As a creative research agency, you often come up with innovative methodologies and mind-blowing surveys. Some of these forward-thinking surveys might include your proprietary methodologies and represent the edge that you keep over your competition. Flagship surveys like these should be easy to reuse, as templated surveys.

From version 5.4 onwards, AskiaSuite is packed with automation features, and the interactive libraries capability in AskiaDesign is one of them. This feature allows the insertion of special keywords into the long caption of a question inside the library and this in turn allows you to create interactive libraries.

Saving an example of an interactive library file

The QEX file below contains a small interactive library template. With the very same template, you can produce two questionnaires that will have a similar structure, but totally different questions, all within seconds.

1. Download the example QEX
2. Open the example QEX in Design 5.4.4 and above.
3. Select all the questions from the question tree on the left, then right-click and select "add to the local library".
4. Give it a name. You can now re-use this template to produce new surveys.

Using an example interactive library

1. Open a blank questionnaire.
2. Open from the toolbar icon.                                                                       
3. Drag and drop your library item into the question tree on the left.
4. Answer the wizard's questions.

Output Example 1 : Beverage scenario

Output Example 2 : Banking scenario

Read a list of responses from a database or XLS

If you add the following text, the interactive library will read all the responses contained in the spreadsheet. The first field will be used for the name of the response, the second for the entry code and the third for a resource path . . .

@@BeerList|Insert list of Beers|||database|Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=C:\Qes\Me\BeersList.xlsx;Extended Properties="Excel 12.0 Xml;HDR=YES"|SELECT Brand,ID,Res FROM [Sheet2$] Order by Brand@@

So the @@ delimiter works like this . . .

@@Name|LongMessage|Options|ShortMessage|TypeOfImport|connectionstring|query@@

Check the BeerTemplate.qex or the BeerListTemplate.qex for a working example. Download the XLS file and the images and then update the path of the file in the QEX.

Insert a whole survey

You can use the ~~ upload delimiter. Put the following code in a long caption of a chapter or a question:

~~Survey file|qex|Survey:|C:\Qes\Me\Demographics.qex~~

So the upload delimiter works like this:

~~LongMessage|Extensions|ShortMessage|FilePath~~

Check the MasterSurvey.qex to see how this works.

Create your own generic template 

Syntax recap

Following the same process as the example, and using the syntax above, you can now add custom interactive items to your library.

Try it yourself

The first step is to open&nbsp;<span><b>Design</b></span>&nbsp;and create a new question

Use the following syntax to create an interactive keyword : &nbsp;<b>##Keyword|Instructions##</b>

Check this interactive syntax for a dynamic brand name

Now create a new question

Click <span class="component"><i><b>Q1_awareness</b></i></span>

You can now re-use the defined keyword ##Main_brand## in other question captions

Check the example

Right Click <span class=""><i><b>on your two questions</b></i></span>

Select&nbsp;<span class=""><i><b>Add to the local library...</b></i></span>

Type in <span class=""><i><b>Category:</b></i></span>&nbsp;to give it a name and Click <span class=""><i><b>OK</b></i></span>

Click <span class="component"><i><b>OK</b></i></span>

That's it. You have added an interactive keyword to your library