QPL is a complete web questionnaire development and content analysis system. Using a simple language to describe your questionnaire, it automatically builds all the files you need to create a dynamic web site. GAO makes this software freely available to the public on this web site.

QPL 6 Under Development
July 15, 2008

A new version of QPL is under development. Our plans call for extending its current capabilities in several areas. Several new types of questions will be added, including one that lets you embed another questionnaire inside of a question. This would let respondents navigate seamlessly between two or more related questionnaires without separate logins. A number of new layout options will be included as well as more elaborate statistical analysis programs that provide the full text of the questions in the statistical output. We don't expect to have a release of this new version ready until Spring 2009.

QPL 5.05.007 Released
May 18, 2006

This release updates the content analysis functions to accommodate a change in how MySQL processes SQL statements in MySQL 5.x. If you are using MySQL 4.x, you do not need to implement this upgrade. See the Release Notes for more information about these and other improvements. Go to the Download page to download the updated software.

QPL 5.05.006 Released
March 27, 2006

This release focuses on accessibility improvements for visually impaired users (i.e., conforming with Section 508 guidelines) and conformance with HTML coding standards. Coding 'wizards' have also been added to the QPL toolbar in HomeSite that make it easier to write QPL programs. See the Release Notes for more information about these and other improvements. Go to the Download page to download the updated software.

QPL 5.05.001 Released
August 4, 2005

This release adds a new log-in option: you can let respondents log in directly to their questionnaire when you send them a URL to your project web site that contains their user name and password. This release now also may be installed as an add-in to HomeSite+, the special version of HomeSite that is included with Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004. This release also contains a couple bug fixes to the functions that export fixed format data files and the content analysis data files. See the Release Notes for more information. Go to the Download page to download the updated software.

QPL 5.04.010 Released
March 4, 2005

This release contains some minor bug fixes to HTML email messages, XDATE behavior, and the date validation for the date, March 31. See the Release Notes for more information. Go to the Download page to download the updated software.

QPL 5.04.009 Released
February 9, 2005

This version of QPL adds a few more incremental improvements, including better auto-sizing of columns of questions in a matrix layout, adding programmable access keys to buttons on questionnaire pages and the administrative pages, adding a 'View' button to a respondent's user account page that lets an administrator see the respondents entire questionnaire with his responses, and a new capability to automatically send account confirmation email messages to respondents when you use log-in option that lets respondents create their own accounts. See the Release Notes for more information. Go to the Download page to download the updated software.

A new questionnaire has been added to the Demonstrations page. This questionnaire, "Survey of State and Local Offices Administering Section 521 Rental Assistance," was deployed in the Spring of 2004 for a GAO report that was issued in the Fall.

QPL 5.04.005 Released
November 23, 2004

A number of improvements have been made to the system including adding a pop-up calendar to date questions and new functions to create pop-up information boxes and a pop-up box that contains a complete summary of all the answers that a respondent has entered to his or her questionnaire. See the Release Notes for more information. Go to the Download page to download the updated software.

QPL 5.04.002 Release Features Content Analysis Functions
September 17, 2004

This version of QPL lets you perform a systematic analysis of the comments your respondents made to open-ended questions in your survey. This is generally referred to as "qualitative" or "content" analysis. See Content Analysis for more information.

The data export functions have also been improved to give you more control over how the export files are created and to avoid the need to encrypt the data files.

See the Release Notes for more information. Go to the Download page to download the updated software.

QPL 5.03.011 Released
April 29, 2004

The QPL software has been revised to add a few small improvements to MULT, CHECK, STRING, and NUMBER formatting, and a new converter command line option the lets you control when comments in the on-line tabulation report are marked with the respondent's user name. See the Release Notes for more information. Go to the Download page to download the updated software.

New Background Information on How QPL Works
April 8, 2004

New pages were added to this site that provide a quick overview on how the QPL system works and the various ways you can configure it to fit your survey design needs. See the About page for more information.

QPL 5.03.010 Released
March 16, 2004

The QPL software has been revised to include a number of enhancements, including the ability to immediately send test messages, longer SAS and SPSS value and variable labels, and changes to force the log in page to always be displayed as the top window on a respondent's browser. See the Release Notes for more information. Go to the Download page to download the updated software.

Survey of State Department Public Affairs Officials
December 23, 2003

The survey used for the recently released GAO report, "U.S. Public Diplomacy: State Department Expands Efforts but Faces Significant Challenges" (GAO-03-951), has been added to the Demonstrations page. In all, we sent this survey to 156 individuals at embassies around the world and received completed surveys from 118 of these, for a 76 percent response rate.

Security Vulnerability Corrected in Optional Reporting Program
November 10, 2003

An optional program that you can use to let anyone run reports on your questionnaire data on-line has been upgraded to prevent unauthorized access to your data. See the Release Notes for more information.

QPL Version 5 Is Now Available!
October 24, 2003

The web version of the Questionnaire Programming Language (QPL) software is now available on this site. Though this is the first public release of this version, GAO has used it over the last two years to produce 200 web surveys.

In addition to the previously mentioned features, this first public version also integrates an email-system with the questionnaire, allowing questionnaire administrators to quickly send custom messages to non-respondents. The system may also be used to embed the questionnaire itself into an email message so respondents don't even need to go to the web site.

In order to make sure that the documentation fits with the version of QPL you are using, the documentation is now only available when you install the development software.

Please go to the Download page on this site to view the installation instructions and download the software.

Also please consider registering your software on this site. You're email address will only be used to send you notices of future software upgrades.

New QPL Version 5 Will Focus on Web Questionnaires
March 26, 2002

GAO's Questionnaire Programming Language software has changed focus from building computer-aided telephone interview (CATI) and data entry applications to building web-based questionnaires.

While the QPL programming language remains largely unchanged (programs written for the original QPL system from 1986 will still compile without errors), how applications are deployed and used has changed significantly. Instead of running the application locally on an individual's PC, the new system builds a set of files that must be installed on a web server. Respondents use their internet browser to go to that web site and launch a questionnaire after logging in to the project. Their responses are stored in a data base on the web server.

The project administrator may also log into a private set of pages on the web site to create and edit user accounts, export the project data, and view real-time summary statistics.

As it has done since 1992, GAO is making this software available to the public without charge. GAO makes no claims about its applicability for any particular purpose and cannot provide extensive end-user support. The system programs may be downloaded from this web site.

QPL Version 4 Made Y2K Compliant
November 23, 1999

The 16-bit DOS version of QPL for CATI applications was upgraded in 1999 to correct several Y2K problems. While no further work is planned on this version, it still runs on Win9x, WinNT, Win2K, and WinXP systems. For more information about this version, see the QPL Version 4 page on this web site.