Setting Survey Preferences and Styles

Illume gives you a comprehensive set of survey preferences which can be used to customize various visual and functional aspects of your surveys. Read this guide to learn more about these available preferences.

1.Survey-Wide Response Settings

All surveys include a survey-wide default setting to indicate whether responses are required or optional. This default setting applies to each question in the survey, unless you specify otherwise.

To set the survey-wide response requirement:

  1. Choose Survey \ Preferences from the survey designer menu.
  2. Click the Responses tab.
  3. Choose the desired option under Responses Required.
  4. Click OK.

While this setting provides a default, individual questions can be programmed to override the default. Follow the link to the article “Setting a Question’s Response Guides” below for instructions on how to override this setting for an individual question or for a group of questions.

6.5 - DatStat Illume Survey Manager - Using the Survey Designer - Setting Survey Preferences and Styles - Setting the Survey-Wide Response Settings 1

Unanswered Response Labels

There are two types of questions that may require special consideration for their responses.

For Select One-type questions in which the response options are displayed as a poplist, the default unanswered response is “–Select One–“.  This provides a “blank” answer for the survey taker to start with; otherwise, the first response would automatically show first and become a default answer. To change the response from –Select One– just type the new text in the field.

6.5 - DatStat Illume Survey Manager - Using the Survey Designer - Setting Survey Preferences and Styles - Setting the Survey-Wide Response Settings 2

For a Select One-type question with radio group responses, once a selection has been made there is no way to “deselect” the radio button so that no responses are selected.  Including a response option such as “Select to leave question unanswered” will create an response that allows the Participants to select and leave the question unanswered.

6.5 - DatStat Illume Survey Manager - Using the Survey Designer - Setting Survey Preferences and Styles - Setting the Survey-Wide Response Settings 5

NOTE: Both the Poplist Item and Radio Group Item are global settings and will be applied to all questions of that type.

 

Default Loop Summary Indicators

Survey Preferences stores the default loop summary indicators if none are specified in the Loop object.  These preferences can be overwritten in the Loop object but the default is to use the values specified in Survey Preferences.

6.5 - DatStat Illume Survey Manager - Using the Survey Designer - Setting Survey Preferences and Styles - Setting the Survey-Wide Response Settings 4

The Loop Indicators can be graphics or text to Indicate the status of the Variables named in the Loop Summary Table.

 

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2.Setting Page Text Preferences

Customizing the Page footer:

The page footer appears at the bottom of every page in your survey below the navigation buttons, except the Login Page and the End Page

  1. Choose Survey \ Preferences from the Survey Designer menu
  2. Click on the Page Text tab.
  3. Select “Page Footer” from the poplist
  4. Edit the footer in the HTML editor.
  5. Click OK

Customizing the Page header:

  1. Choose Survey \ Preferences from the Survey Designer menu
  2. Click on the Page Text tab.
  3. Select “Page header” from the poplist
  4. Edit the header in the HTML editor.
  5. Click OK

Customizing the Survey Resume/Restore Page

Illume surveys include a resume/restore feature that allows participants to resume a partially completed survey. When a participant logs in and Illume finds a partially completed survey for that participant, Illume presents the resume/restore page, which asks the participant whether they would like to resume the existing survey where they left off.

Note: An optional “Start Over” button can be added to this page.  Clicking this button deletes all entered data for that survey session and resumes the participant at the start of the survey.  This button can be added under the Preferences/Buttons page within the Survey menu.

Customize the message on the resume/restore page by following these steps:

  1. Choose Survey \ Preferences from the Survey Designer menu
  2. Click on the Page Text tab.
  3. Select “Survey Resume/Restore Page” from the poplist.
  4. Edit the page in the HTML editor.
  5. Click OK.

There may be some scenarios in which you want respondents to bypass the survey resume/restore page, and always immediately resume a survey session instead of stopping first on this page.  There are two ways to bypass the survey resume/restore page:

  1. Under Survey \ Preferences \ Buttons, remove the “location” for the Restore and Start Over buttons, the two buttons that natively appear on this page.  By removing those buttons, the page is prevented from appearing.
  2. Append the following tag to the end of the survey URL:  &_rs_=1

Customizing the Survey Suspended Page

A suspended survey is one that was at one time published, but is not currently available to participants. A survey achieves a Suspended state when a user with the Administrator role sets the Running survey to a status of Suspend.  The “Survey Suspended” page text is what participants see if they navigate to the URL of a suspended survey.

To customize the message on this page:

  1. Choose Survey \ Preferences from the Survey Designer menu.
  2. Click on the Page Text tab.
  3. Select “Survey Suspended Page” from poplist.
  4. Edit the page in the HTML editor.
  5. Click OK.

Customizing the Launch Page

The Launch page appears for participants when the URL to a survey is clicked upon, in the event that the participant does not have JavaScript enabled in their browser, which is needed for automatically launching pages. This page provides a button to the participant which can be clicked to Launch the survey.

To customize the message on this page:

  1. Choose Survey \ Preferences from the Survey Designer menu.
  2. Click on the Page Text tab.
  3. Select “Launch Page” from poplist.
  4. Edit the page in the HTML editor.
  5. Click OK.

Customizing the Save Page

The save page appears when a participant clicks the Save button. This button does not appear in Illume surveys by default, but rather can be added via the Survey/Preferences/Button Text editor.  By default all data are saved and sent to the server every time the participant clicks the Next button, once a page has been completed.  The Save button essentially acts as the Next button in situations wherein an entire page has not yet been completed, in that it sends all completed responses to the server allowing the participant to resume on the exact item on which he left off. See “Setting up Save and Restore” for details.

To customize the message on this page:

  1. Choose Survey \ Preferences from the Survey Designer menu.
  2. Click on the Page Text tab.
  3. Select “Save Page” from poplist.
  4. Edit the page in the HTML editor.
  5. Click OK.

 

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3.Customizing Survey Buttons

Buttons Overview

The Buttons tab within Preferences provides the ability to control:

  1. Which buttons appear in the survey
  2. The text that appears on the buttons or alternately
  3. The image to be used for the buttons, if the built-in image is not desirable
  4. The placement of the buttons on the page.

To modify the aspects above for the survey buttons:

  1. Choose Survey/Preferences from within the Survey Designer
  2. Click on the Buttons Tab
    6.5-DatStat Illume Survey Manager-Using the Survey Designer-Setting Survey Preferences and Styles-Customizing Survey Buttons 1

 

Available Buttons

Illume surveys include the following buttons:

  • Launch – The launch button appears on the launch page of surveys that run in a stripped down browser window. (That is, a browser window with no toolbar, no address bar, no forward and back buttons, etc. For more info on launching a survey in a stripped-down browser window, see the section on Embedding a URL to Launch the Survey with No Toolbar in the article Email Text.)
  • Login – The Login button appears on the login page. Participants click this to log in to the survey.
  • Restore – The Restore button appears on the Survey Resume/Restore page. When a participant logs in and Illume finds that he or she has a partially completed survey, the Resume/Restore page asks whether the participant would like to resume work on the incomplete survey, or start from the beginning with a new survey. Clicking the Restore button restores the partially completed survey, returning the participant to the page at which he or she left off.
  • Start Over – The Start Over button appears on the Survey Resume/Restore, described in the previous bullet point. Clicking Start Over deletes the participant’s incomplete survey and presents the participant with a new copy of the same survey.
  • Next – The Next button is what participants click to go to the next page of the survey. In the default survey template, this button is located at the bottom right corner of the page. It appears on all but the last question page.
  • Previous – The Previous button is what participants click to go to the previous page of the survey. In the default survey template, this button is located at the bottom left corner of the page. It appears on all but the first question page.
  • Save – Participants can click this button to save their survey without fully submitting it. Illume stores all participant responses, even before the participant submits the survey. When a participant abandons a survey, Illume has captured all of the participant’s responses except the responses on the last page the participant was working on. If the participant clicks Save, Illume does save the responses on the last page the participant was working on. After saving, a participant may resume the survey later. Authenticated participants can resume the survey by using the same URL they used to start the survey in the first place. Non-authenticated participants can choose request an email from Illume containing a special URL that will allow them to resume their survey. See Send Email, below.
  • Submit – The Submit button submits a survey. This button appears only on the survey’s final question page.
  • Close – The Close button closes a browser window. This button appears only on the Survey End page (which participants see after they submit a survey), and only if the survey was launched in a popup window.
  • Resume – Non-authenticated users can click the resume button to start answering questions where they had previously left off. This button has the same effect as the Restore button.
  • Send Email – When a non-authenticated user clicks Save to his survey responses, he needs some way to get back to his survey if he ever wants to complete it. The Send Email button appears after the participant clicks save. If the participant supplies an email address and clicks this button, Illume will send him an email containing a special link back to his survey. To make the Send Email button appear, you must define button text or a button image, and you must check a placement option for both the Save and Send Email buttons. The Send Email button is not necessary for authenticated surveys. In other words, if your survey only allows participants from specified participant lists, you do not need to use the Send Email button. In authenticated surveys, each participant has a unique URL to access the survey. If they save and return later through the original URL, Illume will know who they are, and will give them the option of resuming their in-progress survey or starting over.
  • Loop Done – Is displayed on the LAST page of loop questions when the loop has a loop summary table defined.  It allows for any changes made to the current set of loop questions to be saved.
  • Loop Cancel -Is displayed on the FIRST page of loop questions when the loop has a loop summary table defined.  It allows any changes made to the current set of loop questions to be canceled.
  • Loop Summary Respond – Appears within the loop summary table for each loop data set row and only applies for follow-up loops.
  • Loop Summary Edit – Appears within the loop summary table for each loop data set row.   It allows for the edit operation for the current data set that is displayed in the loop summary.
  • Loop Summary Delete – Appears within the loop summary table for each loop data set row.   It allows for the deletion of the current data set that is displayed in the loop summary.

 

Setting Button Text

To set the text for any button, click on the name of the button in the Buttons list, then type the text in the Button Text field. Click OK

Setting Button Images

To replace a button with an image:

  1. Select the button from the Buttons list and enter a URL for the image in the Image URL field. The URL may point to either a survey resource or to an absolute URL.
  2. Click the Choose buttonnext to the Image URL field. This brings up the Button image editor.
    6.5-DatStat Illume Survey Manager-Using the Survey Designer-Setting Survey Preferences and Styles-Customizing Survey Buttons-Setting Button Images 1
  3. To use a survey resource, check the Resource option and choose the image from the list of available resources. If the image does not appear in the list of available resources, click New Resource… to upload it.See “Working with Survey Resources” for details on uploading images and other resources.
  4. To use a URL, check the URL option and type in an absolute URL. An absolute URL is one that looks likehttp://www.datstat.com/images/newlogo.gif; in other words, and absolute URL includes the http:// or https:// prefix and a full path to the image. The URL does not have to point to the same server, or even the same domain as your survey. It does have to point to a publicly accessible web server, or your participants may not be able to see it.
  5. Click OK.

After setting a button image, the text in the Button Text field becomes that alternate text of the button. Alternate text appears when the mouse hovers over the button or when the browser is unable to load or display the image.

 

Placing Buttons

Each button can appear in more than one place on the survey pages. To place a button, select the button from the Buttons list, then check one or more of the Placement options.

 

Ordering Buttons

In some cases, there may be more than one button that appear in the same location on the page. For instance, there may be the Previous, Save, and Next buttons in the bottom center of the page.

To set the order in which these buttons display,

  1. Choose the Button group you wish to order under Button Groups (e.g. “Bottom Left”, “Bottom Center”, etc)
  2. In the middle panel under Button Order, click on the group of buttons to order.
    6.5-DatStat Illume Survey Manager-Using the Survey Designer-Setting Survey Preferences and Styles-Customizing Survey Buttons-Ordering BUttons 1
  3. Click on a button under Order Buttons.  Click Up to move the button up in the display order, or Down to move it down. Buttons are displayed left to right on the survey page, so the button at the top of the list appears furthest to the left, while the button at the bottom appears furthest to the right.
  4. Click OK to save the changes.

Button Style

Other aspects of the Button Style can be edited on the Style page under the Survey menu.  Users may edit the color, size, padding, border, and other aspects of the buttons.  Under the appropriate style tree based on the Rendering style (Survey, Mobile, and Table), editing the style of the buttons can be accomplished via the Navigation/Buttons portion of the tree.

6.5-DatStat Illume Survey Manager-Using the Survey Designer-Setting Survey Preferences and Styles-Customizing Survey Buttons-Ordering Buttons 2

 

Modifying Page Transitions

Users may set a Transition from page to page, and define the number of milliseconds of elapsed time for the transition.  The transition occurs when the participant clicks the Next button to move to the next page of a survey, and controls how the next page loads.   This results in a smooth, PowerPoint-like transition as the Next button is hit and the subsequent screen loads on the page.

To modify the page transition:

  1. Enter a transition time in milliseconds
  2. Determine the type of Transition: Fade, To Top, To Bottom, To Left, To Right
  3. Click OK
    6.5-DatStat Illume Survey Manager-Using the Survey Designer-Setting Survey Preferences and Styles-Customizing Survey Buttons-Modifying Page Transitions 1

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4.Working with Survey Parameters

Survey parameters are custom variables consisting of a name and a value. Generally, they are used to display data that may appear in several places throughout the survey and/or data that may have to change frequently.

For example, in an employee satisfaction survey that is administered every quarter a parameter named “quater” could be piped into the survey.  Then, the value of this parameter could be changed from “Spring” to “Summer” to “Fall” to “Winter”, as necessary.

In question prompts, text and HTML throughout the survey, place the marker {ParamValue:quarter} wherever the quarter appears. Illume will automatically replace {ParamValue:quarter} with the value of the “quarter” parameter when it displays pages to survey participants.

Similarly, if the questions ask participants about a specific product, a parameter could be created for the product name. Then, if the same questions are asked about another product in the future, the questions can be retrieved from the repository, dropped into a new survey, and the product name parameter in the survey could be changed to the name of the new product. Illume will then automatically insert the new product name into all the question prompts.

Adding and Editing Survey Parameters

To set survey parameters, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Survey \ Preferences… from the Survey Designer menu
  2. Click on the Parameters tab.
  3. To add a new parameter, click in the Parameter Name column in the last available row. (This is the row marked by a star.)
  4. To edit an existing parameter, click on the name of the parameter in the Parameter Name column.
  5. Type the name of the parameter in the left column, and the value in the right column.
  6. Click OK6.5 - DatStat Illume Survey Manager - Using the Survey Designer - Setting Survey Preferences and Styles - Working with Survey Parameters

Deleting Survey Parameters

To delete a parameter, click in the gray column to the left of the parameter name. This highlights the parameter name and value. Press the delete key on your keyboard.

Displaying Survey Parameters

To display a survey parameter in a question prompt or in the survey’s HTML, simply type {ParamValue:NAME_OF_PARAMETER}, substituting the actual parameter name for NAME_OF_PARAMETER. Illume will display the proper parameter value when the survey appears in the previewer, or in a participant’s browser. For more information about adding custom HTML to your survey, see “Using the HTML Editor.”

 

 

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5.Customizing Survey Error Messages

All Illume surveys include a set of default error messages. These are messages that participants will see when they fail to provide a valid response to a survey question.

NOTE: A custom error message can be created for any question in the survey. See “Setting a Question’s Response Guides”

A default error message appears only for questions that does not have a custom error message.

To customize your survey’s default error messages, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Survey \ Preferences… from the Survey Designer menu
  2. Click on the Error Messages tab.
  3. Choose the message to edit from the “Error message for” list. The items on this list are described below.
  4. The message appears in the main text area. Edit the message. Note that error messages may include some parameters enclosed in curly braces. These are described below.
  5. Click OK6.5 - DatStat Illume Survey Manager - Using the Survey Designer - Setting Survey Preferences and Styles - Customizing Survey Error Messages

Default Error Message Types

Illume surveys include the following default error message types:

  • General validation error This message appears when a participant supplies an invalid response and when no more specific error messages is applicable.
  • Missing required response This message appears when a participant has not responded to a required question.
  • Minimum number of responses not met This message appears when a participant has not checked the minimum number of checkboxes required. For example, if you ask participants to check their top three reasons for choosing product X, those who indicate less than three reasons will see this error message.
  • Maximum number of responses exceeded This message appears when a participant has checked too many of the checkboxes in a single question. For example, if you ask participants to check their top three reasons for choosing product X, those who indicate more than three reasons will see this error message.
  • Minimum length of response not met This message generally applies to text questions, appearing when participants have not typed enough text.
  • Maximum length of response exceeded This message generally applies to text questions, appearing when participants have typed too much text.
  • Response less than minimum allowable value This message appears when a participant enters a numeric value that is less than the allowed minimum.
  • Response <= minimum allowable value This message appears when a participant enters a numeric value that is less than the allowed minimum.
  • Response more than maximum allowable value This message appears when a participant enters a numeric value that is more than the allowed maximum.
  • Response = maximum allowable value This message appears when a participant enters a numeric value that is more than the allowed maximum.
  • Invalid date/time response This message appears when a question requires a date or time response, and the date or time that the participant provides is not valid.
  • Response is not a valid integer value This message appears when a question requires an integer response, and the participant’s response is not a whole number.
  • Response is not a valid positive integer value This message appears when a question requires a positive integer response, and the participant’s response is not a whole number greater than zero.
  • Response is not a valid currency value This message appears when a question requires a currency response, and the participant’s response is not a valid currency value.
  • Response is not a valid floating-point value This message appears when a question requires a decimal response, and the participant’s response is not a valid number. Note that both whole numbers and decimal numbers are valid floating-point numbers.
  • Response does not match specified format/meta-type This message appears when a participant’s response does not match the meta-type you have defined for your question. Meta-types include common pieces of data that must conform to a pattern, such as phone numbers, email addresses, and zip codes.
  • Survey participant login failure This message appears when a participant tries to log in with an incorrect name and/or password.
  • Submission already exists for this survey participant This message appears when a participant tries to log in after having submitted a survey.
  • Login failure due to duplicate participant credentials This message appears when a participant tries to log in and the participant contains more than one entry for the participant’s login id. For example, if your survey uses the CUSTOMID field from the participant list to uniquely identify participants, and the list contains two entries with the CUSTOMID ‘jason555’, anyone attempting log in with this id will see the duplicate credentials message. This happens because Illume has no way of knowing which jason555 is currently trying to log in.
  • Session from authenticated survey has timed out This message appears when a participant submits a survey page after an extended period of inactivity. The participant must log in again to continue to survey. Illume retains all of the participant’s responses, even those submitted after the session expired. (The default session timeout for Illume surveys is generally set to 30 minutes. If you are running your own Illume server, you can change the session timeout by setting the SessionCacheTimeout variable in the Web.Config file for the Illume Collector application.)
  • The email address entered on the Save page is invalid This message appears if the participant enters an invalid email address. Illume will not try to send an email if the address is invalid. Notice that the message above uses the special tag {SavePageEmailAddress}. In the actual error message, this will be replaced with the email address that the participant entered.
  • There was a problem sending an email to the participant from the Save page This message appears after the participant clicks the Send Email button if Illume was not able to send the email.
  • An email was sent successfully to the participant from the Save page Illume displays this message to confirm that the email was sent.
  • A mutually exclusive check box is checked when other check boxes are checked
  • JavaScript is not enabled on survey participant’s browser
  • Loop question contains less than the minimum required number of items
  • Loop question contains more than the maximum allowed number of items

Special Parameters for Default Error Messages

Default error messages include special parameters to make them meaningful for participants. Each of these parameters is replaced by a relevant value while the survey is running.

For example,this default error message:

The value, {Response}, specified in question #{QNum} is greater than the maximum allowed value of {MaxValue}.

When a participant provides an invalid response, Illume replaces these three parameters with 1) the participant’s response, 2) the number of question to which the participant was responding, and 3) the maximum allowed value for the particular question.

As a result, the actual error message that a participant sees will look like this:

“The value, 150, specified in question #12 is greater than the maximum allowed value of 100.”

Default error messages can use the following parameters:

  • {QNum} The number of the current question.
  • {MinRequired} The minimum number of required responses, as specified in a question’s Response Guides. This primarily applies to checkboxes, where a participant can select several answers to a single question.
  • {MaxRequired} The maximum number of allowed responses, as specified in a question’s Response Guides. This too primarily applies to checkboxes, where a participant can select several answers to a single question.
  • {MinLength} The minimum number of typed characters required for a response to the current question, as defined in the question’s Response Guides. This generally applies to text questions.
  • {MaxLength} The maximum number of typed characters allowed for a response to the current question, as defined in the question’s Response Guides. This generally applies to text questions.
  • {MinValue} The minimum value required for a response to the current question, as defined in the question’s Response Guides. This applies to questions requiring numeric responses.
  • {MaxValue} The maximum value allowed for a response to the current question, as defined in the question’s Response Guides. This applies to questions requiring numeric responses.
  • {Response} The actual response that the participant supplied to the current question.
  • {SavePageEmailAddress} This is used on the Save page only, for the error message that appears if the participant enters an invalid email address.

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6.Customizing the Save Email Message

The Save Email Message is sent to a Participant that has clicked the Save Button within a survey.  The Save button is optional and is included by the Survey Designer.

There is a default email message that provides the link to the survey that the Participant is currently taking.  This link will work for both Authenticated and Unauthenticated surveys.

 

To edit the save email message, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Survey \ Preferences from the Survey Designer menu
  2. Click on the Save Email tab.
  3. Using the HTML Editor, make any desired changes to the message
  4. Click OK6.5 - DatStat Illume Survey Manager - Using the Survey Designer - Setting Survey Preferences and Styles - Customizing the Same Email Message

 

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7.Customizing Survey Display Styles

Illume’s Survey Styles Editor enables the Survey Designer to define styles that will be applied throughout the survey. Style can be set broadly, at the survey level, or more narrowly to items such as buttons or question prompts.

The appearance of the Style editor will vary depending on the rendering style of the survey (i.e. Classic vs Responsive).  For surveys in Classic rendering style, there will be only one tree within the Style editor: “Survey”.  For surveys in the Responsive rendering style, there will be 3 trees: Survey, Tablet, and Mobile.

 

Defining Survey Styles for Classic Rendering Style Surveys

  1. Choose Survey \ Style  from the Survey Designer menu.
  2. In the left pane of the Survey Styles Editor, click on the name of the item to set. For example, in the image below, Question Prompt is highlighted, so the image properties being defined will apply to all question prompts throughout the survey.
    6.5-DatStat Illume Survey Manager-Using the Survey Designer-Setting Survey Preferences and Styles-Customizing Survey Display Styles-Defining Survey Styles for Classic Rendering Style Surveys 1
  3. In the right pane, click the area to the right of each property you want to set, and choose from the list of available settings.
  4. Repeat this for each of the survey objects for which you would like to set properties.
  5. Click OK to save your settings.

After clicking OK, use the survey previewer to see how the survey looks with the new styles.

 

Defining Survey Styles for Responsive Rendering Style Surveys

Defining styles for Responsive surveys follows the same steps as above for Classic rendering style surveys, however rather than 1 Survey tree, the Style editor presents 3 trees: Survey, Tablet, and Mobile

6.5-DatStat Illume Survey Manager-Using the Survey Designer-Setting Survey Preferences and Styles-Customizing Survey Display Styles-Defining Survey Styles for Responsive Rendering Style Surveys 1

For Responsive surveys, style must be applied to all 3 trees to ensure appropriate rendering across devices.

 

How Styles are Applied

Illume uses Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to define the fonts, colors, borders, and other stylistic elements of your survey. The styles defined will apply to the selected object and to all of the items contained within the selected object, except where it explicitly defines those properties differently.

To understand what this means, look at the left pane of the Survey Styles Editor. It shows a hierarchy of survey objects. At the top of the hierarchy is the object called Survey. Choose the Survey object in the left pane and then define properties like font, color, etc., those properties will be applied to all objects within the survey, except where it explicitly defines them differently.

Similarly, if properties for Question are defined, those properties will apply to Questions and to all of the sub-items below it in the hierarchy: Question Numbers, Question Prompts, Scale Labels and Values, Question Error Messages, etc. To override these settings in any of the Question sub-items, select the sub item and define the properties you want.

 

Overriding Styles: An Example

Example: The user wants the survey to use Verdana font throughout, and to display black text everywhere except in the question prompts. The question prompts should use bold blue text in the same Verdana font. To do this, the user would follow these steps:

  1. Choose Survey in the left pane of the Survey Styles Editor, and set FontFace to Verdana, and FontColor to #000000 (black).
  2. Choose Question Prompt in the left pane, and set FontColor to #3333CC (blue) and FontStyle to Bold.
  3. Click OK.
    6.5-DatStat Illume Survey Manager-Using the Survey Designer-Setting Survey Preferences and Styles-Customizing Survey Display Styles-Overriding Styles An Example 1

 

Survey Styles vs. Custom HTML

When adding a question prompt, a response option, or some custom HTML to a survey, Illume provides an HTML editor to format the text as it is being composed. What happens if the Survey Style says the font color should be blue and the survey designer used the HTML editor to make some green text? The text will be green. Any formatting applied in the HTML editor overrides the formatting from the Survey Styles Editor.

 

Survey Objects

Styles can be set for the following objects. Note that not all styles apply to all objects. For example, there are no border properties for Radio Buttons and Checkboxes because these items do not have borders.

Object Definition
Survey Properties applied to the Survey object will apply to all parts of the
survey where those properties are not otherwise defined.
Header The header appears at the top of each page of the survey. Define the
header content in the Page Text tab of the Survey Preferences Editor.
Progress Bar The progress bar (if enabled) appears on all pages of the survey to indicate
how far a participant has progressed.
Collection Properties applied to a collection are applied to all elements within all
collections.
Text/HTML Properties applied to Text/HTML objects will affect all Text/HTML objects, but
note that any formatting applied within the HTML editor will override the
style properties.
Collection Error
Messages
These are error messages that are not associated with a particular question.
Examples include messages for invalid logins and attempts to submit a
survey more than once.
Question Properties applied to questions will affect all parts of all questions (prompts,
response options, question numbers, etc.) except where overridden.
Question Number The Question Number appears to the left of each question prompt in the
survey. (Question numbers will not appear of question numbering is disabled
in the Survey Preferences.)
Question Prompt The Question Prompt is the text to which participants respond.
Scale Labels and
Values
Scale Labels are the response options from which a participant chooses when
answering a question. Scale Values are the values associated with each label.
Generally, only Labels are displayed to the participant.
Alternating Radio
Scale Labels
This sets the background color of even numbered scale items in radio type
questions.
Alternating
Checkbox Scale
Labels
This sets the background color of even numbered scale items in check all
that apply questions.
Question Error
Messages
Question Error Messages are the messages participants see when they have
failed to supply a valid response to a question.Note that most error messages for most users will appear as JavaScript alerts (the little pop-up dialog with the OK button). It is not possible to set styles for
JavaScript alerts. This is a limitation of browser technology, not a limitation
of the Illume product.

Any errors that are not caught by the JavaScript validation will be caught by
the Illume server, and the server will display an error message in the current
page of the survey. When you define styles for Question Error Messages, the
styles are applied to these messages.

Input Controls Input controls include items like text boxes and popup menus. Font
properties apply to the text within the controls.
Radio/Checkbox
Controls
The only property available for Radio and Checkbox controls is ControlSize.
Set this to a numeric value to set the height and width of the controls.A value of “20” will set the height and width to 20 pixels. A value of “20pt”
will set the height and width to 20 points.
Question Tables Question Tables are groups of questions that share a common set of
responses. The prompts for each question appear in the first column of the
table, and the response options appear in the following columns. Any
attributes set for Question Tables will apply to Row Headings, Column
Headings, Alternating Row and Alternating Column, unless the survey designer specifically overrides the settings in any of those objects.
Sub-Question
Number
Properties defined here apply to the question number that precedes the
prompt of each item in a Question Table.
Prompts Properties defined here will apply to each individual prompt within
a Question Table.
Column Headings Column Headings in Question Tables appear at the top of each of the
columns that contains a response option. The text of the response options is
printed in the column headers.
Alternating Row Alternating Row properties will be applied to the even numbered rows in a
Question Table.
Alternating Column Alternating Column properties will be applied to the even numbered columns
in a Question Table. The properties will not apply to the question prompts.
Alternating
Question
The background against which survey questions appear alternates by default
between white and yellow.
Button Box The Button Box is the area around the buttons at the top and/or bottom of
the page. It extends almost to the full width of the page, and is normally not
visible. It can be made visible by setting a background color and border.
Buttons The properties set here will apply to all of the buttons in the survey.
Footer The footer appears at the bottom of each page of the survey.Footer content is defined in the Page Text tab of the Survey Preferences Editor.

Valid Values for Style Properties

 

Most style properties present a list of valid values from which to choose. Those properties that do not display a list of valid values expect numeric values. Some properties, such as font size, allow survey designers to ignore all of the items on the list and type in a number of their choosing.

Numeric values use the following units:

Unit Abbreviation Description
Pixels px One pixel represents 1/72 of an inch (1/29 cm.) on most computer
monitors, though it may represent 1/90 of an inch (1/36 cm.) on
some monitors.
Points pt One point represents 1/72 of an inch (1/29 cm.).
Picas pc One pica is 12 points (1/6 in. or about 2/5 cm.)
Inches in One inch is 72 points, or approximately 2.5 cm.
Centimeters cm One centimeter is approximately 29 points, or 0.4 inches.
Millimeters mm One millimeter is approximately 3 points or 0.04 inches.
Em em Em-units are calculated relative to each participant’s system-wide
default font-sizes.
Ex ex An ex unit is the height of the letter x calculated from the
participant’s system-wide default font size. This height will differ for
each font.
Percent % Percent values represent widths relative to the nearest block-level
container. E.g. setting the width of a button to 50%, the button
will be half as wide as the table cell that contains it.

Of these units, pixels, em-units and percents are generally best for the Web because computers can scale these units as necessary for the participant’s monitor.

If the survey designer sets the value of a property to a simple number, like 12, the Survey Styles Editor will assume points as the unit, and will set the value to 12.00pt. To set the value to 12 points, specify 12pt. To set the value to 12 percent, specify 12%.

Font Size and Section 508 Compliance

While font sizes can be set to a numeric value such as 12pt or 16px, Illume uses em values by default to comply with Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act. If the survey needs to comply with Section 508, em values should be used to define font sizes because em values set font sizes relative to each participant’s system default font sizes. Participants who have difficulty reading text on a computer monitor will generally use a large font size as the default. Em values respect these settings. For example, an em value of 1.00 displays text at exactly the system default point size. An em value of 1.50 displays fonts at 1.5 times the system default font size.

 

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8.Change Rendering Style

The Responsive Design feature gives users the ability to create surveys that will render appropriately whether the participant uses a desktop computer, tablet, or mobile device.   This feature detects the size of the browser window of the participant, and based on that size automatically adjusts the display and controls within the survey to be most functional for that browser size.  If the browser detected by Illume is fewer than 992 pixels in size, Illume determines that device to be a tablet.  If the display is fewer than 768 pixels in size, Illume determines that device to be mobile (these pixel determinations are based on industry standards).

Once Illume determines the pixel size, it automatically adjusts the Cascading Style Sheet that controls the display of the web page that is the survey.  Users have the ability to view and edit the style settings associated to each rendering type.

 

Implementing Responsive Design

To implement responsive design in an Illume Survey:

  1. Create a new survey, or open an existing survey
  2. Go to the Tools menu and select Change Render Style
    6.5-DatStat Illume Survey Manager-Using the Survey Designer-Change Rendering Style-Implementing Responsive Design 1
  3. There are two options: Classic and Responsive. Select Responsive.
    6.5-DatStat Illume Survey Manager-Using the Survey Designer-Change Rendering Style-Implementing Responsive Design 2
  4. Click Done.

 

Viewing and Editing Rendering Styles

To view and edit the rendering styles associated to a responsive survey:

  1. Within the Illume survey editor, go to the Survey menu and select Style
    6.5-DatStat Illume Survey Manager-Using the Survey Designer-Change Rendering Style-Viewing and Editing Rendering Styles 1
  2. If you scroll down on the left pane, you will see the style tree for “Survey”, and eventually for Tablet and Mobile
    6.5-DatStat Illume Survey Manager-Using the Survey Designer-Change Rendering Style-Viewing and Editing Rendering Styles 2
  3. The style tree Survey is the default style. This style is utilized if the survey does not determine that the browser size requires Tablet or Mobile display.
  4. The style trees for each of the three styles, Survey, Tablet, and Mobile, provide access to altering the same survey style components. When Responsive rendering style is selected, you will see that the style settings vary across the 3 modes, with things like font size and control size varying across the modes.
  5. To edit the rendering style associated to a rendering mode, expand the tree for Survey, Tablet, or Mobile, find the component on the left pane that you wish to alter, and edit on the right pane by clicking in the rectangle next to the setting. For example, below the alternating question highlighting color is being edited by clicking on “Alternating” under “Question” within the Mobile tree, and then in the right pane clicking on the box next to Background Color where it currently says “Default”.  This pulls open the Pick Color modal.
    6.5-DatStat Illume Survey Manager-Using the Survey Designer-Change Rendering Style-Viewing and Editing Rendering Styles 3

 

Implementing Responsive Design: Implications

There are two main considerations when determining whether a survey built in a prior version should be altered to allow for Responsive design:

  1. When a survey built in a prior version is upgraded, any styles implemented via the Edit/Style editor from the prior version will be lost. These styles will need to be re-implemented in the Style editor.
  2. Custom JavaScript implemented in the survey to facilitate custom validations or other custom solutions will not be functional in Illume Next. Prior version of Illume utilized JavaScript and the Prototype.js library.  Illume Next, in contrast, utilizes the Angular framework and JQuery.  Given this, surveys with high utilization of custom JavaScript should remain in Classic style.  If the style is changed to Responsive, the custom coding will need to be rebuilt utilizing JQuery.

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9.Creating Custom End Pages

The End Page is the page participants see after they click the Submit button in the survey (or the submit button is clicked by a “jump to the end and automatically submit”. Illume enables the survey creator to define custom content for the end page. Multiple end pages can be created, with each block of end page content including show-if conditions so that they appear only to participants who meet specific criteria.

For example, the survey may screen participants to see if they are eligible for a more detailed follow-up study. Those who qualify for the follow-up study will see on the end page an invitation to participate in the follow-up. Others will see only a message thanking them for their participation. To determine which content a participant sees is controlled by simple show-if logic on each end page content block.  For example, the “invitation” may appear to all participants who answered yes to a certain question. Anyone who did not answer yes will see the thank you message.

Creating End Page Content

To create a End Page content, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Survey \ End-Page Content  from the Survey Designer menu.

epc

  1. Click the Add Text/Html… button.

DS_AddEndPageContent.gif

  1. Use the HTML editor to create the content.
  2. (Optional) Click the Show-if tab to set the show-if conditions under which this page should appear.
  3. (Optional) Click the Data Dictionary tab and enter a descriptive name for this page. This makes the survey easier to recognize when you have multiple end pages.
  4. Click OK in the HTML editor.
  5. Click Done in the Survey End-Page editor.

Can a participant see content from more than one block of content on the end page?

Yes. If a participant meets the show-if conditions for more than one block of end page content (i.e. conditions are not mutually exclusive), the content from each end page will appear in the same order that the content appears in the End Page Content Editor. All of the content appears on a single HTML page.

For example, assume the survey has one question that asks “Which end page would you like to see?” The options are “blue,” “red,” and “green.” The survey has the following four end pages:

  • Blue End Page Anyone who answers “blue” sees this page.
  • Red End Page Anyone who answers “red” sees this page.
  • Green End Page Anyone who answers “green” sees this page.
  • Default End Page All participants see this, no matter what they answer

 

When the End Page Content blocks are in this order…

DS_EndPageOrder1.gif

participants will see the content from either the red or green or blue end page, followed by the content from the default end page.

NOTE: There is no show-if condition on the default end page content, so everyone sees it.

When the End Page Content blocks are in this order…

DS_EndPageOrder2.gif

participants will see the default end page content first (i.e. at the top of the page), followed by either the red or green or blue end page content.

 

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11.Creating Survey Redirects

Survey redirects allow participants to be redirected to another web site or URL after they have submitted a survey.  One potential use for survey redirects is to chain one survey to another, i.e. to direct a participant from one survey to another survey.  You may use redirects in combination with End Page Content, i.e. you can have certain participants be redirected on submit under certain conditions, and show other participants End Page Content under other conditions, as long as the full set of conditions are mutually exclusive.

If redirect needs to occur in the middle of a survey, a Jump object can be added that specifies “Jump to the end and automatically submit” and the redirect will occur after the submit.

Steps to create a survey redirect:

  1. Choose Survey \ Redirects in the menu
  2. Enter a Description for the redirect.
  3. Enter the redirect URL. It is possible to use piping tags to perform value replacement.  For example, the following value could be entered to allow for survey chaining or a participant to continue to take another authenticated survey:https://live.datstat.com/MyOrg-Collector/Survey.ashx?Name=FollowUp&LoginId={Value:DATSTAT_ALTPID}
    • The portion at the end of the URL, &LoginID={Value:DATSTAT_ALTPID}, is where the known ID for the participant is passed through the end of the URL, allowing that link to “auto-authenticate” the participant directly into the second survey, without requiring the participant to directly enter the ID.
  4. Click the “Only active if” radio button and the Active-If button if the redirect is to be conditionally performed based on the values of specific questions and calculations.

DS_RedirectEditor.gif

How Redirects Work

After a participant submits a survey each redirect is visited in top to bottom order in which they are specified in the Survey Designer. The participant is redirected to the first redirect that matches the criteria. Once a participant matches the criteria of one redirect, all redirect and end page processing stops. This means that if a redirect is being performed, no end page Text/HTML object content will be displayed upon submission of the survey. For SDK users this means that no runtime content objects in the end page will be processed.

It is important to note that order is very important when specifying redirects. To change the order of redirects, click on a redirect in the Survey Redirects dialog and drag it up or down.

A Redirect can be copied and pasted within the same survey or to another.

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12.Setting up Save and Restore

This article describes how to set up Save and Restore on unauthenticated surveys. Save and Restore enables survey participants to save a survey in progress and resume work on it later.

Authenticated Surveys

Authenticated surveys are surveys that are associated with one or more participant lists. Only participants on the lists can take the surveys, and Illume keeps track of which survey belongs to which participant.

Authenticated surveys always have the restore feature enabled, so there is no need to set it up. When a participant comes to the authenticated survey, Illume always checks first to see if the participant has a survey in progress. If so, Illume gives the participant the option to restore the survey in progress, or to start over.

The Restore and Start Over buttons can be customized. See Customizing Survey Buttons for details.

It can be of benefit to add the Save button even for authenticated surveys for two reasons: its presence lets participants know that they can save the survey and resume it later, and it enables them to save responses on a page they’ve only partially completed. Without the save button, Illume saves only the participant’s last completed page. (The last page on which they clicked the Next button.)

Unauthenticated Surveys

Unauthenticated surveys are open – they do not have an associated participant list. These surveys grant access to everyone, and everyone can take the survey a potentially unlimited number of times.

 

To set up Save and Restore for an unauthenticated survey, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Survey / Preferences from the DatStat Illume Survey Designer Menu.
  2. Click the Buttons tab of the Preferences Editor.

buttons

  1. Choose Save from the Buttons list on the left side of the Preferences Editor.
  2. Type the text for the Save button in the Button Text entry. Whatever is typed here will appear as the text of the Save button.
  3. Check at least one Placement option for the Save button.
  4. Choose Send Email from the Buttons list.
  5. Type the text for the Send Email button in the Button Text entry.
  6. Check at least one Placement option for the Send Email button.
  7. Click the Page Text tab.
  8. Choose Save Page from the Set text for list.
  9. Compose the text to appear on the Save Page. This is the page participants see after clicking the save button. Note that the sample below uses two special tags: {ResumeRawURL} will be replaced in the live survey by the actual unique URL the participant can use to resume his or her survey. {SavePageEmailText} will be replaced in the live survey by a text box in which the participant can enter his or her email address. Illume will validate the email address, but it won’t save it in the data set.

DS_SavePage.gif

  1. Click the Save Email tab.
  2. Compose the email message that Illume will to send to the participant.

NOTE: The sample below contains two special tags. {ResumeUrl:Click Here To Resume} will be replaced in the actual email with a clickable link that says “Click Here To Resume.” Clicking the link takes the participant back to his or her survey in progress.  Whatever text is typed after the colon in this tag becomes the text of the clickable link.

{ResumeRawUrl} will be replaced in the actual email with the full URL the participant needs to resume his or her survey. This full URL will appear as a clickable link in most email clients (such as Microsoft Outlook). The participant may click the link, or cut and paste the URL into a browser to resume their survey.

NOTE: The Save Email that Illume sends to the participant is an HTML formatted email. Illume does not send a plain text version.

DS_SaveEmail.gif

  1. Click OK to save the changes.

When a participant clicks the Save button, they will see a page like the one below.

DS_SaveSurveyPage.gif

If the participant chooses to have the URL emailed, Illume will attempt to send the email immediately.

Error Messages for the Save Email

Illume includes some special customizable messages for the Save Email.   Click on the Error Messages tab of the Survey Preferences editor to set the text of these messages.

DS_InvalidEmail.gif

From the Error message for list,the text can be set for any of the following items pertaining to the Save page.

  • The email address entered on the Save page is invalid. This message appears if the participant enters an invalid email address. Illume will not try to send an email if the address is invalid. Notice that the message above uses the special tag {SavePageEmailAddress}. In the actual error message, this will be replaced with the email address that the participant entered.
  • There was a problem sending an email to the participant from the Save page. This message appears after the participant clicks the Send Email button if Illume was not able to send the email.
  • An email was sent successfully to the participant from the Save page. Illume displays this message to confirm that the email was sent.

 

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