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If your responses have already been collected elsewhere, you can import them straight into poll&roll rather than starting over from a blank questionnaire. The survey created skips the Questionnaire and Data collection steps: once the import is finished, it is ready right away for the Results and Report tabs.
The expected format is Triple S, a standard exchange format in marketing research: a metadata file that describes the variables, and a data file that contains the responses.

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Start the import

From the home page, click Create a survey, then choose Import an existing data file into a dashboard.
1

Name the survey

Give it a title.
2

Upload the metadata file

.xml or .sss format: it describes the variables present in the data file (name, label, type).
3

Upload the data file

Fixed-width .dat or .asc format, or comma-separated .csv.
4

Choose the owner organization

This is the organization that will own the survey created.
Both files are checked before you continue: expected format, reading of the metadata file, recognized Triple S version, and matching interview identifiers between the two files. An error blocks the step until it is fixed.

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Select the variables to import

You then land on a table listing every variable in the metadata file (its name and its label); all are included by default. Tick one or more variables to:
  • Exclude: leave them aside, they will not be imported.
  • Group: bring them together into a single question with several items, as in the questionnaire editor — useful when one and the same grid question is split across several variables in the data file. Grouped variables are then highlighted in the same color.
Once your selection is made, click Import.

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Track the import

The import runs in the background; the survey shows the Data processing status in the meantime. You receive an e-mail once the import is finished, with the number of interviews imported and, where applicable, those that were not.

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Interviews not imported

An interview with a value that does not match what the metadata file describes (wrong type, decimal number written with a comma, value outside the declared bounds…) is skipped individually: it does not prevent the rest from being imported and is not counted in the results. A banner on the survey Summary warns you if interviews were skipped. Click See details to find, for each one, its line in the file, its identifier and the reason it failed.
Last modified on August 24, 2026