If you’re someone who uses Ushahidi v2, Surveys (previously referred to as post types) in v3 are what we used to refer to as custom forms. A survey defines critical aspects of a post’s structure and permissions. For example, a post’s “survey” defines which fields are available for contributors to complete, and who can see it when it’s published.
This section will show you how to create and manage surveys on your deployment.
NB: If your deployment is hosted on ushahidi.com, usage limits may apply, based on the Ushahidi plan you are subscribed to. You may review these from our plans page.
The setup in this guide is demonstrated in the below video as well. You can watch and follow the guide at the same time!
To access the Surveys configuration page,
On the left hand menu bar, click on Settings
Then, click on Surveys.
By default, each deployment has a Basic Post survey, which can be deleted or modified as needed. To create a new survey,
Click on New Survey as shown below.
In the upper left corner of the survey form, you will see the default language that your deployment is currently in. Check Chapter 3.3.2 on how to change a survey's default language
Fill in the required details.
Survey Name: Try being as specific as possible when creating your survey name so that users will understand what they are selecting when creating new posts
Description: Provide a brief description of what kind of data you’ll be collecting with this survey
Fields + Tasks: See below for details on how to add fields and tasks into your survey.
Click on save once you're done building your survey.
See chapter 3.3.2 on how to translate your survey into other languages
If you're setting up multiple surveys with similar structures, here's a neat trick for you - you can duplicate your survey from the survey list page as follows
To duplicate a survey:
Click on the "..." context menu.
Click on the "Duplicate" link in the context menu to duplicate the survey.
Each survey you create will have a title and description field by default. It's important to note these fields can be edited, but cannot be deleted.
You can add as many custom fields to your survey as you see fit.To add a new field,
Click on Add Field
A pop up box with a list of different field types will appear on your screen. Choose whichever one will work best for the type of data you are trying to capture.
Add the following details
Name: This is what is displayed as a label for your newly created field
Add field description (optional): A visual editor should appear below, you may add help text that provides additional details about this field.
Add some text in the description-editor, format it however you want to, and as long text as you want to.
Required: If set to yes, post submission will be only be successful once this field has been filled out. If set to no, post submission will be successful even if it has not been filled out.
Make responses private: This allows limiting access to responses to this field to specific users.
Default Value: You can set a default value displayed every time someone is creating a new post. example, a survey asks whether you want to subscribe to a service, and it has a default value of 'No'. If you submit without changing this value, the default value will be submitted as 'No' when you save the survey. If you change to 'Yes', the value that will be submitted will be 'Yes'. That's the value that will be submitted when the survey is saved.
NB: For fields where it's possible to add a default value (all field-types except "image", and "categories"), the default value box should be displayed with no toggle-switch
Field Options: This appears in cases where you’re creating a checkbox, select or radio button field. You can add as many options as you would like.
Once you’re done, click on Add&Close.
Note that, the description should have the same formatting as it did in the field description editor.
To confirm this,add a new post to this survey,
Save the post
Go to data-view
Select the post you added and select "edit"
The field description you added will be visible.
The description should have the same formatting as you did in the editor
To edit an existing field,
Select the desired custom field by clicking on it
Edit the fields (as described in the section above on Adding fields) as desired.
Click on Update&close when done.
You can also change the position of existing fields by clicking on the scroll icons to the left of every field as shown below.
To delete an existing field
Click on the trash icon adjacent to the field you'd like to delete
A pop up box will appear on the top of the page, prompting you to confirm whether you would like to delete the field
Click on Delete to delete the field
If you’d like to cancel the field deletion process, click on Cancel
You can organize your survey into “Tasks”, allowing a deployment to add fields related to actions that need to be taken, like translation or verification. These groups of tasks are visible to specified users and can be marked as ‘complete.’ For example, if a particular survey requires verification upon submission, you can design a task to ensure your team knows the post needs to be verified before publishing. The task could include fields like whether the information was verified or not, who verified the information, how they verified it, and when they verified it. After verification, the task can be marked as complete and the post can either be moved to the next task if necessary, or published.
To add a new task,
Click on Add Task on your survey creation/edit page
A small pop up box will appear, prompting you to give your task a name
If you’d like to make this task required before post submission, toggle the Require this task be completed before a post can be visible to the public button. This means that, a post will not be published until this task is marked as complete
Click on Add & Close
Once set up, you can duplicate your task as follows.Adding task fields
You should be able to add fields to tasks in the same way that you add fields to a survey.
Please refer to the Fields section of this manual for details on how to add, edit and delete task fields.
To make additional configurations to your task,
Click on Configure
Set the following options
_Required: _When set to yes, this task must be set as complete for successful post submission
Task is only for internal use: This limits visibility of this task during submission only to teams with permissions to manage posts on your deployment i.e only internal team members will be able to submit responses to this task
_Show this task to everyone when published: _This limits visibility of task responses when viewing submitted posts if not enabled i.e it limits visibility of responses to tasks to internal teams only.
To edit an existing task,
Scroll down to the the desired task
Make changes as desired, e.g changing the task name, description, and/or making a task required or not
When done, click on Save on the top of the page
To delete an existing task
Scroll down to the desired task
Click on the three dotted icon, and select Delete Task
A pop up box will appear on the top of the page, prompting you to confirm whether you would like to delete the task
Click on delete to delete the task
If you’d like to cancel the task deletion process, click on Cancel
Once the survey form has been created and all the required fields have been filled, you can translate the survey into other languages if you want to. Below are a video and written setup guides to help you.
Nb: You can add more than one language
Click on +Add translation at the upper right-hand corner of the survey form.
A pop-up module will appear on your screen, click on the dropdown menu, and select the language you want to translate to.
Click on Add to finish.
You will be redirected to a survey form with the translatable content in the default language and fields where you can add your translations
On the empty fields, translate the survey details into the chosen language e.g in the above image the default language is English and the added language is French.
To translate the added fields on your survey;
Scroll down to fields.
Select the desired custom field by clicking on it.
A pop-up module will appear. Translate the field details to the chosen language.
Translate the remaining fields that you added.
To translate tasks;
Scroll down to tasks.
Translate the task details.
You should be able to translate the task fields in the same way that you translated the fields in the surveys. Please refer to the Fields section of this manual for details on how to translate task fields.
Click Save when all is done.
On the survey, you will see the available languages that the survey has been translated into.
You can add additional configurations to your survey e.g setting a survey color etc. To do so,
Click on Configure on the top of the survey editor
Configure the settings to suit your needs
Require posts be reviewed before they’re published: When toggled on, posts submitted on your deployment will not be made public i.e accessible to anyone beyond your internal team, until it is reviewed ( It will remain in draft). Setting this option off will automatically publish all posts submitted on your deployment.
Hide author information: When toggled on, this option hides author information e.g phone numbers, twitter handles and email addresses of people who submit posts to your deployment from the public.
Note: logged in users with permission to manage posts will still be able to see author information.
Hide exact location information: When toggled on, this option hides the exact location of posts on the map. Only the people with the permission to edit will be able to see exact locations, those without permission will only able to see rounded locations. The locations will be accurate to 0.1 km.
Hide exact time information: When toggled on, only people with permission to edit responses will be able to see exact time submitted. Other people will see only the date.
_Who can add to this survey:_You can limit submission of posts to your survey by roles. By default, surveys are open to the general public for submissions, and not limited to internal roles.
Color: Select a color or input a specific hex value to choose which color will be associated with this survey. Pins on the map will match whichever color you select.
Select default language for this survey: Click on the dropdown menu to choose the default language. This will be changing the language of the deployment that is currently in.
Click on save once your configuration options are complete
Ushahidi provides the ability to Share your survey across multiple platforms..
Web address: Copy and paste this link to direct people to your survey form
Facebook: Share the survey form on Facebook
Twitter: Share the survey form on Twitter
Embed: Copy and paste this HTML block of code to embed the survey form on any site across the web
To edit a survey
Click on a survey from the list of surveys on your page.
From here, change your survey details as desired then click on Save.
To delete a survey,
Select the desired survey from the surveys list page, and click on the three dots icon adjacent to it. Then, select delete.
A pop up box will appear on the top of the page, prompting you to confirm whether you would like to delete the survey and all its data.
Enter the name of your survey in the text box.
Click on Delete this survey to delete the survey
If you’d like to cancel the survey deletion process, click on Cancel.
Nb: Once you delete your survey all its data and posts will be deleted . This cannot be undone, so take caution when you perform this action.
