Survey versions

Survey versions are save points of your work from a survey. A single survey can have multiple versions that can be used to test changes on a version before making it available to survey takers. For example, you might create a version of a survey for internal review, and then create another version with changes made based on review feedback.

A survey version defines the pages, questions, choice sets, and all configurable aspects from the Survey editor. When a new version of a survey is created, it initially only exists in Medallia Experience Cloud; synchronizing a version copies it over to the Survey engine. Synchronizing also copies supporting survey related data to the Survey engine, such as Survey designs, Translations, Units, and Choice sets.

Survey version on the surveys details pane.

Restriction: Ad Hoc surveys do not support versions. For more information, see Create a survey.

Versions screen

The Surveys screen details pane has several tabs that contain relevant survey information, including a Details tab that summarizes the most important information of a survey. In there, you find the following version thumbnails:

Most recent version — Save points of your work. For example, you might create a version of a survey for internal review, and then create another version with changes made based on review feedback.
Default version — Version of the survey that is distributed via a personalized invitation. When your survey is ready to distribute to survey takers, make one of the versions the Default version. You can change which version is the Default version at any time. For information about how Default versions are sent to recipients, see Survey distribution.

Hover over each of the version thumbnails and click Preview to generate a preview link.

Most recent version and Default version from the survey details pane menu

To see all existing versions of a survey, click Manage in the survey details pane. The All versions screen lists all the available versions of the survey, along with details such as their name, ID, status, when it was created and last synchronized. Click the version menu to manage a version.

All survey versions screen.

Create and manage survey versions

To create a version, complete these steps:

From the Survey editor structure pane, click Create version.
Give the version a name and, optionally, a description.
Optionally, select Automatically sync the latest changes to synchronize the version automatically every five minutes. See Synchronize versions for more details.
Important: Survey versions must be synchronized after any changes are made to a survey or its supporting data, for both feedless and feeded surveys. If survey versions are not synchronized and invites are triggered, surveys remain in the READY_FOR_SE status and are not distributed. Medallia recommends enabling the Automatically sync the latest changes configuration option.
Click Save.

Create a new version from the survey editor.

This stores the current state of the draft as a version and lets you give it a name. A single draft exists for each survey. When you make changes to an element in a survey (for example a question, a page, or the survey itself), this updates the draft with those changes, even when exiting the survey editor. Versions of a survey exist as snapshots and changes done through the survey editor affect only the survey draft, not the other versions, unless you specifically perform certain actions, such as Restore a version to draft or Update a version from draft.

Manage versions

To manage version, click Manage in the Details tab of the survey details pane to access the All versions screen. Click the version menu to manage a version. External supporting data for a version can be changed at any time; versions always reference the latest of these changes. However, version must be synchronized before the changes can be seen in a live survey.

Set a default version

Default version is the version that is sent using a personalized invitation via email. These are customized for each recipient based on prior existing data, and are typically event-based surveys.

To choose a survey version and set it as default:

From Surveys screen, select a survey you want to make it the Default version.
Click its version menu.
Select Set as default version. All new Rules will use that Default survey version to send Invitation emails. Note that changing the Default version to other version immediately affects all new Invitation emails.
Click Yes, Make default.
If the version to set as default is neither the Most recent version nor the Default one, click Manage on the survey details pane to access the All versions screen. Click the version menu and select Set as Default.

Synchronize versions

Sync version copies a survey version and its supporting related data, such as survey designs, translations, language rules, units, parameters, etc., over the Survey engine. The Survey engine is responsible for building the survey instances based on conditions and presenting them to survey takers. You can change the supporting data linked to a survey version at any time, and synchronize the version again to push the changes.

To synchronize a version:

From Surveys screen, select a survey to synchronize.
Click its version menu.
Select Sync version.
Click Sync.
If the version to sync is neither the Most recent version nor the Default one, click Manage next to Versions in the details tab of the survey details pane to access the All versions screen. Click the version menu and select Sync.

Important: Survey versions must be synchronized after any changes are made to a survey or its supporting data, for both feedless and feeded surveys. If survey versions are not synchronized and invites are triggered, surveys remain in the READY_FOR_SE status and are not distributed. Medallia recommends enabling the Automatically sync the latest changes configuration option.

To configure the version so that it is synchronized automatically every five minutes:

From Surveys screen, select a survey to synchronize.
Click its version menu.
Select Edit version details.
Select Automatically sync the latest changes.
Click Save.

Create live survey links

Live links publish survey versions as Anonymous surveys. A single survey version can have multiple links, where each can use a different design to change how the survey looks through that link. For more information, see Survey link screen.

Live links in surveys details pane.

Create a live link

From Surveys screen, select the survey you want to create a link for.
Click its version menu.
Select Create live survey link.
Give the live link a unique name. For example, setting the link name to contact-center-v2 makes the Live link URL for the survey https://survey.medallia.com/?contact-center-v2.

Restriction: Live links can have a maximum of 22 characters, and can include letters, numbers, and hyphens (-).
Confirm the survey version or choose another from the available dropdown options.
Optionally, set the look and feel of the survey by selecting a design and variation. If none is chosen, no style is assigned to the survey.
Optionally, click Show advanced settings to block the Anonymous survey link and add a referrer. For more information, see Survey link screen.
Click Save.

Create a live link dialog.

Important: When using a same survey for both Anonymous links and Personalized invitations, use separate survey versions. Using the same version for both type of surveys causes issues.

Create preview survey links

Preview links (previously known as Reusable surveys) are shareable, reusable URLs that do not generate live survey records. Use Preview links to review and test the different variations of your surveys. To view all the links that have been created for a survey and the version that each points at, click Manage next to the number of links on the survey details pane, on the Details tab.

Preview links on the survey details pane.

Create preview links

From Surveys screen, select the survey you want to preview.
Click its version menu.
Select Create preview survey link.
Give the preview survey link a unique name. By default, all Preview links have the company name prepended. For example, setting the link name to europe makes the URL for the survey https://survey.medallia.com/?orion-europe.

Restriction: Preview links can have a maximum of 22 characters, and can include letters, numbers, and hyphens (-). However, they cannot be created if they share the same URL as a Live link that already exists on Survey engine.

Note: This is not required when creating a preview link from the Survey editor.
Confirm the survey version or choose another from the available dropdown options.

Note: This is not required when creating a preview link from the Survey editor.
Optionally, set the look and feel of the survey by selecting a design and variation.

If none is chosen, one of the available designs is randomly assigned to preview the survey.
Optionally, select any available fields and values to populate the Preview survey. If no specific values are entered, random values are assigned to preview the survey.

For example, if the survey version you're generating the Preview link from includes a question such as How satisfied were you with your service appointment on [=e_svc_appt_date]?, you might want to generate a Preview link assigning the field e_svc_appt_date a value (for example, 2022/11/1) to replicate the how survey taker would see it.

Restriction: Field dropdown only lists Event fields.
Optionally, click Show advanced settings to enter a Unique Survey ID and assign fields to match those of a specific survey on the Preview survey link.

Important: When filling both Field assignments and Assign Fields based on a existing survey ID, Field assignments prevail.
After click Create, click the link to view the survey.
If the version to create a preview link from is neither the Most recent version nor the Default one, click Manage next to Versions in the Details tab of the survey details pane to access the All versions screen. Click the version menu and select Create preview survey link.

Manage Preview survey links

By default, this list is sorted in descending order by last modified link.

From All preview links screen, choose the survey link and click

its menu to:

View: View the entire preview URL.
Edit: Access the same options as when creating a new preview link. This includes changing the associated survey version or the design.
Re-push: Synchronizes all supporting data (designs, values for dropdowns, translations) with the Survey engine. For more information, see Synchronize versions.
Important: Re-pushing preview link also synchronizes the Live survey link that uses the same version.
Delete preview link: Completely remove the preview link. Attempting to reach the URL after this should return an error screen.

Preview Link screen displays all preview links generated for a survey.

Warning: Do not reuse a version from sandbox to production (and vice-versa) as it may lead to version instability. If a sandbox re-pushes its survey version, it overwrites the versions for the other sandboxes.

Restore a version to draft

Restore a version to draft allows for undoing the changes done on Draft by overwriting the Draft structure and content with that of the chosen version. Consequently, Draft should look the same in terms of structure and content as the version selected to restore.

From Surveys screen, select the survey to revert.
Click its version menu.
Select Restore version to draft.
Click Restore.
If the version to restore is neither the Most recent version nor the Default one, click Manage next to Versions in the Details tab of the survey details pane to access the All versions screen. Click the version menu and select Restore to draft.
Note: Restoring a version to draft loses all the changes the Draft had before reverting.

Update a version from draft

Update an existing survey (previously known as Update and push survey spec) overwrites a survey version to match the current Draft. This comes in useful to correct mistakes on live surveys (for example, fixing a typo) and prevent survey takers from accessing wrong information. Additionally, if there is a specific existing survey version used for a particular purpose (such as testing), that specific existing version can be updated with what's in the current Draft.

From Surveys screen, select the survey to update.
Click its version menu.
Select Update version from draft.
Click Update version. This overwrites the chosen version structure with that of the Draft.
If the version to update is neither the Most recent version nor the Default one, click Manage next to Versions in the Details tab of the survey details pane to access the All versions screen. Click the version menu and select Update from draft.

Warning: This also affects live surveys using the version that was updated from Draft

Restriction: For security purposes, Default version cannot be updated from Draft.

Download and upload versions

Export (download) survey versions to files on your local drive to then import (upload) them into another instance. This is particularly useful when migrating a survey version from a sandbox instance to a production instance.

To download a version

From Surveys screen, select the survey to download.
Click its version menu.
Select Download version.
Click Download.
If the version to restore is neither the Most recent version nor the Default one, click Manage next to Versions in the Details tab of the survey details pane to access the All versions screen. Click the version menu and select Download.

Warning: For versions generated by the survey editor preview, change the default given version name before saving to avoid download being canceled.

To upload a version:

From Surveys screen, select the survey that will hold the new version. Make sure that it already contains the same fields and parameters of the survey to upload.
Click the details pane menu and select Upload version.
Select a .msf file from a previously exported survey. Consequently, the newly uploaded version becomes the Most recent version. To edit this version, restore this version to draft.

Tip: Medallia Survey Format (.msf) files cannot be opened and are not editable.