Create triggers
Triggers are used to adjust the questionnaire dynamically based on certain conditions.
Two components are required:
Condition
- The defined list of criteria that must be met in order to activate the trigger. Once the criteria are met and the condition is satisfied then the action will begin. If the condition is not met then the trigger will remain inactive and no action will take place.
Action
- When the condition is met and the trigger is activated the action will be carried out.
Triggers and branching are very similar. However, branching is a term generally tied to response patterns, whereas triggers provide a wider breadth of options. Triggers add demographic field branching, rater group branching, branching based on primary subjects and branching based on Secondary Subjects. With triggers, any combination of these conditions can work together to generate the desired questionnaire.
Use triggers to create a single questionnaire that is customized for different users depending on various conditions. The trigger conditions include the following:
| Trigger condition type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Question | Creates a trigger condition based on a given response. The answer to a particular question determines whether additional questions will then be presented to the survey participant. Unlike the other trigger condition types, the Question condition sets an action on information that is not already known before publishing the questionnaire form to its intended audience. | - Higher Ed: A Question Trigger is created for the question, “Do you live on campus?” A “yes” response will then display additional questions on the survey related to the quality of the residence halls. A “no” response will not display those additional questions. - Enterprise: A Question Trigger is created for a multiple-choice question, “I expect this learning experience will positively impact…” Based on the options selected, additional questions appear that state, “You indicated that [sales] would be positively impacted. What percent improvement do you expect will be realized on the job?” |
| Rater Field | Creates a trigger condition based on information that is known about the rater. This allows you to customize the questionnaire based on specific Rater attributes and demographics, such as Rater name, Rater’s supervisor, Department, gender, etc. | A Rater Field Trigger is created to only display certain questions to survey participants in a particular Department. |
| Rater Group | Creates a trigger condition based on which group the rater belongs to. | You select to display supervisor level questions to the “Manager” rater group and hide these questions for all other groups. |
| Subject Field1 | Creates a trigger condition based on information contained in the Subject data. This allows you to present questions for specific courses in a course evaluation or specific Employees within a 360, once again based on the specific attributes/ demographics associated with that Subject. | - You use a Subject Field Trigger to display certain questions for Courses that were held in the Spring Term (Higher Ed). - You use a Subject Field Trigger to display certain questions for Employees whose Hire Date was within the last fiscal year (Enterprise). |
| Secondary Subject Field1 | Creates a trigger condition based on information contained in the Secondary Subject data, such as instructor data in a course evaluation type project. This option can be used if creating triggers based on the user role. | - You use a Secondary Subject Field Trigger to display certain questions for non-tenured Instructors (Higher Ed). - You use a Secondary Subject Field Trigger to display certain questions for contract Instructors (Enterprise). |
| Date | Creates a trigger for a date or within a date range. Based on the date, or date range, you can choose to display or hide questions on the questionnaire. | You use a Date Trigger to display certain questions only as of a certain date. |
| Secondary Subject (Optional) | Creates a trigger condition based on whether or not a Secondary Subject is included. This trigger type is only available if the Secondary Subject Optional setting was selected during project creation. |
Footnotes
- Note that by using a Subject Field (Secondary Subject Field) trigger, you can also hide or display a personalized (i.e. customized) question in the Question Personalization (QP) task. Specifically, the trigger can hide or display personalized questions if the trigger is based on the Subject (or Secondary Subject) Field, based on a question or based on a date. ↩ ↩2
Form Preview and the Preview for individual questions does not support question triggers or response piping and does not save responses.
For more information and alternative ways to preview the questionnaire or project, consult this article: Preview a project.
Multiple triggers and trigger actions
Trigger conditions are built logically. Multiple filters can be defined together for a given datasource using the Boolean logic commands AND, OR, and NOT. In addition, it is also possible to nest multiple conditions using the parenthesis. Repeat adding as many conditions as necessary, there is no limit to the number of filters that can be added.
When adding more than one Trigger Condition, or nesting several conditions, the AND/OR/NOT logical commands must be inserted in the filter condition listing. Click on the respective button to insert any one of the logical operators. Use the open and close parentheses ( ) buttons to create the desired logic. Begin a condition set with the Not command to reverse the logic of the operation.
The search can be narrowed by specific keywords and fragments, and up to three search filters can be nested for greater accuracy in determining your desired condition.
Once all of the conditions have been set, select Add to List. The trigger is now a part of the Trigger List.
Trigger actions
Once the conditions are set, click Action to determine exactly what effect the condition will have on the questionnaire. The Trigger Action window will appear.
- If you wish for actions to be triggered when the user clicks Presubmit, then click Yes for Presubmit.
- If you wish for actions to be triggered when the user clicks on the Submit button (default),
you can leave the default settings or click Yes to Submit.
Question items are displayed along with their default visible/hidden, mandatory/optional statuses. For each question, select the appropriate behavior to carry out for the trigger.
In the Is Visible section, for each question, determine if the trigger will display or hide a question. The default behavior is displayed in the Default column.
- N/A - selecting N/A means that the trigger will have no impact on the question
- Yes - selecting Yes displays the question
- No - selecting No hides the question
In the Is Mandatory section, for each question, determine if the trigger will make the question mandatory or optional to answer. The default behavior is displayed in the Default column.
- N/A - selecting N/A means that the trigger has no impact on the question
- Yes - selecting Yes means that the question is now mandatory
- No - selecting No means that the question is not mandatory
Click Apply to confirm this trigger action.
Actions may be reversed by another conflicting trigger. Also if using a question trigger, if the question that triggers the action is skipped, the action will not occur.
Trigger listing
You may add as many triggers as your project requires. Simply click Add Trigger and follow the steps discussed above. If a trigger is no longer needed or was made in error, simply delete it from the trigger list.
When multiple triggers are listed, the trigger with the highest index number takes priority over other triggers. What this means is that if there is a conflict, and two triggers have the same trigger condition, the action belonging to the trigger with the highest index number will take precedent.
Adjust the order of triggers by:
- Selecting a trigger, and clicking the up/down arrows.
- Selecting a trigger, entering a number in the Move to Position box, and selecting Go.