I pulled together a graphic (attached) to better communicate an issue I am having with development of a survey. Generally, I'm trying to use the response from two survey questions to inform how the survey is structured based on the responses to those questions.

From the graphic (see ?1), "survey question 1" asks the respondent to indicate how many activities they will be entering data for. This question will be a dropdown with the user able to select a number from 1 to 5. Depending on how they answer this first question, the next question will create an equal number of dropdown menus equal to the number they select. So, for example, the user selects 4 activities so 4 dropdown menus would display in the next question. It seems I can do this by using the "set conditions" feature, creating 5 new questions with the condition if 1 is selected, if 2 is selected, if 3 is selected, etc. Is there a way to streamline this so I do not have to create five questions with 1 dropdown menu, 2 dropdown menus, etc., but set up one condition with a rule that states how the survey should respond no matter what number is selected?

Related, from the graphic (see ?2), "survey question 2" will then display the number of dropdowns selected from "survey question 1." The user will then be able to select from a list of different activity types (presentation, publication, , training, etc.). Let's say they selected "presentation" for activity 1 and 2. Then, they selected publication for the 3rd activity, and training for the 4th. They would then need to answer a series of questions related to the first presentation, the second presentation, the publication, and the training. I know I can create a question group for each of the activity types but am not sure how to make those question groups display depending on the responses to "survey question 2." Can you provide me with some ideas on how this can be done?

Many thanks and let me know if additional clarification is needed.

acrall wrote: This question will be a dropdown with the user able to select a number from 1 to 5. Depending on how they answer this first question, the next question will create an equal number of dropdown menus equal to the number they select.

I'm still trying to figure out, how respondents indicate what kind of activity they answer in question 2.

From my understanding so far, I would create a survey in Group by Group mode.

Group 1: Question 1 How many activities? 1-5
Then I would display 1-5 text boxes to let the respondent enter the activities.
Perhaps a different kind of question type is more suitable in the end. But that depends on the whole questionnaire.


Group 2: We have a maximum of 5 second level questions. I would put all second level questions in one group and use conditions or relevance to show and hide depending on the amount of activities.

Depending on how many questions are on the third level I might would considering merging second and third level questions.

You can use conditions on questions, but you can also use relevance equations on questions and question-groups.

The next step would be, that you create a draft survey and attach a LSS export here in forum.
That way you would get better feedback. If you don't want to show the real questions, just create some dummies.

I don't think we have a multiple dropdown question type, but this might be hidden as a special setting in some question somewhere. But I doubt it.

What you could do instead of creating 5 list (dropdown) questions and hide and show them according to the number chosen in the first question. You can use the relevance equations for this. The first question would always show (as I understand they need to choose at least 1 activity), then the second one will be shown when they chose a number > 1, the third one when chosen a number > 2, etc.

However, with this approach they can choose a type of activity more than once, but I haven't seen this as an requirement in your text anyway, just thought I mention it.

holch wrote: I don't think we have a multiple dropdown question type, but this might be hidden as a special setting in some question somewhere. But I doubt it.

Array question type : Show as dropdown

manual.limesurvey.org/Question_type_-_Ar...s_.28use_dropdown.29

And here : for each subquestion : relevance can be Q1 >= 1, Q2 >=2 etc …

Array question type : Show as dropdown

There you go! Thanks! This should do the trick! I was searching for it, but couldn't find it.

I think you intend something like this:
www.opensurvey.it/limesurvey/index.php/786522?newtest=Y&lang=en
In attachment the survey structure.
I've used relevance (expression manager) applied to groups, questions and sub-questions

Thanks for the help, and I apologize for any confusion. I already started the survey using the "group by group" format. I'm attaching a screen shot for "survey question 2." I created it using an array question type, selecting dropdown presentation under the display options, and entering a list of all the possible activity types for the dropdown menus in the list of answer options. I currently am unable to get the response from "survey question 1" to change how many dropdown menus appear in "survey question 2," but it seems you are telling me to create multiple condition statements for each of the 5 options. If they select 1, question 1 in Group 2 will display. If they select 2, question 2 in Group 2 will display, etc. I know how to do that. Thanks.

For the third level, there will be a minimum of 10 additional questions asked. For example, let's say the user selected "Presentation" for activity 1 from the dropdown list. That would then take them to the presentation group of questions. They would then need to enter the type of presentation (oral, poster, webinar, etc.), the date presentation was given, the title of the presentation, the authors, the location, and information on the audience (# of attendees, etc.).

I am unable to export the survey at this stage because it is currently broken based on how I currently have it set up. I will work on it more today to see if I can bring forward more specific questions and hopefully export the file.

I have not yet used the relevance equations feature, so I will give this a try. I assume this is part of the expression manager? Apologies for my ignorance. I'm a new user. Also, yes, they can choose a type of activity more than once. They may need to enter data for two publications and three presentations, for example.

Yes, this is perfect! Thank you! I will download the file you sent and try to make adjustments to my existing survey. If successful, I will share the .lss file with the rest of the group

And to be sure to have different value for each dropdown : you can use unique(self.NAOK) in Question validation Equation : manual.limesurvey.org/Question_type_-_Ar...28em_validation_q.29

You should try to "save" in number of questions for each type of activity, because if every type of activity has 10 questions, you have to build 10*7 question for each group (350 question...).
I suggest to build your first group of single activity, trying to use the same application for different types of activities, perhaps taking advantage of the possibility to customize the text of the application (tayloring) according to the type of activity.
In attachment a new version of the sample. You can see it here: www.opensurvey.it/limesurvey/index.php/786522?newtest=Y&lang=en
I modified only the second group (Activity 1). I addedd 2 generic questions "Title" and "Number of attendees", and the question text is customized according to the type of activity. The "Number of attendees" doesn't appear in case of other type of activity.
Once you have built completely this first group of question, you can export the lsg file and then you can import 4 times, in order to build the other 4 groups for remaining activity, and edit question codes, relevance, etc, etc

I worked on this survey for a few hours yesterday and was trying to figure out a way to minimize the number of questions based on the structure you sent. I very much appreciate you sending this additional feedback, Ifanfoni. I will work on it more today to see if I can get it completely figured out. As I mentioned before, I will send the file once I have the final version complete so everyone on this thread can see it.