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I'm not sure OptOut works as intended

  • JEfromCanada
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10 years 8 months ago #98475 by JEfromCanada
I'm not sure OptOut works as intended was created by JEfromCanada
I perform service for clients. After each call, I manually add a token to the database with their name and email, and send an invitation to my Customer Satisfaction Survey.

Very occasionally, one of my clients will "OptOut" of the survey. So far, so good. The next time I perform service for them and add their identical name and email address into the token database (with a unique token being generated), the "Email Status" is prefilled with "OK".

And when I go to send out the invitations (batch send), I see the complete list of emails indicating they have been sent (including the client who had previously opted out).

So, my question is this: Is that how LimeSurvey is supposed to work? Am I supposed to manually check the database for OptOuts and manually place the word "OptOut" into the "Email Status" field of my new token? If so, that seems wrong, and prone to failure (i.e. sending unsolicited emails to those whom have already opted out).

Is there some way to automate that verification process and automatically mark the new token with Email Status "OptOut"? If so, how do I do it?


I am using Version 1.91+ Build 11379 for this particular survey.
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  • mdekker
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10 years 8 months ago #98484 by mdekker
Replied by mdekker on topic I'm not sure OptOut works as intended
I am not sure how this works, but there is a central participant database. I think that it would work better if you use that and not manually add the people to the survey but try to do it from the cpdb.

I have not worked with cpdb myself, but I presume it will work if you assign the same person from the cpdb to the survey instead of entering a new one at the survey level.

If you check this, could you please post your findings here for reference? If the cpdb route does not work, feel free to add a feature request to our bugtracker.

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  • JEfromCanada
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10 years 8 months ago - 10 years 8 months ago #98491 by JEfromCanada
Replied by JEfromCanada on topic I'm not sure OptOut works as intended
I've never heard of this feature. Is it available in version 1.91+ of the product?

Also, I'm not sure I'm asking for a feature request. Why else would there be an OptOut capability available to the invitee, if there is no easy way to ensure that subsequent invitations will be blocked?

Maybe there's a bug in the current implementation, but it seems the feature is already there.

Although I haven't tried it, I'm pretty sure that if I manually set the "Email Status" field to "OptOut", no invitation will be sent.
Last edit: 10 years 8 months ago by JEfromCanada. Reason: My original post did not address the bug/feature issue
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10 years 8 months ago #98496 by mdekker
Replied by mdekker on topic I'm not sure OptOut works as intended
Oh sorry I did not read your version. I think I can not be of much help here :(

Opt out is a way to tell the system that when sending reminders this case should be ignored. When you enter a new case, the system does not check if someone with the same email exists at the current or any other survey.

The cpdb can hold that kind of information as it holds participants, not just separate entries at the survey level. It is a feature introduced in 2.00+ to address this kind of problems. The workflow would be go to cpdb and assign the participant to the survey from there. Then the cpdb knows if the particular survey was blocked by opt out or not.

Bug or not, there will be no more fixes for 1.91+ so you would have to upgrade to 2.00+ to get the desired functionality or you would have to do the check yourself manually when entering the details.

As 2.00 is very different from 1.9x versions (since we started using a framework) I would advise to be careful with upgrading and to make sure you have a proper backup and maybe try the update on a local copy of your database first.

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10 years 8 months ago #98497 by JEfromCanada
Replied by JEfromCanada on topic I'm not sure OptOut works as intended
Upgrading to 2.0+ probably is a good idea. Unfortunately, I have built an external infrastructure around the existing database schema. In my case, I have my business website that uses SQL/PHP to calculate and display a rating based on responses, and also extracts testimonials that people leave in the survey.

I'll eventually get around to using 2.0, but for now, I'll either have to write custom PHP code within 1.91 or just scan the database manually.

Thanks for your assistance.


Example of external interface to LimeSurvey data...
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