Announcements

FS 5.0 Released

Tom — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 08:07:55 GMT

We are happy to announce the release of version 5.0 of our Feedback Server product.

This version includes following improvements including many internal architectural changes :

Specific print CSS has been setup when browser is used in print mode
Respondent details can be show as pages within a form
Reports can be shown as pages within a form
Respondent can see his answers highlighted in the reports on the thanks page
Report will automatically be shown on the thanks page if only one report has been set as public
Ability to skip answers on the same page as the conditions that trigger them
3D Matrix (Side by side) questions support
Matrix questions creation and edition interface has been completely reworked
Matrix selection based answers can be displayed in drop down lists
Replaced charting engine, charts can be rendered in 3D
Customize width / height for each chart
Display multiple chart series using filters or dates on one single graphic report item
Added response date range rule for report filter conditions
Added respondent language rule for report filter conditions
Respondent can be set in archive mode to re-allow submissions from security add ins
Pipe current respondent (voter) unique id using the {{vuid}} piping tag
Set a default value for piping tags which can be displayed on reporting screens when no effective value can be piped
Develop piper add ins to create custom tags and to pipe values from code
Security add ins settings are cloned as well when cloning a survey
Ranking setup can be set to use drop down lists instead of text boxes
Media gallery with folder / sub folder organization support
Upload and use any files (image, flash, video etc..) directly from the media gallery in your forms
Develop custom condition add ins to return true / false to FS's condition (skip, branching etc..) using custom .net code
Setup custom images in styles to replace the HTML radio / check box inputs form elements
Added a small mail server test interface to test the current mail server settings
Ability to force system buttons (next, previous, restore, save progress, submit) to be shown or hidden
Automatic clearing of existing answers on skipped or branched pages can be turned off
Page navigation using either navigation boxes or drop down lists to jump directly to a given page
Page navigation boxes can be customized using CSS to give a "tabbed" navigation style
Allow respondent to navigate only to already "visited" pages
Set validation on/off for the current page when navigating to another page using page navigation
Ignore all pages with invalid / missing answers when submitting a form with page navigation enabled
Files are also available for download to respondent after he uploaded them
Set title for the deployment page
Set a permanent redirection url for deleted or closed forms
Setup custom metadata attributes for forms, questions, answers and respondents
Copy existing questions or free form based question into free form based pages
Link panel questions in free form based pages

Enjoy this new release.

FS 4.4 Released

Tom — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:00:35 GMT

Hi all,

we are happy to introduce the 4.4 version of FS. Some long requested features like the SQL View connector, more dynamic answer items with drag / drop functions are now available.

Following features were implemented :

Ranking can be done using simple drag / drop
Ranking drag / drop can be setup as card sorting
New SQL Server view based panel connector to connect a panel to an existing SQL Server view
Web print for respondents
Random data generator to fill forms with test data
Set default values on matrix columns
Set regular expression validation on matrix columns
Matrix rows and columns rotation
Matrix question row can be hidden by setting a width of 0
Show a custom message when access to the form is denied by a security addin

Enjoy this new release and expect many new cool features in the futur release.

FS Sharepoint Edition Released

Tom — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:41:51 GMT

Hi,

We are happy to give all Sharepoint and WSS owners a little xmas gift with this new edition of the MOSS Extension of FS.

Based on your feedback and even though MOSS is not something very developer friendly when it comes to write third party integration installation packages we have tried to improve at best the extension installation through a WSP file and to minimize as possible manual entries in the web.config .

We also added support for impersonification to access resources like the DB, you dont need to setup users / groups with DBO access to the FS db anymore when you run under MOSS you only need to grant the access to the identity running the application pool.

You may also directly deploy your surveys and forms directly as a standard MOSS survey list inside any of your MOSS sites.

Other improvement includes :

FS Forms can deployed and listed in the standard WSS / Sharepoint survey lists
Authentication to the external resources (sql, ad) can be forced to use the current AppPool identity account
Easier installation process for the WSS / SPS extension using a standard WSP file
Selected FS Forms can be listed in a web part within WSS / SPS sites
New FS MOSS access right to grant an FS user the right to post lists on WSS / SPS sites
Added a new WSS / SPS alike style to be used to style FS forms like WSS / SPS surveys ones

This release also includes some minor fixes and minor features updates :

Time is now supported on open / close date
New {{datetime}}pipe tag to pipe the date and time and {{date}} to pipe only the date
ConfirmSurveyExist attribute on the main survey web control can be used to remove the "confirmation leave message"

Enjoy and as always all feedback is welcome.

FS 4.3 released

Tom — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:28:22 GMT

Hi all,

we are happy to announce that the 4.3 is now ready in our download section.

This release includes fixes and many new cool features among one of them and a heavily requested one was the ability to use CSV files as panels inputs you will find a tutorial here on how it could be used in a scenario where you would need a address book :
http://www.dataillusion.com/demo/FeedbackServer/help/index.html?page=Flash%2FAddress%20book%20based%20mailing.htm

Below is the complete list of the new features :

•    SSL enabled mail servers by setting the sslEnabledSmtp attribute in the web.config
•    Web printing output format for forms
•    Ability to change the size of the printed field in a web print output
•    Web printing output format for reports
•    Report's elements can be displayed in one of the enabled multi-language languages
•    New system pipe tag {{formprintlink}} to pipe a link to the web form printer
•    Option to always hide tokens entry screen on token security addin
•    Set a fixed width for all questions column of a matrix
•    Hide / show pages dynamically using page skip logic conditions
•    Disable form questions
•    Disable form pages
•    FS built in panel connector can create panels from an existing CSV based file
•    Add new panelists from a CSV file to an existing FS built in panel
•    Export panelists to a CSV format based text file
•    Panels records can be synced only for records addition, deletes or updates
•    Panels sync can be setup to run manually or automatically
•    Disable all export link functions using the disableDataExportLink attribute
•    Create panel campaigns by selecting individual panelists from a panel
•    Create panel views by selecting individual panelists from a panel
•    Theme wizard to create automatically a full featured theme based on a color
•    Total scores are now displayed on the respondent analysis screen as well
•    Ability to change respondent "validated" status

If you have any questions or suggestions of features for the next 4.4 release which is already under work let us know!

FS 4.2 Released

Tom — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:57:09 GMT

Hi,

we are glad to let you know that the 4.2 version of FS is now available from our download section.

The main change of this version is that all the emailing functions have now been re-factored and unified into one single interface to make things easier to manage and give you more control over your email invitation campaigns. Since this new campaign interface is fully plugin based except to have some new extension for it very soon :).

Other new features part of this release are following :

Ranking total can be set to be lower than the total of ranking fields in the ranking group
Images can be exported / imported using the form's xml export / import features
Active directory users can be synced manually from the user / group management screen
Email invitations of panels, surveys has been unified into an extensible messenging system
Invitations can be send to FS users or groups
Selections between pages are now kept in the mailing grids

Before running this latest version make sure to first download the latest license keys available from our download section.

As always all feedback to improve FS is welcome.

FS 4.1 Released

Tom — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:54:48 GMT

Dear All,

The latest FS 4.1 upgrade is now available from our download section, this release includes a couple of heavily requested features like a preview mode on the designer screen to test out the forms without having to use 2 windows and switch back and forth between them while designing the survey, forms can be time bombed to force respondent to submit his answers after a given time out.

Other new features and fixes include :

IP access list security addin to restrict access based on respondent IPs
Question skip logic can be set to either only show the question when all conditions are met or hide it
Answer skip logic can be set to either only show the answer when all conditions are met or hide it
Respondent time to fill forms is now calculated based on the actual exact time a respondet took to fill the form
Ability to set a timer on the forms to limit the time a respondent can use to fill a form
Each page can be setup to "freeze" the timer
Countdown timer behavior to display the remaining time on free form based pages
Choice between exporting partial, complete or both answers of respondents
Respondent attachement can be included in the alert emails
Form preview screen tab to test your page and forms while staying on the designer page
Language dropdown selection screen is now translated based on the respondent browser language

Fixes
Using image button didnt trigger server side validations
Repeatable sections didnt fill the defaut values on new sections on restored sessions in resume or change mode
Javascript generated code didnt get executed properly under Chrome / Webkit based browsers

As always all feedback is warmly welcome and we hope that you will enjoy these new features.

Feedback Server v4 released

Tom — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:59:07 GMT

Dear FS fans,

We are happy to introduce you the latest version of FS which is available for immediate download at following url : download

Free layouts for free peoples

With the introduction of three new free form editors (pages, questions and page templates) we are bringing web form building to a complete new level.

No more layout limitations, you're in control and choose how your form pages or questions should look like.

Best of all a new and unique concept that we call "behaviors" has also been added to the new form building capabilities..

In a nutshell behaviors can be defined as small addins that you can use on the form pages to control the action or flow within a form.

Out of the box FS supplies all the standard navigation buttons and progress information as behaviors but its very easy to develop your own behavior like for example a page navigator.

To understand the power of it the best is to watch the short capture available here :
Form builder demo capture

CSS styles support

Many of you have asked for it and here it is, while refactoring the code base we have added complete CSS support to FS.Gone is the time where you had only limited control over the design of your forms and reports.

You can now use the provided CSS "sdk" to create your own CSS styles offline using a third party CSS editor or use our online editor to customize the appearance of the forms and reports as you need with re-usable CSS based themes.

FS has also gone through a complete refactoring of the backend and client side form framework and form builders which are now 100% extensible and will allow us to provide you with some great new features much more quickly than before.

We have also update the How to section of the help with +50 flash based tutorials going to the different features of FS to let you learn entry and advanced level features very quickly. For the complete change log you may check the change log pages here

Now that we're done with the big refactoring work (which took much more time than expected) of the backend code and creation of the client side framework we will get back on track and focus on adding new "customer oriented" features on a regular basis. If you have features that you miss and would like to see implemented just let us know and contact us with your feature requests.

Please read carefully before you upgrade
The new form editor is very unfortunately not compatible with free layout question created using the beta version of the editor in the previous version of FS. Once migrated you will not be able to change the layout of these forms. However note that you will still be able to change answer properties and the forms will still run in the surveys.

If you have hooked events to the survey control you will need to use and migrate your code the new API, previous events handler are not handled by this version. Samples are provided in the V4 SDK on how to handle these events using the new framework events.

We hope that you will enjoy this new release!

FS 2008.1 Released!

Tom — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 10:10:18 GMT

Hi,

We are very happy to announce the release of Feedback Server 2008.1. This new version of Feedback Server is now available for download from our Web site. To access this latest version, visit the Data Illusion's Download page at http://www.dataillusion.com/.

Some of new features include an important change to the user interface which is now "full screen" meaning more working space for you to manage your surveys and forms, the "compress" fixed sized interface is gone forever.

The reports have now also their own tree based drag&drop navigation system now. No more going back and forth in the top menu to manage and display your reports and each report can now have filter applied directly from the report analysis screen.

Data exports can be templated and saved for reuse. No need any more to re-update the data export screen each time you need an export, just create a single template with all your most used settings and you're done. You can even download it directly at any time without having to log into the admin section.

Conditional URL redirection allows you to redirect your respondent to a specific site once they have completed a survey or once they have left a page, you could also use this feature to create survey chaining by specifying a new survey link as a redirection.

Using the new SQL User Provider you can integrate right out of the box any of your existing User / Groups SQL Server tables and let FS use them for its user management system for the administration section.

Ever needed to confirm respondent answers by an email? No problems you can do it now using the Email confirmation security addin which will send out an confirmation email with a validation link to the respondent before the answers are validated.

As always we hope that you will enjoy the new features and if you have suggestions of other features please let us know.

The 2008.1 release complete new features list:

Fields based answers can be limited to a unique respondent value to avoid duplicate entries for an answer

Star image based rating question system which can be customized using your own images

Email confirmation security addin which sends out a confirmation to validate answers

Custom list collection answer item elements can be re-ordered

Conditional redirection URL to redirect a respondent after submission to a given URL based on his answers

Conditional redirection URL can be triggered after any page of the survey

Create calculation formulas that are evaluated at runtime eg: fscalc(8*(10/2)+9+[[anyfield]])

Matrix rows order can be randomized

Quick answers add screen to add answers in batches

FormUpdated event on the survey control to get notified when survey answers have changed .

Survey export / import format supports now exporting and importing of multi-languages and survey popup

Ability to export / import all respondents answers along a survey Xml export

Email alerts dont show skipped or branches questions, answers anymore

New SQL Server User Provider to use any sql server tables as users and groups for FS's administration

Reports and exports user interface is now be shown as a tree

Reports item can be directly moved using drag&drop across different reports or pages

Filters can be dynamically applied to a report from the report analysis screen

Question text display within bitmap graphic charts has been extended to 180 chars

Ability to create data export templates for reuse on your survey

Data export templates can be directly downloaded from a unique URL

Pipe current survey total score anywhere using {{score}}

Fixes

Exclude answer information was not cloned when questions were cloned

CSV also replace only line feeds, and carriage returns by the custom char if these are alone

Answer item error messages column where shown in an "unspanned" column

Form items in the form builder didn't show / allow the change of the answer text

Skip logic hidden answers within a free form were showing the template tag at runtime

Deleting a voter twice in a row from the voter report item made the report crash on the second time

Date filtering was not taking into account the end date

File upload is now also available under rich survey mode

Feedback Server Sharepoint 2007 Extension Released

Tom — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:21:21 GMT

Hi all,

Its finally here, the ultimate survey application to replace the default Sharepoint survey web part.

Using this new extension you may use Feedback Server from your Sharepoint installation and display and manage your surveys from any of your portal pages.

We have posted a quick screen cast on how this new Sharepoint extension works in our screen cast section :
http://www.dataillusion.com/feedbackserver/screencasts/sharepointextension.htm

Its the right time now to kick out the low cost out of the box Sharepoint survey tool and offer the power of Feedback Server's surveys and forms to your Sharepoint users !

Feedback Server 2008

Tom — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:21:34 GMT

We are happy to announce you that Feedback Server 2008 is now ready and available!

As you can see in the demo link below this new 2008 release takes survey creation to another level by providing a full free form builder, no more limitations on the layout of your forms you are now free to create any kind of forms you want using the new easy and intuitive drag/drop form editor.

Form demo available here : http://www.dataillusion.com/fs/formdemo.htm

Other features include complete integration with the ASP.NET 3.5 Ajax framework for a smooth user experience while taking or administrating surveys.

We are looking forward for all your comments about the new version and hope that you will enjoy it as much as we did creating it.

Integration demo available here : http://www.dataillusion.com/fs/fsintegration.htm

But these are just a couple of features out of dozen of new features, a full list of all new features can be found here : http://www.dataillusion.com/demo/FeedbackServer/help/Change%20Log.htm

You may download or upgrade (free if you still have a valid upgrade plan) to Feedback server 2008 here:

http://community.dataillusion.com/files/folders/fs/entry403.aspx

Make sure to check the breaking changes list in the change log before upgrading your current version.

[== Improve FS! take our survey ==]

We would also like to ask you to take a couple of minutes of your time to take this very small anonymous survey which will help us improve our product even further : http://www.dataillusion.com/demo/fs.aspx?surveyid=b52a68a7615449aa1528176dd4b2219

Feedback Server 2007

Tom — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 09:13:17 GMT

Hi all,

the latest version of Feedback Server 2007 is now ready available for download. Many new cool features have been added based on all great feedback we've received from all of you.

The next version is already started as well and will as always have some really nice and unique features not found in any other packages, stay tuned and in the meantime enjoy this new release !

For international customers Feedback Server 2007 is now fully translated and available in over 13 languages!

Voter analysis interface to analyze on respondent information in a tabular way
Search voters based on their text answers using a text search
Ability to display validated and un-validated voters and all voter details (resume code, language etc...)
A template report which includes graphic and text answers can be generated on report creation
Reports, filters and question report groups are now cloned along a survey when its cloned
FS Context Security Addins are now showing a login authentication screen when no FS authentication context is available
User can be authenticated against Active Directory for the administration section without Integrated security activated on IIS
Ability to run FS in mixed mode anonymous (for surveys) and active directory (for administration interface)
Active Directory Security Addin shows a login screen and validates login against the AD when no AD context is available
Voter answers can now be exported either one by one or individually or all at one time
Survey setting to let a respondent download his answers in at the end of the survey or when he changes his answers
Surveys, folders and reports can automatically inherits on creation the existing access rights (user, groups) from their parent folders
Default security addins login interfaces submit values when the user presses directly the enter key
Survey submit buttons can be replaced by image graphics
Survey deployment page background color can be set for each style
Header / Footer can be customized using custom HTML for each style
Width and horizontal alignment of survey within the deployment page can bet set for each style
Survey control styles output have been re-worked for better cross browser support between IE and Firefox
Report design can be set using CSS
Survey buttons can be shown either on top, bottom or top and bottom of a survey
Ability to hide the question validation mark (*) from the interface on each question
Title of survey imported from Xml survey can be changed before they get imported
Survey reports can be assigned to different groups or users
Trashcan system that can be used to keep the surveys or folders once they have been deleted
Surveys can be restored from the trashcan to the root folder
Surveys can be set to be open to gather answers or closed for answers
A tabular quick view of all of surveys available in a folder can be shown when clicking on folders
HTML / Text only based chart report item
Static text report item to insert descriptive text between report items
Ranking report item which displays average rankings on ranking answers
Constant sum report item which displays reporting sums of constant sums answers
Question wizards added to create contact information, ranking and constant sums questions
Skip logic can be applied to answer to hide them based on conditions and create reduced choice lists
Icon set provide visual information of current branching, skip logic states of pages, questions and answers
Library access is now done from the survey designer with a dynamic tree based layout
Drag and drop a library question into a survey
Drag and drop a survey question into a library
Page options and branching rules are now moved / linked back automatically when pages are deleted or insered
Main survey component sets the next page as default submit button on the control
Survey question pool to group a set questions to be used by a question pool item
Question pool item that can be included within a survey form to show questions taken randomly from the survey question pool
Security addins (cookie, ip, etc …) are showing an information message to the respondent if he already participated
HTML based information entered (questions, thanks messages ...) is converted to XHTML when saved in the database
Survey Xml templates can be sorted within directory categories and used to create new surveys from the interface

Enjoy!

Feedback Server V2.3 Available

Tom — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 18:31:21 GMT

Hi,

This is just a short notification to to announce the immediate availability of our latest version of Feedback Server which you can download right now from http://community.dataillusion.com/files/folder/fs.

We have always great comments and suggestions about FS, one of the main suggestions that often came back is that even though FS is a powerful tool there was a lack of wizards to create basis of forms more quickly without having to dig right into the advanced features.

Starting from V2.3 FS will offer more wizard based interfaces which will allow users to create standard forms in just a couple of seconds without any hassles, we plan for future releases to continue on this path to make all creation processes as straighforward as possible while of course keeping all great advanced features just some clicks away.

Our first step is the wizard to create and add new questions. As these wizard are based on modular pieces we would be very happy to get any suggestions on new pieces you would like to see for this wizard or for other parts of FS.

This release features also a new grid ajax enabled component that will make the navigation through several hundred thousands a breeze. For the full change log you may have a look at : online change log

Community & Developer Zone Opening

Tom — Thu, 31 May 2007 08:10:34 GMT

Many of you have asked for it and its finally here! :)

Its took us a bit time as we wanted to get things right to create a single space where users, developers and partners could find, share information about our products but with this new space I think we met our goals and we hope that you will enjoy it as well.

The really great thing along with this opening is the release of our new SDK for Feedback Server. We have put great efforts in it to make things as clear and easier as possible for you to develop extensions using it. The SDK is available for FREE, contains samples, documentation, flash tutorials, the complete FS API and best of all we don't charge any distribution royalities for extensions you developed and want to share or sell.

If you developed any cool extensions for Feedback Server that you want to share with other Feedback Server users just drop us an email and we will make it available to all Feedback Server users right from our partner download section.

As always all suggestions are welcome.