(N)Survey Origin

Historic Release notes on Nsurvey

Overview of release versions

NSurvey 2.1 Thursday, December 29, 2005 5:23:23 PM

NSurvey 2.0.1 available Friday, November 18, 2005 6:27:37 AM

NSurvey v1.9.1 released Sunday, April 24, 2005 7:18:43 PM

NSurvey 1.9 Released Tom Z. 2 April 03, 2005

NSurvey v1.8 released Tom Z. 11 January 19, 2005

NSurvey v1.6 has been released Tom Z. 0 November 06, 2004

NSurvey V1.0, free survey tool, released! Tom Z. 0 July 22, 2004


Release Notes

NSurvey 1.0
Thursday, July 22, 2004
"NSurvey is a free web based survey and form engine toolkit for Microsoft's .net. Written in pure managed C#, NSurvey aims anyone who needs to collect quickly valuable information from customers, visitors or employees.
 
……..  At this time NSurvey supports following key features :
 
User friendly web based administration interface.
Unlimited paging support
Client (javascript) & server side field validity checks (Numeric, dates etc...)
Single or matrix question layouts
Flexible form engine allowing you to create almost any form
XML answer "feeder" (eg: countries, us states ...)
Specify a maximum / minimum answers required for each question
Email invitations
Full multi-language support
Restrict survey entry on email code
Private or public reports
Conditional question branching logic
Reports filtering through custom rules
Detailed individual vote reports
Opening / closing date
Survey component localization in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese
Cookie, IP security to prevent double submissions
Protect and hide your results with a password or a "thank you" message
Custom redirection URL for your results page to hide survey's results
Customizable design
Open API
……………
 
Note to Self #1: Don't cut and paste from Word tables into the Question RTF box. Or done, go to the HTML tab and nuke all the extra crap (span's, font instructions, etc). Having those there seemed to gack the excel/CSV feature.
 
Note to Self #2: When installing, give the SQL account used SA rights (for just during the install) or do a manual database install
 
Note to Self #3: When installing to remote SQL Server, remember to edit the database connection string in the web.config
 
Posted 7/22/200406:08:00 PM   
 
 
nSurvey 1.1
Sunday, August 08, 2004
 
This version includes a brand new security addin architecture that lets you integrate NSurvey in almost any kind of security environment (http://www.nsurvey.org/images/securitypipe.gif) .
All samples / documentation on how to code your own security addin are available in your program files/directory after you've installed NSurvey using the MSI.
 
A Dotnetnuke Module of v1.1 is also on the way to be released, stay tuned.
 
I've also already released the web project sources meanwhile I continue to "clean" the main component code for prime time. "
 
nSurvey has released v1.1 to their GotDotNet workspace.
Some of the C# source code is now available too...
 
I've done a test deployment of 1.0 at work. Now all I'm waiting on is the "go/no-go". So until then I can look at this version.
 
In looking at 1.1, the MSI install doesn't allow an in-place upgrade. Once I uninstalled 1.0, the 1.1 install went very smooth.
 
A sample survey is now included which is nice. It shows all/most the available survey question features. This actually helps me a GREAT deal... I now see I took the hardest possible path when I did the 1.0 test deployment.
 
Note to Self #1: Here's my post on V1.0
 
Posted 8/08/2004 10:51:00 AM


nSurvey 1.2 
Monday, August 16, 2004 
"NSurvey has been released in v1.2. Many new cool features were added in this release :
 
- Previous / next paging has been added
- Survey's progress can be saved by user using cookies on his computer and resumed later
- Progress information can now be shown to the user in page numbers or percentage progress
- Receive a short or full report email notification of an entry after it has been saved in the DB
- The web.config can be configured with your SMTP server basic authentication credentials
- Installer supports now integrated security beside the old SQL security one
- Query string, session, cookie or server variables values can now be piped into "default text" enabled answers
- New hidden field answer type added. This type is best used with the default text value piping options
- Question of another survey can be copied into the current survey from the insert question screen "
 
My fav open source survey tool has rev'ed again... This is a professional product and it just gets better.
 
Posted 8/16/2004 06:50:00 AM   
 
Nsurvey 1.3
…..
Nsurvey 1.4
…..
Nsurvey 1.5
…..

 
nSurvey 1.6
Monday, November 08, 2004
I've added some cool features to support large corporate or universities environment.
The most important feature is the support and administration for multi users.
 
As I based everything on my new 'user provider' model you can easily integrate
and adapt nsurvey to your existing users or security infrastructure by creating your own user provider.
 
Another cool feature is that you can create a custom answer type based on your own home made sql queries.
This will let you expose and use existing data in your surveys / forms.
For those who can't let users do Sql queries you can of course disable this functionality from the web.config.
 
Here are the change log for v1.6 :
 
- New "User provider model" that let you unleash any existing infrastructure by implementing
 your own security provider to manage nsurvey user logins and authentication modes
- Full support and administration for multiple users / survey admins
- Added roles support to manage rights
- 25+ rights available to secure each single nsurvey feature for each of your users
- Default user provider can be set in "single user mode" to run without authentication and
 multiple user management features
- Skip logic rules can be added to hide questions depending on user's answers on previous
 pages
- Branching rules can now be created based on current and previous pages questions
- Rules conditions have been extended to support equals, contains, greater than and less than
- XML based answer types are now mandatory in the answer process
- Question numbering can now be disabled / enabled from the admin interface.
- The ShowQuestionNumbers property on surveybox has been removed.
- Added a new answer type based on custom SQL queries to retrieve and show data from your
 own tables / database
- Piping of previous answers, querystring, session, server variables is supported in SQL queries
 based answer types
  
Fixed:
- Dropdownlist question control didn't check if there was already a selected item in the drop downlist in case a layout change from single to multiple answers with multiple default answers occured
- Custom answer types description didnt show up in the question answers editor..."
 
Posted 11/08/200401:05:00 PM   

 
NSurvey V1.7 sources
January 19, 2005 
Check in the "Releases download" section for a post called "NSurvey V1.7 sources" I can't really be much more specific than that in the post title, the post is listed just above the "NSurvey's License Agreement" post and contains the following file : NSurvey17_sources.zip - 2,857 KB
 
Note that regarding Webchart its done by someone else so sources for this dll are not available.
As I said I always have a few days delay so v1.8's full one should be up this weekend ...

NSurvey V1.7 is now available from the release download section.
 
As always many new cool features added in this release. I've re-factored some part of the answer item architecture to support current and up-coming new features, also added lots of new events to let you develop and customize the main surveybox as you whish without having to touch the core, all samples provided along with the MSI installer.
 
One of my favorite feature in this v1.7 release is the new publisher / subscriber model I've added. I'll post a how to / tutorial about it in the coming days to let you know all the details about how exactly it works, but you can already have a look at it once you install v1.7 and import the provided ASP.net feedback sample in the FormSamples directory. Select United states in the country listbox and you will already see what I mean
 
Other cool features include the new RegEx library that you can create and assign any regex to any answer type supporting regex validation and many more features ... Check the change log below :
 
Added tons of new events to implement and customize the main surveybox control. Check the asp.net sample pages provided with the MSI in the program files/nsurvey directory
Insert question at page level options inserts now always the question at the end of the page
DefaultText property has been moved up to the base AnswerItem abstract class
New RenderMode property added to let question, answer type developers know in which mode the control is currently rendering
Hidden fields can now be displayed and edited by the admin in the voter report edition mode
Publisher / subscriber model to let answer items publish their posted answers to other   answer items
Subscriber Xml list answer type that can dynamically load the correct Xml file based on a publisher answer value (eg: country xml list publisher)
Added new regions Xml files (ch, fr, de, uk, pt, it, es) to give some "food" to the new subscriber model
Survey can be ended at any time using a branching rule
New "take survey" right added to let the user access a page where only the survey form is shown
New NSurvey security context addin to prevent double submissions for logged NSurvey users 
You can now manage a regular expression library with your favorite regular expressions
Answer types that support it (eg: Field types ...) can be validated against a regular expression
Mandatory answer can be set on an individual basis for answer types that support it (eg: field types, xml-sql types ...)
Import users feature to let you import your existing users lists into nsurvey using a simple CSV format
 
Fixed
Email invitation page did always take the email and contact info from the user and not new one specified in the form manually
User unassigned surveys was causing a crash when survey was already assigned to another user
Score point wasn't stored with newly created answers
Xml Import was crashing if keys retrieved from db on import where already existing in the Xml
Date conversions when used on a localised SQL server installation should be fixed for good
Xsd definition for xml datasource answer items xml files has been changed and is not compatible with previous versions
Import / export xsd for surveys / questions has been changed and is not compatible with previous versions
Sql datasource of imported xml surveys / questions answer types didn't get cleared when user who was importing them didn't have the right to have Sql type
Clone didn't assign the cloned survey to the user who cloned it
….

 
NSurvey v1.8
Thursday, January 20, 2005
This release has, again, some cool and unique features ... From the integration of the FreeTextBox component in your forms to an advanced file upload type and the new amazing repeatable section features, NSurvey gives you all the power you need to create, manage and enjoy your surveys or forms. Cool, my favorite free Web Survey tool has rev'ed... It's getting better and cooler with each release.
 
Posted 1/20/2005 07:11:00 AM   
 
NSurvey v1.8
Posted by: Tom Z. on January 18, 2005
The 1.8 version of NSurvey a free, open source survey / form engine for ASP.NET is now available. New features range from a new answer types architecture to an easy way to build a complete data entry form.
 
New to this release are the possibility to integrate, using the new extended answer item architecture, the FreeTextBox component into your nsurvey forms or
to include an advanced file upload type.
 
You can now also turn your forms into a complete data entry system by allowing the end user to "duplicates" your question's answer items at will.
 
You can find the full release log here or try the tool from here.

Thursday, January 20, 2005,
NSurvey v1.8 is now available free .net survey software solutions web based NSurvey v1.8 is now available from the release download section.  This release has, again, some cool and unique features ...
 
From the integration of the FreeTextBox component in your forms to an advanced file upload type
and the new amazing repeatable section features, NSurvey gives you all the power you need to create, manage and enjoy your surveys or forms. ... Cool, my favorite free Web Survey tool has rev'ed... It's getting better and cooler with each release. (via TheServerSide.NET - NSurvey v1.8 released) Posted 1/20/2005 07:11:00 AM    

NSurvey v1.8 is now available from the release download section.
 This release has, again, some cool and unique features ... From the integration of the FreeTextBox component in your forms to an advanced file upload type and the new amazing repeatable section features, NSurvey gives you all the power you need to create, manage and enjoy your surveys or forms.
 
Here is a the detailed changes log :
All FreeTextBox controls have been updated to its latest 3.0 version
New File upload type to let user upload files his files to the server
File manager to manage all files uploaded for a form
Batch export uploaded files to the server
New rich textbox answer type based on FreeTextBox (http://web.archive.org/web/20050204061053/http://www.freetextbox.com/)
Answer items can now be extended with any number of .net types using the new ExtendedAnswerItem base class
Languages resources are now plain and easy to edit Xml files, hugly bin resources are not supported anymore
Added more robust error handling and logging features for invitation mailing
Voter answers in export, reporting are now also based on the section in which they were entered
Question's answer sections can now be set as "repeatable" answers to let the end user repeat the section
Repeatable grid mode to show all entered answer sections in a compact and user friendly grid
You can choose which answers column to show in the repeatable grid mode
Matrix required min / max selection are not for the whole matrix anymore but are now counted on per row basis
New "Entry number limitation" security addin that allows you to set and limit the maximal numbers of entries to your form
Fixed
Limited NVarchar(4000) type for user's answers has been replaced by ntext type
Even if disabled question numbering was reappearing when using back navigation
Client side script validation wasn't working on some non IE browsers
Default focus() call on javascript validation has been removed as it was conflicting with some third party answer items which didn't support focus on client side
Changed the Email client side validation regex pattern for a more powerful one
When multiple instances of the surveybox control were used on the same page, page numbering wasn't reset after answers submission causing last page to reapear when a post was done on another surveybox control
UnInitOnSurveyRemoval() didnt get called on security addin when it was removed
CSV export file wasn't reconized correctly when newline were in the answer text……


NSurvey 1.9
Posted by: Tom Z. on April 03, 2005
NSurvey is a free, open source survey and form engine for ASP.NET. New features of NSurvey 1.9 include extended reporting capabilities and the ability to create multi-lingual forms.
 
NSurvey 1.9 addresses a highly requested feature by supporting the ability to create multi-lingual forms. In addition, it extends result filtering, adds new reporting capabilities, and resolves numerous bugs. Future project plans include providing a module of NSurvey 1.9 for DotNetNuke 3.0, a popular, open source content management system written in VB. The full release log for NSurvey 1.9 is available here.
 
Monday, April 04, 2005 NSurvey 1.9
 
V1.9 is another step toward the goal to match enterprise and indivual needs with a free professional survey and form application.
 
NSurvey supports now one of the most requested feature which is the capability to create multi-languages forms. The core engine has been updated to support this is an easy and intuitive way to use. Creating a single form in English, French or any other language is not a problem anymore.
 
A new tutorial / documentation section will also open very soon to help you with all cool and 'hidden' nsurvey features using the excellent flash demo generator from http://www.instant-demo.com/ .
 
Meanwhile here is the complete change list of v1.9 :
 
New features:
NSurvey's form engine has been fully updated to support multi-languages forms
User languages can be prompted or detected automatically from cookie, browser, session or query string variable
Results can be filtered by a specific date range
Results can be filtered by the language choosen by the user
IMPORTANT change on the Addin's interface, a new LanguageCode property has been added to allow multi-language addin's
Parent matrix questions text is now show along the child question's text in the results
Xml language resource file naming is now based also on the full name (eg: en-US -> en-US.xml). In case the full name is not available the engine will try to load the file based on the two letter name (eg: en -> en.xml). This allows a greater flexibilty for multi-region languages like arabic, chinese etc ....
Results can be shown as Pie chart graphics
Branching and skip rules are now also cloned in the clone process ..."
 
If you're doing surveys at work/on your site/etc (how I hate the "Fill out the attached Word doc survey and email it back" surveys) or if you are interested in seeing the code for a cool ASP.Net project you should check this out. Posted 4/04/2005 09:05:00 AM   

Fixed
Thanks message got deleted when settings were update
Other text given by users wasn't shown in the report or email report
Fixed the statistics page bug when database was localized in some specific languages
Overall questions order was shuffled when a matrix child question was deleted
 
Nsurvey 1.9.1.
……

Nsurvey 2.0

NSurvey goes 2.0,
shifts to mixed license model I've used it, and the limitations on the UI front does not merit a high price tag.
Thursday, November 24, 20051:38 PM by Anon

NSurvey goes 2.0, shifts to mixed license model
 
The older open-source versions of NSurvey are still available. I have taken on the role as project administrator to revive this project. Thomas has changed his commercial version name to accommodate this. A VB.NET version of NSurvey 1.6 will be release soon. Improved versions to follow as developers join this new workspace on gotdotnet.com.
 
Friday, August 11, 2006 5:27 PM by carsinger


Nsurvey 2.0.1.
Friday, November 18, 20056:27:37 AM in NSurvey 2.0.1 available
 
Just a quick refresh of the previous release with bug fixes and most important thing its finally working also under .net 2.0
 
Fixed
- Matrix columns were not updated correctly when rating was disabled
- Graphics handlers for graphic generation in reports were missing
- All parts that were causing problems with .NET 2.0 have been fixed or fully rewritten


NSurvey 2.1
Thursday, December 29, 2005 5:23:23 PM 
This release offers, finally, a complete end-user documentation including contextual help in the administration sections and flash tutorials.
It offers also a brand new edition interface for matrix style questions and new advanced report items.
 
New features
Multi-answers reach report item to know how many single voters have answered combinations of answers in multi-choices questions
Matrix report item to show matrix's child question in "one shoot" along with the average rating for the whole matrix
Surveys using the survey.aspx file are not using the surveyid anymore but a random generated unique id for better survey privacy.
ASP.net code pages have been re-designed and renamed as "deployment pages" for ease of use
Reports can be "deployed" to public using a link to the nreport.aspx file
Conditional rules for branching, skip logic and thanks message are now also exported with the Xml survey export feature
Items with fields are now shown by default "from left (label) to right (field)" on the same line. Old format "top to bottom" is still available by changing the question settings "field layout"
Moving / edit pages and questions is maintaining the original question / page position on the browser to avoid having to scroll back to the question / page moved
Logging of respondents IPs can be disabled
Average time take by the respondents on a survey is now available
Contextual help
Full user-guide including Flash based tutorials

Fixed
Branching rules did not get deleted along with pages that didnt exist anymore
Matrix was causing form builder to break if no column / row was specified
Installer SQL script had collaction problems causing it to crash on some systems
Users with only survey assigned through groups were unable to edit questions in the form builder
Long text entries was causing the crash of the free text report item
Token generator & status page rights were not correctly setup in the database
Missing Role manager and Import Manager right in the database
Total rating was including answers that were not tagged as rate part
 
NSurvey Community License
Free fully functional non commercial license with branded nsurvey logo and limited to 2 simultaneous web connections that fits for small to mid-size traffic surveys. Included for free with any nsurvey installation.
NSurvey History

The SP™ webapplication is based and built upon the sourcecode of the open source NSurvey software.

Web research resulted in  the following historical data on releases of the SP™ predecessor.

It is presented to give some idea of the long development history of the current version, its origin and give credit to all contributors in the past and present.