User Guide

Data Lookup lets a survey search records that already exist in another survey (the source survey) and fetch corresponding additional answers/fields into the survey the respondent is filling.

Two surveys are involved:

• Source survey — holds the records that will be searched.
• Current survey — the survey the respondent fills. A lookup button on one of its questions searches the source survey and fills the mapped questions.

Follow below steps to configure Data Lookup.

1. Create the source survey

Step 1:
Create the source survey. Follow How to create a survey.

Step 2:
Set Layout type to Portrait. 

Step 3:
Select Is Data Lookup Source?

Step 4:
Save the survey, then add its questions. Follow How to configure questionnaire.

The source questionnaire needs:

• One or more search questions with a short value, such as a code, mobile number, or name. 
• The questions whose answers/fields should be fetched corresponding to the search questions and copied into the current survey.

These rules apply to the source questions:

• Text Block questions cannot be used in lookup mapping.
• Background Location can be used only as a search field, and only with the search type Range. 

2. Load records into the source survey

The Lookup Source - survey can have data in two ways: a) Considering a regular survey, data be filled by respondent and b) Uploading data from excel file directly into the survey.

2a. Collect responses

Step 1:
If survey is a web survey - the data can be submitted through Web Survey link. 

Step 2:
If survey is set to be used in App - assign the survey to the users. Users will submit the response from the app - which will be saved in the survey.

Step 3:
Each submitted response becomes one lookup record.

Step 4:
Open the source survey responses and confirm the records are listed before you configure lookup on the current survey.

2b. Upload/Import the data using Excel

Use this when the lookup records already exist in Excel. Follow How to import external data?.

Use Import (New Data) to add the source records. After the import, those rows are the lookup records.

Use Import (Update Data) when a source record is already loaded and an answer needs to change.

Open the source survey responses and confirm the records are listed before you configure lookup on the current survey.

3. Configure Data Lookup

Step 1:
Open the survey’s questionnaire where data lookup is to be configured.

Step 2:
Click Data Lookup at the top of the screen.

Step 3:
If no lookup is configured yet, the screen shows Not configured. Click Add.

Step 4:
Fill in the lookup details.

• Lookup Question — the question where the lookup button is placed.
• Lookup Button Label — the text on the button i.e. “Search” or “Search Patient” or “Search Voter” as per the lookup consideration. This is required and can be up to 20 characters.
• Lookup Data Source Survey — the source survey from section 1. Only surveys marked Is Data Lookup Source? are listed.
• Error message on lookup failure — optional message shown when no matching record is found i.e. “No data found”. You can enter up to 256 characters.

Step 5:
Under Lookup Mapping, click Add once for each question you want to connect. Fill every row:

• Current Survey Question — a question on the survey the respondent is filling.
• Source Survey Question — the matching question on the source survey.
• Mapping Type 

• Search — the value entered in the current survey is used to find a source record.
• Fetch — the answer from the matching source record is copied into the current survey.

• Search Type — shown only for Search. Choose Contains, StartsWith, or Exact. Based on this selection - it will try to match the records for the given question.
• Readonly — shown only for Fetch. Select it when the copied answer must not be edited.
• All Search questions should be configured first followed by the Fetch questions.

Step 6:
Check the mapping before you save.

• Add at least one Search row and one Fetch row.
• The Lookup Question itself must be one of the Search rows.
• Keep all Search rows above the Fetch rows.
• If there are more than one search questions, the last search question should be the one that is selected for the “Lookup Question”.

Step 7:
Click Save. The configuration appears in the Data Lookup list. Use the edit icon to change it, or the delete icon to remove it.

A survey can have more than one lookup. Click Add again to configure another Lookup Question against the same source survey or a different one.

4. Restrict lookup by user

Use this only when some users should see a limited set of source records. Skip this section if every assigned user may look up every source record.

Step 1:
On the Data Lookup form, under User Restrictions, click Add. The Datalookup Restriction dialog opens.

Step 2:
Select a source survey question and enter the answer that record must match. Separate more than one answer with a semicolon (;).

Step 3:
Click Add to include another question. A record must match every question in the list.

Step 4:
Select the users this restriction applies to.

Step 5:
Click Save in the dialog.

Step 6:
Click Save on the Data Lookup screen.

During data collection, a restricted user can look up only the source records that match these answers.

5. What the respondent does

Step 1:
The respondent opens the current survey and reaches the Lookup Question.

Step 2:
The respondent enters the value in one or more search questions and clicks the lookup button.

Step 3:
GoSurvey searches the source survey using the Search mappings.

Step 4:
When a record matches, the Fetch questions are filled. If Readonly is selected, those answers will be displayed in a non-editable way.

Step 5:
If nothing matches, the error message on lookup failure is shown.