Introduction
Below you will learn to create an online survey in 8 steps. For each
step there is an instruction,
marked in a box like this
Complete the instructions before you
continue to the next Step. After completing step 8, you will have created
your own online survey.
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Step 1. Open your website
in FrontPage
To open your website, select 'File' -> 'Open Web.' Enter the
html address of your website as the web name. Your team number depends on
the section you are in.
In section 1 (12:30-2:00 lecture) the
web correspond to your team number:
team 1 - http://coursewebs.mccombs.utexas.edu/MKT460/Team01/
team 2 - http://coursewebs.mccombs.utexas.edu/MKT460/Team02/
team 3 - http://coursewebs.mccombs.utexas.edu/MKT460/Team03/
team 4 - http://coursewebs.mccombs.utexas.edu/MKT460/Team04/
team 5 - http://coursewebs.mccombs.utexas.edu/MKT460/Team05/
team 6 - http://coursewebs.mccombs.utexas.edu/MKT460/Team06/
team 7 - http://coursewebs.mccombs.utexas.edu/MKT460/Team07/
team 8 - http://coursewebs.mccombs.utexas.edu/MKT460/Team08/
team 9 - http://coursewebs.mccombs.utexas.edu/MKT460/Team09/
team 10 - http://coursewebs.mccombs.utexas.edu/MKT460/Team10/
now click the 'open' button.
Enter
your username (MCCOMBS\[your user ID you use to login to the lab
computers]),
and password [sometimes the server does not accept your login request. Just
keep trying for 3-5 times. If it still does not work after 5 times, ask for
help].
FrontPage
will open your website and display the subdirectories and files that are
currently on your web. To manage directories and files right-click them.
Except for files in subdirectories _private and fpdb, people
can view the files through the internet. The file called index.htm will be
opened by default. You can edit this file and add links to other pages.
For more information on how to access your
website or if you have problems, please consult
this page.
Open your website
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Step
2. Create a new page
To create a new page click on the 'open new page' icon in the toolbar.
Select 'File' -> 'Save' to save the file. Make sure to give
the file name the extension 'asp'. ASP
stands for Active Server Page, which means that the web server will run
some program in the background. FrontPage will add asp code to the file and
save the survey results in a database. The file should appear in the folder
list.
Save the file and give it a unique name,
e.g.,
survey_yourname.asp
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Step 3. Add
a form
Position the cursor at the location on the page where you want the form
to appear and select 'Insert' -> 'Form' -> 'Form'. Your
page will now include a form, indicated by a broken line (see below) - this
border will not appear in the browser.
FrontPage will insert two buttons: the
Submit button will send the input data to a database, while Reset
allows the user to return the form to its initial state.
Add a form to
survey_yourname.asp
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Step 4. Add input boxes and
buttons
Now we need to allow the respondent to enter responses. To do so, we
will add so-called 'form fields' to the form. There are different types of
form fields:
- Textbox - used for short open-end
questions
- Text Area
- used for long open-end questions
- Checkbox - closed-end, used for
binary responses ('pick any out of many')
- Option Button
- closed-end, used for 'pick one out of many'
- Drop-Down Box
- closed-end, used for 'pick any out of many' as well as 'pick one out of
many'
To add a form field, position the cursor in
the form, point to Form on the Insert menu and choose the
desired type of form field. You can format the layout of the form by adding
paragraphs, line-breaks or even fonts, colors and tables. Formatting is very
similar to how this is done in MS Word.
Create the following form in your file:
Tip: the easiest way of getting
the cursor to appear before any of the form fields is to click on the
element to right and then press the left-arrow key.
Note: Your form will not at this moment as we still need to link it
to a database (see Step 7).
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Step 5. Change field names
Each of the input fields in the form has a variable name. By default
FrontPage will assign names as T1, T2, T3, etc. It's a good idea to change
T1, T2, T3 to more appropriate values so that you will recognize the values
in the database. You can change a variable name by right-clicking on the
text-box and selecting Form Field Properties and enter in the 'Name'
field an appropriate variable name.
In your form, change the
variable names as follows
-
Right-click the first
text-box and select Form Field Properties.
-
Replace 'T1' in the
'Name' field with 'Name' as the first field is to collect the
visitor's name. Click 'OK'.
-
Repeat the procedure
with the other two text-boxes, changing 'T2' to read 'Email' and
'T3' to read 'Message'.
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Step 6. Insert other types of
fields
Inserting and changing names of a Text Area, Checkbox, Option Button, or
Drop-Down Box, is very similar to how it works for textboxes. There are some
different options in the Form Field Properties, which are described below:
- Text Area - similar to a textbox.
- Checkbox - If you want a specific
value to be stored in the database when the box is checked enter it in the
value field (defaults is 'on'). The initial state can be set to
'on' in which case the box will be tagged when loading the page.
- Option Button
- Several option buttons will be used for a response to a single question.
These option buttons will have the same group name. The value will be
different for each button (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4). The respondent can only
choose one option button in a group as an answer. This makes it suitable
for 'pick one out of many' response formats.
- Drop-Down Box
- You will need to add a list of possible answers in the form field
properties as well as the values that will be stored in the database. Set
Allow multiple selections to no for 'pick one out of many'
and to yes 'pick any out of
many.'
Add some close-end questions to your form.
You can use the example below or create questions and response
categories for a topic of your choice. Rename the form fields and set the right
options in the field properties.
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Step 7. Create and link database
Before the information can be submitted, you need to link the form to a
database.
FrontPage will now create an Access
database file with the same name as your web page, but file extension .mdb (surveyyourname.mdb) in the fpdb subdirectory.
The database will be linked to the input fields in your form. Double-click
on the database file in the fpdb folder list to open the database.
The data are stored in a database called results, which you can open and
export to other formats (e.g., Excel).
Create and link the database following
the steps described above.
Note: If you make changes to the
form fields in your form (e.g., rename them or add a new form field), you
will need to update the database. Follow the same steps as above, but choose
Update Database (instead of Create Database).
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Step 8. Validation options
To make sure that respondents complete your questionnaire and enter
correct information, you can set several conditions in the validation
options. When the user clicks the Submit
button, the server will only submit the input to the database if all
conditions are satisfied. The respondent will be notified if the one or more
conditions are violated. The validation options can be set by clicking the
validate button in the form field properties.
For Textboxes and Text Areas
you can require numbers or text as input, and minimum and maximum length of
response (set minimum to 1 to make sure the respondent answers the question).
Validation options can not be set for
Checkboxes. For Option buttons and Drop-Down Boxes, the
user can set whether an answer is required (data required). When Allow
multiple selections is set to yes for a Drop-Down Box, the user
can indicate if an answer is required.
Add the appropriate validation to your
survey.
You can now publish your pages and test
if you have set the form values correctly. Save your file, open a web
browser (IExplorer) and point it to your online survey (e.g.,
http://classweb1.mccombs.utexas.edu/MKT460/s02team05/surveyyourname.asp).
Open the access database file to check if your data was added to the
database.
Congratulations! You can now create your
own online survey!
Note: There are many more options that are not discussed in this tutorial. For example, you can or create a
page that posts the results on your website. You can try this: select
Insert in the menu and choose Database and then Results.
Create a new page in FrontPage, select
surveyyourname.mdb as the database, follow instructions and click finish.
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Creating online surveys