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How to Automatically Create a Survey
How to Automatically Create a Survey
Crowdsource data collection and maintenance by including more contributing users, without having them learn how to use Ardoq.
Jacqueline S. avatar
Written by Jacqueline S.
Updated this week

Surveys are a great tool for including more stakeholders to contribute with data, without having to learn how to use Ardoq. This is especially powerful for gathering data from the Business side of your organization given that surveys look like any other form with explanatory text.

There are three major use cases for Surveys:

  • Data collection

  • Data enrichment (i.ex. updated, adding attributes)

  • Data validation

This article walks you through how to generate a survey automatically using a component. The type, workspace, all fields, and all references associated with that component will be automatically available as survey questions.

To learn how to manually create a survey, refer to the “How to Manually Create a Survey” KB article.

Table of contents:


Before Getting Started

  • To create a survey you must be an admin or writer user and have the “Create Surveys” privilege enabled. Learn how to enable this privilege in the section below.

  • To allow users to edit a survey you must grant them permission on that particular survey. Learn more about survey permissions in the section below.

  • You can easily capture data associated with the survey submission using hidden fields.

  • Make sure you enable survey digest emails to receive updates about the survey submission.

How To Automatically Create a Survey

To save time, a survey configuration can be created automatically by using the model of a specific component as the starting point. To do so, first make sure you have the “Create Surveys” privilege enabled. See the “How to Enable the “Create Surveys” Privilege” section below.

Next:

  1. Set the context to a specific component that you would like to use as the basis

  2. Hover the Survey navigation menu and click on the option Create from.

  3. Make any changes to the preconfigured questions in the Survey Sections tab.

  4. Click on Save changes and set it to LIVE.

  5. Grant users access to your survey by assigning them a permission:

    1. Navigate to the Surveys overview page

    2. Click on the three dot menu next to the name of your survey and select “Permissions”

    3. Assign users or a group of users the “Administrator” or “Writing” permissions. Learn more about permissions in the section below.

Watch this short video to see how to automatically create a survey from a component.

The applications with an exclamation mark (!) in the status column indicate that they are missing one or more required questions (fields, references, etc.).

Markdown in Surveys

Markdown in Survey Descriptions is supported to facilitate easier conversations with stakeholders across your organization. It is possible to add images and create meaningful survey questions by adding visual guidance.

Ardoq surveys markdown

Here is a markdown cheatsheet that we recommend: https://github.com/adam-p/markdown-here/wiki/Markdown-Here-Cheatsheet (external page)

Ardoq survey questions

It is also possible to include URLs in the survey description. Below are some of the points to consider to include markdown URLs.

  • [I'm an inline-style link](https://ardoq.com)

  • Just writing a plain URL will not result in a clickable link

  • A single linebreak written with a single click of the enter button will be rendered as a space.

  • Any linebreak written with more than one click of the enter button will be rendered as a single linebreak that skips one line, regardless of how many times you do it.

Note: Ardoq does not support HTML tags in markdown

Filtering Option in the Survey

The final tab of the survey is called Result Filtering. Result Filtering is an option that can be configured to give Survey contributors the ability to narrow down the list of components that they are seeing. For example, a Result Filter configured to the People workspace, on an ownership reference type, will let owners more easily find components that are relevant to them.

Read more about Result Filtering in How to manually create a Survey.

Ardoq surveys filtering hierarchy

How to Allow Users to Create Surveys

In Ardoq, you can use privileges to define feature access and permissions to define content access. For instance, permission to access a particular survey.

Privileges can be enabled on a user role or individually per user. Enabling a privilege doesn’t mean users get access to all existing content (e.g. surveys) automatically. To grant users access to a specific content (e.g. a survey), you need to assign them a permission.

To ensure your users can access the content you share with them, first enable the right privilege. Next, assign them a permission on that content.

How to Enable the “Create Surveys” Privilege

Given that you are an admin user in the Ardoq app and your organization has the Surveys add-on, you can grant users access to the Survey Builder by enabling the “Create Surveys” privilege on their user role or individually per user.

The “Create Surveys” privilege allows users to create new surveys and edit the ones they have been granted a permission on.

How to Enable The “Create Surveys” Privilege on a User Role

To grant Surveys access to a specific user role:

  1. Navigate to Preferences > Organization Settings > Manage User Roles

  2. Select the user role you want to configure

  3. Tick the “Create Surveys” checkbox

  4. Click “Save”

Enable the “Create Surveys” privilege on a user role when you wish to grant users with a specific user role access to the Survey Builder where they can create and edit surveys they’ve been granted access to. It is the easiest way to manage who can create and edit surveys in your organization. Once the “Create Surveys” privilege is enabled on a user role, it is not possible to disable it on specific users who have that user role.

For example, if you enable the “Create Surveys” privilege on the Writer user role, all of your existing Writer users, and those you add in the future, will be able to create and edit surveys. Because the “Create Surveys” privilege is enabled on the Writer user role, you won’t be able to disable the “Create Surveys” privilege on single users who have the Writer user role assigned.

How to Enable the “Create Surveys” Privilege per Single User

Enable the “Create Surveys” privilege individually per user when you wish to give specific users access to the Survey Builder in case their user role does not grant it.

To enable the “Create Surveys” privilege on single users:

  1. Navigate to Preference > Organization Settings > Manage Users

  2. Look for the user you want to enable the “Create Surveys” privilege on

  3. Click on the three-dot menu next to the name of a user and select "Assign privileges"

  4. Select "Create Surveys" from the dropdown

  5. Hit "Save"

Survey Permissions: How to Share a Survey with Stakeholders

Once you have enabled the relevant survey privileges on the right users or user roles, you can assign users a permission on a particular survey to grant them access and determine what actions they can do on that specific survey.

To grant users a permission on a given survey:

  1. Navigate to the Surveys overview page

  2. Click on the three dot menu next to the name of your survey and select “Permissions”

  3. Assign users or a group of users the “Administrator”, “Writing”, "Access to survey", or "No default access" permission.

The available permissions for Surveys are:

  • Administrator permission: It allows users to read, edit, and delete the survey they’ve been added to. They can also update the survey permissions for themselves and other users who were granted access.

  • Writing permission: It allows users to read, edit, and delete the survey they’ve been added to. They cannot update the survey permissions.

  • Submit survey answers: It allows users to answer the survey outside of core Ardoq.

  • No default access: It prevents users to access a specific survey.

You can grant users the Administrator, Writing or Read-only permissions depending on their role:

User Role

Scenario Permission Options

Org Admins

  • Administrator

  • Writing

  • Submit survey answers

Org Writers

  • Administrator

  • Writing

  • Submit survey answers

Org Readers

  • Submit survey answers

  • No default access

Contributors

  • Submit survey answers

  • No default access

👉 Learn more about privileges and permissions in the “Assign Users Access to Assets and Functionality” KB article.

FAQ

  • Can I add my own logo to surveys?

    You can add your logo of choice in surveys. You can do so under the organization settings (as in the image below)

    ardoq survey logo
  • Is it possible to Clone Surveys?

    Yes, you can do so in the survey overview by clicking on the three-dot menu and select "Copy".

    ardoq clone survey
  • Is there any way of creating nested surveys such that there is a single Survey for each Vendor and is navigated by hierarchy, but with only one of the vendors accessible at the time?

    If each survey will be sent to different vendors it is possible to make each vendor see only the things related to that vendor using Broadcasts + Graph Search. If, on the other hand, you want to send out multiple surveys to the same people, each limited to include components with a different vendor, you would have to create one broadcast per vendor.

  • Is it possible to view all the data collected in a tabulated form?

    Yes. You can see responses on the Survey Overview Page outside of Ardoq, but its capabilities are limited. In Ardoq you can see Survey submissions either in the Grid Editor or Table View. For the table view, however, you will need to ensure the columns match the questions in the survey. You can also put that view into a presentation if you want non-Ardoq users to be able to see the information.


Please feel free to reach out if you have any remaining questions. We're happy to help with creating the perfect Surveys for your organization.

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