Version History

Previous to Lighthouse Studio version 9.0.0, Lighthouse Studio was called “SSI Web.” Please see the SSI Web downloads page for older versions.

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Version 9 History

Fixes:

  1. Fixed issue with respondent identifiers not allowing hyphens or other punctuation characters. This was introduced in v9.15.2.
  2. Fixed various issues in downloading or viewing data in 9.15.2 related to text entered by respondents and saved with HTML encoding.
  3. Fixed an issue where popup Javascript scripts do not work properly. This was introduced in v9.15.2.
  4. Fixed an issue where Admin Module reports encounter errors. This was introduced in v9.15.2.
  5. Fixed an issue where after updating to a new version, the spell checker dictionary location no longer exists. This was introduced in 9.15.0.
  6. Fixed an issue where the segmentation combinatorial setting is not saved. This was introduced in 9.15.2.
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Features & Improvements:

  1. Segmentation in the Choice Simulator has changed. Previously multiple segments were combined into segments representing each combination of the variables. Now segments are reported independently be default; however, the combinatorial style may still be used.
  2. In Lighthouse Studio 9.15.0, an error was added when two or more list items or attribute levels have the same display text and the same (or no) internal label. Having them can cause issues later where the two cannot be distinguished. In v9.15.2, due to user feedback this has been changed to a warning. It is still recommended to use unique internal labels.
  3. Willingness to Pay scenarios can now use N/A as a custom reference value.
  4. Security updates for Perl runtime.

Fixes:

  1. Fixed issue with SortByLabel function where labels beginning with 'Inf' were incorrectly placed at the end of the list.
  2. Fixed an issue the Choice Simulator where the same scenario would appear to give different results.
  3. Fixed an issue where manual upload does not obfuscate the .qst file correctly. Introduced in v9.15.0.
  4. Fixed an issue with Latent Class where removing the none option causes an error after estimation.
  5. Fixed issue with the Grid Wizard not closing at the end. Introduced in v9.15.0.
  6. Fixed an issue where merged variables were being checked for the same requirements as user identifiers. Introduced in v9.14.0.
  7. Fixed an issue with Genetic Search where removing the none option results in an error when running the simulation.
  8. Fixed an issue uploading unique identifiers and merged variables where the Max Respondent column is missing or blank. Introduced in v9.14.0.
  9. Fixed an issue with SPSS export of floating point numbers reporting the length is too long.
  10. Fixed an issue where moving an conditional price/display table up or down will cause LHS to crash. Introduced in v9.15.0.
  11. Fixed an issue where CBC merged rows can only edit the first row. Introduced in v9.15.0.
  12. Fixed an issue where export errors are not reported in the grid. Introduced in v9.15.0.
  13. Fixed an issue where MaxDiff item format settings are not seen in the survey. Introduced in v9.8.0.
  14. Fixed an issue with running WTP scenarios when there are conditional price tables. Introduced in v9.11.0.
  15. Fixed an issue creating scenarios when there are conditional price tables. Introduced in v9.11.0.
  16. Fixed an issue using the Spell Checker with certain Unicode characters. Introduced in v9.15.0.
  17. Fixed an issue where all files are not uploaded to the web server. Introduced in v9.15.0.
  18. Fixed an issue where a prohibition is reported in the scenario if both alt-spec rules and conditional price tables are used.
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Features & Improvements:

  1. Lighthouse Studio now offers the ability to spell check your project.
  2. CBC Test Design has been improved and is now displayed in a grid report which can be saved to Excel.
  3. The Choice Simulator has a new extrapolation limit setting for Willingness to Pay scenarios.
  4. The Choice Simulator now allows running cost searches without a price attribute.
  5. MaxDiff now has a single CSV export for use with CBC/HB or CBC/LC.
  6. Various temporary folders used for uploading or other tasks now use the Windows Temp folder instead of the project folder. This helps problems encountered when using network drives or cloud-based folders such as Dropbox.
  7. Added shortcut keys to various windows to improve ability to use windows without a mouse.

Fixes:

  1. Fixed problem with ranking question borders not displaying correctly. Introduced in v9.8.0.
  2. Fixed issue with text not saving for 'Redirect after button click' option in termination questions. Introduced in v9.14.0.
  3. Fixed issue with ACBC Must Have per-attribute labels causing a crash. Introduced in v9.14.2.
  4. Fixed database error when running surveys because of undefined Unique IDs. Introduced in v9.14.0.
  5. Fixed issue with survey receiving error 240 because a question or exercise is on the same page as the login, which is not allowed. Introduced in v9.14.0.
  6. Fixed issue in CVA where the single response minimum and maximum value settings in Lighthouse were not being saved. Introduced in SSI Web v8.
  7. Fixed issue in ACBC where moving list items would cause a crash. Introduced in v9.14.2.
  8. Fixed issue in Willingness to Pay where results appeared wrong when values were extrapolated and conditional pricing was used. Introduced in v9.11.0.
  9. Fixed issue where pre-skips were able to be created on login pages, which are not allowed. Introduced in v9.14.0.
  10. Fixed issue where loops on the first page were not shown in Test Survey. Introduced in v9.14.0.
  11. Fixed issue in Willingness to Pay where results differed depending on whether a default value was specified or not. Introduced in v9.11.0.
  12. Fixed issue with Question Library folders causing a crash. Introduced in v9.14.2.
  13. Fixed issue with browser title setting not saving correctly. Introduced in v9.14.0.
  14. Fixed issue with admin module link not automatically logging into the survey. Introduced in v9.14.0.
  15. Fixed issue in Question Library when certain characters were used in folder names. Introduced in v9.0.0.
  16. Fixed issue where adding new admin module users would create usernames that the survey runtime cannot handle correctly. Introduced in v9.13.0.
  17. Fixed issue where a blank login page occurs in surveys on remote servers. Introduced in v9.14.0.
  18. Fixed issue in ACBC/HB where all utilities would appear as 0 on computers using certain processors. In all previous versions of ACBC/HB.
  19. Fixed an issue uploading to servers. Introduced in v9.14.0.
  20. Fixed issue in CBC where filtered tasks exported to .cho are still included in the .att file. Introduced in v9.0.0.
  21. Fixed issue where generated admin passwords started with a non-alphanumeric character that the survey runtime cannot handle correctly. Introduced in v9.13.0.
  22. Fixed issue where list items, attributes, or levels may have duplicate display text and no internal label is specified, which leads to errors in analysis. In all versions of Lighthouse Studio.
  23. Fixed issue where the start or finish text may not display correctly. Introduced in v9.0.0.
  24. Fixed issue where downloading generated data from a remote server fails without a message. Introduced in v9.14.0.
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Fixes & Changes:

  1. Conjoint or MaxDiff exercises can now be on the first page of a survey without a login page.
  2. Randomized or constructed lists can now be used on the first page of a survey without a login page.
  3. Improved performance of loading items in the list of covariates in the Analysis Manager.
  4. Improved the algorithm that generates competitive sets for Willingness To Pay scenarios when there are prohibitions.
  5. Improved report loading times in the Simulator and Analysis Manager when there is a large amount of rows.
  6. Fixed an issue where CBC exercises could not be previewed without a design file.
  7. Fixed an "object reference error" when changing page formatting options in the Survey Settings window.
  8. Fixed issues with pasting in the Respondent Identifiers window.
  9. Fixed an intermittent "object reference error" message that appears in the "Project Error Check".
  10. Fixed an error when changing the At Least/At Most options for ACBC Must Haves.
  11. Fixed an issue when closing the login page settings window for projects that contained link variables but no respondent identifiers.
  12. Fixed an error during interviews when using randomized pages or blocks, and there was no login page.
  13. Fixed issue where newly uploaded respondent ids were not recognized.
  14. Fixed issue where after uploading to a self-hosted server, the links shown to the user did not contain the correct remote study path.
  15. Fixed page breaks from showing in the list of options for "skip to" logic.
  16. Fixed an issue first introduced in v9.9.0 where when recreating MaxDiff on-the-fly scores, under certain conditions the ranks reported did not match those computed in the interview.
  17. Fixed an issue where CBC/HB would show an error if covariates are used.
  18. Fixed an issue in test mode where values for link variables cannot be entered on the login page.
  19. Fixed an error that appears when creating or editing random blocks that include blank values.
  20. Fixed an error during interviews when using Relevant Items MaxDiff.
  21. Fixed a problem exporting when variable fields from MaxDiff on-the-fly designs exist in the data table, but the project is later switched to use pregenerated designs.
  22. Fixed a Javascript error when previewing items in the Question Library.
  23. Fixed an error when viewing CBC Latent Class settings containing constraints.
  24. Fixed issue with the Write Questionnaire window appearing odd on high DPI monitors.
  25. Fixed occasional error when using group scale constraints in MaxDiff Latent Class.
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Features:

  1. New surveys no longer include a Login (formerly called Start) page by default.
  2. Lighthouse Studio now has a launcher app to help with having multiple versions installed. When a project file is opened by double-clicking it in Windows, the launcher will ask which installed version you want to open it with.
  3. Excel-based simulators now include the scenario's selection of whether the none option is to be included in the simulation results.

Fixes & Changes:

  1. Fixed issues in Lighthouse Studio 9.13.x involving ACA, CVA and ACBC exercises containing attributes in with rank order (a priori) values of best-to-worst and worst-to-best. Imports from previous versions would inadvertently appear to reverse the rank order. This would also affect respondent interviews and utility estimation.
  2. Fixed problem with MaxDiff on-the-fly scores or ranks which would were incorrect if using designs generated on-the-fly. This issue was introduced in Lighthouse Studio v9.9.
  3. Improved error messages when the software has connection issues with Sawtooth Account.
  4. Fixed an issue where Lighthouse Studio would appear frozen if switching to a different application while a survey was being published.
  5. Fixed interpolation problem with Excel simulators containing attributes with descending level values.
  6. Fixed an issue where ACBC Test design would fail with terminate questions before the exercise.
  7. Fixed issues with silent installs of Lighthouse Studio when previous versions are installed.
  8. Fixed a Javascript error message when removing the back button.
  9. Fixed .cho export error with multiple MaxDiff exercises.
  10. Fixed an issue that could occur when editing ACBC Must-Have questions.
  11. Updated the file conversion process so only the most recent backup is saved.
  12. Fixed issues with path names longer than 260 characters.
  13. Fixed incorrect cell input text for grid questions in mobile view.
  14. Lighthouse Studio no longer imports projects from SSI Web v6. As a workaround, you can update the project to v8 before updating to v9.
  15. Fixed issue with Word import when the document results in warnings that are displayed.
  16. Fixed issues exporting ACA exercises to .acd file.
  17. Fixed an issue in the Admin Module where the minimum value in a report was incorrect.
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Fixes & Changes:

  1. Lighthouse Studio now allows database configurations to be done using environment variables on the web server. See Appendix F of the documentation for more information about configuring environment variables.
  2. Fixed a security issue in the Admin Module.
  3. Fixed an issue where backing up and changing responses would cause an error for respondents during the interview. This bug would only occur when using a Windows-based server with Microsoft SQL Server.
  4. Fixed problems where silent installs would attempt to show a message box asking to uninstall previous versions. See Appendix C of the documentation for more information about silent installs.
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Fixes & Changes:

  1. Fixed issue where converting a project to 9.13 results in an error if the project is located in a path longer than 260 characters.
  2. Fixed auto-upload issue where latency to the server results in timeouts preventing files from being uploaded.
  3. Removed pop-up about project errors/warnings when the Hosting window is clicked, and added error check when the Upload button within the Hosting window is clicked.
  4. Fixed Admin Module running a report with a filter logic variable equal to 0 could result in an error.
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Fixes & Changes:

  1. Added multi-user access to the Admin Module.
  2. Improved security of Admin Module passwords.
  3. Improved security headers for embedded content.
  4. Fixed error message in the Admin Module appearing behind the sidebar.
  5. Fixed an issue where MaxDiff Logit estimation would report a respondent count of 1.
  6. Fixed error message about overlapping merged cells when using segmentation in the simulator.
  7. Fixed Willingness To Pay scenarios to use localized separator instead of defaulting to a comma.
  8. Fixed issue in version 1.8.2110 of the Excel RFC plugin where #VALUE! occurred in simulators using Randomized First Choice.
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02 September 2021

Fixes & Changes:

  1. Security headers can now be used when testing surveys locally.
  2. Fixed skip logic not displaying to the user during survey authoring (skip logic was executing properly for respondents).
  3. Fixed surveys and admin module missing some graphical elements.
  4. Fixed ACBC Test Design output saving to the wrong location.
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Fixes & Changes:

  1. Improved the look of ACBC BYO dropdowns to match dropdowns in other questions.
  2. Improved the look of ACBC Calibration questions on mobile.
  3. Fixed problem with malformed HTML when using a multi-column ranking question.
  4. Fixed errors in ACBC Test Design including index errors and password errors.
  5. Enhanced survey security options to better protect servers and data.
  6. Fixed vertical alignment of grid column headers.
  7. Preview and Test Survey support longer project paths.
  8. Improved performance when loading variables.
  9. In certain cases using the Advanced Teaching license data could not be downloaded.
  10. Fixed 'Value cannot be null' error opening the simulator.
  11. Fixed 'Index out of bounds' error running HB with interaction effects.
  12. Fixed problem where estimation summary report utilities did not match the Utility Report.
  13. Fixed 'Run name cannot be null' error opening ACA utility report.
  14. Fixed an issue in 9.10 where recreating the MaxDiff on-the-fly results did not show in the report.
  15. Fixed SPSS time stamp length when using fixed widths.
  16. Fixed 'The key already exists' error in the data generator.
  17. Fixed 'unhandled exception' in grid questions.
  18. Fixed 'Not enough items' error in MaxDiff exercise.
  19. Fixed occasional 'input string is not a valid integer' error in ACBC analysis.
  20. Fixed issue with text showing in CBC buttons using images.
  21. Fixed problem where filters added within the Data Manager were not applied to the export.
  22. Fixed problems running Willingness to Pay simulations involving alternative-specific designs or conditional pricing.
  23. Fixed error with means when tabulating multiple questions in the Admin Module.
Read More

New Features:

  1. We've updated our market simulator to estimate Willingness to Pay (WTP) for levels of attributes. Our new approach appropriately considers competition and generally gives better results than traditional WTP methods used in the industry.
  2. We've made some major updates to improve the accessibility of our surveys (WCAG compliance). Improvements have been made that will allow third-party screen readers (such as JAWS) to more easily read our surveys.
  3. The Simulator's SolveForShare function now allows for extrapolation, except when using Randomized First Choice.
  4. The export for MaxDiff utilities to a .csv file now has an option to export missing item utilities as a blank (when using a constructed list/for Relevant Items MaxDiff).
  5. We have added opt-in usage data sharing to know what features and settings people use the most. Nothing confidential is collected. See https://sawtoothsoftware.com/usagedata

 

Fixes & Changes:

  1. When filtering in the Admin Module, an error would occur if the field was not in the first database table.
  2. In the Choice Simulator, an extra space on the end of an attribute's label caused errors that the attribute didn't have any defined values.
  3. Objective limits used in optimization scenarios (for example, filter out products who share is < 20%) were filtering for each product instead of the total across all searched products.
  4. Filter logic used in the simulator as a segmentation variable would sometimes show all respondents in the Other column.
  5. Simulator Excel exports would sometimes contain empty tabs.
  6. Optimization searches could report solutions including combinations that were prohibited by alternative-specific rules.
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Fixes & Changes:

  1. When trying to download data from a survey within the Admin Module or Lighthouse Studio, users could get a database error "Cannot read respnum column in download area", or an error "The file contains an invalid field 'Content-type: application/json'".
  2. Multi-select questions could produce a "No data for this report" message when building reports in the admin module with filters.
  3. Specifying a starting question in the data generator could result in an error "An element with the same key already exists in the dictionary".
  4. MaxDiff exercises using constructed lists and the MAXDIFFSCORE, MAXDIFFRANKATTVALUE, MAXDIFFRANKATTLABEL, MAXDIFFRLH, or MAXDIFFRSQ script functions would show results that are incorrect. This would also happen in Lighthouse Studio when estimating Logit utilities with the 'Recreate scores on the fly' option checked. This error was introduced in v9.9.0.
Read More

New Features:

  1. In the Admin Module you can now upload a list of respondent IDs in order to remove certain data records from your live data, as well as update survey data (question answers, quota assignments, respondent status, etc.) across multiple respondents simultaneously.


Fixes & Changes:

  1. When opening the simulator's product search settings for the first time, an "Object not set to an instance of an object" error occurred. This was introduced in v9.9.0.
  2. When opening the simulator, the first utility run would be selected instead of the last one used.
  3. The default number of synthetic respondents in CBC Test Design is now 300.
  4. Attribute importances and t-ratios have been reintroduced into CBC Latent Class reports.
  5. The max fields per database table now has a maximum value of 300.
  6. When estimating Logit utilities with the none option turned off, an "Matrices are not compatible" error occurred.
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Fixes:

  1. When running CBC Test Design, if interactions were included an error window would appear.
  2. When attempting to export a client or analyst simulator package, and the exercise had Latent Class runs, an error appeared that a utility run was already included.
  3. When deleting a list in the List Manager, when a prompt would appear that the list was in use by a question or another list, and the user selected No, the list would still be deleted.
  4. When previewing a Semantic Differential question where no list had been specified, an error would be displayed.
  5. When exporting jobs, if variables had certain naming patterns an error could occur.
  6. Preview would fail on Free Format questions.
  7. Pass-in fields would not save to the respondent data when using the Data Generator. This was introduced in Lighthouse Studio 9.2.
  8. Fixed an issue with data generation for CVA.
  9. Excluding None in a simulation using Logit utilities resulted in an error.
  10. Previewing concept labels in CBC resulted in an error.
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09 December 2020

Fixes:

  1. ACBC Test Design would fail if the study included passwords, quotas, or other ACBC exercises. 
  2. Using ACBC Test Design then opening a new study remembered variable names from the first study. 
  3. Importing CSV data in various locations caused a “cannot be auto mapped” error. 
  4. Trying to save Shelf-Facing Display or Additional Formatting settings in CBC could cause a “null referenceerror. 
  5. MaxDiff scores were not zero-centered when exported even though the zero-centered scores within the Analysis Manager were correctly zero-centered. 
  6. Some exercise outputs (i.e. utilities, importances, etc.) and sys_SequentialRespNum were not exported from Data Management. 
  7. Constructed list MaxDiffs using pre-generated design containing more respondents than design versions would get an unknown error when running utilities and when exporting a CHO file. 
  8. Trying to export analysis fields caused an error when additional respondents were accumulated after analysis was run. 
  9. Trying to export MaxDiff fields for respondents that partially completed the MaxDiff exercise caused an error. 
  10. Free Format preview caused a study verify error when using Sawtooth Script to reference a variable. 
  11. Attribute coding interactions may not be saved in some situations. 
  12. Filters would not be saved through Data Management. 
  13. List item labels and internal labels would not be saved through the Grid Question settings. 
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17 November 2020

New Features:

  1. Relevant Items (Constructed lists) in MaxDiff. It is now possible to ask respondents to select relevant (or other targeted) items and only those items will go into the MaxDiff exercise. Using constructed lists items can now vary across respondents. Learn more

Improvements:

  1. The new MaxDiff designer includes a new criterion: across-set dispersion of items. This tries to ensure that a given item won’t appear in adjacent, or near-adjacent sets.
  2. The new MaxDiff designer is slightly better at 1 and 2 way item balance in some circumstances.
  3. The .CHO exports for MaxDiff studies can now include additional information needed for anchored MaxDiff estimation (both Louviere indirect and Lattery direct methods).
  4. Prohibitions in Bandit and Express MaxDiff are now possible if you use the "On-the-fly" designer.
  5. ACBC HB estimation within LHS v9.9 is significantly faster than before.

NOTE: With CBC Latent Class analysis and MaxDiff Latent Class analysis within LHS v9.9, there have been algorithm updates that cause the solutions to not be exactly the same as with v9.8. (Similar to the issue that if using a different seed, you’ll get a slightly different result).

Fixes:

  1. Within the Analysis Manager an error would occur in the MaxDiff HB settings area if a decimal point was entered without a proceeding number (e.g. entering ".1" and not "0.1"). 
  2. An error occurred in the Admin Module if running a survey in demo mode and self hosting with a SQL Server.
  3. In the Analysis Manager an error would occur while exporting after canceling an HB run.
  4. ACBC Calibration questions set to use dropdowns would appear incorrectly and raw HTML would appear on the screen.
  5. The Dual-Response feature in MaxDiff would show the response options in a horizontal format. The response options are now displayed vertically.
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13 February 2020

Improvements:

  1. Two JavaScript resources were updated to the latest versions. jQuery to 3.4.1 and Modernizr to 3.6.0.

Fixes:

  1. In the Choice Simulator if level text of an attribute contained only numbers (with no additional text), and those numbers overlapped with the level index number, then the wrong level utility would be used in simulation calculations.
  2. When exporting utilities from the data/export area, a MaxDiff score rescaler was inadvertently being used instead of the conjoint utility rescaler. Utilities exported from the Analysis Manager used the correct rescaling method.
  3. Filters created within the Analysis Manager would not be available after leaving the Analysis Manager area.
  4. If the Summed Price attribute was the first attribute in your attribute list, it was impossible to add Constraints to ACBC analysis.
  5. The JavaScript function SSI_ShowAlert was not working.
  6. There were various minor survey formatting issues (text alignment, white space).
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New Features:

  1. A new updated survey style has replaced our older survey styles. The main color of the style can be easily changed to any color you'd like. The older styles can still be found here and imported as custom styles.
  2. We made it easy to include a survey logo.

Improvements:

  1. In the simulator the performance of clicking on the segments or weights buttons has been improved when there are many demographic variables.

Fixes:

  1. Pasting a bulleted or numbered list from Microsoft Word (or similar products) into a Lighthouse Studio list would use the list item contents as the internal label rather than the display text.
  2. In some cases data was not recorded correctly, or the data was removed, with questions inside of nested loops (a loop inside of a loop).
  3. Word Import would not import skips contained within grid questions.
  4. Running Find and Replace or Translation would fail if the current questionnaire included a CBC or CVA exercise with no attributes.
  5. Various minor fixes were made to Find and Replace and Translation. These include: adjusting what items are not included in translation, preventing items from appearing if they are disabled within the questionnaire, applying IntelliSense to some items during Find and Replace, and rearranging the order that items appear to be more inline with the Lighthouse Studio interface.
  6. The following have been fixed in the Choice Simulator:
    1. Fixed the attribute level helper to show a scroll bar when there are a large number of levels.
    2. Fixed an extrapolation error when using Randomized First Choice with the SolveForShare function.
    3. Fixed simulation reports where demographic variables had a Total or Other category.
    4. Fixed an issue where a conditional price value may not be found if there are complicated alternative-specific rules.
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Fixes:

  1. For some users, uploading surveys via the Hosting Management dialog would result in an error.
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Fixes:

  1. Using Find and Replace would delete all of the skip logic in the survey.
  2. If you were not a Windows administrator on your computer, the "Test" and "Preview" features would show an "access denied" error.
  3. If the folder path to your study contained special characters the "Test" and "Preview" features would show a "cannot find part of path" error.
  4. Some users would see a "500 Internal Server Error" message when trying to use the "Test" and "Preview" features.
  5. If multiple quota questions had the same number of cells, and the cells were randomized, the same random order would occur across all those quota questions.
  6. In the Analysis Manager if you had filters with invalid logic, even if not checked to be included, you might see an error message informing you that "The respondent filter removed all respondents."
  7. Attribute pricing fields and missing level text within ACBC exercises would not appear when running Find and Replace or (where relevant) translation.
  8. With alternative-specific designs, N/A levels in CBC fixed tasks would be reset upon opening the fixed task window or while attempting to generate a design.
  9. Due to a bug in previous versions, additional conditional pricing tables, design prohibitions, and alternative-specific rules that have been added to the simulator beyond those contained in the exercise have been removed.
  10. Study verification could incorrectly show an error for CBC exercises with certain partial profile settings.
Read More

New Features:

  1. Updating text throughout your questionnaire is now much easier. To update text that appears in various places throughout your survey simply go to Compose, Find and Replace.
  2. Quotas now include a "Least Fill" option. If respondents could qualify for multiple quota cells, "Least Fill" will assign the respondent the quota cell that is least filled. This allows you to fill quota cells more evenly.
  3. Various updates have been made to the Choice Simulator including the following:
    1. Optimization searches will now understand alternative-specific attribute relationships and respect these relationships when performing searches. As part of this update, CBC designs now specify alternative-specific relationships through a separate tab, rather than by setting prohibitions.
    2. Respondents can now be assigned to more than one segment.
    3. Scenarios now have an auto-run option where the simulation could be set to update each time a level has been changed.
    4. New functions SolveForShare() and PercentRange() are now available in scenarios.
    5. Simulation results are now saved to the simulation project, and restored when loaded.

Improvements:

  1. Large study texts are now split into multiple smaller texts when exporting for translation to improve efficiency.
  2. If you are a user registered under multiple subscriptions you are now able to select which subscription you want to use.

Fixes:

  1. Deleting multiple attributes involved in merged rows from the end of the attributes list could result in error messages.
  2. SPSS exports would not properly export some special characters.
  3. Preview/Test/Print Study/Paper and Pencil functionality would not work on network drives if special characters existed in the study file path.
  4. Data being saved to a Free Format "hidden" variable must now match the specified variable data type. If an attempt is made to save the wrong type of data to the Free Format hidden variable, the data will not be saved and a warning will be sent to the Survey Log.
  5. The "Prepare for Manual Upload" button was not available for those with an Academic Research subscription.
  6. In some cases respondents were skipped out of a loop before they should have been.
  7. The "Starting Respondent Number" setting in the Data Generator has been removed due to a potential problem it could cause.
  8. The ACBC function ACBCWinnerLabel() did not work correctly with alternative specific attributes.
  9. Using a custom access file (STUDYNAME_access.cgi) to customize access to the Admin Module could cause Auto Upload to fail.
  10. CSS display issues existed in Paper and Pencil printed studies.
  11. Choice tasks using merged rows, with a level that is missing because of a null prohibition, did not display correctly.
  12. The Sawtooth Script PageTime() function did not always calculate the sum of page times correctly when a range of pages was given.
  13. The CBC none concept did not display correctly on mobile devices when the orientation of the screen was changed.
  14. Copy-and-pasted recodes and export jobs were not automatically renamed properly.
  15. Disconnecting from a remote computer while using Lighthouse Studio on the remote computer could cause Lighthouse Studio to crash upon reconnecting.
  16. A respondent that reached a terminate question before starting a Bandit MaxDiff exercise would need to be manually removed for analysis to work correctly.
  17. An error message relating to export jobs with repeated names could appear incorrectly for jobs with similar names.
  18. Attempting to create a question with a repeated name after running Word Import could result in an error.
  19. Some Print Study settings relating to an ACBC exercise could load incorrectly.
  20. The Choice Simulator could produce an error if a level's display text and internal label were blank.
  21. The frequency with which each concept was selected was missing from the CBC/HB build report.
  22. ASM functionality was not available if you had multiple licenses on your Sawtooth Account and one of them was an Academic Lab license.
  23. Very first time running an ACBC/HB run could produce all zero utilities in the report.
  24. There was a bug introduced in 9.5.3 that caused conditional price definitions used in the Choice Simulator to not save to the correct location and would result in the tables disappearing the next time the Choice Simulator was opened. Because two locations were incorrectly swapped, it became unfeasible to distinguish between a conditional price table that came over from authoring and a conditional price table that was newly defined within the Choice Simulator. Thus any conditional price tables defined in the Choice Simulator are deleted in this version and conditional price tables that came from authoring will have their "Values" column reset to the defaults.
  25. ACBC Summed Price with Piecewise attribute coding incorrectly displays an error when the second price level is a negative number.
  26. Exporting scores for a MaxDiff logit or MaxDiff latent class run could result in an error.
  27. Conditional Price Tables created from inside the Choice Simulator would not save properly.
  28. Under certain display resolutions and DPI settings, the incorrect cell could end up highlighted when clicking on a spreadsheet in the Analysis Manager or Choice Simulator.
  29. The Getting Started wizard could wrongly appear when opening the Choice Simulator.
  30. Running counts analysis on an ACBC with a summed price attribute and all attributes are skipped in the BYO could result in an error.
Read More

Fixes:

  1. Some multiple monitor configurations would not remember a window's last position properly.
  2. Trying to test or preview a study located on a network drive would result in the error message "unable to open database".
  3. SPSS exports would fail if the study had certain unicode characters in the path.
  4. Clicking Add or Edit Conditional Price Table in ACBC would result in an error.
  5. Surveys created with the Academic Lab license within Lighthouse Studio were incorrectly limiting the surveys to 5 completes.
  6. The questions and lists imported from a Word document could fail to save if the study was closed immediately after importing from Word.
  7. In specific situations, constructed lists used in a grid question could appear with other specify fields in later questions.
  8. In some situations respondents would see an error #251 if trying to restart a survey where the restart page was within a loop. This could happen if the loop used a constructed list with Sawtooth Script loop functions (e.g. LoopValue).
  9. We have tightened the prior variance settings for the scale factor parameters in Otter's Method ("estimate separate scale factors" for the three major data sections in ACBC). In cases of sparse data, the scale factor parameter for the BYO section would become too extreme and not stable.
  10. An error was introduced in LHS 9.0.0 causing uncalibrated ACA OLS utilities to be saved as final raw utilities rather than being calibrated. This issue did not affect zero centered diffs ACA OLS utilities.
  11. An error would appear when importing a looped variable that no longer existed in the questionnaire.
  12. If, while adding a question to your Question Library, you clicked "Add Folder" to add a folder in your Question Library, an error would occur.
Read More

New Features:

  1. Now you can import your Word document directly into Lighthouse Studio and it will generate all your questions, skip logic, comments, etc.
  2. Bandit MaxDiff is now available. It uses preferences from previous respondents so subsequent respondents see MaxDiff questions that oversample the top items - the ones that are most likely to turn out to be the overall winners.
  3. Genetic Search Algorithms are now in the Choice Simulator.

Improvements:

  1. The MaxDiff 500 license has been upgraded to MaxDiff 2000
  2. We have dramatically increased the speed of our Logit and Latent Class routines for MaxDiff. Depending on the data, estimation settings, and the number of processor cores on your machine, you may see speed improvements of up to 40x.
  3. Improved the loading time of the export area when the study contained many respondents and analysis runs.
  4. The SPSS export better supports Unicode characters now.
  5. Files exported to Excel now have improved default column widths.
  6. Default variable names have been improved in the merging data area.
  7. The Sawtooth Script SetValue() now works with quota questions.
  8. A new function named ParentListName() has been added to Sawtooth Script.
  9. If a respondent qualifies for a quota cell, leaves the survey, and then returns after the cell has filled, they are sent to the disqualify terminate screen. The quota cell value is now assigned the value -3. It used to be assigned the quota cell value the respondent originally qualified for.
  10. The respondent IP address is no longer saved by default.
  11. The Sawtooth Script functions CBCAttributeValue() and CBCLevelValue() were altered to return 0 when the requested level or attribute is replaced by merged rows.
  12. Find and replace text was not being saved inside text editors.
  13. ACBC summed pricing is no longer allowed when the base price and all component prices are zero or empty.
  14. You can now remove attributes with summed pricing from the ACBC BYO.

Fixes:

  1. On some computers, the error "Unable to get information about junction point" would prevent preview from working.
  2. The SPSS export with "Strip HTML" checked would replace all script sections with the first script section's contents.
  3. The logic verification in Filters | Custom Logic now works properly.
  4. If a page with a lot of input was submitted to the data generator, it would crash.
  5. In preview mode, if you switched from desktop to mobile on the 2nd page of the survey, the page would not be displayed properly.
  6. MaxDiff Sawtooth Script functions such as MaxDiffRankAttValue() did not return the correct results if used immediately after the first MaxDiff question.
  7. Removing respondent data records via the Admin Module's View/Edit screen now also removes the history data for the respondents. This fixes a possible issue where new respondents might see data from records that were previously deleted. This would only occur in rare cases (if the database was reset).
  8. The Handle Start Position in Semantic Diff questions would not align properly in some instances.
  9. Surveys with a large number of passwords could cause survey setup problems in Test Mode in the Admin Module.
  10. In some situations, Semantic Diff answers were not restored when backing up using the browser back button.
  11. The setting to hide the totals box in constant sum CBC did not work.
  12. The width and height parameters in the Sawtooth Script ToolTip() function did not work correctly.
  13. The "Total" counter for CBC Constant Sum did not include the "none" level when using the Sawtooth Script CBCNone().
  14. Under some circumstances, the Sawtooth Script function for PageTime() would not work correctly when given a range of pages.
  15. In some cases, when a respondent would backup in the survey, the page time data for the previous page and for the summed page time would be erroneously reset to 0.
  16. In CBC, if all the attributes were being merged together, and all the attributes had their text replaced through conditional display, then the merge would fail and the attributes would display individually.
  17. In some cases, backing up in a survey would reset the previously selected worst concept in best/worst CBC.
  18. In some cases, using HTML tags inside of ACBC Must Have and Unacceptable questions caused formatting issues.
  19. A change in Google Chrome caused drag and drop Ranking and Semantic Differential questions to not repopulate their answers when backing up in the survey.
  20. Grid questions with dropdown lists, where the dropdown list has "Other Specify" data piped into it from a prior question, would not display correctly.
  21. Constant Sum CBC on Safari with iOS had some display issues when viewed on a mobile device.
  22. Fixes the Zero-centered Diffs algorithm so that a shift in attribute utilities also shifts the none utility.
  23. ACBC Test Design would not display if a respondent reached a prohibited concept.
  24. CBC Counts reported incorrect number of tasks for studies with multiple CBC exercises.
  25. The data generator could fail for Grid questions with other specify fields.
Read More

21 November 2017

The following bug fixes have been made in Lighthouse Studio in general:

  1. Grid questions would sometimes not rename properly and result in an error.
  2. An error would occur in Print Study (PDF or HTML) if the survey contained the SetValue Sawtooth Script.
  3. The Admin Module search feature would produce an error when searching based on the Respondent Number.

The following bug fixes have been made in CBC:

  1. CBC exercises with Alternative-Specific designs and "Align Common Attributes on Same Row" unchecked may not have displayed all of the level text contained in the design. This was introduced in Lighthouse Studio 9.5.0.
  2. In some cases CBC prohibitions involving more than two attributes would not be saved correctly.
  3. Increasing the number of CBC random or fixed tasks after initially creating the exercise would insert the tasks in the wrong order.

The following bug fixes have been made in ACBC:

  1. In some cases the ACBC None Threshold Calibration would show an error if the source run had excluded attributes from analysis.
  2. Exporting ACBC utilities from the export area would show an error.

The following bug fixes have been made in MaxDiff:

  1. On-the-fly MaxDiff functions (MaxDiffRankAttLabel, MaxDiffScore, etc.) could produce incorrect results when using MaxDiff in Free Format and allowing respondents to skip questions.
Read More

The following bug fixes have been made in Lighthouse Studio in general:

  1. In some cases respondent data used later in a survey (Sawtooth Script, skip logic, constructed lists, etc.) would be returned as a blank. This could occur if the question being referenced had more than 100 data fields (for example, a 10x11 numeric grid, or a select question with 101+ checkboxes).
  2. In some cases respondent data used inside of a loop was not available. For example, if a survey loops over Q1-Q5, and Q1 is referenced in Q3-Q5, the returned value would be blank instead of the answer to Q1.
  3. The Sawtooth Script function PageTime displayed an error if any page (in the range of specified pages) was included in a loop. An error could also occur if one of the pages in the range returned 0 for the time on that page.  This could occur for example if one of the pages were skipped.
  4. A conversion prompt message was not always shown when opening a study created in a previous version of the software.
  5. Renaming a numeric question using the "Rename" button did not work.

The following bug fixes have been made in CBC:

  1. Using HTML tags in the CBC dual response none text would cause formatting errors.
  2. In some cases, running CBC HB with "Save draws" checked would result in obviously incorrect results and sometimes even produce a software error message when writing out the report. This was introduced in version 9.1.0.

The following bug fixes have been made in the Choice Simulator:

  1. Exporting a client simulator package would freeze Lighthouse Studio.
  2. Excel simulators using Randomized First Choice and a custom exponent would not update the simulation when the exponent was changed.
Read More

The following bug fixes have been made in Lighthouse Studio:

  1. Users with academic and commercial licenses would be put into demo mode.

The following bug fixes have been made in the Choice Simulator:

  1. Fixed an issue in version 9.5.0 which incorrectly flagged level values less than zero as invalid.
Read More

The following features have been added to Lighthouse Studio:

  1. The choice simulator now includes the ability to perform grid and exhaustive searches for Advanced Simulation Module license holders.
  2. A new "ssi_ready" event has been added to the JavaScript library. Using the "ssi_ready" event will allow you to call your custom JavaScript after the page has been fully loaded. See the documentation for more information.
  3. A "popup_link" class has been added to the HTML to allow for custom styling of links produced by the PopUp Sawtooth Script function.

The following bug fixes have been made in Lighthouse Studio in general:

  1. Occasionally Lighthouse Studio would display a message asking you to sign back into your account and then crash.
  2. Exporting merged variables would incorrectly show a warning that certain fields could not be found.
  3. The JavaScript function SSI_GetValue would always return 1 for single select questions (radio buttons) with only 1 option. This would occur whether or not the response option was selected.
  4. An error would occur when updating a survey using a newer version of Lighthouse Studio if the Admin Module "Test Mode" had been used.
  5. The Sawtooth Script Rounding function has been updated. Prior versions used a default "Banker's Rounding" approach where even numbers rounded down and odd numbers rounded up. The Round function now rounds numbers up if the determining value is 5 or more.
  6. Long list items in select questions could cause the "Number of Columns" setting to be ignored.
  7. Print study (Graphical View) would fail if the survey contained Terminate questions with "Link to a Questionnaire or Website" selected.
  8. In some cases the exclusive option ("None of the above") in grid questions would not deselect other options. This could occur when the grid question was using a constructed list and displayed in the mobile format.

The following bug fixes have been made in CBC:

  1. Between-concept prohibitions would sometimes be improperly collapsed into within-concept prohibitions after closing the prohibitions window.
  2. Free format CBC questions with shelf facing displays could cause an error.
  3. ToolTips used inside of CBC concepts did not display correctly.
  4. Sawtooth Script CBC functions used inside of a CBC header or footer would cause the survey to crash.
  5. In some cases Sawtooth Script CBC functions would fail to display an attribute when Alternative Specific CBC designs were used.
  6. The attribute label "Location" setting was not saved to the .ssi file. This would result in the setting being reset to "Left of concepts" after closing the study and opening it back up.

The following bug fixes have been made in MaxDiff:

  1. The exported MaxDiff CSV file was missing a column needed to properly upload all the scores to MaxDiffAnalyzer. This occurred in the export area. The MaxDiff CSV file exported from the Analysis Manager worked correctly.

The following bug fixes have been made in ACBC:

  1. HB estimation would ignore the setting for how to treat missing levels and always use the "Missing at Random" setting. CHO file exports also experienced the same problem. This bug was introduced in version 9.0.

The following bug fixes have been made in the Choice Simulator:

  1. The Choice Simulator would not always show prohibitions from the design settings of an exercise the first time this area was opened.
Read More

The following features have been added to Lighthouse Studio:

  1. We have completely redesigned how CBC exercises are displayed on small screens. The new design allows mobile users to scroll through CBC questions viewing each concept one at a time. You can control whether respondents view each concept horizontally or vertically.
  2. CBC in general was given a major visual update. Behind the scenes we are no longer using HTML tables. Concepts are now selected by clicking a button. When that happens a green checkbox appears and the whole concept is highlighted.
  3. In CBC you can now merge multiple attributes into a single row. This can be useful in cases when a level from an attribute doesn't apply to a product concept and is shown as a "blank." There are some instances in which too many blanks in the choice task can lead to poor readability of the product concepts. Merged Rows solves this problem.
  4. The Data Reports area of the Admin Module now has a "Select All" checkbox.
  5. It is now easier to customize CBC questions in Free Format by using the Sawtooth Software Question Library. See the updated documentation.
  6. The "error log" functionality in the Admin Module has been updated. There are now errors, warnings, and notices. If a new error or warning occurs you will be notified by a message at the top of the Admin Module. A new "WriteLog" Sawtooth Script function has been added (Note: This could be very helpful for debugging Unverified Perl).
  7. Small improvements have been made to the HTML to help with screen readers.
  8. The Device Id for the Offline Surveys app is now displayed when viewing data records in the Admin Module.
  9. The JavaScript libraries for jQuery and jQuery UI have been updated.

The following bug fixes have been made in Lighthouse Studio in general:

  1. We have dropped support for Internet Explorer 10 and earlier. We have also dropped support for all browsers that do not support Flexbox. Respondents with older browsers will now see the "Unsupported Browser" error message.
  2. In the Offline Surveys app we have dropped support for Android 4.3 and earlier.
  3. JavaScript is now required for respondents to take surveys. The advanced option to allow respondents into the survey without JavaScript has been removed.
  4. Test mode has been updated to not use an iFrame in desktop mode. Mobile testing still uses an iFrame.
  5. Questions inside of a nested loop would not load if the first iteration of the nested loop was skipped due to an empty constructed list.
  6. An error would occur while testing the survey locally if a prior iteration of the survey had passwords and then they were removed.
  7. In some cases exclusive check boxes did not work in grid questions when displayed on mobile devices.
  8. Variable names now show in drag-and-drop ranking questions when specified in test mode and print study.
  9. Sawtooth Script will now evaluate in print study when possible rather than always inserting the "[script]" place holder.
  10. The page width setting would ignore widths greater than 900 pixels.
  11. A few class names that were missing from the HTML in the ACBC BYO question have been added.
Read More

The following bug fixes have been made in Lighthouse Studio in general:

  1. An error would occur during authoring as a result of copying and pasting Free Format questions.
  2. In the Question Library an error would occur when entering a block or folder name if an existing item had the same name but different case (e.g. "Block1" vs "block1").
  3. Running the data generator with loops in a study would result in an error message.

The following bug fixes have been made in ACBC:

  1. In ACBC studies BYO tasks would not be included in utility estimation or *.cho exports. This was introduced in v9.1.0.
Read More

28 February 2017

The following features have been added to Lighthouse Studio:

  1. Lighthouse Studio now provides a way to save questions to a library so you can reuse them in future surveys. A "Sawtooth Software Library" has also been included with over 30 pre-built questions that you can use in your surveys.
  2. Utilities and importance scores are now selectable as export items alongside general survey data.
  3. Latent Class group assignments are now automatically available as segmentation variables in the choice simulator, similar to other survey questions.
  4. You can now enter price (to the buyer) and cost (to the producer) data per attribute level for the purpose of reporting revenue and profits in the choice simulator (also known as the market simulator).
  5. Previous versions of our CBC software have featured two methodologies for testing the design and estimating a priori standard errors for attribute levels. We’ve simplified the interface to use the better of the two by default: the Advanced Test which estimates standard errors using logit analysis for test robotic respondents according to the user-defined expected sample size. The other approach, which was less useful for advanced designs (alternative-specific and partial-profile), has been deprecated to an option on the Test Design menu and is still available for historical purposes.

The following bug fixes have been made in Lighthouse Studio in general:

  1. The data generator would fail and display an error with certain options selected.
  2. Exporting data to SPSS and stripping HTML from the text would truncate labels at the first '[' character.
  3. The graphical view output of Print Study was not displaying question or variable names when those options were checked.
  4. When trying to automatically open the file after printing a study to HTML, the software tried to open a file that didn't exist and an error would occur.
  5. Chinese characters were not registering as input for other specify response options when using the Simplified Chinese version of Windows and a Chinese character language pack.
  6. The mobile view of grid questions now properly displays cell input labels.

The following bug fixes have been made in ACBC:

  1. An error would occur during ACBC HB analysis if the BYO was skipped, constructed lists were in use, and piecewise coding was chosen for the price attribute.
Read More

The following features have been added to Lighthouse Studio:

  1. Lighthouse Studio is now able to take advantage of 64-bit processors, and as a result many operations are significantly faster. Our tests show 20-25% improvements in uploading surveys, creating CBC designs, running HB analysis, and simulations. Exporting also shows a modest speed increase.
  2. The "Export/Import text for translation" feature now supports Excel and CSV file formats.
  3. Wide images now display better on small screens. If the screen is smaller than the width of the image the image width changes to match the size of the screen.
  4. The icons on the main screen now have labels. The print icon has been removed. You can still access print via the File menu.

The following bug fixes have been made in Lighthouse Studio in general:

  1. Lighthouse Studio relies on Internet Explorer to display question and page preview. If the version of Internet Explorer on your computer is earlier than version 11, the preview experience could be degraded. We recommend that you update to Internet Explorer 11 to have the best experience possible. You will see a warning in the installation process if you do not have Internet Explorer 11 installed.
  2. The auto upload process would fail if the Admin Module password contained any special characters.
  3. The local Test Survey should now work with special characters in the study path.
  4. In the Export Data area the total number of export fields would sometimes report the wrong number of available fields.
  5. In "Lighthouse Studio Settings" found under the File menu, some settings such as "If port is unavailable, randomly choose another port" would not save properly.
  6. In some situations, under slow internet connections, users would automatically be signed out of the software.
  7. When checking for errors and warnings in the questionnaire the software now reports the errors at the top of the list followed by the warnings.
  8. When exporting SPSS files, if "Include text" for Header 1, Header 2, Question, or Additional Question-Specific was selected the resulting export would not include the text specified.
  9. Local Test/Preview would work only once and then fail if the study was opened using a mapped network drive in the study path.
  10. Exporting SPSS files with a lot of fields would get increasingly slower as the export progressed. This has been optimized.
  11. Open-end text boxes would display a bit too wide on small screens.
  12. Caching has been turned off in test and preview modes. External resources such as graphics, CSS files, or JavaScript files can now be updated without the old versions getting stuck in the browser cache.
  13. A change was made with ToolTips in 9.1.0 that introduced a display bug when ToolTips were used with certain survey styles. These styles were: Archivo, Flex_blue, Flex_green, Lato, and Lora. The styles have been updated to address this issue.
  14. In some situations the Grid response option text color was not the same in the desktop and mobile views.
  15. In some cases, grid questions with repeated row and column labels would have repeated response options in the mobile layout.

The following bug fixes have been made in the Choice Simulator:

  1. Opening the Choice Simulator would sometimes result in a software error after renaming or deleting an analysis run.

The following bug fixes have been made in ACA:

  1. When exporting ACA Pairs, Importances, or Calibration questions as part of a Raw Data export, we now include the full data for that answer (including design information) instead of just the answer that was chosen.

The following bug fixes have been made in ACBC:

  1. In some cases, running ACBC HB with "Save draws" checked would result in obviously incorrect results and sometimes even produce a software error message when writing out the report.
Read More

The following features have been added to Lighthouse Studio:

  1. Lighthouse Studio will now detect the size of the respondent's browser window and will change the layout of a grid question to be more usable on small screens (mobile devices etc.). On small screens, each row (or column) of the grid question becomes a separate sub question on the same page. This feature may be turned off if you prefer the standard layout on small screens.
  2. Responses to Select questions are now easier to choose on mobile devices.
  3. ScreenWidth() has been added to the scripting library and will return the respondent's browser width in pixels. This can be used in skip logic, quota control, etc.
  4. Test and preview mode have been updated to simulate viewing a survey on a small screen. You can additionally change screen dimensions and switch between portrait and landscape mode.
  5. Downloading data from the Admin Module has been improved. Larger surveys should experience faster data download times.
  6. Ranking questions now have better labels in the Admin Module reports.
  7. Auto Upload is now much faster and solves various upload issues.
  8. Validating respondent passwords (survey login) is now much faster.
  9. Testing a survey locally no longer uses the Apache web server.
  10. Conjoint utilities and MaxDiff scores are now available to export along with other survey data. Each analysis run can be selected for export under the "Fields..." area in export settings.
  11. PowerPoint reports of simulations are now available.
  12. The maximum number of products that can be created in an Excel simulator is now 25 (previously 15).
  13. In the Choice Simulator a change was made in the way Randomized First Choice operates when applying product availability adjustments via multi-store shopping. Previously, we were first computing share adjustments to account for product availability in stores according to the share of preference (logit) rule, followed by a secondary adjustment for product similarity according to Randomized First Choice. Now, the entire process is more true to Randomized First Choice in that it is used (rather than logit) throughout the entire multi-store simulation procedure. The results are usually not very different, but now with a little bit stronger correction for product similarity.
  14. "On the fly" MaxDiff estimations can now be reproduced using a logit run in the Analysis Manager.
  15. Two new Sawtooth Script functions have been added for MaxDiff. MaxDiffRLH() returns the respondent's root likelihood and MaxDiffRSQ() returns the pseudo r-squared, or percent certainty. These may be helpful if you want to conduct special logic (such as a skip pattern) or to display a particular message on the screen based on the respondent's consistency in answering MaxDiff questions.
  16. Custom CBC, MaxDiff, and CVA exercises now save the design ID and version number when first referenced in any question.

The following bug fixes have been made in Lighthouse Studio in general:

  1. Auto Upload will now automatically update the survey link in the Data Management area.
  2. Extremely large surveys could time out when downloading data from the Admin Module.
  3. The Study Summary page in the Admin Module would load very slow if the survey had a large amount of quotas.
  4. Labels with double quotes in them would cause the charts in the Admin Module to not display correctly.
  5. Respondents using the Microsoft Edge browser were recorded as using the Chrome browser.
  6. The JavaScript function SSI_GetValue now returns decimal responses with a period. Previously it would return the decimal as a comma if it was entered by the respondent.
  7. The JavaScript function SSI_GetValue has been improved to properly return numbers and strings when appropriate.
  8. The JavaScript jQuery library has been updated from 1.11.3 to 1.12.3.
  9. Tooltips now reposition themselves above the mouse pointer when they are at the very bottom of a page with multiple questions.
  10. The advanced setting "Max Database Tables to Join" has been removed from the software.

The following bug fixes have been made in the Choice Simulator:

  1. Simulations using both the First Choice simulation method and adjustments for product availability (multi-store) would calculate incorrect product shares.

The following bug fixes have been made in ACA:

  1. ACA Level Ranking setting for an attribute could not be changed. This was introduced in version 9.0.0.

The following bug fixes have been made in ACBC:

  1. ACBC/HB restart functionality was not working. The estimation would always began at iteration one.
  2. Extremely small d-efficiencies in a respondent's ACBC exercise could be written in scientific notation and cause an error when accumulating data.
  3. ACBC BYO summed pricing would not update in preview mode.

The following bug fixes have been made in CBC:

  1. CBC/HB restart functionality was not working. The estimation would always began at iteration one.
  2. CBC constant sum total would not update in preview mode.
Read More

16 February 2016

The following bug fixes have been made in Lighthouse Studio in general:

  1. Data downloaded from a server was in an incorrect format. After 30 data records the start time and end time were not included, the data was shifted two columns to the left, and an error would occur when accumulating.
  2. Updating the study on the server from 8.4 would not work if the constructed lists database table contained duplicate entries. Duplicate entries will be resolved if possible, otherwise a diagnostic error will be written to the study server error log.
  3. Preview would not work if you had opened the study using a mapped network drive.
  4. The ToolTip function has been updated to not spill off the left side of the screen on small mobile devices.
Read More

09 February 2016

The following features have been added to Lighthouse Studio:

  1. The Choice Simulator is now integrated into Lighthouse Studio. New features include visualization of shares and utilities, and improved options for adjusting shares based on product availability and awareness.
  2. When estimating utilities for CBC, MaxDiff, ACBC, CVA, or ACA, you now have the ability to manage multiple runs rather than always overwriting the base run. This makes it easier to investigate different modeling options without overwriting your previous work.
  3. Within the ranking question there is now a Drag and Drop option. This interactive question type allows respondents to rank items by rearranging them on the screen. We have included various options to allow you to customize the look and behavior.
  4. The prior method of doing CAPI surveys (offline interviewing) has been removed. The new version of CAPI supports both Windows and Android devices and has an improved method for distributing surveys and collecting data. The updated version of CAPI will be released soon and will be compatible with Lighthouse Studio v9.
  5. Lighthouse Studio now detects your time zone (during survey creation) and records all data records with this time zone. You can change the time zone under Survey Settings.
  6. JavaScript now runs when previewing a question so you can view interactions such as drag and drop, constant sum, checking checkboxes, etc.
  7. The appearance of the Admin Module has been improved and is more mobile friendly.
  8. The database tables have been updated to be more efficient. MySQL databases have been updated to be more efficient (from MyISAM to InnoDB).
  9. Surveys are now backwards compatible on the server. This means you can upload a v9 survey to an existing v8.4.8 survey and it will automatically update.
  10. The respondent start time and end time are now displayed in a date format in the CSV file downloaded from the Admin Module.
  11. Scalable Vector Graphics (.svg) are now supported when browsing to images and previewing questions.
  12. A few new survey styles have been included. Some of the older styles have been removed.

Please note the following:

  1. SSI Web has been renamed to Lighthouse Studio.
  2. Lighthouse Studio now requires that each user have a Sawtooth Software Account. The first time you use Lighthouse Studio you will be prompted to sign in. After that you will be prompted to sign in every 60 days. License administrators can manage users and licenses via https://account.sawtoothsoftware.com.
  3. Windows 7 Service Pack 1 or higher is required to run Lighthouse Studio.
  4. The required version of Perl installed on the web server has changed to Perl 5.14.2 or newer. This will only affect customers who are hosting on their own.
  5. Version 9 does not bring forward the analysis settings from any previous versions. Previous runs may be brought directly into our standalone Choice Simulator through an HBU file import.
  6. Version 9 does not bring forward the path information found in the menu item "File | SSI Web Settings" from previous versions. This includes the Default Studies Folder, User Styles Library Folder, Graphics Library Folder, and Local Test Server Folder. If you customized these locations, you may re-enter the information under "File | Lighthouse Studio Settings."
  7. The method for customizing the Admin Module has changed. To customize the Admin Module add a CSS file named "custom_admin_style.css" to the graphics folder.
  8. The default Prior Variance setting for HB estimation within CBC has been changed from 2.0 to 1.0 based on information we've learned about overfitting.
  9. The JavaScript library jQuery has been updated to version 1.11.3.
  10. The JavaScript library jQueryUI has been updated to version 1.11.4.
  11. The default HTML Doc type for surveys is now HTML5.
  12. We have removed the HTML tables for select, numeric, open-end, and ranking questions.
  13. SSI Script has been renamed to Sawtooth Script.
  14. CiW has been renamed to General Interviewing.

The following bug fixes have been made in Lighthouse Studio in general:

  1. Various minor user interface issues have been fixed.
  2. Some non-English characters collected in open-end questions would not be formatted correctly in the CSV file downloaded directly from the Admin Module.
  3. When using SSI Script (Sawtooth Script), some decimal numbers would display incorrectly. For example instead of displaying 55.2 it would display 55.200000000000003.
  4. The incompletes report in the Admin Module was not counting respondents who stopped on a page that started with a quota question.
  5. Tooltips have been enhanced to more accurately resize to fit the content and no longer display off the screen.
  6. The Tooltip function in Sawtooth Script has been updated so that the width and height are optional.
  7. Sometimes data within nested loops would not save properly when the inner loops didn't share an anchor page with the outer loops.
  8. Local Web now supports more character options in passwords.
  9. The Data Generator now gives a more user-friendly message when all the study passwords have been used.
  10. Non-mapped network paths are now supported.
  11. In some rare situations involving constructed lists and backing up in the survey, the other specify text was displayed on the screen improperly.
  12. Quota values would be deleted in certain conditions during limbo cleaning.
  13. In the reports area of the Admin Module some decimal values were being rounded to whole numbers.
  14. The Data Generator would give a cryptic error message when the Remote URL was left blank.
  15. Auto upload now correctly handles UTF-8 characters in paths.
  16. SPSS Exports didn't strip HTML from list values for checkbox questions when "Item numbers per column" was checked.

The following bug fixes have been made in ACBC:

  1. ACBC alternative-specific designs would not always work in Test Design if the primary attributes were not before the conditional attributes.
  2. The D-Efficiency value generated by ACBC wouldn't accumulate if saved in scientific notation.

The following bug fixes have been made in CBC:

  1. Exporting to a CBC Single CSV or Dual CSV with only fixed tasks would fail and display an error message.
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