Stations/Server Commands

ATM

Start stations under dialer. This command starts stations with the same syntax as STS, but connects the interviewers to the dialer when they start.

Example:

ATM 50-54 STUDY1234

Authorize

A supervisor authorize stations on a study but no interviewing has started.

Example:

AUTHORIZE 14-22 STUDY1234

Clear

Clear station(s) immediately.  Regardless of whether active or interviewing, CLEAR removes the station from the server.

It causes the entry in the “stations” file ($cfmc\IPCFILES\STATxxxx.IPCFILES) for the station(s) to be removed.

Syntax:

CLEAR <ids|#ldevs>

Example:

CLEAR #22

You can only clear stations that are signed on under this supervisor. If you want to clear other devices (monitors, supervisors, or other supervisors’ interviewers), use the SERVER:CLEAR command.

Kill

Kill station(s) after next interviewer keystroke. Sends a message to an interviewer’s screen and terminates the current interview after the next interviewer keystroke.

Syntax:

KILL <#station-station, interviewer ID, ALL/EVERYONE studyname>

When the interviewer presses Enter for the next question, the termination message will appear on the screen and they will be stopped immediately.

Session stopped by Supervisor at ldev #23

NOTE: The current interview will not be saved to the data file and the phone record will not be returned to the phone file with a status — it will be up-in-the-air. Use this command only at the end of the shift or as an emergency measure.

STP should be used for stopping an interviewer, saving the current interview and returning the phone record to the phone file with an appropriate status. This command cannot be overridden once issued.

Max_Session_Single_Start

Limits range of stations started concurrently. This command keeps supervisors from trying to start stations that don’t exist or more stations than they expected to. Syntax:

MAX_SESSION_SINGLE_START #,#

There are two values. The first is for max ever and the second for the number (#) above which you are warned that you may be starting too many. The default maximum, if not specified, is 100, and the default warn value is 50. This means you can only start 100 interviewers maximum on a particular study at one time. And, you can only start up to 50 without a warning. This command would most likely be placed in the SUPRINIT file as a start-up parameter.

Server:Clear

Clear any station(s) from the server.  Clears station(s) entry from the server stations file. This should only be used after attempts to STOP or KILL the station have been unsuccessful. You can use this command for other supervisor’s interviewers.  Only one station can be cleared at a time using this command, although you can issue as many server:clear commands as you need.

Syntax:

SERVER:CLEAR <#ldev>

Server:Down

Closes all studies and takes the Survox server down.  This will only take the server down if there are no live interviewers. Use one of the interviewer stop commands to stop interviewers first or see SERVER:DOWNNOW below.

Syntax:

SERVER:DOWN

Server:Down_Now

Closes down ALL studies and shuts down the server.  Use this with caution, as it stops the server regardless of whether it is busy doing something else or there are live interviewers. Also closes all connections to any dialers or third party devices.

Syntax:

SERVER:DOWN_NOW

Start_Stations (Start)/STS

START_STATIONS (STS) authorizes stations for interviewing on a particular study. After an interviewing station has been authorized, interviewing may begin with the use of “Survent”. The interviewer typically logs onto the system and is automatically started under “Survent”, or enters “start” at the command prompt to set the Survox® variables and run “Survent”.

Syntax:

STS #ldevs <studyname> <mode>

These can be specified in any order. A comma is required after the station list if a mode is specified.

Modes:

• CONT – Causes an interviewer to skip the between interviews prompt when interviewing. The interviewer would need to be killed or cleared to be unassigned from the study.
• DIALER/-DIALER (or ATD/-ATD) – Assigns the station to use or not use the autodialer.
• PRACTICE (P or T for Training) – Runs the interview in training mode. No data is saved. If Practice mode is specified, you can also use the keyword “ROTATE_PRACTICE” (RP) or –RP to control whether rotations will rotate while in practice mode.
• SPECIAL= – Designates the interviewer as one or more of the nine special interviewer types or none (0). This will override whatever is specified for the interviewer in the Employee Information file or what the interviewer might specify on the interviewer ID prompt in Survent.
• VALIDATOR – Start the interviewer as a validator. This is used to transfer records that have been completed by an interviewer to a validator to review the name and address, etc.

Example:

STS 100,exam2,special=129

This example will override whatever is in the employee DB file with types 1, 2, and 9. Commas are not allowed between the special interviewer types.

Example:

STS 100,exam2,special=129,practice,-atd

This example will set the special interviewer type to 1, 2, and 9, turn on training mode, and turn the auto dialer off.

NOTE: You can also replace STS with ATM (or ATMS) to start up interviewers with the auto dialer.

Log/Stop_Log

The “Start” command supports a “log” suboption to log interviewer responses.

NOTE: If the “LOGGING” keyword is in the study header, it will log in any case.

Syntax:

START #ldevs,LOG

Use stop_log to turn off logging.

Syntax:

STOPLOG #ldevs

Stop/STP

Allows you to stop an interviewer session, after the current interview is completed. A message will appear on the interviewer’s screen at the end of the interview, and interviewing will terminate at that station. If the interviewer is currently in- between interviews, they will be stopped immediately. This command cannot be overridden once issued.

Syntax:

STP <#station, interviewer ID, study name, ALL, or EVERYONE>

Example:

STP #27

Indicate which interviewer to stop, either by entering the station number, interviewer ID, the study name, ALL to stop all interviewers under this supervisor, or EVERYONE to stop all interviewers under all supervisors.

You must specify a study name when using EVERYONE.

Example:

STP EVERYONE STUDY1234

Stop_Now

Forces an interview to “BLOW” and terminate. This command does the same thing as the “KILL” command, except it saves the data up to this point in the ”.B_” directory and saves a suspend record if the “AFTER_BLOW” command says to “SUSPEND”.

Syntax:

STOP_NOW <#station, interviewer ID, study name, ALL, or EVERYONE>

TimeOut

Sets the time after which idle “started” interviewers will be dropped. This lets you specify how long in minutes to leave a station in start mode waiting for an interviewer before logging off the station. The default is 30 minutes; the range of values can be 0-240. If you do not specify a value, it just reports the current setting.

If the value is set to 0 (zero), it means “never timeout.” In this case, the interviewer will never be removed from the system for being idle.

Syntax:

TIMEOUT <###>