Survey Search

Labels used for searching surveys are called Categories and Values.   The system works like a library’s subject catalog: the catalog includes a set of custom categories, and each item in the collection is marked as belonging to one or more of those categories.

Categories are similar to high level subjects in the library catalog, like history or biography. Values are similar to library sub categories, such as ‘History / US’, ‘History / Military’, ‘Biography / 20th Century,’ etc.   Illume‘s survey search feature relies on the category/value system to organize and find surveys.

Here is a more comprehensive example:

The result?  When it’s time to create a new survey on Gadgets, a survey designer can search for existing surveys in the Product category that pertain to Gadgets. From the surveys that the search turns up, the designer can drag and drop existing questions for reuse in the new survey. This can greatly improve the efficiency of survey design for that user.

The first step to organizing a searchable collection of surveys is to define the search categories and values under which the surveys will be organized.

Adding Survey Search Categories and Values

You must be logged in and have either the Administrator or Reviewer role to add or edit survey search categories.

To add survey search categories:

1. Click on the Survey Administration tab in the Illume Survey Manager.

2. Select Administration Add/Edit Survey Search Categories.

3. Type the name of a new survey category in the name field.

4. Click the Add button next to the name field to add the new category.

5. The newly-added category should be highlighted in the list of categories. While this item is highlighted, type a value into the Value field below, then click the Add button next to the Value field.

6. Repeat step 5 to add as many values as needed to the new category. Repeat steps 3 and 4 to add more categories.

7. Click Done when finished. This will close the Category Editor and save the changes.

To add values to a category that already exists, simply click on the category in the Categories list and follow step 5 above.

Editing Survey Search Categories and Values

Editing search categories and values essentially means changing their names. Note that when changing the name of a search category or value, the surveys filed under that category/value retain their association to the renamed category/value. For example, if there are ten surveys filed under a category named History, and the name of that category changes to Herstory, the ten surveys will now be filed under Herstory.

To edit categories and values:

1. Click on the Survey Administration tab in the Illume Survey Manager

2. Select Administration Add/Edit Survey Search Categories.

3. Click on the name of the category or value to edit.

4. To change the category name, type the new name into the Name field and click Replace.

5. To edit a value within the category, click on the value in the Category Values list.

6. To change the value name, type the new name into the Value field and click Replace.

7. Click Done when finished. This will close the Category Editor and save the changes.

Deleting Categories

To delete categories, follow these steps:

1. Click on the Survey Administration tab in the DatStat Illume Survey Manager.

2. Select Administration Add/Edit Survey Search Categories.

3. In the Categories list, click on the name of the category to delete.

4. Click the Delete button.

5. Read the confirmation message carefully and click OK .

Deleting Values

To delete category values, follow these steps:

1. Click on the Survey Administration tab in the Illume Survey Manager.

2. Select Administration, Add/Edit Survey Search Categories.

3. In the Categories list, click on the name of the category that contains the value to delete.

4. In the Values list, click on the name of the value to delete.

5. Click the Delete button beneath the Category Values list. This will delete the value. (If the Delete button that appears under the Categories list is clicked, it will delete the entire category!)

6. Read the confirmation message carefully and click OK.

After defining a set of categories and values within which to organize the surveys, each of surveys can be associated with one or more categories or values. This enables Illume users to easily locate surveys using the Illume Survey Manager‘s search tool.

Adding Categories and Values to a Survey

Only users with the Administrator or Reviewer role can associate surveys with categories and values.

To associate surveys with categories and values, follow these steps:

1. In the Survey Administration tab of the Illume Survey Manager, right click on the name of the survey.

2. Choose Set Survey Category Values from the context menu.

3. In the list of Categories, click on the name of the category to which this survey should belong. Notice that all of the values belonging to this category appear in the list to the right.

4. Click on a value in the list, and click the Add button to associate the value with this survey.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each of the values to associate.

6. Click OK to save the changes and close the editor.

Removing Categories and Values from a Survey

To remove categories and values from a survey, follow these steps:

1. In the Survey Administration tab of the Illume Survey Manager, right click on the name of the survey to work with.

2. Choose Set Survey Category Values from the context menu.

3. In the Category/Value list at the bottom of the Categories/Values editor, click on the value to remove.

4. Click the Remove button.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each of the values to remove.

6. Click OK to save the changes and close the editor.

Illume‘s survey search capability relies on surveys being organized into a set of categories. If a category/value system has not yet been set up to organize the surveys, See Understanding Search Categories and Values for an overview.

To search for surveys, follow these steps:

1. In the Illume Survey Manager, click on the Survey Administration tab.

2. Click the Survey Search tab.

3. From the Survey Status list, choose which surveys to search through. This can be either “AllSurveys,” or only those surveys matching in a specific state, such as “Published” or “Available for checkout.”

4. Choose a category from the category list.

5. Choose one or more values from the value list. Notice that the contents of the value list changes whenthe category changes.

6. Choose either is or is not from the list of conditions.

7. Click the Add button to add the conditions and values to the search criteria.

8. Repeat steps 4-7 to add criteria to the search.

9. Select And or Or to group the criteria (details below).

10. Click Search.

After clicking Search, the Search Results tab will appear with the results of the search.

Grouping Criteria with And / Or

In some cases, there is a need to use both ‘And ‘and ‘Or’ conditions in a single search. It is possible to do this, to a limited extent.  Notice that when checking more than one value from a category’s value list (as described in step 5 above) and clicking the Add button, the values appear on a single line in the list of criteria, and they are separated by ‘Or’.  It is possible to add several sets of values in this way. After adding all of the sets, choose ‘And’ as the group option, it will create a set of criteria like this:

Target is Widget Customers or Gadget Customers

And Author is Kevin McHale or Lamar Mundane

The Survey Search tool will include only values belonging to a common category in these one-line ‘or’ conditions.

Restoring the Survey List

After running a search, the survey list will display only those surveys that met the criteria. To restore that the survey list so that all surveys appear:

1. Go back the Survey Search tab.

2. Click the Clear All Criteria button.

3. Click Search again.

To see a list of all surveys having a given status (such as “Published” or “Available for checkout”), follow these steps.

1. In the Illume Survey Manager, click on the Survey Administration tab.

2. Click the Survey Search tab.

3. From the Survey Status list, choose which surveys to search through. This can be either All Surveys, or only those surveys matching in a specific state, such as Published or Available for checkout.

4. Click Search.

Restoring the Survey List

After running a search, the survey list will display only those surveys that met the criteria. To restore the survey list so that all surveys appear, go back to the Survey Search tab, click the Clear All Criteria button , and then click Search again.