We are happy to announce the release of version 5.0 of our Feedback Server product.

This version includes following improvements including many internal architectural changes :

• Specific print CSS has been setup when browser is used in print mode
• Respondent details can be show as pages within a form
• Reports can be shown as pages within a form
• Respondent can see his answers highlighted in the reports on the thanks page
• Report will automatically be shown on the thanks page if only one report has been set as public
• Ability to skip answers on the same page as the conditions that trigger them
• 3D Matrix (Side by side) questions support
• Matrix questions creation and edition interface has been completely reworked
• Matrix selection based answers can be displayed in drop down lists
• Replaced charting engine, charts can be rendered in 3D
• Customize width / height for each chart
• Display multiple chart series using filters or dates on one single graphic report item
• Added response date range rule for report filter conditions
• Added respondent language rule for report filter conditions
• Respondent can be set in archive mode to re-allow submissions from security add ins
• Pipe current respondent (voter) unique id using the {{vuid}} piping tag
• Set a default value for piping tags which can be displayed on reporting screens when no effective value can be piped
• Develop piper add ins to create custom tags and to pipe values from code
• Security add ins settings are cloned as well when cloning a survey
• Ranking setup can be set to use drop down lists instead of text boxes
• Media gallery with folder / sub folder organization support
• Upload and use any files (image, flash, video etc..) directly from the media gallery in your forms
• Develop custom condition add ins to return true / false to FS's condition (skip, branching etc..) using custom .net code
• Setup custom images in styles to replace the HTML radio / check box inputs form elements
• Added a small mail server test interface to test the current mail server settings
• Ability to force system buttons (next, previous, restore, save progress, submit) to be shown or hidden
• Automatic clearing of existing answers on skipped or branched pages can be turned off
• Page navigation using either navigation boxes or drop down lists to jump directly to a given page
• Page navigation boxes can be customized using CSS to give a "tabbed" navigation style
• Allow respondent to navigate only to already "visited" pages
• Set validation on/off for the current page when navigating to another page using page navigation
• Ignore all pages with invalid / missing answers when submitting a form with page navigation enabled
• Files are also available for download to respondent after he uploaded them
• Set title for the deployment page
• Set a permanent redirection url for deleted or closed forms
• Setup custom metadata attributes for forms, questions, answers and respondents
• Copy existing questions or free form based question into free form based pages
• Link panel questions in free form based pages

Enjoy this new release.

Hi Tom

It would be great if you could provide instructions on upgrade path to Feedbackserver 5

as soon as possible.

when will we be able to download new C# source files from our members page?

will the same lic files work for the new version?

thanks

Umer 

Hi Umer,

basically the upgrade are the same as you can find in the UPGRADE_README.html file.

1. Go to the customer section at http://www.dataillusion.com/ and download the latest license
2. Backup all of your existing files and database.
3. Remove all your existing files from your FeedbackServer installation directory.
4. Copy back the new files from this zip file to your the directory were you had previously FS installed.
5. Once copied, open your browser and go to : http://yourinstallationoffs / fs_install
6. This will open the installation in your browser, enter your database information
7. FS will detect your previous database and offer to upgrade it.
8. Upgrade it.

This will also upgrade all your existing data into the new version.

 Hi,

if you wish to disable the warning message you can do it from the form settings page and the option is "Ask confirmation on form leaving"

The {{vuid}} pipe currently displays the voter's GUID.

Is it possible to show the VoterID instead? I wish to show this upon completion of a survey, to be used as a receipt number. 32 characters is a bit long for a customer to recite over the phone!

Hi,

its unfortunately only possible to display the VUID because its the only "stable" identification number that a respondent has from the start of a survey to the end of it.

Thanks Tom.

If piping VoterID could be limited to the 'Thanks message' page, could this be added to a future release?

Otherwise, where is VUID stored in the database, and is there any way it can be linked to the VoterID programatically?

Otherwise I fail to understand how VUID can be used... ¿

Hi,

currently if you want to link it to the voter id you have to make a direct sql query against the vts_tbVoter table however the next release features a built in call from the FS's API to get the voter id. If you want to get the voter id another way would be to link your own code using the submit events on the survey control as show in the SDK.  You could also try, even though we didnt test it, to create new custom pipe tag using a piper plugin with the SDK and and in that plugin simply return the voter id of the surveyAnswers.Voters[0].VoterId argument that is passed to that plugin.