SurveyCTO Desktop release notes

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug that was preventing users from validating form definitions with non-latin characters in their file names.
• Fixed a bug that was preventing users from sharing forms via local wi-fi in case they had been previously installed via the offline form validation feature.
• Fixed a bug that was preventing users from sharing forms via local wi-fi in case their filenames contained non-latin characters.

Improvements

• Implemented a more detailed and comprehensive logging mechanism in order to provide more visibility to application crashes and issues in general.
• Improved the macOS and Linux builds so that they will no longer need to depend on local Python installations.
• Updated several dependencies to address potential security vulnerabilities.

Improvements

• Modernized the technology that is used to digitally sign the Windows build.
• Modernized the technology that is used to notarize the macOS build.
• Discontinued the 32-bit build for Windows.

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug that was opening a second instance of Desktop for some users.
• Fixed a bug that was preventing choice labels from being exported when they belonged to select_one and select_multiple fields with a choice_filter configured.

Improvements

• Improved the code that handles the SSO authentication to be more robust.

• Fixed a regression from 2.80.1 that was preventing external process from running after data exports.
• Fixed a bug that was preventing users from navigating to Desktop logs via the app's menu.
• Fixed the header of the About window to render the OS-specific controls.

• Fixed a bug that was preventing users from exporting data when the form definition contained a trigger field.
• Improved the way export errors are displayed to be clearer.
• Updated several dependencies to address potential security vulnerabilities.

• Improved the UI for offline form validations for macOS users on Monterey and newer macOS versions, for which Python 2 is deprecated by Apple.
• Updated some 3rd-party libraries to improve security.

• Added support for the new enumerator field type, including enumerator counts in data export reports and offline form validation for the enumerator-id() and enumerator-name() functions.
• Fixed mail merges to work when images are embedded in templates.
• Increased the maximum allowable form version from 2147483647 to 9999999999 (when validating form definitions offline).

• Improved the export process so that missing data will not be indexed when the Export missing data? option is disabled. This will make the export process faster in this case, but the names of missing fields will not appear in the sync log.
• Increased the maximum allowable form version from 2147483647 to 9999999999 (when syncing with the server).

• Major performance improvements for exporting data, especially for very large forms and datasets.
• Added a new export option to allow exporting 'missing' data (data from fields that were renamed or removed).

• Updated terminology: "desktops" are now called "workspaces".
• Added support for the new server option to restrict API access.
• Improved the way login errors are displayed to be more clear.

• Added a new Skip existing attachments export option.
• Added support for using encryption keys directly from the clipboard (instead of requiring them to be stored as key files).
• Export reports will now indicate if an export completed with errors.
• Added more detail to the progress indicator during exports to help with huge exports that take a long time to reach 1%.
• Updated several dependencies to address potential security vulnerabilities.

• Improved the number format used for datetime fields when exporting to Excel.
• Fixed a bug with the way sync logs are stored. The Save to disk option now saves the full sync log, instead of just the most-recent 100k.

• Fixed a bug with loading the Manage language labels modal directly from Desktop settings > Export options.

• Added the ability to export form data directly to .xlsx format.
• Added the ability to export choice labels in addition to choice values.
• Fixed the "About SurveyCTO Desktop" button in the sidebar.

• Added an alternative method for supplying the private key when exporting data. You can now paste a private key directly from your clipboard, instead of browsing for a key file stored on your computer.
• Fixed an issue that could cause an "unsafe browser" warning to appear when trying to log in with SSO using an @gmail.com email address.

• Added support for external viewers to be able to download and export data (so long as they were granted download access).
• Added support for a variety of new functions for form designers, like empty(), sum-if(), and count-items().
• Fixed the date in the export report to show up properly for all user locales.
• Fixed SurveyCTO Desktop to no longer require the "Can see datasets" permission in order to export form data.
• Made the export process safer and more reliable when exporting encrypted submissions with missing attachments. This includes cases where these submissions were silently ignored during export.

• Dramatically improved the performance of exporting large .sav files from SurveyCTO Desktop.
• Fixed a bug that would prevent value labels for select_one fields with filtered choices from being included in .sav file exports for SPSS.
• Made the export process safer and more reliable when exporting encrypted submissions with missing attachments. This includes cases where the following error message was printed in the sync log: "URIError: URI malformed".

• Removed the timeout that would automatically retry transfers that didn't complete within 60 seconds so that people downloading large attachments over slow connections wouldn't get stuck retrying all the time.

• Made significant improvements to the performance of exporting large encrypted form datasets, which were previously causing Desktop to freeze.

• Improved the startup performance by not checking for Python. Mac and Linux versions will now check for Python only when attempting to use a feature that requires Python. Windows versions do not need Python.
• Enabled file compression for .sav files when exporting for SPSS. This should greatly decrease the file size and allow SPSS to run faster when working with .sav files exported from SurveyCTO Desktop.
• Made the default file location for local storage smarter.
• The Export options panel will now auto-collapse when you begin exporting data.
• Exported .sav files can now be opened by PSPP (an open-source alternative to SPSS).
• Added support for OpenJDK for internal features that require Java.
• Added events in the logs to track Internet connection errors when downloading data from the server.
• Fixed a bug that was truncating the "missing value" substitution in cases where it was longer than the rest of the data.

• SurveyCTO Desktop will now check for updates automatically and can download and install them for you.
• SurveyCTO Desktop for Linux now uses the .AppImage file format instead of .snap, which should make it much easier for most users to run.
• Improvements to font sizes and formatting across the app.
• New and improved interface for the Local WiFi Sync feature.
• Improved the internal log messages to be more descriptive and helpful in identifying issues.
• Cleaned up some code dependencies to remove vulnerabilities.

• Optimized the code that processes attachments during export to dramatically improve performance.
• Added support for specifying the CSV and Stata directories when generating Stata .do files from the Design tab. When accessed from within Desktop, this feature will allow you to browse your computer directly.
• Added 'find in page' functionality throughout SurveyCTO Desktop.
• Fixed a bug that would apply the 'missing' value to geopoint fields instead of the 'blank' value when exporting.
• Improved some minor warning messages so that they appear temporarily at the bottom of the screen, instead of interrupting your work with a popup.
• Added support for connecting to self-hosted servers within certain strict firewalled environments.
• Other improvements behind the scenes to make SurveyCTO Desktop run more smoothly and reliably.

• Fixed a bug in how 'blank' values are exported for temporal and binary fields (any fields that involve time or attachments).

• Fixed a startup timing issue that could prevent some users from being able to open Desktop.

• Improved the main sync interface to show a summary of what was selected at each step, once you have passed it.
• Fixed SPSS exports to flag missing values, either using the values configured in Desktop’s export settings (when valid), or using default values.
• Improved the optional feature that replaces missing values to skip the replacement for legitimately blank values (fields that did appear for respondents, but were left blank).
• Improved how Desktop interacts with SurveyCTO servers, in order to begin syncing data faster and have less performance impact on the servers.
• Fixed Desktop to merge corrections to form data into Microsoft Excel when appropriate.
• Fixed Desktop to allow syncing of form or dataset data even if the user doesn’t have sufficient access to both forms and datasets.

• Removed Python distribution from the Mac and Linux packages, making them considerably smaller (Mac and Linux users should already have Python 2.7 installed).
• Notarized the Mac package so that it will install without warnings.
• Fixed the export of encrypted forms to work when attachments are configured to be ignored.
• Fixed the .sav exports for SPSS to truncate long choice labels at the supported maximum (120 bytes).
• Fixed the .sav exports for SPSS to be usable even if no submissions are included (only the variables will be included).
• Added Refresh, Back, and Forward options into Desktop’s browser windows (when using the server console, managing the subscription, etc.).
• Added the ability to include the “review_status” field in Excel exports, KML exports, and .csv subsets.
• Fixed offline sync (via local wi-fi) to include data for the instanceID and KEY fields.
• Fixed offline sync (via local wi-fi) to be able to receive encrypted form submissions.
• Improved the interface for when the wrong private key is used to decrypt data (to show a helpful error message and abort sooner).
• Changed to warn rather than abort with an error when configured to run processes in the “thenrun” folder, but the folder is missing.
• Fixed the Desktop application to start on Linux distributions (like Deepin) that had been getting an error on start-up.
• Fixed those features that require Java to work on Linux systems (mail-merge, offline form validation, and Sync preferences migration).

• Fixed a problem when clearing forms from the local storage would cause an error if the form ID was very long.
• Fixed a problem migrating SurveyCTO Sync settings for users whose Sync local storage conatained form definitions with warnings or errors.