Crunch Automation is only available for users who have Editor access as well as being the current editor on the folder where the dataset is saved. See the following article for more information:

• Collaborating in Crunch: how to share datasets in folders

Crunch Automation allows you to easily, quickly, and reliably automate repetitive data processing tasks without requiring R or Python.

If you have a series of data processing tasks (such as recodes, transformations, metadata editing, and so on), Crunch Automation can perform these tasks automatically through either the Crunch user interface or by sending commands through the Crunch API.

See the following links for more information about using Automation through the Crunch API:

• API documentation
• Crunch Automation for developers
• Crunch scripts

How to use Crunch Automation through the web interface

The following describes how to use Crunch Automation through the user interface.

Opening the Crunch Automation page

To find and use Automation:

1. Open the Crunch web app.

   

2. Click a dataset (or select 'Open Dataset' next to a dataset) that you wish to automate. 

   

3. Select 'Crunch automation' from the drop-down menu that appears under the dataset name at the top.
   

   Make sure you first enable edit mode on the dataset by unlocking the padlock in the upper right corner. An 'unlocked' padlock appears as follows:

   

   The Crunch Automation dialog box appears:

   

4. Either copy/paste a script into the text box or upload a script (by clicking the Select Script button).
5. Click the Run Script button when finished.
   
   

   After your Automation script successfully runs, the dashboard opens showing you the resulting dataset:

   

Adjusting your script

You can adjust your script in various ways, such as making adjustments to your variables, fixing errors, and clearing and reverting previous Automation runs.

List Variables

You can list all of your variables for a dataset (and either copy/paste it or download it as a .txt file) by clicking the the 'List Variables' tab:

All of the variables are listed as "commented" characters, so you can insert them in your script file for easily handling.

Fix Errors

If an error occurs after you run a script, the following (or similar messaging) appears in the Crunch Automation Errors box:

After you review and fix the errors in your script, click the Close button to return to the main Crunch Automation page.

Clear a script

The following message appears at the top after you copy/paste or upload a script:

If you wish to make changes or use a different script, simply click the Clear button to start over.

Revert a script

You can revert a previously-run script at any time. Crunch Automation will restore your dataset to the point directly before you ran the original script.

To revert a script:

1. Open the Crunch Automation dataset.

   

2. Click the 'Crunch automation' option next to your dataset.

   
   The Crunch Automation box opens, which displays the script that ran on your dataset as well as several options below it:

   

3. Click the Revert Dataset button to clear the script and return the dataset to the state it was in just before the script ran. Alternatively, you can click Copy to Clipboard to copy the script, Download to download the script as a .txt. file, or Cancel to cancel and return to your dataset.

   

4. Make sure you wish to revert the script. When ready, click the Revert button to return to the point just before the script ran.