Using the Survey Portlet in Liferay

Overview

A "survey" refers to a multiple page survey questionnaire, which is usually shown in a maximized portlet view, while the normal portlet view shows only a link inviting people to take the survey. A "poll" refers to a one page questionnaire, which is displayed in the normal portlet view and is replaced by poll results after voting.

Surveys and polls are created using the Cogix ViewsFlash application and organized into "Places". A survey is scheduled to open and close at given times. A Survey Portlet instance is configured to display the survey, and then the portlet is included in the appropriate portal pages.

After installation, two sample Places are pre-configured: Examples and Polls. Use them to become familiar with the process of survey creation, and then create your surveys in your own Places, copying one of the sample Places.

To show a survey in the portal, a portlet instance is created. Resource Permissions are applied to make the portlet available to the intended audience and to allow its configuration by appropriate personnel. Configuration determines what surveys are shown in the portlet.

After a survey portlet instance is created and installed on a page, it can be configured in one of three modes:

Deploying a survey portlet instance

  1. Logged in as the Liferay administrator, go to a page where the Survey portlet should be deployed, pull down the menu, and click "Add Application".
    add content


    Expand the Undefined category, and click the Add button next to Survey:
    adding portlet to page
  2. The Survey portlet will now appear, with a Configure link.
    Survey Portlet

Configuring the portlet to show everyone a survey

  1. Click the Configure link on the survey portlet and select the place where the survey was created, such as Examples. The page will refresh with updated settings for that place. From the list of surveys, select which one to show in this portlet. In the radio buttons, select "as a link that opens in maximized mode ". Check the box labeled "Display a link to view results" and choose the radio button for what to show after the questionniare is completed. By default, visitors can complete a questionnaire only once. Press Save.
    Configure portlet
  2. When done, click on "Return to portal".
  3. The Survey portlet is now ready for use. Log out and log in as a typical user, and click on "take survey". The portlet will be maximized, and successive survey pages will be presented. At the end, a thank you message with an optional tabulation of results will be shown. Click on the restore button and return to the portal, where the survey invitation link will be replaced by a "survey already completed" message.

Configuring the portlet to show an automatically rotating poll

  1. In the Survey portlet's Configure page, select Polls from the drop-down menu. Click on Survey Setup. In the ViewsFlash application, click on the Scheduled column link for the Health_Benefits poll, and in its Publish page enter opening and closing dates in the near future. The portal will automatically switch between polls at the designated times. Return to the polls list by clicking on Polls at the top of the page and repeat the procedure with the other poll. When finished, close the ViewsFlash window, and fill out the page with the settings shown below and press Save:
    Automatically rotating polls
  2. Click on Return to portal. The new portlet will now show the current poll. After a visitor votes in it, poll results will be shown instead of the voting forms.

Configuring the portlet to show each user all the surveys he or she has been invited to

  1. To conduct multiple surveys at the same time, the ViewsFlash application must be installed using a database.
    Go to the survey portlet Configure page. If it is, you will see "Show all eligible" as an option in the top pull-down menu. Choose that option and press Change:
    Configure to show all elgibile

  2. Click on Return to portal. The portlet will now show a link to every survey that the logged in user has been invited to.

Creating your own surveys.

Go to the ViewsFlash application by clicking on the Configure link when logged in with the appropriate rights and clicking on Survey Setup. You can bookmark this page to access the ViewsFlash application outside the portal. In Places, either use the pre-installed Examples and Polls places, or copy one of them to create your own. Examples is set up to manually schedule the survey that is served in the portlet, and Polls is set up to rotate polls or surveys through the portlet automatically. For complete details, see ViewsFlash options.

For information on creating portlets and surveys in multiple languages, see Internationalization.