Colectica 8.0 Is Now Available
Colectica 8.0 is now available, with redesigned survey authoring, richer metadata discovery in Colectica Portal, and access to repository metadata through the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which connects AI tools to external information and functions. The release helps teams reuse questions, trace data to their sources, and make documented concepts and relationships available to compatible AI tools.
“Teams have invested a great deal in documenting their data,” said Dan Smith, Partner at Colectica. “With Colectica 8.0, we’re making it easier to reuse questions when designing surveys and connect AI tools to the metadata teams already maintain.”
Survey design with question reuse
The redesigned Colectica Questionnaires application combines updated routing diagrams, comments, and live previews with improved instrument comparison and synchronization. Question-grid and choice-grid previews remain visible on the design canvas as authors work.
Authors can enable suggestions from existing repository questions while writing a new question, with settings to choose a repository and filter by agency. This makes it easier to find relevant questions at the point of authoring and reuse them as shared, versioned items.
Updated PDF generation uses Typst and includes display-logic labels and descriptions. Consistent question numbers across the editor, Specification PDF, and Paper Form PDF help reviewers follow the design alongside its documents.
Explore questionnaires and concepts in Portal
Portal’s updated Canvas, Questions, and Routing views let readers explore published questionnaires and follow conditions and dependencies in a zoomable graph. Question in Context shows surrounding questions and inherited display conditions, while canvas comment threads support replies, resolution, and reopening.
Navigable concept trees connect related studies, variables, and questions. Readers can focus on the concepts and related items within a particular dataset or questionnaire, keeping discovery grounded in the material they are reviewing.
Repository metadata for AI tools
The new MCP endpoint in Colectica Portal lets compatible AI tools investigate repository concepts, questions, variables, and their relationships, with configurable OpenID Connect authentication.
Building on Colectica’s approach to AI-ready metadata, this makes documented definitions and relationships available as context for AI-assisted exploration.
Traceability and bulk metadata editing
Colectica Designer adds source datasets and source measurements to document where data and variables come from. Expanded Generation Instruction relationships connect processing descriptions to source variables, measurements, input questions, and external information. Portal displays the processed variables that reference General or Generation Instructions.
Portal’s new lineage graph and table show source questions and variables, derived variables, and referenced versions. Teams can download diagrams as SVG or PNG and relationships as CSV for documentation and review.
Expanded Metadata Input Sheets support unit types, universes, geographic indicators, and Boolean, numeric, and controlled-vocabulary custom fields. They resolve references across connected repositories and improve spreadsheet round trips. Designer also refreshes configured controlled vocabularies from the selected repository at startup and when switching repositories.
DDI Codebook import refinements
Colectica 8.0 refines the existing DDI Codebook 2.5 and 2.6 importer, with a focus on multilingual metadata and concept and controlled-vocabulary matching. The importer groups translations of titles, descriptions, and question text more consistently while retaining their languages.
For DDI 2.6, matching uses vocabulary identifiers and term codes to recognize equivalent concepts and avoid duplicates. Multilingual universes are also matched and linked to their defining concepts. These changes help keep translations and standardized terms aligned when importing existing DDI documentation.
Repository and platform improvements
Repository operations for listing related items, retrieving parent maps, and finding references during deletion are more efficient. Search and item permissions can now be scoped by agency ID, giving organizations more control over how repository content is found and accessed.
Colectica 8.0 servers and command-line tools now use Microsoft .NET 10 LTS, with updated Docker base images. This moves those components to a runtime with long-term support, alongside security updates to supporting libraries.
SBOMs to support EU CRA compliance
Colectica 8.0 distributions now include a product-specific Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) in SPDX 2.2 JSON format, installed alongside the application or included in its distribution archive. These machine-readable inventories support compliance with the software-component documentation requirements of the EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), which call for an SBOM covering at least a product’s top-level dependencies. They also help security teams review software components and assess exposure to known vulnerabilities.
For the complete list of additions, changes, and fixes, see the Colectica 8.0 changelog.
Colectica 8.0 is available now to current customers and for evaluation. To explore the release, request a Colectica evaluation.
About Colectica
Colectica® helps organizations design, explain, manage, and share statistical research. Since 2010, its practical tools and services have helped government statistics agencies, survey researchers, data archives, and other data-intensive organizations document their work in common open standards.
Trademark
Colectica is a registered trademark of Colectica and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
