Restarting stopped interviews
A respondent may restart an interview for a number of reasons:
▪The respondent clicked Stop because they needed to take a break from the interview. These interviews must be restarted using sample management.
▪The script contained a statement in the routing section that suspended the interview. These interviews must be restarted using sample management.
▪The interview timed out due to inactivity. As long as the interview page is still open in the browser, the respondent can click Next to restart the interview (the respondent may not even be aware of the time-out).
You do not have to do anything in the script for restarted interviews. If the project uses sample management, the sample management system locates the existing data for the interview and makes it available to the interviewing program. The interviewing program silently replays the existing data as if the respondent were taking the interview for the first time. When it reaches an unanswered question, the replay stops and the interviewing program displays that question.
If the interview is restarted after a time-out, the interviewing program will still be aware of the interview and can reconnect to it at the question at which the interview timed out.
For more information about the restart process, see
Restarting by clicking Next and
Restarting from a URL.
The following properties are set or incremented when interviews are restarted:
IQuestionInfo.AskCount
The number of times a question is asked.
This is incremented when a question is re-asked due to validation errors or when a question is re-asked after a restart using sample management. Note that the interviewing program sees a restart as a new interview connected to existing data, so increments AskCount from 0 to 1 because this is the first time the question is asked in the “new” interview.
IQuestionInfo.AnswerCount
The number of times a question has been successfully answered.
This is incremented when a question is re-asked during a restart from sample management. The interviewing program sees a restart as a new interview connected to existing data, so increments AnswerCount from 0 to 1 because this is the first time the question has been answered in the “new” interview.
IQuestionInfo.OnPathAnswerCount
The number of times a question has been successfully answered when on the interview path.
This is incremented when a question is re-asked during a restart from sample management. The interviewing program sees a restart as a new interview connected to existing data, so increments AnswerCount from 0 to 1 because this is the first time the question has been answered in the “new” interview.
If a question becomes off-path, this property is decremented by 1.
IQuestionInfo.ErrorCount
The number of times a question has been incorrectly answered.
IInterviewInfo.IsRestart
When an interview is restarted via sample management it is automatically replayed to get to the question that was last asked before the interview was stopped or timed out. The routing script is executed and the previously entered responses are automatically used to answer the questions. During this process the IsRestart property will be True.
Example
The following example demonstrates on and off path data in relation to the IsRestart property.
Routing(Web)
IOM.LayoutTemplate="DefaultLayout.htm"
IOM.Navigations.Add(NavigationTypes.nvStop)
Dim IsRestart
IsRestart = IOM.Info.IsRestart
If IsRestart Then AlwaysFirst.ClearOffPathResponse()
AlwaysFirst.Ask()
If IsRestart Then IOM.SnapForward()
Q1.Ask()
Q2.Ask()
Q3.Ask()
Q4.Ask()
Q5.Ask()
Q6.Ask()
End Routing
See also