Authoring
Introduction
The legacy Authoring web-service is used to create, manipulate and delete the definition of a survey, ie. the questions and the structure of the survey. It is based on an older survey schema version and is not recommended if creating new integrations. Use the newer SurveyDesign web service instead.
The parts that can be retrieved and altered by use of this API is the routing (structure of questions), the predefined lists (scales/Lists) and the quotas. In addition reporting and individual reporting is included in the survey import/export.
The schema retrieval design-time is optimized for GUI-use. Typically a light-weight search for all or a subset of nodes at a certain loop-level would be conducted to get references to the nodes. Based on these reference specific nodes could be retrieved heavy-weight.
The Authoring web-service has three different sources/targets (parameter name: SchemaSource):
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Design - Design is the current routing and project (not the generated database). Design is the default target if a function does not have any parameter indicating target.
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Production - Production is the compiled database used for production interviews. Currently only a few of the web-service functions are supported by Production. Production is read-only. (to write, use the database compilation)
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Test - Test supports the same functions as Production, but represents the compiled test-database.