Survey content
Survey content defines not only the questions you want survey takers to answer, but also much of the survey workflow that determines how survey takers progress through the survey. Most of the content you create are questions, such as Text entry and Multiple choice questions. Static content, such as Spacers and Tooltips, only provide structure and detail to a survey. Lastly, you can add content elements such as One-time passcodes and Additional validation that work unseen to control the underlying workflow of a survey.
Content elements
Admin Suite Surveys provides an array of content elements or components to build up surveys in the Survey editor as you see fit. Each of these elements serve a particular purpose and display the survey content in different ways. Content elements are divided into:
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Questions — Key elements to gather information from survey takers. They represent most of the elements in the survey editor and come in different types, such as:
- Workflow — Unseen elements that control the underlying workflow of a survey:
Content groups
Content groups are an optional way to apply a behavior to several content elements that belong to it. They allow for a subset of content in a page, so while you might use page display logic to determine whether the entire page appears to survey takers, you might also use group display logic to decide whether and when a set of elements within that page appears. This image shows the structure pane for a survey, with most pages collapsed, but with the Page 2 expanded to show its groups:
Add and manage content
Surveys provide flexibility to manage content elements and adapt them to your needs.Add content
Once in the Survey editor, mouse over a page and click Add content to add a content element to the survey. If the page has no content, Add content appears in the middle of the page. If the page already has an element, Add content is available above and below each existing content element, except for the first element in the page that only allows for adding elements below.
Alternatively, you can add content by clicking Add content below on the survey structure pane.
Select Create new tab to create any element from scratch, or select Add from to include an element from an existing question library. For more information, see Question libraries.
Configuration pane
Click any piece of content in the canvas to replace the survey structure pane with a configuration pane specific to that piece of content. There you can configure details about how the content appears and behaves. For example, you might use a Yes/No question to ask for extra feedback.
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Content — Has all the basic and required configuration needed for the content element to work. For example, for content elements that use questions, the content tab includes the Question text, Choice set, and also some specific options depending on the element.
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Logic — Includes all the properties related to logical rules and conditions, such as when the question is displayed, or if the question is excluded from randomization when a page or group has randomization enabled. For more information, see Content logic.
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Advanced — Gathers the internal and Experience Cloud-related settings. All content elements have the option to include:
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Internal name — Identifies the element in Surveys structure pane. It is useful to easily differentiate similar elements in the survey.
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Notes — Extra internal notes of the content element.
Question content elements also include Question ID, Choice Set ID, and Text Input ID. For more information, see Advanced settings below. Certain elements, such as One-time passcode, also include some specific advanced settings.
Note: Style is only visible and editable if it was previously used in the survey. It indicates which design style version — v6, v6.1, etc.— is applied to the survey. If left blank, v7 designs are applied. -
Content menu
The content menu — both in the survey structure pane and the preview canvas — displays the general actions that apply to each content.
From both the structure pane and canvas, you can:
- Duplicate
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Duplicates the content element. If the duplicated element is a question, it generates a new Question ID (that is, a new Feedback field). For more information, see Advanced settings below.
- Move
- Moves content element to another page. Select the page and the target position (before or after) to place the element.
- Add to library
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Adds the content element to an existing Question library.
- Hide/Show content
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Hides the element from the survey and prevents displaying from survey takers. The content element disappears from the preview canvas but persists in the structure pane to make it visible again by selecting Show element.
- Remove element
- Removes the current element.
To edit content details, click on the content element name in the structure pane or the content menu in the canvas.
Reorder content
After adding content, you can rearrange content elements (and choice sets, if applicable) to optimize the survey flow and present survey takers a smooth completion path.
To change the order, click either the content menu and select Move or
Drag to reorder the element and drop it in the desired place. Note that where the element was originally located, a gray placeholder appears now. Additionally, if the target destination is valid, a blue line appears in the survey structure pane showing the element can be located there.
Preview a survey
Preview shows how the survey will look and feel for the survey taker. It presents exactly what survey takers would see, and allows you to answer questions, select options, and navigate through the pages in the survey. When previewing a survey, none of your actions in the survey are preserved, and do not affect reporting for survey responses submitted by survey takers.
When creating a preview link, all pages and content from the survey are pushed to the Survey engine, which automatically generates a version that becomes the Most recent version.
The Survey engine builds survey instances based on conditions and presents them to survey takers. When a new version of a survey is created, it initially only exists in Medallia Experience Cloud; synchronizing a version copies it over to the Survey engine. Synchronizing also copies supporting survey related data to the Survey engine, such as Survey designs, Translations, Units, and Choice sets. For more information, see Survey versions.
To quickly preview a survey, click Preview from the Survey editor or hover over a version thumbnail in the Details tab from the survey details pane. For more information, see Create preview survey links .
test + the company name + the user name. For example, http://surveys.medallia.com/?test-orion-towens. Note that the Preview link generated from the Survey editor is not a unique, reusable preview link: if you preview survey A and then survey B, the same URL changes to show the survey B.Download a survey
Download generates a file of the complete survey flow in its current state — either in .docx or .pdf formats — that can be shared and sent among collaborators to obtain feedback and suggestions.
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File format. This can be either PDF or Microsoft Office Word (.
docx). -
Delivery format. This can be either:
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Non-formatted text version — Plain-text representation of the survey. Each content element is signaled with its first letters and the number (for example, Grid shows as GR1, GR2, etc.; Text as T1, T2, T3, etc.).
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Formatted image version — Visual representation of the survey based on the preview. It does not contain the survey design.
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Both — Both versions are downloaded in a compressed file (
.zip).
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Presentation. This can include:
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Page title — Page name and number.
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Survey logic — Indicates whether survey pages, groups and/or elements include some logic.
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Field ID — The Question ID for each question appears next to the question text in brackets.
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Click Download survey.
Questions
Questions are the core of content as they address survey takers directly and prompts them to provide specific feedback. Use content elements such as Date, Dropdown, Grid, Multiple choice - many, Multiple choice - one, Multiple fields, Number entry and Text entry to ask questions to survey takers.
Create questions
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On Question text, enter the content of the question.Tip: Edit for mobile screens is only visible and editable if it was previously used in the survey.
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Optionally, select Make this question required to make survey takers are unable to navigate out of a page until they have answered all of its required questions.
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If the question type needs a Choice set (such as with Dropdown, Grid, Multiple choice - many, Multiple choice - one, Matrix, Multiple fields, Ranking order, Rating scale, and Side-by-side questions), configure the choice set items the survey taker can choose from. See Choice sets for more information on how to configure them.
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Optionally, set the question options each question content element has available. See Date, Dropdown, File upload, Grid, Multiple choice - many, Multiple choice - one, Matrix, Multiple fields, Number entry, Ranking order, Rating scale, Text entry, and Side-by-side to configure their specific settings.
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Click Add.
Edit questions
When you make changes to a question, you need to take into account if it is a new question or a reused one. For newly created questions, changes only impact the survey and question in which you are actively working; you can freely edit the question as long as there are no business rules violated or damage to data integrity, such as questions that have real response data. However, editing reused questions may have a downstream effect as it impacts every survey that uses the same question. To better understand the full impact of editing an existing question, click View on the information banner to reveal its details and know where the question is being used.
Reuse existing questions
It is likely that you have several survey questions already created in your instance. Use existing questions whenever possible, but if an existing question doesn't suit your needs, you can create new questions as described above.
In Experience Cloud each question is a field (of Feedback category) and it is identified by its Question ID under the Advanced tab. When choosing to reuse a question, only the questions of the same type are available to choose. For example, if you are adding a Dropdown question to the survey, Search library only shows Dropdown questions to select.
To reuse an existing question:
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On the configuration pane, click Reuse question.
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Scroll down to see all existing questions, write some keywords, or enter the Question ID of an existing question on the search bar to get a description of the question and its Question ID.
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Click Add.
For questions that have a Choice set, reusing a question also implies reusing its associated Choice sets. To only reuse Choice sets and not the entire question, see Reusing Choice sets.
After selecting a question, both Shared and an information banner appear indicating where the question and choice set (if applicable) are used, such as in other surveys and question libraries. Modifying a reused question affects every survey that uses the question, so be sure you understand the full impact of your change.
Clicking Remove question clears all the question configuration in all tabs, including anything set before adding the existing question.
Override question text
After creating a new question or reusing an existing one, select Override the question text from the question text menu to change the question content. Unlike editing, overriding the question text only affects the content of the question text you are actively working on. Note that you can edit and override a question only if editing occurs first. If you have already overridden a text, click Remove text override from the question text menu to edit the question.
Note that when overriding a question text, the Question ID (Feedback field) is the same.
Format questions and insert images
Format question content using a visual editor (also known as rich text editor) to configure basic font settings (font family, size, color), format text (bold, italics, underline), text alignment options, lists, bullets, images, links, and variables, all of it displayed in real-time preview.
Note that the editor does not support pseudo-HTML tags (such as [b] for bold, [i] for italics, [a href=""] for links, etc.).
$IMG_SOME_FILE$ as it is not guaranteed that the URL works unless hosted in Experience Cloud. To insert images:
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Add text in the Choice set option, then select the text so that you are shown the option to insert an image. The following image and video show this option.
Important: The option to add an image does not appear until you select text added to a Choice set. -
Click
image and upload an image file from your local device.
Note: Medallia recommends inserting a small logo with a width ranging from 200 to 300 pixels. -
Click
Edit.
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Define the image properties, such as its height and width, source URL, alternative text, and advanced settings.
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Click Apply to save the settings.
Make sure to maintain accessibility standards when formatting the survey. For more information, see Shared assets accessibility.
Use variables
Questions can refer to information stored in Experience Cloud, which is done so in fields. There are many different types of fields, each representing a category of record information. Some of them, such as Event fields, Feedback fields, Unit data fields (u_fields), and Unit group data fields (ug_fields) can be piped in surveys questions as variables to dynamically display different values based on information previously obtained. For example, the question How was your experience in [=u_storename]? shows different store names depending on where each survey taker has done the purchase. For more information, see Program fields.
To pipe in variables, click variable on the editor. To select a variable, scroll down to see all existing variables or write the variable name on the search bar to select a specific one. Click
Information to get a description of the variable and the Question ID associated to it.
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[=<field>:html]or"[=<field>:json-string]"— Standard field placeholder, for example[=e_firstname:html]. -
[=<field>:<format>:html]— Formats date variable. For example,[=e_checkin:dd/MM/yyyy:html]shows the check in date as dd/MM/yyyyy. -
[=?<field>:<text>:html]— Shows text value if the variable does not exist. For example,[=e_firstname:John:html]shows John if[=e_firstname:html]doesn't exist. -
[=:<locale>:<text>:html]— Shows the text entry when a language matches the survey language. For example,[=fr:magasin:html]shows magasin if survey language is French. -
[=%<context>:<text>:html]— Context refers to the screen modes for available for survey display such as desktop (%dt) and mobile (%mb). For example, if you only want survey takers to share their location when responding to surveys using a mobile device, you can add[=%mb:Share your location:html].
$IMG_SOME_FILE$ as it is not guaranteed that the URL works unless hosted in Experience Cloud. Remove questions
To remove questions, click Remove from either structure pane or the page menu, though doing so does not delete them from your Experience Cloud instance. You can add those questions to a different page at any time by clicking on Search library.
Advanced settings
The Advanced tab is where internal and more technical information about questions lays. Besides the properties common to all content elements, questions also include:
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Question ID — In Experience Cloud, each question is a Feedback field and it is identified by its unique Question ID. By default, a Question ID is automatically generated as a string of at least three lowercase letters, numbers, and underscores, though you can customize it before adding the question to the survey, and as long as its unique, contains at least three characters, and starts with the prefix
q_.Consider this naming convention when defining Question IDs:
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Start with your company name.
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Include categories to distinguish the purpose of each question.
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End with the type of question or data type — Text, Multiple choice, Dropdown, Grid, etc.
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Use underscore characters between words.
For example, in
q_medallia_reasoncontact_mc, mc stands for Multiple choice.Restriction: There can be only one content element with the same Question ID per page. -
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Field IDs — Only for Multiple fields. ID that identifies each field. By default, a Field ID is automatically generated as a string of letters and underscores, though you can customize it before adding the question to the survey, and as long as its unique and starts with the prefix
q_. The same naming conventions for Question ID apply for Field IDs. -
Choice set ID — Only for question content elements that accept choice sets. As with questions, Choice sets are stored in Experience Cloud and require an unique identification. By default, Choice set ID is automatically generated as a string of of at least three lowercase letters, numbers, and underscores, though you can customize it before adding the question to the survey.
Consider this naming convention when defining Choice set IDs:-
Start with the question name the Choice set refers to.
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End with the type of question — Multiple choice, Dropdown, Grid, etc.
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Use underscore characters between words.
reasontocontact_mc -
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Text input ID — Only for Multiple choice - one, Multiple choice - many and Multiple fields. ID required when adding a Text input option. See Choice set menu below for information on how to add a Text input.Note: Question ID, Field IDs, Choice set ID, and Text input ID must range between 5 to 63 characters, and can contain lowercase English letters, numbers, and underscores.
Choice sets
Questions that allow survey takers to select an answer from a set of options (such as in Dropdown, Multiple choice - many, Multiple choice - one, and Multiple fields) must have a Choice set. Choice sets constrain the range of possible values that a question can have, ensuring that survey takers do not enter invalid data. Each line item in the Choice set represents a possible answer to the question.
Create choice sets
You can create new choice sets for questions that do not have a choice set. To create a new choice set item, either mouse over an existing choice set option and click Add on the right, or type enter from an existing choice set item. Both cases add a choice set option below.
For each new item, enter text that appears to survey takers. For example, the choice set in this image includes a Yes and a No options:
Reuse choice sets
Use existing Choice sets whenever possible, but if an existing choice set doesn't suit your needs, you can create new ones as described above.
In Experience Cloud, each choice set exists independently from questions and it is identified by its Choice set ID under the Advanced tab. For example, you might use a Choice set with only Yes and No items in several different questions.
To reuse an existing choice set:
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On the Choice section of the configuration pane, click Reuse Choices.
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Scroll down to see all existing choice sets, write some keywords, or enter the Choice set ID of an existing choice set on the search bar.
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Click Add.
After selecting a choice set, both Shared and an information banner appear indicating where it is used, such as in other surveys and question libraries. Modifying a reused choice set affects every question that uses that choice set, so be sure you understand the full impact of your change.
Edit choice sets
If you have added an existing question, it likely already has an Choice set. When you edit a choice set, take into account if it is a new choice set or a reused one. For newly created choice set, the change to the choice set only impacts the survey in which you are actively working; you can freely edit the choice set items as long as there are no business rules violated or damage to data integrity. However, editing a reused choice set may have a downstream effect as it impacts every survey that uses the choice set. To better understand the full impact of editing an existing choice set, click the information banner to expand its details and know where the choice set is being used.
Format choice sets and insert images
Format Choice set items using a visual editor (also known as rich text editor) to configure basic font settings (font family, size, color), format text (bold, italics, underline), text alignment options, lists, bullets, images, links, and variables, all of it displayed in real-time preview.
$IMG_SOME_FILE$ as it is not guaranteed that the URL works unless hosted in Experience Cloud. To format a choice set item, click Add or select the content in the item and mouse over it to apply the chosen format.
To insert images:
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Add text in the Choice set option, then select the text so that you are shown the option to insert an image. The following image and video show this option.
Important: The option to add an image does not appear until you select text added to a Choice set. -
Click
image and upload an image file from your local device.
Note: Medallia recommends inserting a small logo with a width ranging from 200 to 300 pixels. -
Click
Edit.
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Define the image properties, such as its height and width, source URL, alternative text, and advanced settings.
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Click Apply to save the settings.
Make sure to maintain accessibility standards when formatting the survey. For more information, see Shared assets accessibility.
Upload choice sets
For Dropdown, Grid (Custom list), Multiple choice - one and Multiple choice - many you can copy a list of values from a file (for example, a spreadsheet or text file) and paste them as choice set items. Note that when using spreadsheet and copying more than one column it only pastes the values of the first column.
Reorder choice sets
Reorder Choice sets by clicking Drag to reorder the item, and drop it into the new desired position. Note that where the option was originally located, a gray placeholder appears now. Additionally, if the target destination is valid, a blue line appears showing the option can be located there.
Choice set items menu
These actions apply to each choice set individually:
- Exclude from randomization
- Only when choice set is randomized (see Choice set options below). Click
pin to leave the option in a fixed place.
- Add text input
- Only for Multiple choice - many, Multiple choice - one and Multiple fields elements. It adds a text box entry next to a choice set item. Use this when you want survey takers to add further details or specify why they are choosing that option.
- Add display logic
- Allows for choosing when to display the choice set. For more information, see Content logic. Tip: You can add a choice set item dependent on a selection made in another question on the same page.
- Add a tooltip
- Only for Multiple choice - one element. Adds a tooltip to the choice set item. Tooltip is an icon that expands or further explains a question so that survey takers can effectively answer it. There are two types of content that can go into the Tooltip element:
- Text — This lets you input a custom text string that should appear when hovering over the tooltip.
- Image — Here you can either enter a custom image URL or upload a file from your local device.
- Hide choice
- Hides the choice set item from the survey. While hidden, the choice set option is disabled and no action can be performed until unhidden.
- Delete choice
- Removes the choice set item.
Choice set options
These options customize the entire choice set:
- Randomize choices
- Choice set items appear in random order when survey takers are responding the survey, which helps to remove order bias when survey takers choose from a list of things they liked or disliked. Additionally, you can set the maximum number of choice set items to randomize as well as select the ones to exclude from randomization by clicking the pin icon next to each item. Select Flip choices to randomly display items in reverse order.
- Add values to choice sets
- Only for Dropdown, Grid (Custom list Visualization type), Multiple choice - one and Multiple choice - many. Choice set items show a numeric value next to each item text. Values represent the choice set items in Experience Cloud and can be used to perform calculations.
- Search function
- Only for Dropdown, Matrix (Dropdown Visualization type), Nested dropdown, and Side-by-side (Dropdown Visualization type). Allows survey takers to search for specific items the list of choice set items to select from is extensive.
- Validate number of selections
- Only for Dropdown, Grid, Multiple choice - one and Multiple choice - many. Specifies if one or more choice set items are mutually exclusive to the rest of the items. This is used to create options like None of the above, Other, Prefer not to answer, N/A.
- Display choices in columns
- Only for Multiple choice - one element. Arranges choice set options in two columns.
Content logic
Content logic manages the settings to display content in the survey. It includes:
Content randomization
This excludes the content element from randomization when a page or group has randomization enabled. For more information, see Empty pages and Content group logic .
Display logic
Display logic is made up of a rule with specific conditions that content elements must follow to be dynamically shown to survey takers, which means that they can be displayed based on an answer to a previous question either on the same or previous page. For example, the text entry question What did you like the most? is only shown to survey takers that gave an score of 9 or 10 to the rating scale question How likely are you to recommend us?:
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Click Learn more on the information banner that appears on top of the survey structure pane.
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Click Apply update. This will apply dynamic display logic in the survey Draft and all subsequent versions.
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Click Create version on the survey editor canvas to generate a new version of the survey.
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Choose the content element to add logic. For example, a text entry asking What did you like the most? to survey takers that gave an score of 9 or 10 to the rating scale question How likely are you to recommend us?.
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In the element configuration pane, click the Logic tab.
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Under the Display logic section, click Add rule.
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Define the rule and conditions for the element, such as How likely are you to recommend us? >= 9, and click Save. For more information, see Rule builder.
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Click Save. Note that there is an
eye next to the element in the survey structure pane to signal it includes display logic:
- Additional validation
- Cookie confirmation
- Hidden field
- Incorrect recipient
- HTML (when running a script inside)
- Nested dropdown
- One-time password
- Spacer
- Tooltip
- v6 or previous design versions
- Regular expressions (RegEx) or custom JavaScript code
For content elements that allow questions, display logic can also be applied to both the questions and the choice set items. For example, this multiple choice - many element would only show the alcohol beverages (Wine and Beer) in the choice set if a survey taker has responded Yes to the question Are you 18 years old or above?:
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Choose the content element that contains the choice set to condition. For example, a Multiple choice - many that includes several choice set items, two of which (Wine and Beer) are only shown to survey takers that are 18 years old or above.
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In the configuration pane, go to the Choice set section within the Content tab.
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Click
the choice set item menu and select Add display logic.
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Define the rule and conditions for the choice set and click Save. For more information, see Rule builder.
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Click Save. Note that there is an
eye next to the choice set in the configuration pane to signal it includes display logic:
For more information, see Display logic.
JavaScript validation
JavaScript validation activates when the survey taker clicks to pass an element. It must be written as JavaScript, and can accomplish several goals, such as set a value for a field, validate some input, or modify page elements. For more information, see JavaScript validation.
