Wildcards

The questionnaire editor’s menu (Projects → {Selected Project} → Questionnaire editor) contains a menu item called Wildcards. This opens an overview of the wildcards defined for the project. This shows a list of all the wildcards defined for the project, including a search function and the functions for creating new wildcards and importing existing wildcards from other projects, which are explained below.

Defining new wildcards

• To create new wildcards, click on the Create wildcard button.

• In the dialog that opens, enter the name of the new wildcard in the “Wildcard” field. It may contain the characters a-z, A-Z and 0-9 and must be enclosed in two hash signs (#). Furthermore, the name should not be reserved for variables or other wildcards (e.g. project variables v_xxx, participant variables u_xxx, system variables).

• In the “Text” field, enter whatever you wish to replace with the wildcard. This may be text, but you can also enter, for example, an HTML tag for an image file.

• You can then save the new wildcard by clicking on the Create wildcard button.

Transferring wildcards from other projects

Clicking on the Import wildcards from other survey button will open a list of the projects on the platform. If you select the radio buttons for the project(s) whose wildcards you want to transfer, you can import the wildcards by clicking on the confirmation button.

Wildcards in multilingual projects

If you are using the wildcard to incorporate text in multilingual projects, you can click on the Edit language elements button to insert and change the corresponding text elements in the various languages.

Managing Frequently-used Text Elements Effektively

You can use wildcards defined by yourself in numerous places in the questionnaire, e.g to facilitate the entry of frequently recurrent text sections or the frequent incorporation of the same image:

• in the question text, answer text and fill-in instruction for questions with single response lists, questions with multiple response lists and matrix questions,

• for the HTML question type,

• on mixed-external pages, and

• for questions of the above types in the container depot.

The following sections explain how to create, use and manage these self-defined wildcards. Below that, you will find a practical example which gives a step-by-step explanation of how to, in particular, make frequently incorporating images clearer and easier by using wildcards.

Defining and Managing Static Wildcards

The questionnaire editor’s menu (Projects → {Selected Project} → Questionnaire editor) contains a menu item called Wildcards. This opens an overview of the wildcards defined for the project.

This shows a list of all the wildcards defined for the project, including a search function and the functions for creating new wildcards and importing existing wildcards from other projects, which are explained below.

Defining new wildcards

1. To create new wildcards, click on the Create wildcard button.

2. In the dialog that opens, enter the name of the new wildcard in the “Wildcard” field. It may contain the characters a-z, A-Z and 0-9 and must be enclosed in two hash signs (#). Furthermore, the name should not be reserved for variables or other wildcards (e.g. project variables v_xxx, participant variables u_xxx, system variables).

3. In the “Text” field, enter whatever you wish to replace with the wildcard. This may be text, but you can also enter, for example, an HTML tag for an image file.

4. You can then save the new wildcard by clicking on the Create wildcard button.

Transferring wildcards from other projects

Clicking on the Import wildcards from other survey button will open a list of the projects on the platform. If you select the radio buttons for the project(s) whose wild- cards you want to transfer, you can import the wildcards by clicking on the confirma- tion button.

Wildcards in multilingual projects

If you are using the wildcard to incorporate text in multilingual projects, you can click on the Edit language elements button to insert and change the corresponding text elements in the various languages. See Chapter 16, p. 609, for detailed information on the EFS functions supporting multilingual projects.

Editing wildcards

In the table listing the wildcards defined for the respective project, the right-hand column contains the following “Actions” icons:

• Edit: Changing name and content of the wildcard

• Delete: Deleting the wildcard

Using static wildcards in the questionnaire

Once you have defined wildcards for a project, you can access them via the Wildcards tab in the question view and integrate them into the questionnaire.

• Create a question as usual.

• First, click on the field in which you wish to insert the wildcard.

• Next, select the Wildcards tab.

• The wildcard overview will open. Here, you will now find an additional icon representing the Insert wildcard function.

• Clicking on this icon will automatically insert the selected wildcard into the ans- wer option and close the window for wildcard administration.

Example: Using Wildcards to Incorporate Images

The wildcard function makes your work easier, especially if you frequently incorporate images into question texts and answer options: Instead of copying IMG tags from the media library, as before, you can work more quickly using the wildcards, and the ans- wer options remain clearly structured.

Therefore, EFS offers the option of defining wildcards even when uploading images to the media library, in addition to the new wildcard administration described above. The following example will introduce you to working with wildcards in general as well as this function in particular.

Creating a wildcard when uploading an image

1. The work process begins in the media library which is located in the questionnaire editor under Projects → {Selected Project} → Questionnaire editor → Media library.

2. Click on the Upload file button.

3. The familiar upload dialog will open. Browse your local hard disk and set the desi-

   red file.

4. Define a wildcard. You can use the characters a-z, A-Z and 0-9. The wildcards must

   be enclosed in two hash signs (#).

5. Confirm by clicking on Upload.

Incorporating wildcards into a question

1. Switch to the questionnaire editor by clicking on the Back to questionnaire menu item.

2. There, create the planned page as well as the desired question.

3. Formulate the question text.

4. Click into the answer option into which you want to insert the image.

5. Now, select the Wildcards tab. This will open a pop-up window containing the wildcard overview.

6. Click on the Insert wildcard icon.

7. The wildcard will now automatically be inserted into the answer option, and the dialog will be closed.

8. Save the question.