Very often in surveys we want to display pages or questions only to selected respondents. For example, we ask the respondent what brand of cars he knows. We display a list of 10 brands, but the respondent will only select 7. Then, if we want to ask deepening questions, there is no point in asking about those 3 brands that the respondent does not know and only ask questions about 7 known brands.

Another example is a survey inside the organization, where we ask employees to evaluate their cooperation with other departments. If someone does not cooperate with the legal department, we shouldn’t ask him or her questions about the evaluation of the legal department. In Startquestion, this logic is implemented using the page Display Rules, which allows you to define the conditions under which a specific page should be displayed. These conditions can be imposed on the basis of:

1. Checking or unchecking specific answers on previous pages in the survey.
2. Labels used to describe the respondents invited to the survey.
3. The parameter external_key, which was attached to the link to the survey in which the respondent clicked.

Conditions can be combined with each other using the AND and OR logical operators, thanks to which we have a lot of possibilities to create a dynamic, intelligent questionnaire.

How to define page display rules based on previously provided answers?

1. At the beginning, we create a questionnaire – remembering that the questions that are supposed to refer to respondents answered earlier should be placed on separate pages.
2. For our example, this will be a multiple choice question about how our respondent spends his free time. An example of such a question below:

3. Then we add deepening questions, each of which refers to the answer given. Each of these questions, which is very important, must be placed on a separate page. Example of questions:

4. Once we have a prepared questionnaire, properly divided into pages, we can go on to define the page display rule.
5. On each page with the deepening question, next to the page number there is the icon „Display rules” (1) – click on it.

6. The „Display the page only if” menu will be expanded, where you can configure the appropriate conditions.
7. First, using the drop-down list, select the basic question to which the chosen page should refer – in our case the basic question will be the question „What do you like to do in your free time” (2).

8. Then also using the drop-down list select the answer that corresponds to the answer given in the basic question – in our case it will be the answer „Reading” (2) because the question referring to the previously given answer is „What book do you usually read?”
9. From the last drop-down list, select whether this page should be displayed after selecting the answer already given or, on the contrary, when the answer is not selected (3) – in our case the choice concerns the answer selected.
10. If you want to add another condition, click the green plus icon.
11. When two or more conditions have been added, select whether the rule is to be applied when one or more of the above conditions are met, or all conditions must be met (4). This is useful when you plan to display a page, when someone selects, for example, „Rather not” and „Definitely not”
12. Save the configuration so that the changes you make are saved (5) or cancel them (6)

How to define a page display rule based on respondent labels?

1. At the beginning, create the entire questionnaire, remembering that the questions to be displayed only to selected respondents should be placed on separate pages.
2. Then import the list of respondents described by labels (how to do this in the article about respondents).
3. On the page to be displayed only to selected respondents, click „Display rules” and click „Add condition based on labels or parameters”.

4. From the first drop-down list, select the desired label, and from the next two list, what condition must be met for the rule to work (eg, the label department must be equal to HR).

5. As with rules based on previous responses, these conditions can also be combined into combinations using the AND and OR logical operators.

How to define a page display rule based on an external key parameter?

When is this solution useful? For example, when a link to our customer satisfaction survey is placed on the facebook profile. Then we know that the respondent came to us from facebook (eg using the link www.superankieta.pl?external_key=facebook), so we do not have to ask him if he knows our profile.

1. At the beginning, create the entire questionnaire, remembering again, that the questions which you want to be displayed only to selected respondents should be placed on separate pages.
2. On the page you wish to be displayed only to selected respondents, click on „Display rules” and then „Add condition based on labels or parameters”.

3. From the first drop-down list, select the parameter external_key, and from the next two, what condition must be met for the rule to work (eg external_key can not be equal to facebook on the page asking if he knows our profile).
4. As with other rules, these conditions can also be combined into Boolean AND and OR operators.

Worth to remember:

• On the page displayed by some rules you can put more questions than one and all of them will be displayed according to the defined conditions (it’s so-called block of deepening questions).
• In the case of a rule based on answers, it can be configured only based on questions that are placed on the previous pages of the survey.
• You can add several conditions that will be joined by operator AND (all conditions must be met) or OR (it is enough if one condition is met).