Survey Data Recovery from Disconnected Clients

NIPO Fieldwork System Version 1.14

Survey Data Recovery from Disconnected Clients

The NIPO CATI Client interviewer workstations maintain a continuous connection with the NIPO CATI / Web Master during operation. If there is a connection loss during operation (for example due to networking issues) the systems make attempts to reestablish the connection. If the connection can't be reestablished, the NIPO CATI Client saves the interview data locally and exits. Sample records for disconnected interviewers are marked with response code 20 in the sample.

NIPO Fieldwork System allows a recovery configuration where the NIPO CATI Client sends the so-called recovery data to the NIPO CATI / Web Master upon the next successful connection. In a default installation, there is also a shortcut to send recovery files directly without requiring to start up the NIPO CATI Client. To enable recovery of data, the following registry setting must be set or added:

Root key 64-bit: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\NIPO\CatiMaster]

Root key 32-bit: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NIPO\CatiMaster]

Key: RecoveryDirectory = "<folder>"

This saves recovery files (files with extension .$x$) in the specified folder. Note that the folder must exist.

To add the recovered data to the surveys, the command line tool RECINT32.EXE must be run. This must be done locally from the NIPO CATI / Web Master server. The tool can only run successfully if all surveys are stopped.

Running the recovery tool

RECINT32.EXE /N \\. /P ncacn_np

Note that the parameters are mandatory. The recovery tool can issue an automated stop of all surveys when the NIPO CATI Clients have ended their interviews and / or when any web interviews have finished. This is particularly useful if you wish to schedule a recovery of lost interview data at quiet hours.

The default installation of the NIPO CATI / Web Master also supplies a batch file RunRecInt32.bat that performs the recovery.

Running the recovery tool, stopping surveys automatically

RECINT32.EXE /N \\. /P ncacn_np /S

Note that it may take a while for this operation to complete.

After running the recovery tool, one or more surveys will have adjusted sample information and optionally additional survey data.

Note:
Not all sample records with response code 20 may be lost connection issues, and not all recovered data is necessarily a successful interview.