Under the Hood - Automate EZSurvey

EZSurvey can take command-line parameters for automation. Note the symbol is the logical "OR" operator. Choose one of the options. The syntax for these parameters is:

EZSurvey [command] OPEN=project.ezf NAME=VALUE "NAME=VALUE WITH SPACES"

If an option includes embedded spaces, place quotation marks around the entire section, as in the second parameter above.
Here is a list of operations:

READMAIL OPEN=project.ezf
DATA=1.txt,2.txt,3.txt,...
DELETE=10

Imports mail from the specified text files into an EZSurvey project database. Delete=1 causes the text files to be deleted after they are imported. Normally, they are renamed.

READMAIL OPEN=project.ezf
DATA=c:\data\*.txt
DELETE=10

Imports all the text files in the specified directory into an EZSurvey project database. Delete=1 causes the text files to be deleted after they are imported. Normally, they are renamed.

READMAIL DELETE 10
Reads all incoming messages from the email inbox, saving database messages according to the current email setup settings. This reads all the available data for all EZSurvey forms at the same time. Delete=1 causes messages to be deleted after they are read.

WEBSETUP
OPEN=project.ezf

Runs the interactive web setup program, which sets up a form for use with a web server.

READWEB OPEN=project.ezf
Reads incoming data from the web server, for the form specified by the OPEN tag.

EXPORT
OPEN=project.ezf
FILE=out.asc

Exports the data for a project to destfile, using the formatting specified with the FORMAT tag.

FORMAT=htmltabcommapipefixed
The default format is tab-separated text.

[REPLACE=10]
Replace indicates whether to replace form codes with descriptive labels.

[APPEND=10]
Append adds to an existing file.

[UNIX=10]
UNIX uses UNIX instead of DOS linefeeds

[FIELDS=q1,q2,q3,q4]
Fields is a comma-delimited list of the fields to export. Omit this tag to convert the entire database.

COMMAND=SUMMARY
OPEN=project.ezf
FILE=out.pdf

Generates an analysis summary of an EZSurvey project, saving it as a PDF file.

TYPE=[1:table2:pie3:vbar4:hbar]
YAXIS=[10]
YLABEL=[10]
XAXIS=[10]
XLABEL=[10]
etc....

The format tag indicates the type of graph to produce. Vbar is a vertical bar chart, Hbar is a horizontal bar chart. Other options may be copied from the Summary section of EZSurvey files.

STATS OPEN=project.ezf
FILE=out.asc

Generates the statistics table for an EZSurvey project, saving it as a tab-delimited ASCII file.

COMMENTS OPEN=project.ezf
FILE=out.txt

Saves all the write-in comments for an EZSurvey project in a text file.

RANKLIST OPEN=project.ezf
FILE=out.asc

Generates the analysis table for rank-list questions in an EZSurvey project, saving it as a tab-delimited ASCII file.

SENDMAIL RECIP=to
ATTACH=file
SUBJECT=s
[DATA=message.txt]

Sends an email message. If the message data is incomplete, it will open a message composer window.


Some tags are available for all the command-line tools. They are:

QUIT - Shuts down EZSurvey after completing your request

QUIET - Don't show the startup splash screen

HOME=c:\mydirectory - Sets c:\mydirectory as the home directory. EZSurvey will look for its resources in the directory c:\mydirectory\rsrc\

HELPDIR=c:\help\ezsurvey - Look for help in the directory c:\help\ezsurvey

RSRC=c:\rsrc - Look for web resource files in the directory c:\rsrc