A CSV template for the survey importer

The columns the survey CSV importer recognises (design 0035 §8): section, id, text, type, options, min, max, show_if, repeat, scope, volunteered, read_back, instructions. Any other header is a hard error on import — unlike the contacts importer, an unrecognised column here is not quietly turned into an attribute, because a questionnaire’s shape is meaningful in a way a contact’s extra column is not.

type is yes_no, choice, multi_choice, number, text, email, phone or address (the last three are stored as text, with a note telling the agent what the answer is, and are read back to the respondent before they are recorded), or closing for a last row whose text the agent says once the survey is done. read_back is yes or no: yes has the agent read the answer back and record it only once the respondent confirms, for a name, say; no turns that off for an email, phone or address question. options are separated by |, and code=label stores the code with each answer: 1=Own|2=Rent|98=Don't know|99=Refused, where Don’t know and Refused become the built-in non-answers (on yes_no, number and text, without a code too). On multi_choice, max is how many answers it takes, at most the number of options. show_if reads works = 1, person_age >= 16 and works = yes or (age > 64 and home != 1); a value can be the answer or its code. repeat, on a section’s first question, asks the whole section once per person: for each person (people), up to 10, starting with the respondent: person_name = first_name.

The importer also reads a survey laid out the way survey teams write them (design 0035), picked when the header has a Question ID column: Section, Order, Question ID, Item type, Question text, Response options, Skip / repeat logic, Programming instructions. Response options are coded lines (1. Yes); the codes travel with each answer, and Don't Know / Refuse lines become the built-in non-answers. Skip logic is read from forms like Show X IF tenure <> "10 or more years", If status = 1-4 then ask X and Only ask 16 and over. A section row whose skip logic says Repeat for each person (number_persons) is asked once per person, as many times as that answer says; its answers then carry an instance (1 for the first person, 2 for the second, and so on).