Automated Survey Error Detection Overview

Survey questions are often tied to variables on the participant profile card to populate it with data. Automated error detection alerts you when you’ve made a change to a study setting that affects your survey. For example, if your survey sets the participant’s status using logic, but then you delete the status, the survey will not know where to send the participant. These scenarios can cause automated errors:

• Deleting a variable that was linked to a survey question
• Importing a survey into your study and it is linked to variables that are not in that study
• Importing a survey into your study and it is linked to a variable with the same variable type and name, but different options
• Deleting a variable that was used in a survey logic statement
• Deleting an option within a single or multi-select variable that was used in a survey logic statement

Ripple will provide an error message telling you what kind of error it is, what is missing or broken, and which question(s) are affected. 

Preventing Errors

You can prevent errors by making sure that you have all of the study settings and custom variables required for survey variable linking and logic. 

If you’re editing survey settings, you’ll want to make sure that they’re not used in your survey. If you’re deleting a variable, recruitment component, or status that is important for logic, you will receive a warning. The warning will tell you which survey(s) are affected, and the specific question(s) and logic statement(s) affected. Make sure to manually resolve any issues that may occur from deleting the component.

If you’re adding the survey from another study, make sure you use the study import function to import the survey and its settings, including variables. You can read about the study import function in this article.

Finding Errors

Ripple will automatically catch and relay automated errors to you. When you go to the Survey Creator, you will now see a red error message under each survey that has at least one error (red). Click on the red triangle to see the list of specific errors (green).

The sections below outline the different types of error messages, what they mean, and how to fix them. The error messages will disappear once you resolve them and save your survey.

Survey Question Errors:

Survey Question Errors occur when Ripple is unable to find a variable that is linked to a survey question. This can happen if the variable was deleted from the study or if the survey was imported from a study, but its variable(s) were not imported into the study.

Deleting a variable that was linked to a survey question:

What it looks like:

How to fix it:

You can resolve this error by:

• Unlinking the survey variable from the question and hitting Save Survey
• Creating a new variable, linking the new variable to the question, and hitting Save Survey

Importing a survey into your study and it is linked to variables that are not in that study

What it looks like:

How to fix it:

You can resolve this error by:

• Importing the original variable from its study, linking the new variable to the question, and hitting Save Survey
• Creating a new variable, linking the new variable to the question, and hitting Save Survey
• Importing the survey and custom variables together
• Unlinking the survey variable from the question and hitting Save Survey

Importing a survey into your study and it is linked to a variable with the same variable type and name, but different options

What it looks like:

How to fix it:

You can resolve this error by:

• Unlinking the survey variable from the question, relinking to the correct variable, and hitting Save Survey
• Renaming the variable in the original study, importing the original variable from its study, linking the new variable to the question, and hitting Save Survey 

Survey Logic Condition Errors:

Survey Logic Condition Errors occur when the survey can’t perform a logic rule. This can happen if you delete a variable that was used in a survey logic statement or if you delete an option in a single or multi-select variable that was used in a survey logic statement. 

An option or variable that was used in the Condition of a logic statement was deleted:

What it looks like:

How to fix it:

You can resolve this error by:

• Adding the option back to the variable, resetting the Condition component of the logic statement, saving your logic statement, and hitting Save Survey 
• Changing the option in the Condition, saving your logic statement, and hitting Save Survey

An option or variable that was used in the Action of a logic statement was deleted:

What it looks like:

How to fix it:

You can resolve this error by:

• Adding the option back to the variable, resetting the Action component of the logic statement, saving your logic statement, and hitting Save Survey