Hello,

I am looking for information regarding User Management in Version 1.92. Is someone able to point me in the right direction? I've looked through the User Management section of the online manual but as my institution is not yet at version 2.05 most of the information provided is not really relevant. Is it possible to view the Manual as it existed in version 1.92?

Thanks!

...most of the information provided is not really relevant.

I don't think so... because there is no huge difference about user permissions... Maybe only some screenshots with the new green interface (version ≥ 2.00) but this affects only the main color for theme and icons, nothing else.

BTW, ask your "institution" if you are facing a standard or customized installation.

...there is no huge difference about user permissions

The User management page says "Hint: This feature changed with version 2.05" so it seemed likely that more than just some screenshots were updated. There are 5 User Rights options available compared to the 8 shown in the manual.

When I create a user in 1.92, the options for user rights are: Create Survey, Configurator, Create User, Use All/Manage templates and Manage labels. While similar for the most part as current permissions groups, I'm looking to confirm the behaviour of these options (example: does 'Configurator' behave the same as 'SuperAdministrator'?). I was hoping to find definitions of these rights as they existed for 1.92.

Here you will find a piece of what was LS manual few years ago for 1.92..

Thank you for the link. Unfortunately it does not include the information I am looking for and instead has a link for "Lime Permissions Documentation". Following the link brings me back to the current manual.

As the manual is a wiki it is changing all the time (anyone can contribute). This is great, because the manual is much better than the manuals of many other software projects.

But often information for previous versions gets lost this way, if the person editing doesn't create an archive with information for previous versions.

However, as the software is free I don't see why one would want to stay with old versions (besides not wanting to do the work to upgrade - which is actually minor). I know that many universities are slow with that, but I still don't understand it. Usually the new versions bring improvements that are worth the upgrade alone, let alone that older versions are not provided with security updates.

For a project like Limesurvey it is basically impossible to maintain older versions than the current one. Newer versions can even updated with 3 clicks from within the system, so this takes about 5 minutes, if that.

Limesurvey has come a long way since 1.92 and I would really recommend anyone to update.

For major versions I usually set them up in parallel, just to make sure that there are no problems. Step by step I move things over to the new version and new surveys are only built in the new system then while old surveys can run on the old version for a while. As there is basically no additional cost involved, it is easy to run more than one installation of LS.

I agree that manual wikis are great, but they do introduce the risk of losing the historical documentation of earlier versions.

I have actually already proposed that the software be updated to the latest version but it does not appear that it will happen anytime soon. It boils down to the size of the team and competing priorities/projects.

When we are able to proceed with the upgrade, would you recommend the parallel environment approach you describe below?

it depends a little on how your installation is setup and how you work.

For a university with a lot of users, it is probably more benefitial to do some thourough tests first in an test enviroment and see if the upgrade runs smooth and then upgrade the actual installation.

As I don't have the time and resources to do much testing and only few resources actually need to be moved, I rund usually the newest and the version before in parallel, with the older version running only old stuff and all the new things being implemented in the new version. So my old surveys don't need to be tested on the new server (as long as they are not running for a longer time or are repeated).

It works for me, it might be different for others. And the installation of a new clean limesurvey version takes about 5-10 minutes max. So you install it now and in 5 minutes you could import a survey from the old installation, check if it works and run it. So the "priorities" argument is also not too valid. Even if the IT guys need 1 hour to install, this is nothing that has to be argued about for long I guess. Lucky me that I can install the stuff myself and don't need to wait for some IT guy having the time (or better "is will) to install a new version.