Categorical Variable

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Silhouette (aka Flashlight Online 1.0) has the concept of a Categorical Variable which it introduces as follows:

Categorical variables can be used to compare the data of different sub-groups or pools of respondents. For instance, if you wanted to administer the same survey to every student in multiple courses and both aggregate the results for the all the courses and isolate the results for specific courses, you could use categorical variables. (See Silhouette manual, page 18.)

Skylight (aka Flashlight Online 2.0) implements this concept in a different way, with Respondent Pool Metadata. This allows you to administer the same survey to every student in multiple courses and both aggregate the results for the all the courses and isolate the results for specific courses. The Respondent Pool Metadata also has other uses that extend the concept beyond that found in Silhouette.

In Silhouette, one passes categorical variables to the survey in clear text on the URL given to respondents. This subjects the URL to abuse by respondents.

Skylight does not pass variables on the URL, rather each respondent pool has its own system-generated URL and the system retrieves metadata (categorical variable values) based on information encoded in the URL. The encoding of information in the URL makes them tamper-proof. The number of variables that can describe respondent pools is unlimited (in Silhouette it is limited to 9). Metadata values (and keys) can be uploaded as part of the Respondent Pool Upload Format

Use the respondent pool or Matrix screens to set metadata.