Generating BitStream Files

Note: This procedure can be performed in both Forsta Authoring and Reportal.

In Reportal:

1. Go to the Report > Update menu and select Update BitStream Files.
2. Choose whether you wish to generate BitStream files only on complete responses (default), or on all responses.

Note: You will only be able to change this setting for projects where BitStream files have not yet been generated. If you wish to change this setting for projects where an existing BitStream generation task exists, then this must be applied to the project in Authoring (under Reporting > Create Reportal BitStream files).

3. Click OK.

A gray message field is displayed indicating the state and progress of the task. When the task is completed, the field turns green.

In Authoring:

1. Go to the Reporting > Create Reportal BitStream Files menu command.
2. Choose whether you wish to generate BitStream files only on complete responses (default), or on all responses .

Note: Only select all responses (uncheck the box - see below) if you want to include the results from respondents with other statuses (incomplete, screened etc.) in your reports.



BitStream File generation settings

3. Click OK.

The files are generated as a task in Forsta Plus.

Once the BitStream files have been generated for a project, the task exists. If you later go to the Create Reportal BitStream Files menu command, the settings page will have changed to that shown below.



Figure 1 - The BitStream Files generation settings page once the task exists

This page allows you to change the task, for example to make it a recurring task, and to run the task immediately. The buttons are as follows:

• Change task setup - click to open the Task Setup page (see below).
• Update BitStream files now - click to start the BitStream File update task immediately (the task will be placed in the queue and will be run when its turn comes).
• Force new file set - normally when the BitStream file task runs, the existing files will be updated. Check this box to delete the existing files completely and replace them with new files. Note that this only affects the data that is included in the report, not the report itself, so no other actions are necessary.
4. Click Change task setup to open the Task Setup page for the task .

Figure 2 - BitStream Generator task parameters

Go to the Recurrence tab and click Change to access the recurrence properties (go to Updating the BitStream Files for more information).