Hello,

For our open source project I just launched a survey that we use as sort of a registration form, so the survey is not anonymous and I have enabled token-based persinstence and set that responses can be updated. A small group of team members can fill in the survey and we have a sorting question to see what folks want to work on. I just shared the link on our forum, so we didn't create/send invitations to individuals.

Now I'm wondering: how to I make sure there's a "Save and resume later" button on the survey? The option "Participant may save and resume later" is on. But still no button appears... And I want to make sure that team members can update their replies if they change their mind

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Wait, there are a lot of things going wrong.

Token-based response persistence and responses can be updated makes only sense if you use tokens (closed survey - requires invitations and individual links for each respondent).

if you use a survey that is not closed and send just the survey link without the token, then "participants may save and resume later" makes sense. When people click the button they can leave their email and do some kind of "registration" to stop the survey and come back to it later.

Now "changing their mind" is not something that Limesurvey really covers well. Even with tokens and response persistence, if they click on the link again they get back to the last page they have stopped and if they finished a new response will be created.

I think you should describe thoroughly what you want to do, so we can think of a solution. Because at the moment anyone can participate and respondents can respond as many times as they want, but you (or Limesurvey) won't really know who answered what and thus I don't think what you are trying to do is working well the way you set it up.

I think the only solution will be using Tokens (closed survey), because otherwise Limesurvey won't really know who answered what and which survey to update.

In my opinion the "Participant may save and resume later" is not what you are looking for. This is for someone to stop in the middle of a survey and return later. As soon as they made it to the end, this button won't do anything anymore. Respondents would need to start a new survey (and you won't know which to substitute with the new one).

Regarding the button not appearing: This probably highly depends on the template/theme you are using, as well as the version of Limesurvey.

Thanks for the fast and thorough reply!

I think you should describe thoroughly what you want to do, so we can think of a solution. Because at the moment anyone can participate and respondents can respond as many times as they want, but you (or Limesurvey) won't really know who answered what and thus I don't think what you are trying to do is working well the way you set it up.

Ok, so let me list what I actually would want (ideal situation)

• An 'open' link that I can share on our community forum, so that anyone interested in our hackathon can fill in the survey to indicate their preferences
• No required registration where email address must be provided (which seems to be the case if I create a participant table) -> registration should be
  • optional
  • not require email address validation (if they enter the wrong email address, that's their loss)
  • done at the end of the survey rather than at the beginning (e.g. 'Do you want to maybe adjust your input later? Enter your email address to receive a personal code.') - asking for email upfront might put people off, and they don't know the questions yet so they can't judge/tell if they would possibly want to adjust their answers
• I want users to have a Save and resume later button. Use-case: a user opened the survey in Firefox Focus (which trashes cookies after each session), and they need to sleep a night on their answers, so they want to enter their email address so they can continue later -> this would use the same email mechanism as in the previous point
• Users who have entered their email address (either at the beginning, halfway through, or at the end), receive a link to the survey with their personal code (long string of characters), from which they can access 'their copy' of the survey (with their answers)
• Participants can update their responses, even after completion

Then, point for point reply:

Token-based response persistence and responses can be updated makes only sense if you use tokens (closed survey - requires invitations and individual links for each respondent).

I don't care so much about the method (tokens or not), just about the outcome. So if there's a different way to go about it, I'd be happy to hear I guess what I want is a 'hybrid' model, where each respondent gets assigned a token automatically as soon as they open the survey, and then are offered the option to actually make use of that token (by connecting it with an email address, or bookmarking the survey URL in their browser, which contains this token).

Maybe I'm confused about what a 'token' is exactly and how it's different from 'registration'. I got the impression that tokens could be used with an 'open' survey, but you seem to be suggesting that tokens only work with a closed survey (?)

Now "changing their mind" is not something that Limesurvey really covers well. Even with tokens and response persistence, if they click on the link again they get back to the last page they have stopped and if they finished a new response will be created. 

Hmmm, I see this option here that mentions "a participant can update their response after completion" if tokens are enabled (which is why I enabled both tokens and this option). So this isn't really true (the 'after completion' part in the explanation box)?

Regarding the button not appearing: This probably highly depends on the template/theme you are using, as well as the version of Limesurvey.

We're using Version 3.17.0+190402 and the 'AntennaPod' template which I guess our project lead based off of a default template, adjusting some colours. ( This is the 'survey' I set up - feel free to fill it in as long as you indicate in the 'Name' and 'User handle' questions that it is a test reply )

Happy user of AntennaPod : i'm happy to help

1. About «Allow multiple responses or… » It's totally related to token enable surey (survey with token table)
2. Allow save system is done for this : when user want to save survey : there are a screen with username/password and an optional email to save.


But : you hide the top right buttons in theme (custom.css)
 

Then: show it again.

Or : update navigator-extra.twig to show it with javascript too
 

I would be inclined to send the respondents to a php file where you use the API to create a token for them and either provide a link into the survey or redirect to the survey.

Assuming response persistence and update are enabled, this would allow them to return at any time with the survey URL containing the token. You would not need the "save and resume" function.

- forums.limesurvey.org/forum/development/...-custom-token#193943

- www.limesurvey.org/manual/RemoteControl_2_API

- api.limesurvey.org/classes/remotecontrol...hod_add_participants

No need API if you can have a plugin : gitlab.com/SondagesPro/SurveyAccess/registerQuick#usage

No email required is availlable