Draft and Pub versions (r9)

Programmers and stakeholders need their own safe versions of a survey to edit and to safely review without interrupting other testers or live data. This is what the Draft/Pub (Published) framework provides. Draft/Pub is not a concept of "test/live." It's a concept related to survey versions. 

There are two different versions of a survey that are available to review at any one time:

• Draft — This is always the most recently saved survey version. It's your sandbox where every newly saved version will be seen via Draft testing links when the survey page is refreshed or submitted. A Draft version does not have to be published. In fact, you can create as many Draft versions as needed without ever publishing them. 
• Pub — This is the version that is created when a survey is published. Surveys in field (live) should always use the live link for the Published version of the survey.

Draft/Pub icons

The user interface (UI) indicates the publication status of a survey in several places using one of these three icons:

These icons are shown in the home screen in both the Survey Navigator table's Status column and in the pinned survey tiles at the top of the screen.  

Once a survey is open, the icons are also found in the header of every applet.

Also, when you run your survey in Testmode, there is a visual indicator in the upper-left corner of the screen that lets you know the status of the survey.

Finally, translations also work in a Draft/Pub framework. For example, you can upload translations, but that does not automatically apply the translations to the published version. This is, however, a slightly different concept with different icons/labels.

Draft/Pub toggle

As mentioned previously, only certain survey roles can can view Draft versions of the survey. If a user has permission to view Draft versions, then they can also access Draft/Pub toggles and dropdown menus throughout the platform to select which version of the survey to use while in the respective applet.

Example:

Some reporting applets will have options to view or manipulate data in either version of the survey. Meanwhile, there are other applets which can only operate in a specific version. For example, quotas (maximums or targets) for your survey will always be set on the quotas found in the published, live version of your survey. Therefore, the Quotas applet only works with the Pub version. 

Below is a list of common survey applets users interact with to test or manipulate data, along with indications of whether the applet works in Draft or Pub versions.

Accessing the links

Draft and Pub mode links can be accessed primarily in two places: in the SPL editor after saving a new version and in Testmode. 

When you successfully save a new version of the survey source in the survey editor (SPL mode), you land on a page where the survey mechanics, comments, and test links are found. There are four links available on this screen in the Development Links section. All of these links will run in Draft mode. What will vary is the experience you have on screen, (e.g., with or without question numbers, etc.). You can read more about test levels in Test levels and 'testmode'.

There are also three sets of links available in the Testmode toolbar in the Test Links section.

• The Published Links are for the live survey URL and use the latest Published version of the survey. This link generates live data.
• The Draft Links use the latest saved Draft version of the survey. However, this Draft Link is not tied to any test level, and respondent data will be stored as live data.
• The No-Login Links will use a test level 1 link and show the Published version. No login is required, and the data is stored as test data. 

Publishing a survey

When you have reviewed all the changes in the latest Draft version of your survey and are ready to make those changes public, you should publish the survey. The Publish Survey button is available on the global toolbar, found at the top of every applet.

If the most recent Draft version has already been published, the Publish Survey button on the Survey Dashboard will be grayed out/disabled.

The button will also be disabled while in an active session in the SPL editor or IntelliBuilder. For the SPL editor, once you have successful compiled the code, the Publish Survey button will be available/enabled. In IntelliBuilder, the button will become enabled once the session's edits have been saved.

For more information on publishing a survey and resolving any errors, see Submitting and publishing SPL content.