Data storage

[uk101989]

Hello,

I have a question regarding the storage of collected questionnaire data.
Are participants' responses stored locally (e.g. cached) if the internet connection is temporarily unavailable and then uploaded once the connection is restored, or is a continuous internet connection required while completing the questionnaire to ensure that no data are lost?
Thank you in advance for your clarification.

[SelinaDev]

Hi there!

Yes, the ESMira smartphone application will cache responses and events locally. If the connection fails (or the server responds with an error), the application will not mark the affected datasets as uploaded, and will try so again at a later time. Usually that's when opening the application again, or every hour in the background (provided the OS doesn't kill the background process). Since the application doesn't need a server connection for most of it's functionality, a user can for the most part theoretically complete a study completely offline, and only upload after completing the study.

You can try this out yourself by setting your smartphone into airplane mode (or otherwise disable any internet connection), open ESMira, complete a questionnaire or two, then tap "Upload Protocol" on the dashboard. You should see green checkmarks for previously uploaded datasets, and a clock icon for pending uploads. Once you reactivate your connection, you should at some later point see green checkmarks for all datasets.

I hope that clears things up.
Best,
Selina

[uk101989]

Thanks for the quick reply!