Supervisor and LogFile Related

These SPECIAL statements can write information into the log files and send messages to a Supervisor.

Valid Subtypes

  • LL14_RECORD_TO_SERVER_LOG
  • LOG_TEXT_LINE
  • SEND_TEXT_LINE
  • WRITE_SVLOG

LL14_RECORD_TO_SERVER_LOG

Shortform: SPC,LL14

This command sends up to 40 characters of information to the LL14 record in the server LL log file. You can use the SPECIAL,LL14_RECORD_TO_SERVER_LOG, for example, to send the date/time of the start of the main interview for interviewer log reports or to pass warnings to the log file.  The question text will not appear on the interviewer’s screen.

EXAMPLE:

{ LOG_INFO:
This is to be passed to LL14 record
!SPECIAL,LL14_RECORD_TO_SERVER_LOG }

LOG_TEXT_LINE

Shortform: SPC,LOGTEXT

This command causes text on the text line of this question to be saved into the interviewer log file (log<interviewer ID>).  The question text will not appear on the interviewer’s screen.

The syntax of the SPECIAL,LOG_TEXT_LINE question type is:

text line 1
!SPECIAL,LOG_TEXT_LINE

EXAMPLE:

{ NEWTEXT:
Put this text into the interviewer's log file
!SPECIAL,LOG_TEXT_LINE }

In this example, “Put this text into the interviewer’s log file” will appear in the interviewer’s log file.

SEND_TEXT_LINE

Shortform: SPC,SENDTEXTLINE

This sends messages to the SURVSUPR, monitors, or log files. This is useful for informing the supervisor or monitor when an interviewer has reached a certain point in the interview or alerting the supervisor when a quota is completed. The question text will not appear on the interviewer’s screen.

The syntax for the SPECIAL, SEND_TEXT_LINE question type is:

text to be sent to survsupr/supervisor DAI/monitorlist/log record
!SPECIAL,SEND_TEXT_LINE,<suboption>

EXAMPLE:

{ WARN_SUPER:
Supervisor—San Francisco quotas are full!
!SPECIAL,SEND_TEXT_LINE,SUPERVISOR_MESSAGE }

Valid Suboptions

  • DASHBOARD_DISPLAY
    • Shortform: SPC,SENDTEXTLINE,DASHBOARD
    • This suboption causes up to 14 characters of text to appear on the supervisor’s DAI screen or the 72 characters to any monitor’s interviewer list for the interviewer sending the message.
    • The message from this option will also be sent to the server’s ll log file.
    • Each subsequent SPECIAL,SEND_TEXT_LINE,DASHBOARD_DISPLAY overwrites the previous one displayed on the supervisor’s DAI list or the monitor’s interviewer list.
    • This is most often used to keep track of interviewer position in the questionnaire which can be very useful when trying to figure out which interviewer to monitor next.

EXAMPLE:

{ SUPER_NOTE:
Screener completed
!SPECIAL,SEND_TEXT_LINE,DASHBOARD_DISPLAY }
  • SUPERVISOR_MESSAGE
    • Shortform: SPC,SENDTEXTLINE,SUPERMESSAGE
    • This suboption sends the text as a specific message to the supervisor when they are in Run mode.
    • The screen is paused as the message displays.
    • There may be up to nine 72 character messages .
    • This is most often used in special notification situations, such as when quotas are full.

EXAMPLE:

{ SUPER_NOTIFICATION:
SUPERVISOR: The quota for Males under 35 has now been completed!!!
!SPECIAL,SEND_TEXT_LINE,SUPERVISOR_MESSAGE }
  • MAIN_START_IN_IVR_LOG
    • Shortform: SPC,SENDTEXTLINE,MAINSTART
    • This suboption marks the start of the main interview in the interviewer summary log file.  Any question text on this command is ignored.
  • MAIN_END_IN_IVR_LOG
    • Shortform: SPC,SENDTEXTLINE,MAINEND
    • This suboption marks the end of the main interview in the interviewer summary log file.  Any question text on this command is ignored.

WRITE_SVLOG

Shortform: SPC,WRITESVLOG

This command sends a data record to the Survox server to be written to a “savelog” file. This is typically used to log interview start/stop times and other information about the study. This file is specified in the parmfile by a line “sv_logging: <filename>, <record length> where <filename> is any file to which you have write access.

The syntax for the SPECIAL,WRITE_SVLOG question type is:

!SPECIAL,WRITE_SVLOG,label or location

The label or location is where the data to send to the log file resides. If the file is not yet built, it will be created; if it does exist then records will be added to the end. The data being sent may be any length, but only up to <record length> bytes will be written to the file.

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