How to create Dependencies
Aka branching, triggered questions, conditional questions, skip logic.
This feature allows you to show the participant certain questions based on their answers to the survey in progress. Keep in mind dependencies cannot affect anything outside the current survey.
Important: Dependencies are set differently for different question types. If the participant can answer a question in only one way, such as a Single Selection question, then the dependency is set to the question ID. If the participant can answer a question in many ways, such as a Multiple Selection question, then the dependency is set to the response ID.
1 Make note of the following references:
- For Single Selection questions, Copy + Paste the Question ID Number of the triggering question.
- This number is located at the top of the question wizard
- Write down the Value which corresponds to the triggering response
- For Multiple Selection questions make note of the Response ID Number in addition to its Value. The Response ID Number is located in red next to the value of each response option. You won't need the Question ID Number for multiple selection triggering questions. It should look like this: [Response ID Number] = Response Value. For example, triggering a dependency when the participant selects "PURPLE" from the Multiple Selection question below is done this way: [1027045] = 6
- Note that if you wish to setup the dependency on QuestionID instead of the Response ID, that is also possible but the calculation will work differently. Instead of taking the response value from a question, it will calculate the sum of Response Values that were selected. This would look like: [Question ID Number] = Value amount. For example [1027039] = 6, this will trigger the dependency if participant answers Purple or Red and Orange and Yellow, or Orange and Green, or Red and Blue.
- In order to make more use of Multiple Selection question dependency, when using this type of question you can setup the Response Values to all have the same value of "1". So when you setup the dependency for a followup question it's easier to calculate the sum amount.
- For Continuous Slider questions make a note of the individual slider's ID. If there are multiple sliders in one question, then the slider ID is located on the same line as the slider's label, as seen highlighted in the screenshot below.
- For Matrix questions, make a note of the Matrix Question's individual question ID, and the triggering Matrix response Value. It is important to note that Matrix question dependencies look for the product of the answer value and the question value. In the screenshot below, if you wanted to trigger a dependency when a participant answers "Dislike" for "Winter", the dependency would look like this: [3986053] = 12. Matrix question's individual question IDs are highlighted below.
2 [ID Number] = Response Value
- Open question to be triggered, or the section header for an entire section to be triggered.
- Paste the Question or Response ID, and the desired Value in the Dependencies field
- It should look like this:
3 Alternative Operators
- You're allowed to use multiple triggering criteria, both required or optional
- [1023019] = 1 and [1023010] = 3
- [1023019] = 1 or [1023010] = 3
- You can compare values, say for triggering a question based on a response to a scale (slider)
- [1023019] > 50
- >, <, >=, <=
4 Note
- Don't make dependencies = "0"
- Some devices could interpret a zero as a null value instead of a numeric zero. Values should be positive, non-zero numbers. They are created this way by default.
- Use this icon on the Create Surveys page to troubleshoot issues related to dependencies.
- If the triggering question only has one dependency, you may wish to create a sub-question instead.
- This feature should not be used in combination with the Randomization feature.
- When copying a Form/Section/Question that has a dependency, after pasting the Form/Section/Question into a different survey the dependency will lose it's brackets making it an impossible dependency.
- This happens because the Form/Section/Question that is supposed to trigger the dependency is no longer together with the Form/Section/Question that is supposed to be triggered.
- In order to easily notice any Forms/Sections/Questions that have invalid dependencies due to missing square brackets, or dependency ID being outside of the survey ID, you will see the dependency block highlighted in red, and when pasting a Form/Section/Question that will lose it's brackets you will also see a Notification informing you about the problem.
Click here to learn more about troubleshooting dependency issues.