It's possible for Vista Administrators to export a project and then import it into another Vista server, keeping all Survey Settings, Portfolios, Calculated Variables, etc.

Disclaimer

This article describes running the AskiaVistaTool directly from the server in which Vista is installed. If you would like to use the AskiaVistaTool on your own machines without having to connect to the server directly, this is possible, but the machine you want to use the tool on will need to have network access to the server that has SQL installed.

You should be able to copy/paste the "Askia.config" file from the C:\Askia\AskiaCtrl directory into the C:\Askia\AskiaCtrl\AskiaVistaTool directory. Then you can add all of the contents of the AskiaVistaTool directory to a .zip and then extract it to whatever PC you want to run it on.

copy/paste to -->

Please note: the Askia.config file contains the necessary SQL connection string usernames and passwords. Use discretion and good judgment when sharing this amongst coworkers.

Step One

Navigate to the Vista installation directory on the server: C:\Askia\AskiaCtrl\AskiaVistaTool\

Run the "AskiaVistaTool.exe" application.

Step Two 

Select the following options for the export:

1. User the project exports from
2. The project you want to export
3. Items within the project you want to export

Step Three

After all of your selections are made for the export, hit the "Export" button.

Choose a save location and name for the file.

This will generate a .avbundle file which can then be copy/pasted onto a different Vista server.

Step Four

Now that you have the exported .avbundle file, you can go through the process of importing that file into the other Vista server:

1. Copy/Paste the *.avbundle file into the other Vista server
2. Open the AskiaVistaTool.exe
3. Navigate to the "Import" tab in the tool
4. Browse to your *.avbundle file
5. Choose which items you want to import

The drop-down boxes allow you to choose what happens to the import of the item(s) if they already exist on the Vista server you're importing this file into.

For example:

If I try to re-import this exported file on the same server I exported it from, I'll have all of the same project settings. So, if I want to choose what to do with my sub-populations, I can let the AskiaVistaTool do the following to an item that already exists:

1. Skip, don't import
2. Override existing item
3. Import as duplicate item

In the case that I already know my sub-population exists and I know there are no differences between the already-existing one and the one I'm about to import, I would choose to skip that import. But if you wanted to be safe, you could import it as a duplicate and delete it later. It's up to the user.

Closing thoughts

In the AskiaVista SQL database there is a table dedicated to remembering if an importation has already been done ([AskiaVista].[dbo].[AV_ImportationMap]).

So, normally if you import/export several time to and from the server, the importation will not create duplicates; instead it will update existing items (according to the specified options within the AskiaVistaTool, like shown above with the drop-down boxes).