AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Copyright 2014 Hindin Solutions Ltd. User Guide

Transcription

1 AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide User Guide

2 Disclaimer Copyright 2014 by Hindin Solutions Ltd. All rights reserved. This manual may not be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, or converted to any electronic or machine-readable form in whole or part without prior written approval of Hindin Solutions Ltd. For more information contact Hindin Solutions Ltd. at: First Edition February Printed in New Zealand. Disclaimer Every effort has been made to make this guide as complete and as accurate as possible, but no warranty or fitness is implied. The information provided is on an as is basis. The author and the publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to loss or damages arising from the information contained in this guide. Hindin Solutions Ltd. P.O. Box 1181, Christchurch New Zealand Tel: AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide

3 Section Contents 1 Introduction Overview Links Introduction Ordering of Conditions Answer Path Introduction Answer Path Concepts Inputs Answer Groups Answer Path Interface Toolbox Window Design Area Properties Window Conditions Window Using Answer Path Opening Answer Path Creating or Opening a Document Opening an Existing Document Opening a Document created by Mapit Designer Creating a New Document Editing Document Properties Creating Pages Breadcrumbs Creating Questions Adding Inputs to Questions Adding Answer Groups Adding Inputs HTML Editor Embedding Hyperlinks Embedding Images Creating Conditions Using the Link Tool Using the Conditions List Using the Conditions Window Editing Conditions Viewing Existing Conditions Ordering of Conditions Deleting Conditions Deleting Links Linking to Other Websites Linking to external websites AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 1

4 Re-Direct to a URL when Clicking on the Next Button Handling Answer Path Script Data in an External System Changing the Page Appearance and Behaviour Headers and Footers Icons Stylesheets and JavaScript Previewing the Document Editing the Document Deleting objects Cut, Copy and Paste Setting Document Properties Saving Documents Saving a Document Save As Setting the Initial Page From Within Answer Path From an External Website Showing and Hiding Windows Checking for Errors Saving an Answer Path Document for use on your Website Exporting an Answer Path Document as HTML Setting Export Options AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 2

5 1 Introduction Answer Path from Hindin Solutions provides you with the ability to design complex scripts, wizards, decision trees, and more from a simple to use Drag-and-Drop application. Answer Path is one of many knowledge tools provided by Hindin Solutions. What you create with Answer Path is an Answer Path Wizard. In Answer Path you see this as a series of boxes connected by arrows to indicate navigation. What the person using the Answer Path Wizard sees is a series of web pages with questions that they answer, leading them to an end point (such as the answer to a question, or the correct product or solution to use for a specific circumstance, for example). Calling the output from Answer Path a "Wizard" reflects the way Answer Path guides the end-user to a final conclusion, like a script they are following. In this user guide we will use Scripts and Wizards interchangeably. Answer Path allows you to save the Wizards as HTML. These Wizards can then be exported to your website or intranet for use through a standard web browser. 1.1 Overview Answer Path Scripts can be used to lead a user to information such as an answer to a Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) using a series of determining questions. The Scripts can encapsulate a business process or expert knowledge; by asking a series of specialised questions the Scripts can suggest a course of action based on answers given. Consider the case of an FAQ as a discovery mechanism for a piece of information. Standard FAQs have a single question and a single answer whether this is a simple textual answer, or a hyperlink to a URL or document resource containing the answer. Answer Path Wizards encapsulate sets of questions which can lead to many answers or outcomes based on the responses given to the questions posed. The navigation from page to page, or question set to question set, depends on answers supplied to previous questions. This complex navigation and homing in on the relevant end point (in this example information) is encapsulated and handled for the user automatically in the Answer Path Wizard. Questions in the Answer Path system are divided into blocks called Pages. Each Page can contain one or more Questions, or may present an outcome. A set of Answers is associated with each Question that may be a group of Radio Buttons, a list of Checkboxes, one or more Drop-down Lists or a field where some free text may be entered. The answers given to questions in any one Page determines which Page will be presented next. The logic which determines the next Page to present is discussed in section 1.2. During the process of answering questions and moving between Pages, the answers to each question are recorded. At the end of the Script, a Page may be displayed to communicate some advice based on the path taken and a history of answers given may be displayed. 1.2 Links Introduction Perhaps the most important aspect of Scripts is Links. These conditions represent the logic that determines which Page to present next. As outlined in section 1.1, Pages contain questions and every Page requires at least one Link to specify what to do once the question is answered. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 1

6 Links contain two elements: A Condition A Page to jump to if that condition is met The path a user will take when navigating the Script is determined by the Conditions that were met by the answers given to Questions in each Page. Any number of Conditions may be specified per Page, each taking the user on a different, subsequent question path when a particular Condition is satisfied (said to be true), the Page associated with the Condition is displayed. Any given Condition contains one or more Answers to check. Checks simply verify whether the user entered an answer for instance, whether a Radio Button was selected, a Checkbox was ticked, a Drop-down List item was selected or some text was typed in a Textbox. By checking specific answers, important information can be identified, the next relevant Page displayed, and a new Question asked. There are no limits to the number of Links that may be specified per Page or the number of answers to be checked for any one condition. For instance, a Condition may check to see whether one Checkbox was ticked or may check to see if a specific combination of Checkboxes were ticked. Each Page may also include a special Link known as the Else Condition. If no other Conditions are found to be true (i.e. the user has not supplied answers which correspond to any of the Conditions), the Else Condition is executed as a default and the Page associated with this Condition is displayed. In the absence of the Else Condition, at least one of the Conditions must evaluate to true for the answers in the Page to be accepted. Omitting this condition is useful when using Pages where an answer to a question must be specified or a valid combination of answers to several questions given within the Page. A conceptual example of Links is illustrated below with a question which could be asked to applicants by a recruiting agency. Based on the answer to this question, one of three possible screens (Pages) will be displayed, each containing a different text response. Each of the potential answers are numbered (in blue) for reference. Page 2 You have experience in both Microsoft applications. Page 1 What applications do you have experience with? Microsoft Word [1] Microsoft Excel [2] Adobe InDesign [3] Adobe Photoshop [4] A B {1} C {1 and 2} {else} Page 3 You must be willing to also learn Microsoft Excel to proceed to the next stage. Page 4 Experience with at least Microsoft Word is required. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 2

7 Page 1 contains the question - What applications do you have experience with? Four possible answers are given. In this example, the answers are Checkboxes, and the user is expected to tick as many as appropriate (which may be none at all). This Page contains three Links, or pathways (indicated with arrows): Page 2 is to be displayed if the applicant has experience with both Word and Excel this constitutes one pathway. Page 3 is to be displayed if the applicant has experience with Word and not Excel a second pathway. Page 4 is to be displayed if the applicant has experience with neither a third pathway. It is important to note that although options 3 and 4 (the Adobe products) are not involved in any Links, it may be the case that the agency wants this information recorded, even though it has no bearing on the path taken in the Script Every pathway must have a condition associated with it. In the example above these are represented in red. For instance, if options 1 and 2 are ticked, path A will be followed. The order of conditions in the Answer Path Script is important as this is the order in which they will be evaluated. For any Page, the first Link which is true will be immediately followed. In this example, it may be assumed that the Links are evaluated in the order A, B, C. Link A leads to Page 2 and specifies that Checkboxes 1 and 2 must be true (ticked) for this path to be followed. If only one (or neither) is ticked the Link is, overall, said to be false (as not all of its components are true) and the path will not be followed. For example, if only option 3 (Adobe InDesign) were ticked, Link A would be false and the script would proceed to evaluate Link B. Link B leads to Page 3 and specifies that Checkbox 1 must be true for this path to be followed. Again, if only option 3 were ticked this Condition would also be false and the script would proceed to evaluate the next Condition (Condition C). Link C is the Else Condition. This Condition is true when all other Conditions are false. Effectively, this Condition is a default and, if ever reached, is always followed. If option 3 were ticked, this Condition would become true and Page 4 would be displayed. As illustrated above, Links may involve checking multiple answers for a combination which represents something significant. Links may also check answers from multiple questions within a Page, or questions from preceding Pages Ordering of Conditions The ordering of Links is important. To illustrate this, consider the example below which shows a more complex version of the simple system we saw above. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 3

8 Page 2 You have experience in all the major Business Applications. Page 1 What Microsoft Applications are you familiar with? Microsoft Word Microsoft Excel Microsoft PowerPoint Microsoft Publisher Microsoft Access [Word] [Excel] [PowerPoint] [Publisher] [Access] A B {Word and Excel} C {Word} D {Word and Excel and Access and PowerPoint} {else} Page 3 You have experience in the Word Processor and Spreadsheet Page 4 You have experience in only Microsoft Word Page 5 Experience with at least Microsoft Word is required. Page 1 has four Links which must be evaluated in a specific order (A, B, C, D) for the desired behaviour to occur. It is important to note that Conditions check only for options which are ticked they do not check for items which were not ticked. Condition C, for example, checks the value of the Word Checkbox. Irrespective of any other options which are (or are not) ticked, if the Word option is checked, then Condition C will evaluate to true. As an example, assume that a user ticks the Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint options. If the Conditions are evaluated in the order A, B, C, D, then Condition A will immediately evaluate to true (all 4 required options have been selected) and Page 2 will display. No further Conditions will be evaluated and the Script will continue from Page 2. This is the expected outcome for this combination of options. However, if the Conditions were evaluated in a different order such as C, A, B, D, then Condition C would evaluate to true first (since it checks only whether the Word option was ticked) and will lead to the display of Page 4, claiming the user has experience in only Microsoft Word. Despite the fact that Condition A was a better match for the selected options, the evaluation ends with the first Condition which was true (Condition C in this case). A similar result would occur if Condition B were evaluated first in this scenario. Since the Word and Excel options are both ticked, the Condition is logically true and Page 3 would be displayed instead of the expected Page 2. This example demonstrates the importance of the ordering of Conditions when designing an Answer Path Wizard. Typically, the more options available to be selected, the more complex the logic in determining which Page to show next and the ordering of Conditions becomes even more important. As a general guide, the most complex Conditions should be placed first (that is, the Conditions which involve the highest number of inputs, such as Condition A in the example). The remaining Conditions should be placed in descending order with the Else Condition (which involves no inputs) being placed last. Section 1.1 explains how to set the order of Conditions. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 4

9 2 2.1 Answer Path Introduction Answer Path is a graphical design tool that allows Answer Path Wizard authors to create, edit and preview documents. 2.2 Answer Path Concepts The concepts presented in section 1.1 described the elements of Answer Path Scripts in terms of Pages, Questions, Answers, and Links. Answer Path graphically represents all of these concepts in addition to two Answer Path-specific concepts Inputs and Answer Groups Inputs Inputs are the Answer Path representation of the Options or Answers available to a user of the Script when answering a Question. They form the basis of Links and are the method used to record answers to individual Questions within a Page. Four types of Inputs are available in Answer Path Checkbox inputs, Radio Button inputs, Drop-down List inputs and Textboxes. Checkboxes present a list of options, several of which may be selected as a response to a question. This type of input is useful in situations where users should tick off all options which apply. Radio Button inputs allow the presentation of a number of options, of which only one may be selected. This type of input is useful in situations such as Questions with Yes/No answers, or Questions with responses of which only one is ever relevant. Drop-down Lists are similar to Radio Buttons and allow the presentation of a number of options, of which only one may be selected. Drop-down Lists are particularly useful to present large numbers of options that would be unable to fit on a single page e.g. all of the countries of the world. Textboxes allow the free entry of text as a response to a Question. These are typically reserved for questions such as entering someone s name, a date or time, or any information which cannot be conveniently represented using Radio Buttons, Checkboxes or Drop-down Lists Answer Groups The concept of Answer Groups is introduced by Answer Path to separate sets of inputs into logical groups. For instance, consider the example below. Two sets of Radio Buttons are associated with the Question. Only one option from each set (or group) may be selected, effectively allowing two pieces of information to be collected from the question. In order to allow Answer Path to establish which inputs belong to which set, Answer Groups are used. In this example, two Answer Groups would be used, each having a set of five inputs. In the absence of groups, Answer Path would interpret all ten inputs as belonging to one large group, and thus allowing only one option to be selected from all ten available. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 5

10 Page 1 Which are your first and second preferred modes of transport? Private car Bus Taxi Bike Walk Private car Bus Taxi Bike Walk 2.3 Answer Path Interface The main Answer Path interface is divided into a number of major parts, as illustrated below. Each of the major parts will be covered in this section Toolbox Window The Toolbox resides on the left of the window and contains a set of tools used in the design and construction of Answer Path wizards. The toolbox contains thirteen tools. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 6

11 Clicking on a tool will select it for use. Once you have created an object with a tool the object is selected and the Select Tool is highlighted. If you create an object with the Ctrl key held down, the current tool remains selected allowing you to quickly create multiple objects of the same type e.g. a number of Radio Buttons in an Answer Group. Please note that if you click too quickly when using the Ctrl key this may be interpreted as double clicking on an object and the editing window of the parent object will be opened instead Select Tool This tool is used to select components on the canvas for editing, such as Pages, Questions, and Inputs. Once selected, a selection frame appears around the item as a dotted border (the image on the right shows a Page which has been selected). Items which are resizable (such as Pages) have eight drag handles that appear when selected and can be clicked and dragged to resize the item Link Tool The Link tool allows the creation of logic which joins Pages. Selecting this tool and dragging out an arrow between two Page objects on the canvas will create a Link which joins the two Page Tool The Page Tool is used to create Page items in Answer Path Scripts. When this tool is selected, the cursor turns to a cross (+) when the mouse enters the canvas. A new Page may be created by clicking in an empty area of the canvas and dragging out a rectangle. Releasing the mouse will create a new Page with a size equal to the dragged rectangle. Pages may only be created on the canvas it is not possible to create a new Page within an existing Page. Once completed, the toolbox will automatically revert back to the Select Tool Page + Question Tool The Page + Question Tool is an extension of the Page Tool in the previous section. This tool will create a page on the canvas then automatically create an Answer Group and Question. After the items have been created the Question Properties window is opened for editing. Question Tool This tool is used to create new Questions within existing Pages. To create a new Question, select this tool and left click once within the Page where it is to be placed. Dragging is not necessary with this tool as Answer Path will automatically calculate the required size for the Question at all times. Once created, Answer Path will also add a default Answer Group to the new Question and revert to the Select Tool Answer Group Tool Inputs for any given Question must be placed within a logical group. The Answer Group Tool allows the creation of such groups. Selecting this tool and clicking once within an existing Question item will create a new group dragging a rectangle to create the group is unnecessary. The tool will create a new group, automatically assign it a default name (such as Answer Group1), select it, and revert to the Select Tool. The next step would typically be to add some Inputs to the new group. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 7

12 Input Tools As outlined in section 2.2.1, Answer Path provides four types of Inputs Radio Buttons, Checkbox, Dropdown Lists and Textboxes. Each of these input types has a toolbox icon. Inputs may only be added to an existing Answer Group (which may be created using the Answer Group Tool described in section ). Inputs can only be placed in groups that are either empty, or contain inputs of the same type as the one being created. For instance, a Checkbox may not be added to a group containing Radio Buttons a new Answer Group would be required for this but it may be added to a group which is empty or already contains other Checkboxes. Clicking once within an existing Answer Group will create an input of the selected type (Radio Button, Checkbox, Drop-down List or Textbox); the new item will be selected and Answer Path will revert to the Select Tool Yes / No Tool The Yes / No Tool is a short cut for creating the most common type of Radio Button answer - Yes / No. Clicking once within an existing Answer Group will create a Radio Button containing the word Yes and a Radio Button containing the word No Text Tool The Text tool is used to place information (such as Help) or text prompts for the users of Scripts. A new Text item may be created by clicking in an empty area of the Page. The new Text item will be sized to fit the Page and automatically selected for further editing. Hyperlink Tool This tool is used to add a hyperlink to external websites or web pages on the intranet. Similar to the Text Tool (see section ), clicking within an existing Page will create a new Hyperlink item and automatically select it for further editing Design Area The design area is in the centre of the window and displays two tabs. The first tab contains the Canvas where tools may be used to manipulate objects on the canvas and the second tab contains the Preview Canvas The Canvas is a scrollable area, which will dynamically resize itself to fit all items which reside on it. When the canvas is visible, Toolbox items may be selected and applied to the canvas Preview The Preview shows an immediate vision of how the Answer Path Script will look and behave when viewed and executed by users. The Preview presents the document verbatim as it has been designed including Pages which contain no items or Questions which have no Inputs. Selecting the Preview tab will automatically cause the document to be compiled into HTML and displayed. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 8

13 2.3.3 Properties Window The Properties window resides on the right hand side of the window and displays attributes specific to the item currently selected on the canvas. The properties are displayed in a grid and each may be directly edited. For instance, if the currently selected item is a Hyperlink object, the properties displayed includes the Content, Notes, PostState, Target and URL. Help information on the currently highlighted property is displayed at the bottom of the Properties window. Any properties changed in the window, will immediately cause the selected object on the canvas to update once the Enter key is pressed or if the mouse is clicked away Conditions Window The Conditions window displays a list of Conditions associated with the selected Page or Link. If a Page object is selected on the canvas, the window displays all Conditions associated with that Page. If a Link between two Pages (named A and B, for instance) is selected; only the Conditions from Page A which lead to Page B are displayed. The top of the Conditions window indicates the context of the list (whether the Conditions of one Page are displayed or the Conditions between two Pages). Below the list is a description of the selected Condition. At the bottom of the window, three buttons are displayed (Add, Edit, and Delete) which allow rapid editing of the selected Condition or the addition of a new Condition. Double clicking on a Condition will open the Condition in the Condition Editor. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 9

14 3 Using Answer Path This section will cover all available facilities in Answer Path. The section is organised by task. 3.1 Opening Answer Path To open Answer Path click on the icon in your Start menu or on your desktop. Alternatively find a recent Answer Path file (they all end in.ap) and double click on the file name. 3.2 Creating or Opening a Document Answer Path only allows one document to be open at a time. When opening a document the currently opened document (if any) will be automatically closed. If this document has been changed since it was last saved you will be prompted to save or discard the changes before the document is closed Opening an Existing Document When you install Answer Path a new directory called My AnswerPath Scripts is created in My Documents. The two scripts that accompany the installation version are present in this directory. You can save your scripts there also. Select the Answer Path Document from the directory navigator and double click. The document will open in the design area for editing. If Answer Path is already in operation, open a document which resides on the local machine by pressing Ctrl+O, or select Open from the File menu Opening a Document created by Mapit Designer Documents created by Mapit Designer (these end in.mapit) can be opened in Answer Path. These documents are listed as Answer Path Document files in the Open Document dialog (select Open from the File menu), and can be selected from here. Alternatively they can be double clicked from your directory navigator in the same manner as with opening Answer Path Documents Creating a New Document To create a new document, press Ctrl+N, or select New from the File menu. The New Document dialog will appear providing an opportunity to enter a title, brief description of the new Answer Path Document and whether you would like to truncate long text descriptions in the Summary page. Clicking OK will create the document and present an empty design area. Note that documents may not be Created or Opened while Answer Path is previewing a document (you can tell because the Preview tab is highlighted at the top of the Page). Answer Path must be in Design mode (by clicking the Design tab) before these facilities become available again Editing Document Properties To edit the information that was provided when the document was created select Properties from the Document menu. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 10

15 3.3 Creating Pages To create a Page object, select the Page tool (see section ) from the Toolbox and drag out a rectangle on the canvas in the design area, as illustrated below. Pages have the following properties: Property Value Description ID Text The unique ID assigned to the page. This value is read only and cannot be changed. Name Text The name of the page - used in the breadcrumbs and the page label on the canvas. RedirectUrl URL A URL to redirect to when clicking on the Next Button. See section 1.1 for further information. After creation, Answer Path assigns a default name such as Page 1. It can be useful to give Pages useful names such as Participant Name or Participant Location which give an indication of the nature of the questions contained within the Page. User-defined names can help when reading and interpreting Conditions. To give a Page a custom name, ensure the Properties window is visible and edit the Name property. Page names must contain at least one character. If the name of the Page is too long to fit the size of the Page object on the canvas, it will be abbreviated with an ellipsis ( ). Alternatively, double click on the Page name and change the name in the Page Properties window. The size of Page objects is automatically adjusted to accommodate the items within it (Question and Text objects). However, sometimes it may be necessary to resize the width of the Page to better fit questions with extended text. To resize a Page, use the Select Tool to select the Page object and use the drag handles (small squares that appear on the selection frame) to adjust the width to the desired length. The Page + Question tool can be used to create a page that also contains a Question and Answer Group. The Question is automatically opened for editing in the Question Properties window Breadcrumbs Answer Path Scripts also have a feature known as Breadcrumbs where the pathway you have followed can be shown on the left hand side of the script. The Breadcrumbs names are taken from the Page Name. When designing a new script it is suggested that each page is given a unique and descriptive name so that the Breadcrumbs are easy to follow. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 11

16 Breadcrumbs may be turned on or off. To alter this setting select Breadcrumbs from the Document menu. The percentage width of their display can also be set in this dialog also. You may choose any value between 10 and 50 per cent; any values specified outside of this range will be rounded back. 3.4 Creating Questions The Question Tool (see section ) is used to add Question objects to existing Pages. To add a new Question to a Page, select the Question Tool and click inside the destination Page object. The image below illustrates how a Page object appears once a new Question has been added. Questions have the following properties: Property Value Description Name Text The name of the question - used in the Condition descriptions. Content Text The question text. Notes HTML HTML text that is displayed with the Question when it is viewed by the end user. It can contain formatted text, graphics, tables and hyperlinks. Questions are assigned a default name after creation. It can be useful to provide a custom name for Questions as the name of the Question is displayed in Condition descriptions. Question names can also be changed by double clicking on the Question name and changing the name in the editing screen. Notes text can optionally be specified to clarify questions, and is displayed only when the Script is viewed as HTML or previewed in Answer Path. 3.5 Adding Inputs to Questions Adding Answer Groups Before Inputs can be added to a question, an Answer Group must first be created. As discussed in section 2.2.2, Answer Groups are a container for a group of inputs. As a helpful measure, Answer Path automatically creates an Answer Group when a new Question is created. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 12

17 Answer Groups may only contain Inputs of one type. If a Question requires inputs of several types (a set of Radio Buttons mixed with a Textbox, for example) it is necessary to add a new Answer Group. The Answer Group Tool can be used to add a new Answer Group to a question. Selecting the Answer Group Tool from the toolbox and clicking once within the destination Question object will add a new Answer Group. The image below illustrates how a Question appears once a new (empty) Answer Group is added. Answer Path indicates potential problems by colouring the Answer Group in red. In the image above, Answer Path is warning the author that the group contains no Inputs. Once Inputs are added, the Group will return to its natural blue colour. Answer Path will also colour Answer Groups red if they contain only one Radio Button. By definition, Radio Buttons must appear in sets of two or more. Answer Path will automatically create two Radio Buttons if the Answer Group is empty. Answer Groups have the following properties: Property Value Description Name Text The name of the question - used in the Condition descriptions. Field Text This property has been deprecated and will be removed in a future version. Answer Group properties can be changed by double clicking on the Answer Group Name and editing them in the Answer Group Properties window Adding Inputs The five Input tools (Radio Button, Checkbox, Yes/No, Drop-down List and Textbox) can be used to add Inputs to existing Answer Groups. Selecting the appropriate Input tool and clicking once within the destination group will create a new Input and select it. A warning will appear if an attempt is made to add an Input to a group which already contains Input objects of a different type. Radio Buttons have the following properties: Property Value Description Content HTML HTML text that is displayed to the right of the Radio icon. It can contain formatted text, graphics, tables and hyperlinks. GoNextOnClick True / False If True then selecting this Radio Button will automatically take the user to the next page without the requirement to click the Next button. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 13

18 Checkboxes have the following properties: Property Value Description Content HTML HTML text that is displayed to the right of the Checkbox icon. It can contain formatted text, graphics, tables and hyperlinks. Drop-down Lists have the following properties: Property Value Description Content HTML HTML text that is displayed to the left of the Drop-down value. It can contain formatted text, graphics, tables and hyperlinks. ListValues Text List A list of pipe ( ) separated values to populate the Drop-down list with e.g. Item 1 Item 2 Item 3 DefaultValue Text The default selected value that will appear in the Drop-down List when the page is first displayed. This value is case sensitive and should be an exact match for an item in the list. If the default value cannot be found in the list then the blank value is selected. GoNextOnClick True / False If True then selecting a value from the Drop-down List will automatically take the user to the next page without the requirement to click the Next button. TextBoxes have the following properties: Property Value Description Content HTML HTML text that is displayed to the left of the text input field. It can contain formatted text, graphics, tables and hyperlinks. Clicking on an input object will select it. Double clicking on it will display the Content property for editing. The order that an input object appears in an Answer Group can be changed by right clicking on the input and selecting Move Up or Move Down from the Order submenu. 3.6 HTML Editor Answer Path automatically uses the HTML/WYSIWYG editor for adding or changing text, headers, footers and Notes screens. This allows the addition of images and hyperlinks to these fields as well as a large variety of text styles. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 14

19 3.6.1 Embedding Hyperlinks Hyperlinks can be embedded in the HTML editor by selecting the text that the user is expected to click on and clicking on the Web Link tool. In all references to URLs, the or must be appended on the front. You can specify whether you want the destination website to open in the current browser window or open in a new tab Embedding Images Images can be embedded in the HTML editor by clicking on the Image tool. Select an image, enter substitute text and select the alignment of the image. To edit an image that has been already been embedded into the HTML editor, select the image and click on the Image tool. When you add images to the notes properties, header fields or footer fields of your Answer Path Script the default behaviour of the software is to copy the image from the source location into the Answer Path file. That is, when you save the Answer Path file the image is saved within the.ap file. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 15

20 You may change this through the Image Management dialog from the Document menu. All images are automatically selected to be saved within the.ap file. You can click onto the image name to preview the image. If you do not wish the image to be saved into the.ap file untick the box. This will mean the image is only referenced from your local machine by the.ap file. This is useful only if the image is going to be changed or you do not wish the.ap file to become too large. When you Export the.ap file to become a webpage (HTML) the image will be included and saved in the webpage file (see Section 3.18 Saving an Answer Path File for Use on Your Website). If the image is not embedded in the.ap file and that file is later moved to another computer the link to the file will be lost and the image will not be able to be previewed or exported for use on your website. 3.7 Creating Conditions Conditions represent the logic which causes different Pages to be displayed depending on the values of specific Inputs. Answer Path provides several ways to add conditions Using the Link Tool The simplest method is to use the Link tool from the toolbox. Selecting this tool and dragging an arrow from the source to the destination Page will cause the Expression Builder window to appear. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 16

21 The window presents two types of Expression Builder. Expression builders are used to construct the logic involved in a Condition. As initially outlined in section 1.2, Links contain two elements: a Condition, and a Page to jump to when that condition is met. Dragging the arrow between two Pages has completed the second part (which Page to jump to), and Expression Builders are used to create the rest. The first type of Expression Builder is the Simple Builder. This builder allows you to interactively click the Inputs which will cause the next Page to be displayed. Multiple options within the Page can be selected (clicked) to participate in the condition. In the image above, the Yes option will cause Page 2 to be displayed. Clicking an Input once will select it and clicking it again will deselect it. Only one Radio Button per Answer Group may be selected. If several Input combinations lead to the same Page being displayed, multiple Conditions must be created to achieve this. Clicking on any part of a Drop-down List will activate it. Clicking on an activated Drop-down List icon will display the list contents. Clicking on the label of an activated Drop-down List will deactivate it. If no Inputs are involved in the Condition (making it the Else Condition), then As a default when no other matching conditions are found (Else Condition) should be selected. See section 1.2 for more information about Else Conditions. The Advanced Builder (shown below) can be used to construct more Complex conditions which involve inputs from Questions in other Pages. To create an expression using the advanced builder, select an Input from the Document Tree on the left (Inputs are coloured in blue text) and click the Add button or drag it across to the Selected Input(s) Tree. The branch of the tree the Input belongs to will be copied across. The image below shows how the tree appears when the Yes option has been dragged across and selected. At the bottom of the Advanced Builder is a textual description of the expression state. As new Inputs are added to the selected Input tree, the description is revised to include the new Input information. The display AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 17

22 of this description may be shortened by selecting the Short option (which removes references to the Page, Question and Answer Group each Input belongs to) or the Long option (which includes all context information for Inputs). To remove an Input from the selected tree, select it and press Remove. Note that it is not possible to create Else Conditions with the Advanced Builder the Simple Builder is designed for these types of Conditions. Clicking OK will complete the process and create the Condition. An arrow between the two initial Pages should appear (if it has not already) indicating that there is at least one Condition joining the two Using the Conditions List An alternative method of creating a new Condition is to use the Conditions List. The Conditions List for any Page may be accessed by selecting the Page object on the canvas and pressing Ctrl+E, or right clicking the Page and selecting the Edit Conditions item, or by selecting Edit Conditions from the Page menu on the menu bar. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 18

23 The image above shows the Condition List dialog for a Page which currently has no Conditions (Page 1). To add a new Conditions, click the New button. The dialog below appears. The dialog has three parts. The first part assigns a name to the new Condition. Naming Conditions is important as it helps distinguish between Conditions presented in a list. By default, Conditions are assigned names such as Condition8, which isn t descriptive. Names such as Yes Selected Condition or Any Other Answer Condition are useful and indicate the Condition logic from a list without the need to open any editor dialogs and read the actual text description of the Condition. The second part of the dialog specifies the type of the Condition. Conditions may either be based on the values of inputs (Input-based) or be an Else condition. For information about condition types, see section 1.2. Conditions based on inputs require logic and the Expression Builders described in section are used to specify this. Pressing the Build Logic button causes the Expression Builder window to be displayed (possibly without the greyed out Page on the right, depending on whether a Page to open was specified in the dialog before Build Logic was clicked). Further information on the use of the Expression Builders (Simple and Advanced) is provided in section Once the Builder has been used to create some logic for the Condition, a description of it appears in the Textbox above the Build Logic button. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 19

24 The lower part of the dialog specifies the action to take when the Condition is true. Answer Path currently supports one action: Open Section. A list of Pages in the document is displayed in a dropdown; one should be selected to be opened when this condition is true. Clicking OK will complete the process and create the Condition with the specified logic and action to take when true Using the Conditions Window The Conditions Window can also be used to add a new Condition. Selecting a Page object and clicking the Add button will cause the New Condition to be displayed. Instructions for creating a new Condition from this dialog are as per section Double clicking on a Condition will select it and open it in the Condition Editor. 3.8 Editing Conditions This section covers procedures for editing existing Conditions for a given Page Viewing Existing Conditions One of the main advantages of using the Conditions window is the simple display of the components associated with a given Condition. As covered in section 2.3.4, the Conditions window displays a list of Conditions for the currently selected Page or Link. Selecting one of the Conditions listed will cause Answer Path to indicate (in red) the Inputs and Pages associated with that condition. The image below illustrates an example of using this window to identify the parts of a Condition on the canvas. The Conditions window has Condition7 selected. On the canvas, the input associated with this Condition is indicated in red, as is the Page that will be displayed if this Condition is true. The items are highlighted only until the mouse is clicked again and this indicator mechanism is intended only to be a guide for establishing which parts of the document are associated with each Condition. Else conditions are not associated with any Inputs directly and so only the relevant Link and Page will be highlighted. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 20

25 3.8.2 Ordering of Conditions Section emphasised the importance of the ordering of Conditions in order to get the desired behaviour from an Answer Path Document when it executes. By default, any new Conditions created are added to the end of the Conditions List for that Page. If left unchanged, Conditions will be evaluated in the order they were created in Answer Path. This fact is important to remember when creating Conditions, as it can avoid Condition reordering problems later in the design process. A well-planned document design with Conditions on paper can help this. If Condition reordering is necessary, the Conditions List dialog can be used to change the position of individual conditions within the list for a Page. To display the Conditions List dialog for a specific Page, select the desired Page on the canvas and press Ctrl+E, or choose Edit Conditions from the Page menu. A dialog similar to that shown below will appear. The and buttons may be used to reposition the selected condition relative to others in the list. Conditions at the top of the list will be evaluated first, and those at the bottom evaluated last. By definition, any Else Conditions must always appear at the bottom of the list and it is not possible to reposition these types of Conditions or move any Conditions below them. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 21

26 3.8.3 Deleting Conditions Conditions may be deleted from the Conditions List dialog by selecting the Page associated with the condition, pressing Ctrl+E. Select the Condition to be deleted from the list, and press the Delete button in the dialog. Note that deleting some Conditions may cause some Pages to become inaccessible when the Answer Path Document is executed (as no logic may exist which would cause them to be displayed). Careful attention must be paid when deleting Conditions or the behaviour of the document may be inadvertently altered. Answer Path is capable of automatically detecting when some Pages are inaccessible but not all cases are checked. An alternative method of deleting Conditions is to use the Delete button at the bottom of the Conditions window. Selecting a Page will cause all Conditions associated with that Page to appear in the Condition window list. Select the Condition to delete and press the Delete button Deleting Links Links are the arrows which appear between joined Pages and represent one or more conditions. Deleting a Link will delete all Conditions represented by the Link, effectively severing all connection between the two involved Pages. Care should be taken when deleting Links as any number of Conditions may be deleted in a single operation. To check the number of Conditions associated with a given Link, use the Select Tool to first select the Link and use the Conditions window to view the list of Conditions that Link represents. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 22

27 3.9 Linking to Other Websites Linking to external websites A Hyperlink object can be added with the Hyperlink Tool on the Toolbox. This will allow the Answer Path Document to link to external websites or web pages on the intranet. HyperLinks have the following properties: Property Value Description Content Text Text that is displayed to the user to represent the hyperlink. Notes HTML HTML text that is displayed with the Hyperlink when it is viewed by the end user. It can contain formatted text, graphics, tables and hyperlinks. Url Text The URL of the web page that is being linked to. The or prefix must be appended on the front of the URL. Target List Specifies whether you want the destination website to open in the current browser window or open in a new tab. PostState True / False If True then data from an Answer Path Script will be submitted to the external system identified in the URL. See section for more details Re-Direct to a URL when Clicking on the Next Button To redirect a user to a URL (as opposed to a new Page) when clicking on the Next button in the script, create a Page and populate it with a Question and Inputs as described in 3.4 and 3.5. Next create a new blank Page and Link to the Page as described in 3.7. The target page should be left blank. In the Properties section of the blank Page add the target URL to the RedirectURL property. Don t forget to use the full description of the URL including the syntax or Handling Answer Path Script Data in an External System Data from an Answer Path Script can be submitted to external systems using the Hyperlink facility when the PostState setting is set to True. The Answer Path Script sends its data to a HTTP URL exposed by the external system. An HTML Form containing one hidden Form Input field with the name xml will be sent to the URL specified in the Hyperlink. The form is submitted using the HTTP POST method. The content of the hidden AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 23

28 xml input is the Answer Path Script session data in XML format and contains a definition of the Answer Path Document, data from all user input, and an execution history for the session. Once the form is submitted to the URL, the external system can receive and process the XML data. The XSD schema defining the session XML has been included in the Documents folder of the installed Answer Path folder with the licensed installation pack. Please contact Hindin Solutions if you require further information on handling Answer Path script data Changing the Page Appearance and Behaviour Headers and Footers Headers and footers can be added to the display by selecting Header and Footer from the Document menu and editing the information Icons The icons for the Question, Answer, Text and Hyperlink shown in Preview mode (and export) can be changed by selecting the Icons option in the Documents menu. If no icon images are provided then Answer Path will use default images. Note that any new icon should be 64 pixels x 64 pixels. If not Answer Path will attempt to compress or expand the image to this size Stylesheets and JavaScript The Answer Path CSS Reference gives a detailed description of the CSS used to display a previewed or exported Answer Path file. You can create your own CSS stylesheet to replace any of the default classes used by Answer Path. To add your own CSS stylesheet select the JavaScript And Stylesheet option from the Document menu. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 24

29 Use the browse button to locate your stylesheet. Clicking on the Reference button will save a reference to the stylesheet in to the list. Referenced stylesheets appear in the list with (ref) after their name. Answer Path does not store a copy of the referenced stylesheet in the Answer Path file but directly references it at the location you selected it from. This is useful if you have a common stylesheet that you would like to share between Answer Path files (e.g. a corporate image) or if you need to change the stylesheet often i.e. when experimenting with screen layout. Clicking on the Copy button will copy the stylesheet into the Answer Path file. It is safer to use the Copy button if there is a chance that the stylesheet file may be removed from its current location in the future. Once a stylesheet has been copied into Answer Path it can no longer be changed unless you remove it from the list and copy it back in again. Answer Path applies the default Answer Path stylesheet to the exported HTML first then applies the stylesheets in the list next. The and buttons can be used to reposition the selected stylesheet relative to others in the list. Stylesheets at the top of the list will be applied first, and those at the bottom applied last. The default Answer Path stylesheet uses the reserved name AnswerPath-Generated-Default- Stylesheet.css. If you add your own stylesheet with the same name then it will be ignored. You can change the behaviour of an exported Answer Path web site by providing your own JavaScript code. The user interface for adding your own JavaScript is identical to adding your own CSS stylesheet Previewing the Document The document may be previewed at any time by pressing F5, clicking on the Preview tab or selecting Preview from the Document menu. During a preview, all Answer Path windows are hidden and reappear when the preview ends. The document may not be saved or edited while in Preview mode. Pressing Shift+F5 will end the Preview and return Answer Path to design mode. Clicking the Design tab for the document will also return Answer Path to design mode. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 25

30 The Preview facility requires Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 or later be installed on the machine in order to work. Immediately prior to the preview, Answer Path examines the document state for any errors and displays these (if any) in a dialog before the Preview Editing the Document Deleting objects Pages, Questions, Answer Groups, and Inputs may be deleted at any point by selecting them and pressing the Delete key, or choosing Delete from the Edit menu. When a Page is deleted, all Conditions associated with that Page are deleted. Further, deleting inputs will cause any Conditions which relied on that input to be deleted Cut, Copy and Paste All objects on the canvas can be Cut and Copied to the internal clipboard of Answer Path. To Cut an object, select it with the Select Tool and press Ctrl+X, or select Cut from the Edit menu. To copy an object, select it and press Ctrl+C, or select Copy from the Edit menu. When pasting objects, the clipboard item will be pasted into the currently selected item, if possible. If pasting is not possible, the Paste option (Ctrl+V) will not be available from the Edit menu. Question objects pasted directly onto the canvas will automatically have a Page created for them Setting Document Properties The title and description of the document may be edited by selecting Properties from the Document menu or right-clicking the canvas and selecting Properties from the context menu. There is also a property for controlling how text values longer than 600 characters are managed in the Summary page. Turning this on will truncate all excessively long values Saving Documents On installation Answer Path will create a folder under My Documents called My AnswerPath Scripts. Example Answer Path scripts are stored there and this is the default directory the first time the File>Open Ctrl+O dialog is used Saving a Document Answer Path Documents may be saved at any point by pressing Ctrl+S or selecting Save from the File menu. New Documents may only be saved to the local machine in the.ap format. Prior to the Save operation, Answer Path examines the document state for any errors and displays these (if any) in a dialog before writing the document to disk. To open a saved Answer Path Document, double-click on the file name or press Ctrl+O or select Open in the File menu. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 26

31 Save As Answer Path documents can be saved to a new file at any point by pressing Ctrl-Shift-S or selecting Save As from the File menu. You may find this useful if you wish to save your Answer Path Script to a different name, or if you have opened a legacy.mapit file and do not wish to overwrite the contents with a Save. Documents may only be saved to the local machine in the.ap format with this function Setting the Initial Page From Within Answer Path The Initial Page is the Page which is to be displayed first when an Answer Path Script executes. By default, the first Page created in Answer Path is labelled as the Initial Page. To change the Initial Page, select the new Initial Page from the Initial Page submenu in the Document menu. If the Initial Page is deleted during the course of editing, Answer Path defaults to the oldest Page in the document From an External Website An external website can temporarily override the initial page set within Answer Path by providing two parameters in the URL to your Answer Path site. For example The "start" parameter value should contain the page ID for the first page to be displayed when the browser opens the site. The page ID can be found in the Properties window of the page object. If the value of the "reset" parameter is set to "1" then the "Reset" button displayed on a previewed Answer Path page will return the user to the page specified in the start parameter. If the value of the "reset" parameter is set to "0" then the "Reset" button displayed on a previewed Answer Path page will return the user to the initial page specified in the Answer Path file Showing and Hiding Windows It is often useful to hide windows to allow more design space. For example, if no new items are being created, hiding the Toolbox is useful as the extra space can be used to show more of the canvas. The Toolbox, Properties, and Conditions windows may be hidden by clicking the close button on their respective title bar or by toggling their entry in the View menu. For windows not currently visible, selecting their item in the View menu will cause them to reappear. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 27

32 3.17 Checking for Errors The document is automatically checked for errors prior to Saving and Previewing. To manually force an error check, press Ctrl+K or select the Check For Errors item from the Document menu Saving an Answer Path Document for use on your Website Answer Path Documents can be exported in HTML format so that they can be accessed as a standalone HTML document (with supporting images, CSS and script code) outside of Answer Path. A number of options are available for configuring how the document is exported, depending on your environment and intended use of the HTML. Once the content of an Answer Path Document is exported using this facility, Answer Path cannot open or edit the HTML file. To make changes to an HTML file you must use an HTML editor, or alternatively you may make your changes to the original Answer Path Document (.ap file) using Answer Path and re-export the changes as a new HTML file. Note: Exported HTML follows the W3C HTML 4.01 Transitional standard Exporting an Answer Path Document as HTML To export an existing Answer Path Document select Export... from the Export menu. You will be prompted to select a folder and filename for the HTML file you want created. By default any supporting files such as images, CSS and JavaScript will be placed in a subfolder of the folder that you select here. The diagram below provides an overview of the structure of this subfolder. You may change these defaults by selecting Export Options from the Export menu. These options are discussed in section Click Save to finish the process and save the document as HTML. The selected folder will be automatically opened for you. Note: The subfolder (if this option is used) will be named after the filename you select in the following format <HTML Filename>_folder. For example, if the filename you select is MySelfHelp.htm, the supporting folder will be named MySelfHelp_folder. The diagram below shows the structure of the folders within the subfolder. The enclosed folders will only be present for the individual options that are saved to a subfolder. For example, if Images and JavaScript are selected to be saved to a subfolder and Style Sheets are to be embedded then the stylesheets folder will not be present. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 28

33 Setting Export Options A number of configurable options are available when exporting a Script as HTML. These options may be changed at any time by selecting Export Options from the Export menu. The settings in the Export Options dialog are automatically saved between Answer Path sessions Cascading Style Sheet options Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) information can be either: 1. Embedded in the HTML file inside a <style> tag in the document header. This option should be selected if you want to minimise the number of external files that are created in the Export process. This option is not recommended if you intend to use your own stylesheet settings (formatting). 2. Saved in a sub folder. This option should be selected if you want to have the flexibility of changing the stylesheet for the Script in the future. The CSS information will be saved in a supporting stylesheets subfolder along with the HTML file. The file will be named AnswerPath-Generated- Default-Stylesheet.css. This file can be edited or completely replaced to change the appearance of a Script. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 29

34 Image options Images can be either: 1. From Location. This option should be selected if you intend placing the HTML document in a Document Management System, Intranet or Website where you want to centrally control the images used for many Answer Path Documents. If this option is selected, you must provide a path to the location or folder where the images can be found. For example: 2. Saved in a sub folder. This option should be selected unless you prefer to use a central Internet location for multiple Answer Path Documents. Images will be saved into a supporting images subfolder along with the HTML file. Note: No filename should be included in the URL for the From Location option JavaScript code options The main JavaScript code can be either: 1. Embedded in the HTML file inside a <script> tag. This option should be selected if you want to minimise the number of external files that are created in the Export process. 2. Saved in a sub folder. The main JavaScript code will be saved in a supporting javascript subfolder along with the HTML file. AnswerPath Version 5 User Guide Page 30