Setting Dynamic Defaults and Bounds

Survey designers can set a question’s default response, upper bound, or lower bound:

1. A default response is an already-selected or entered response to a question.
2. An upper bound is the highest allowed value to be entered into a text display type question
3. A lower bound is the lowest allowed value to be entered into a text display type question

The default or bound value may come from one of the following sources:

• Participant Response Data – Data the participant has entered in response to a prior question. This includes calculated variables, as long as Illume Next has enough data to calculate the variable before piping it in.  For example, a participant may say she drinks 5 alcoholic drinks per day.  This response may become an upper bound to a subsequent question asking how many of those drinks were wine.
• User Data – Data associated with this participant in a User’s participant list.  For example, participant’s known years of education may be piped into a question as the default value, allowing the respondent to verify this known value or change it.
• Survey Parameters – Data from survey-wide variables that the User assigns in Survey Preferences.

Use the following tags to pipe values into defaults and bounds:

• {Value:QuestionId} – This will pipe in the value of any question the participant has answered. Change QuestionId to the name of the question whose answer is to be piped in. E.g.{Value:HEIGHT} will pipe in the answer to the question named HEIGHT.
• {UserData:FieldName} – This will pipe in data from the User’s participant list. Change FieldName to the name of the field to be piped in. For example, if a User’s participant list includes a field called LASTNAME for each participant, they can pipe the current participant’s last name by typing {UserData:LASTNAME}.
• {ParamValue:ParameterName} – This will pipe the value of a survey parameter. Survey parameters are survey-wide variables. Each has a name and single value that will be the same for all participants. To pipe the value of a survey parameter called PRODUCT, use the tag {ParamValue:PRODUCT}.

Case does not matter for these tags: {Value:HEIGHT} and {value:height} produce the same result. The curly braces do matter! Piping tags must be enclosed in curly braces {}!

Dynamic Bounds

Questions that use a numeric data type allow survey designers to define the upper and lower bounds of a valid response. Designers set the bounds in the Response Guides tab of the Question Editor, or in the Response Guides tab of the Attached Text Field editor (if working with a text field that is attached to a select-one or check all question).

For example, a question called CURRENTWEIGHT that asks a participant’s current weight. Earlier questions asked for the participant’s minimum weight (MINWEIGHT) and maximum weight (MAXWEIGHT) over the past 12 months. To ensure that the participant enters a current weight that is between his minimum weight and maximum weight, set the Lower Bound of CURRENTWEIGHT to {Value:MINWEIGHT} and the Upper Bound to {Value:MAXWEIGHT}.

When the participant is taking the survey, Illume Next substitutes the participant’s answers to the MINWEIGHT and MAXWEIGHT questions for the {Value:MINWEIGHT} and {Value:MAXWEIGHT}tags. There is some risk in doing this: if the participant did not answer MINWEIGHT or MAXWEIGHT, or if the answers to those questions were not numeric, Illume Next will not try to validate the answer.

To take advantage of dynamic bounds, adhere to the following practices:

1. The question with the set bounds must have a numeric data type. Any numeric type will work. E.g., an appropriate data type for CURRENTWEIGHT would be “Whole numbers 0.”
2. The question whose is piped into the bounds should have the same data type as the question itself. E.g., when setting the bounds for CURRENTWEIGHT, whose type is “Whole numbers 0,” be sure that MINWEIGHT and MAXWEIGHT also use data type “Whole numbers 0.” The validation may work if the data types do not match, but the chances are significantly better if the data types do match.
3. The piped questions (MINWEIGHT and MAXWEIGHT) should require a response. If a participant doesn’t answer these questions, Illume Next has no data to pipe into the bounds and cannot perform the validation. In fact, Illume Next will not even try to perform the validation if it does not have all of the data it needs.
4. When setting defaults and bounds, try to avoid piping from checkbox questions. When applied to checkbox questions, the {Value} tag actually returns the number of items checked. The{Response} tag returns a comma-delimited list of the labels associated with each checked item in a checkbox question. Generally, this is not what is desired for defaults, and will certainly not work with bounds.

Dynamic Default Values

Dynamic default values work just like dynamic bounds: it is possible to pipe a participant response using the {Value:QuestionId} tag, data from the participant list using the{UserData:FieldName} tag, or a survey parameter using the {ParamValue:FieldName} tag.

 

As with dynamic bounds, there are a few things to keep in mind when piping one question’s response into the default value of another question:

1. The question whose answer is used to pipe into the default value has the same data type as the question itself. E.g., if the current question uses the whole number data type, the value piped into the default should be a whole number.
2. Use the {Value:QuestionId} tag to get the numeric value associated with the item a participant selected in a select-one question. This is usually what is desired when setting the default of a question whose data type is numeric.
3. Use the {Response:QuestionId} tag to get the text that appeared next to the option the participant chose. This is usually what is desired when setting the default of a question whose data type is text.
4. The question used for piping should require a response. If Illume Next has no data to pipe into the default, then it will leave the default value empty.
5. When setting defaults and bounds, avoid using the {Value} tag to get the value of a checkbox question. When applied to checkbox questions, the {Value} tag actually returns the number of items checked. The {Response} tag returns a comma-delimited list of the labels associated with each checked item in a checkbox question. Generally, neither of these values are useful in setting defaults.

Other Notes About Default Values

If a question uses response options and no default option is set, the option that will be selected when a participant first sees the question is the “unanswered” option. You can set the text of the “unanswered” option on the Data tab of the Survey Preferences editor. See “Customizing Labels for Unanswered Items”. The “unanswered” option exists only when the text for the unanswered option is not empty. To remove the default value, simply delete whatever is typed into the default field.