Adding questions to a questionnaire
To configure a question in the questionnaire
- In Question Designer, perform either of the following steps:
- To add a process question, select a question from the Process Questions list, and click on the + button to add this question onto the canvas
- To add a non-process question, click Add next to the User Generated Questions.
- Select a type of question to display.
Depending on the form element that you select, different settings are available. - Configure the selected form element as required.
For information about the available settings, see Available settings for each form element.
Question types
The different question types give you different options for displaying responses to users. The question types are categorized by the methods for entering question responses as follows:
- Text input questions
- Selection questions
- Selection menu questions
- Selection table questions
- Data and time questions
- Read-only forms
Text input questions
End users need to type text to answer these questions
Question type | Description |
|---|---|
Text area | This question form is displayed to end users as a text area for submitting an answer. |
Text field | This question form is displayed to end users as a text field for submitting an answer. |
Password | This question form is displayed as a text field. When end users enter a value in this field, the entered value is substituted by asterisks. An answer submitted for the Password question is encrypted in BMC Digital Workplace Catalog by default. Notes:
|
Selection questions
End users select a value or select an attachment.
Question type | Description |
|---|---|
Toggle | This question type is displayed as a selection question with a Yes or No answer to the question. |
File attachment | This question type enables end users to browse for a file, and attach it to the questionnaire. |
Selection menu questions
End users select a value from the list of available values.
Question type | Description |
|---|---|
Dropdown (single select) | This question form is displayed to end users as a drop-down list with a list of values available for selection. End users can select only one value as an answer to the question. |
Dropdown (multi-select) | This question form is displayed to end users as a drop-down list with a list of values available for selection. End users can select multiple values as an answer to the question. |
Checkbox | This question form is displayed to end users as a list of values with check boxes available for selection. End users can select multiple check boxes. |
Radio Button | This question form is displayed to end users as a list of values with radio buttons available for selection. End users can select only one radio button as an answer to the question. |
Lookup | This question form is displayed to end users as a field where they start typing the answer, and then the possible values for selection are displayed. End users can select only one value for a lookup question. |
Counter | This question form is displayed to end users as a field where the user can click the down arrow or up arrow to select a value, or type the allowed numeric value. When you import an SRD (from BMC Service Request Management) with a questionnaire that has questions of a range type, these questions are mapped to the counter question type after import. Note:
|
Selection table questions
End users select a row or multiple rows from a table.
Question type | Description |
|---|---|
Table (single select) | This question form is displayed to end users as a table. End users can select a single row as an answer to the question. |
Table (multi-select) | This question form is displayed to end users as a table. End users can select multiple rows as an answer to the question. |
Data and time questions
End users select date and time.
Question type | Description |
|---|---|
Date | This question is displayed as a calendar selection widget. |
Date & Time | This question is displayed as a calendar selection widget and time selection field. |
Time | This question is displayed as time selection field. |
Date Restrictions
For Date and Date & Time questions, you can add restrictions that enable end users to select a date within a fixed or relative range of dates. To add restrictions, select the Date Restrictions, and configure the following settings:
Read-only forms
No input is required. These forms provide additional information to end users.
Question type | Description |
|---|---|
Section | You can create sections to group related or similar questions on the same page. |
Description | You can add descriptions to guide the user through the questionnaire. |
Available settings for each form element
The following table describes availability of question form settings by a form element type:
Form element type | Text Area Text Field | Password | Counter |
| Lookup | Toggle | File Attachment | Date Date & Time | Time | New Section | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Label |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|  |
Description |  | | | | | | | | | |
|
Question Values |
| | | | | | | | | | |
Default Value | | | | | | | | | | | |
Required | | | | | | | | | | | |
Read Only | | | | | | | | | | | |
Hidden | | | | | | | | | | | |
Internal Tags | | | | | | | | | | |
|
Regular Expression | | | | | | | | | | | |
Confidential | | | | | | |
| | | |
|
Disable Password Encryption | | | | | | | | | | | |
Date Restrictions | | | | | | | | | | | |
Lookup Threshold | | | | | | | | | | | |
* The setting is required.
The setting is available for the question form element type.
The setting is not available for the question form element type.
Question settings
You can configure the following settings for questions:
[ Label ] [ Description ] [ Default Value ] [ Question Values ] [ Required ] [ Read Only ] [ Hidden ] [ Regular Expression ] [ Internal Tags ] [ Confidential ] [ Disable Password Encryption ] [ Lookup Threshold ]
Label
This field is required for all questions that require user input. This field is automatically populated with the process question label value if the question you are adding is generated from the workflow.
The label value is displayed as a question text to end users. You can change it as required.
Description
The description that you enter is displayed below the question label. To enable the question description, turn on the question toggle, and then enter the question description.
Default Value
To enable a default value for a question, enable this setting, and then select the default value type from the Type list. For information about how to build a question with a default response, see Creating-questions-with-default-responses.
Question Values
To create values for selection questions, enable this setting. Configure the Question Values for a question form as described in the following table:
Question type | Question Values settings |
|---|---|
Dropdown single select Dropdown multiselect Checkbox Radio Button | You can create selection menus by using one of the following options:
For details about how to build menus for selection menu questions, see Creating-selection-menus-for-question-responses. |
Table (single select) Table (multi-select) | You can create questions with a table for response selection by using one of the following options:
For details about how to configure questions with tables for response selection, see Creating-questions-with-a-table-for-response-selection. |
Toggle | The Display Value and Stored Value fields are predefined with the default values. You can change the Display Value as required. To set a default value for this form type element, select a radio button next to the value. |
Counter | You can set the following values:
For example, suppose the Step value is 10, and an end user has already selected a value for a counter question. The value that will be displayed when the user clicks the arrow up button is the step value plus the current value. So, if the current value is 15, 25 will be displayed when the user clicks the arrow up button. |
Required
End users will not be able to submit a service request until all required questions are answered.
Read Only
You enable this setting to make the question read-only. You cannot set a read-only question to required or hidden.
Hidden
You enable this setting to hide the question from being displayed to end users.
You might need to hide a question with a default value to prevent end users from completing the question with a value other than the default value. A hidden question with a default value is not displayed to the end user, so end users cannot change the default value.
Regular Expression
You can use regular expressions to validate the responses that end users provide to questions when they request services in BMC Digital Workplace. If a user enters a response that does not match a pattern from the specified regular expression template, the system displays an error message.
You can specify regular expressions for the following types of questions:
- Text area
- Text field
- Password
To assign a regular expression to a question, enable the Regular Expression, and then select the required regular expression from the list of available templates.
A regular expression defines a specific format or specific characters that must be used in a question response. For example, if you select the Email address template for a text field, the end user response is validated by the system and accepted only if this response contains an @ symbol.
Additionally, you can provide a formatting hint that is displayed to end users in error messages if the users enter invalid responses. For example, if the formatting hint value is someone@mail.com, then the following error message is displayed: Answer "myemail.com " to the question "Your email address" does not match the given pattern. Example: "someone@mail.com".
End users cannot to submit their service request until they enter valid responses to the questions with regular expressions.
Internal Tags
You can enable internal tags for a question to develop generic custom logic that can understand the meaning of questions independently of a specific questionnaire (without referencing internal question IDs).
Internal tags are not visible to end users in service questionnaires when they request services in BMC Digital Workplace. You can use these tags internally in BMC Digital Workplace Catalog to indicate questions with special functions. After adding internal tags to questions, you can use these tags in workflows for building required business processes.
Enable internal tags for a question by turning on the Internal Tags toggle. You can enter one or more free text tags, separated by a comma, as shown in the following example:
For example, you have a data dictionary where each specific piece of data is identified by a standard code or key, like requester_cost_center. Add the requester_cost_center tag to each question that is associated with the cost center.
Confidential
This setting is available only for those questions that originate from the Create Ticket activity available in the associated workflow.
The Create Ticket activity can be added to a workflow only if the Innovation Suite connector is configured. For more details about this connector, see BMC-Helix-Platform-connector.
By setting a question to confidential, you restrict unauthorized users from viewing answers to confidential questions in BMC Digital Workplace. Only users who have has confidential data access permission in BMC Digital Workplace can view answers to confidential questions. For more details about this option, see Configuring-confidential-questions-in-a-questionnaire.
Disable Password Encryption
This setting disables encryption for password type questions. Enable this setting if both of the following conditions are met:
- In your questionnaire, you are using the Password Field question that is generated by a process input variable of the related workflow.
- The RCF or Integration Service connectors use the process input variable.
Lookup Threshold
The threshold is the number of characters that end users must enter before the system begins to autocomplete selection options based on the query. This setting is available only for Lookup form element types. For information about how to use this setting, see Creating-selection-menus-for-question-responses.