Please help us help you and fill where relevant:
Your LimeSurvey version: 2.64.0+170307
Own server or LimeSurvey hosting:
Survey theme/template:
==================
Hello dear forum,

i am trying to find a solution that allows me to track if and when/where participants use the previous button, that means going back to previous questions and or change their input.

Is someone aware of a solution to this problem? While I dont think this is that particular, I wasnt able to find an earlier post.

Thank you kindly,
rudolf

Not a solution to your question, but you really should consider an update of your ancient installation of Limesurvey. Not only was the 2.5x branch that you are using one of the worst releases with a lot of bugs and issues (I never considered it fit for use in a "production" environment), it is also over 5 years old, hasn't received any bug or security fixes since then and is also not supported for a long time.

That being said, my guess is, that this is a university installation and you probably have little to no influence on this. However, even in this case it is always good to let the responsible person know that this installation is absolutely outdated and should not be in use anymore.

Especially in times of data protection / privacy laws like GDPR/DSVGO/LGPD, etc. it is not a good idea to collect data with such an old version of a software, that doesn't even cost money, so the upgrades are basically free (except for the time spent on updating).

Thanks for feedback! You guessed right, i have little influence on this matter, but i took up your advise and let the responsible persons know about your view on this matter.

You guessed right, i have little influence on this matter,

In this case the next concern would probably be if you can use Javascript (which I guess not). I am no expert, but my bet would be, if there is a solution to your request, it would probably require Javascript. But as I said, no expert on this. Let's see what others that are more knowledgeable in this concern will say.

Yes i think it will need usage of javascript, but i am not able to provide the necessary code myself.

Looking forward to someone outthere that has the skill and the time to provide a solution. Thanks for the replies so far.

You could record the number of "Previous" clicks in local storage and then load a hidden short-text question in the last group. The problem is initializing the counter, probably in the first group. But what if the respondent returns to that group? How do you determine whether this is a new iteration of the survey or someone returning to the group?

Thanks for the help!

I think i understand your mentioned problem. Each time one load a group the counter would be restartet right?

Possible Solution?!:
If i wanted to especially see if a participant would go back to one particular group --> could i than start the counter in the group afterwards and store the value it the group of interest (group before the group in which it startet). This way the counter would be always at one if the person goes back and would be stored at one. Is this possible or would the stored value be reset, after going to next group restarting the counter?

regards

If you are only interested in particular groups, you could load a hidden (via CSS) question in those groups with incremental values every time the page is visited. Loading either via JavaScript or ExpressionScript. Unfortunately I'm not in a position to offer code samples this weekend.

Thank you Tony,

that sounds like the right solution for me. I failed to produce the necessary code myself. If you, once you have the time at hand, could provide a sample code for me, it would be much appreciated!

regards

This script placed in the source of a short-text question will hide that question and load the input with a number, incremented on every page visit.


Sample survey attached: 

Hey Tony,

i tried it and it works as i hoped it would.

Thanks a lot and have a great day!

regards
rudolf