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Duplicate or "clone" a workspace

Updated at 2020-02-25 18:07:21 UTC
Diagram illustrating the project cloning process with a green arrow connecting two browser windows displaying Protobi data tables and chart visualizations.

Duplicating a new Protobi workspace can be useful to create a separate project space for a new wave of an ongoing tracker study or create a limited version for client delivery.

There are two ways to duplicate or "clone" an existing Protobi workspace.  An "Exact" duplicate is exactly that, it copies each and every aspect of the file, including input data tables, data processes, and elements configuration. A "Light" duplicate keeps just the final data table and elements configuration from the original project. 

Get the primary data file from the existing project

The first step is to find and download the primary data table from the existing project. Data files will be found in the "Data" tab of project settings. This may be either a data table (blue icon) or a data process (green icon)

If your project has a data process set as "primary," then you'll want to download the result of the process and use that as the primary file for the clone.  

If the primary file is in a data table, press "Original" to download the original data file. If a data process is set as primary, press the "CSV" button to download the result of the "Process".

Process data table configuration panel displaying Name 'Process', Type 'process', Updated timestamp of Tue Feb 25, 2020 12:32 pm, and Filename 'Process.csv' with options including 'View data online', 'Edit/Run', 'Delete', and 'Primary' buttons.

Create a new project workspace

Press the "New project..." link at the top of the main page:

The 'My projects' page displaying two example projects under 'More projects': 'Example Pharma Survey' with tags 'demo' and 'zs', and 'Example Consumer Survey' containing Pew Gender and Generations data with 2511 respondents, both with info, play, and settings icons.

Select the primary data file from the original project:

Four-panel project setup workflow displaying step 1 'Select a datafile' with CSV/SAV file upload area showing '(No file selected)', step 2 'Verify the data' with a sample data table preview, step 3 'Select version' with Professional selected from three tier options, and step 4 'Authorize payment' with Invoice option chosen and fields for email, billing code, and PO Number.

Set project overview

After uploading the data file, you'll be taken to the project's overview page. Give your light clone a name and brief title. Copy over the logo and image URLS from the original project if applicable. 

Project settings Overview panel showing the project named 'Car Sales Lite Clone' with Brief title 'Project practice', Description field containing 'Additional details', and configuration fields for Logo, Image, Favicon, PPTX Template, View Template (all showing 'url' or 'template name'), Version dropdown set to 'Local', Whitelist domains 'company.com, entity.org', Group field set to 'Group', and a blue 'Save' button at bottom.

Copy elements

The next step is to copy the elements which is separate from the data table, and determines what the project looks like (i.e. question order, titles, formats, etc...).

In the original project go to the "Elements" tab and copy all of the JSON from the original project, and paste it into the same page on the new project.  Make sure to paste over the brackets that are already there and press "Save" when done. 

Open the clone project

After the "Elements" are copied over, open your clone project. It should look identical to the original project (i.e. N size, layout, colors, etc...).  

Exact clone

Download all data tables

To make an exact clone, start by downloading all data tables from the original project in their original formats. In the example below, the project only has one data table "main", but your project may have multiple data tables. 

Project settings Data tab displaying three columns for managing project data: Data tables section with '+ New data table' button and 'main' table listed, Processes section with '+ New process' button and 'Process' item marked with orange 'Primary' badge, and Documents section with '+ New document' button and 'Questionnaire' listed.

Create a new project workspace

Press the "New project..." link at the top of the main page. Create a new project with the file you downloaded from the "main" data table.

Set project overview

After uploading the data file, you'll be taken to the project's overview page. Give your exact clone a name and brief title. Copy over the logo and image URLS from the original project if applicable. 

Copy any additional data tables and processes

After all the data tables are copied over to the exact clone, copy over any data processes that are in the original project. 

In the original project, press "Edit/run" for a data process. For a light clone we would download the result of a "primary" data process, but here we want to copy over the process itself. 

Process configuration panel with green 'process' header displaying metadata fields Name 'process', Type 'process', Updated timestamp 'Wed Oct 23, 2019 09:47 am', Filename 'process.csv', along with 'View data online' button, Admin controls 'Edit/Run' (blue), 'Delete' (white), and 'Make primary' (blue), and download options for Original, Direct, CSV, and SAV formats.

After pressing "Edit/run" you will be taken to a page with the data processing code. Copy everything in the code-view to your clipboard.

Code editor for 'Data process process' displaying JavaScript filtering code across 9 lines including 'var rows = data["main"]' and a filter function checking 'row.status == 'complete'', with 'Save' and 'Run...' buttons in the top right.

Make process primary

If a data process is the primary file in the original project, "Run" that data process, and make it the primary file in the exact clone. 

The Processes section displaying instructions 'Define a new Process to run code that operates on data, like cleaning, recoding, stacking, and merging', with a green '+ New process' button and a green 'process' button labeled with an orange 'Primary' badge.

Copy documents

Upload any documents that are in the original project into the exact clone.

After all data tables, processes and documents are copied from the original project into the exact clone the "Data" tab of the two projects should appear identical. 

Copy elements

The last step is to copy the original "Elements" over into the exact clone. Follow the steps above.