export_responses_by_token for anonymous surveys

[MatthiasGer0821]

Feature Type

Other

Description

Hi @edgarrmondragon,

i might have another use-case where im not sure how to implement it.

I want to export responses for specific tokens in an anonymous survey.
I tried client.session.export_responses_by_token
but i get the error that my survey (which can be called and stuff) does not have the field "token".

Reading the documentation from LS, i am not even sure what token i need to give the function (tokenID? the token to access the survey?)

I was wondering if my problem persists since its an anonymous survey and if you have any thoughts.

Best regards,
Matt

[edgarrmondragon]

Hi @MatthiasGer0821!

It's probably not documented all to well but LimeSurvey only attaches a token (a.k.a. access code) to a response, and creates the token column, if the responses are not anonymized and there's a participants table. If the survey is anonymous and has a participants table I think only whether the participant has responded is recorded, but no link between survey and participant is created.

>>> client.export_responses(411981, token="sgrw0BtXWbxA6Ws")
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LimeSurveyApiError                        Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-15-15f0803c5896> in <module>                                                                  
----> 1 client.export_responses(411981, token="sgrw0BtXWbxA6Ws")
                                                      
~/edgar/citric/src/citric/client.py in export_responses(self, survey_id, token, file_format, language, completion_status, heading_type, response_type, from_response_id, to_response_id, fields)
    353         else:                                                                                        
    354             return base64.b64decode(                                                                 
--> 355                 self.__session.export_responses_by_token(                                            
    356                     survey_id,             
    357                     enums.ResponsesExportFormat(file_format),
                                                      
~/edgar/citric/src/citric/method.py in __call__(self, *params)                                                                                                                                                             
     42         some_method 1 a                                                                              
     43         """                                   
---> 44         return self.__caller(self.__name, *params)       
                                                                                                             
~/edgar/citric/src/citric/session.py in rpc(self, method, *params)                                                                                                                                                         
     99         # Methods requiring authentication
    100         else:                                                                                        
--> 101             result = self._invoke(self._session, self.url, method, self.key, *params)
    102                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
    103         return result                                                                                
                                                      
~/edgar/citric/src/citric/session.py in _invoke(session, url, method, *params)
    150                                                                                                      
    151         if error is not None:      
--> 152             raise LimeSurveyApiError(error)                                                          
    153                                               
    154         if response_id != request_id:                                                                

LimeSurveyApiError: Table "lime_survey_411981" does not have a column named "token". 

Btw, you can also use citric's Client.export_responses(<sid>, token=...) to get non-anonymous responses 😉

[MatthiasGer0821]

Hi @edgarrmondragon,

thanks for your reply. Yes, the Client.export_responses(, token=...) request from citric works great for the non-anonmyous surveys I have switched.

But for the anonymous responses, I think i´m gonna check if by filtering for specific fields (with $aFields) I can check for specific answers. Background of my question is that i´m expecting to have a really large number of anonymous responses and i do not want to receive all of them every time i cal the export_responses function.

Best,
Matt

[edgarrmondragon]

@MatthiasGer0821 Oh I see. So yeah, the only way to get specific responses is to use a range of response IDs, if you already know those IDs.

A workaround would be to export all response but only the fields you would like to filter by, store the response ID if a condition is true, and then iterate over response IDs to export all fields only for those responses:

import json
import citric

client = citric.Client(...)

sid = 542847
question_code = "Q00"
question_sgq_id = "542847X34X56"  # https://manual.limesurvey.org/SGQA_identifier

# Export only the response ID and answers for "Q00"
all_responses = client.export_responses(sid, fields=["id", question_sgq_id])
response_ids = []
for response in json.loads(all_responses)["responses"]:
    if response[question_code] == "<SOME VALUE>":
        response_ids.append(response["id"])

# Export all fields for a single ID each time
for rid in response_ids:
    single_id_resp = client.export_responses(sid, from_response_id=rid, to_response_id=rid)
    data = json.loads(single_id_resp)["responses"][0]
    print(data)