Overview
You can use the Logic Library to set a survey date marker based on the current server date (typically in Pacific Standard Time). This can be done using either the "Add a Date Marker" element in the Survey Editor or the "dmarker" logic node in the survey XML.
Using the Survey Editor
To add a Date Marker using the Survey Editor, click "+ Add Survey Element" under the staging area:
In the Element Library, select "Custom" and select the "Add a Date Marker" element from the list. Then click "Insert":
The new element will appear in the staging area, where you can configure your date marker:
To create the date marker, select one of the following from the "Format" drop-down menu:
day: Shows the date in the ISO standard day format (YYYY-MM-DD).
week: Shows the date in the ISO standard week format (week_xx).
custom: Allows you to specify custom formatting for the marker in the "Custom Format" text-box. Custom formatting can include any Python time or date directives. For example, if you specify dmarker:code, the date may contain text and one of many formatting characters. The most useful characters are:
- %Y: 4-digit year (e.g., 2015)
- %m: month number (1-12)
- %b: abbreviated month name (e.g., “jul”)
- %H: hour (24 hour format, 00-23)
- %M: minute (00-59)
Click here for a full list of available custom characters.
Using the XML
To create a date marker using the date marker logic node, you will need to add a <logic> tag to your survey XML, specifying both a label and "uses=dmarker.1":
<logic uses="dmarker.1" label="dmarker"/>
By default, this tag sets a marker based on the current week number using the ISO 8601 standard. According to this schedule, weeks start on a Monday, and “week 1” of a year is the first week that has a Thursday. When encountered by a user, the logic node sets a marker named “week_xx” for the current week number.
The marker name is remembered only after being checked. This means that if a respondent starts their survey on the Sunday of week 5, the marker week_05 is returned, even if the respondent does not finish the survey until Monday.
If you prefer, you can request other marker formats by adding the attribute dmarker:format and setting it to one of the following:
-
day- This results in the marker providing an ISO date format: day_YYYY-MM-DD -
custom- This allows you to use fully customized formatting for a marker. For example, if you specifydmarker:code, the date may contain text and one of many formatting characters. The most useful characters are:-
%Y: 4-digit year (e.g., 2015) -
%m: month number (1-12) -
%b: abbreviated month name (e.g., “jul”) -
%H: hour (24 hour format, 00-23) -
%M: minute (00-59) -
Click here for a full list of available
customcharacters.
-
Examples
Day marker:
<logic uses="dmarker.1" label="dmarker" dmarker:format="day"/>
Year marker:
<logic uses="dmarker.1" label="dmarker" dmarker:format="custom" dmarker:code="year_%Y"/>
Setting a Marker Name
If you need to add multiple date makers, you may want to label these differently to avoid confusion during reporting. You can get your logic node to set a name for your marker using Python code. To do this, you would just need to reference dmarker.markerName for each date marker.
For example, if your logic node has the label dmarker, you would use the following code to set a new marker name:
<html label="cm3">The marker ${dmarker.markerName} was assigned to you</html>
If needed, you can call dmarker.nextMarkerName to find out what the marker name would be at the current time.
In this case, the set marker name for this respondent is not remembered.
Reviewing the Debug Information
The project logic debugging page displays what date marker will be set next. This process is the same as using the dmarker.nextMarkerName attribute described above.
When you click the logic node on this page, the marker set for each respondent is displayed.