Multiple page Questionnaires |
Benefits
There are various reasons for breaking up a questionnaire into multiple sections,
such as:
- to ask related questions as a group
- to skip around irrelevant questions (if you don't smoke, no point asking
how often)
- to allow time to research the answers and to enter them later
- to provide additional instructional screens between survey sections
- the questionnaire is accessed through a single dynamic URL:
http://yourcompany.com/ViewsFlash/servlet/viewsflash?cmd=page&pollid=pollingplace!poll
How they work
To navigate between pages, multi-page questionnaire use up to four buttons:
| Next | Goes to the next page of the questionnaire |
| Previous | Returns to the previous page |
| Save | Stops presenting questions and goes to page with a URL to use to resume taking the questionnaire later. When the visitor returns to this URL, they will resume where they left off. |
| Submit | Submits the entire survey, saves it and tallies it. After this, if you are checking for duplicate entries, visitors will not be able to fill out he questionnaire again. If there's no Submit button, the Next button will submit the survey when the visitor reaches the last page. |
The Standard Form style shows and hides these buttons as appropriate. For example, the first page does not have a Previous button, and the last page has a Submit button but no Next button. The most common combination is to allow a Next and a Submit button and not the others. You should use this template or one derived from it. For details on these templates, see Multiple page Tags.
Because multiple page questionnaires require multiple form submissions, establishing the identity of the respondent is essential. Therefore, multiple page questionnaires require using User Authentication. The simplest method to use is Cookie, which is the default. If there is no need for a Save button, the Servlet Session method is recommended. If a single sign-on system is in place, use Basic or J2EE Authentication.
How to create a multi-page questionnaire, step by step
1. Create a place that uses the Standard and Results styles, or similar templates derived from them. In the Settings page, item 4, choose "Concurrently".
2. Create a questionnaire. In General settings, check the Multiple page questionnaire box. Choose what buttons to show by checking the boxes below; select at least Next and Submit.
3. In Settings / Security, choose an Authentication Method in #1. If nothing better is available, choose "Cookie" and leave its other fields blank.
4. Add questions as appropriate. Separate questions with Page breaks.
5. If you intend to use question branching, it is easier to add branching after entering all the questions. See Branching for complete instructions.
6. When finished, Publish the questionnaire and click on the URL below the Submit button. Try out the various options and modify any necessary settings until satisfied. Then remove the responses received so far by using the Delete All Data checkbox, and tell the world about the questionnaire by publishing its URL.
7. The Data Summary page includes a line, Questionnaires Presented, that counts how many questionnaires have been shown to respondents; the Questionnaires Completed line counts how many people have completed all pages of a questionnaire.
Using a question for Authentication
The "Use the following question" option in the Security page allows designating
a question in the survey as the unique User ID. For example, create a question
of type Hidden and call it Userid. The survey url should now be:
...?cmd=page&pollid=pollingplace!poll&Userid=TomJones
In other words, each recipient should receive a URL tailor-made for them, which
includes their Userid.
If a participant saves the survey and resumes later, the URL must include the user id. The settings on #3 of the Security page affect this. The default response page, viewsflash/resume.html, does this automatically, using the [/ifqueryauthentication], [/authenticateduserquestion], [/authenticateduserid] and [/endifqueryauthentication] tags. If you use another template, be sure to start by copying this page. If you choose a redirect, you can use these same tags to pass appropriate information to the redirect URL, which will be responsible for reconstructing the URL at which to resume the survey.