The Response Guides tab of the Question Editor enables a user to define what constitutes a valid response for a given question. This tab includes the following properties:
Response Required
This indicates whether the current question requires a response. By default, all questions inherit the survey-wide required setting. In the example above, the survey-wide preference is set to not required. The question itself is set to required.
Minimum Length (chars)
The minimum number of characters required for a valid response to this item. This applies only to text field and commentary items.
Maximum Length (chars)
The maximum number of characters allowed for a valid response to this item. This applies only to text field and commentary items.
Min # of Responses
The minimum number of items that must be checked in a group of checkboxes. For example, if participants are asked to select at least three items from the list of checkboxes, the minimum number of responses should be set to 3. This applies only to ‘Check all that apply’ type questions.
Max # of Responses
The maximum number of items that may be checked in a group of checkboxes. For example, if participants are asked to select no more than three items from the list of checkboxes, the max number of responses should be set to 3. This applies only to ‘Check all that apply’ type questions.
Format (meta-type)
Check this option and select a meta-type from the accompanying list if participants’ responses should be of a particular type (such as email address, phone number, etc.).
Custom Expression
To have a participant’s response match a regular expression, enter the regular expression here. Writing regular expressions generally requires specialized knowledge. However, regular expressions to validate US and international phone numbers, zip codes, and other types of meta-data can be found by searching the Internet.
Lower Bound
The minimum allowable value for a numeric response. Note that it is possible to specify whether responses may not be less than (<) or may not be less than or equal to (<=) the minimum value.
Upper Bound
The maximum allowable value for a numeric response. Note that it is possible to specify whether responses may not be greater than () or may not be greater than or equal to (=) the maximum value.
A user can set both the upper and lower bounds to compare against values that a participant has entered in response to prior questions. That is, it is possible to require that the answer to the current question must be greater than (or less than) the answer to a previous question. See Setting Dynamic Defaults and Bounds for details. If setting bounds for a question that uses the Date, Time, or Date/Time data type, see ‘Date and Time Data’ in Setting a Question’s Response Options for some important considerations.
Custom Error Message
This is the message participants will see if 1) they fail to enter a response when the response is required, or 2) the response they enter does not meet the question’s validation requirements.
If this is left blank, Illume Next will use the appropriate system-wide default error message defined in the Survey Preferences. See Customizing Survey Error Messages for more information about survey-wide error messages.
Illume Next enables the piping of relevant data from the current question directly into a custom error message. This makes the error messages more useful to participants, and relieves survey designers of the burden of having to update error messages when questions change. See the section on Piping Data for a detailed description of how to pipe data into custom error messages.
Enforcement of Response Guides
Illume Next surveys enforce response guides both in the participant’s browser and on the server. If the participant’s browser does not support JavaScript, response guides will be enforced by the server. When an error occurs, participants will be presented with the page they just submitted, with error messages printed above the question.
Users who have JavaScript enabled (typically more than 95% of users) will see both a JavaScript alert and the red-text error message.