always surprised why people don't read the warning messages when deactivating a survey :-)

The data is still there. When de-activating a survey, it is moved to a backup table with the survey ID and the timestamp of deactivation.

In general you should always export your data before de-activating a survey so you can later merge it using tools like Excel or SPSS.
At the current situation the best approach might be to export the data of the backup tables as CSV file, e.g. using DB tools like phpmyadmin. Then you can try to import that data at Excel or SPSS and merge it with other data.

For upcoming LS versions no solution is in sight, though this issue is discussed within the development team frequently. It is a technical problem related to the current DB design (all answer data is stored at one table for each survey).

Best regards/Beste Grüße,
Dr. Marcel Minke
Need Help? We offer professional Limesurvey support: survey-consulting.com
Contact: marcel.minke(at)survey-consulting.com
The following user(s) said Thank You: mitch54
The topic has been locked.
  • DenisChenu
  • DenisChenu's Avatar
  • Offline
  • LimeSurvey Community Team
  • LimeSurvey Community Team
More
10 years 8 months ago #98047 by DenisChenu
Replied by DenisChenu on topic Deactivated survey data

holch wrote: I think the data is still stored in the MySQL-database, so it might not be lost.

Yes, always renaming and don't delete : lime_old_survey_sidnumber_datetime.

holch wrote: But after so many changes, I don't think that you will get it back into LS again directly via the GUI.

Yes, not possible by default but :
With phpmyadmin (if mysql)
- copy lime_old_survey_sidnumber_datetime to lime_old_survey_sidnumber_datetime_backup (like you i allways do backup before)
- Look at lime_survey_sidnumber column and : add/remove/update column of lime_old to be the same than lime_survey
- Go to LS admin/response and use the "import from a deactivated table"

I hope that we can find a better solution for 2.1 maybe.

For 2.05:
- Sammoussa made a system to import old survey changed table to new survey. Didn't test it but can have a look, Mazi : it's in 2.1 ?
- I do a VV export/import system with "look only at EM_code" the a vv export from one suvey can be imported in another survey with "EM code" correspondance (same EM code => import in same column).

Denis

Assistance on LimeSurvey forum and LimeSurvey core development are on my free time.
I'm not a LimeSurvey GmbH member, professional service on demand , plugin development .
I don't answer to private message.
The following user(s) said Thank You: mitch54
The topic has been locked.

Lime-years ahead

Online-surveys for every purse and purpose