Chapter 10. Working with Surveys and Discussion Boards
Chapter at a Glance
✓ | Create a survey. |
✓ | Respond to a survey. |
✓ | View the results of a survey. |
✓ | Create and use a discussion board. |
✓ | Enable a discussion board for email. |
✓ | View a discussion board in Microsoft Outlook. |
Chapter 4, introduced you to lists in Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010. By using two specialized SharePoint list templates—Surveys and Discussion Boards—you can gather feedback and information from users of your site.
By creating a survey, you can determine the format of the user’s feedback and configure whether respondents’ names appear in the survey results. If names are configured to appear, you can see how each user responded; if names are configured not to appear, the survey is anonymous. SharePoint Foundation tallies the results and compiles a graphical summary of the responses.
By creating a discussion board, you can allow users to determine the type of response that they give. A discussion board invites users to discuss issues with one another by initiating topics and posting replies.
In this chapter, you will learn how to create and respond to a survey and then view the survey results. You will also learn how to create and use a discussion board, including viewing a discussion board from within Outlook 2010.
Important
Remember to use your SharePoint site location in place of http://wideworldimporters in the following exercises.
Creating a Survey
Surveys are created for a number of reasons. For example, you might need to create a survey to ask for a user’s opinions or to collect factual information for marketing purposes. No matter what their purpose, all surveys involve the creation of a survey “container,” followed by the creation and administration of questions.
These questions can be formatted as one of two basic types:
Open. These questions have no definite answer. Open-ended questions give users the opportunity to answer in their own words, rather than by simply checking one of a limited list of alternatives. An example of an open-ended question is “Are there any other comments you would like to add about the services or products supplied by Wide World Importers?” The advantage of open-ended questions is that responses can be very useful, often yielding quotable material and an insight into the issues that are of most concern to the respondents of the survey. The disadvantage is that the responses are more difficult to catalog and interpret.
Closed. These questions have a finite set of answers from which the user must choose. One of the choices may be “Other” or “N/A” to allow users to specify that their answer is not one of those supplied or that the question is not applicable to them. The advantages of closed-ended questions are that data can be gathered from them easily and that they lend themselves to statistical analysis. The disadvantage is that they are more difficult to write than open-ended questions, because the choices must include all the possible answers that a user could offer for each question.
Users can respond to a survey in a number of ways, such as by typing text, selecting items from a menu, clicking yes or no, or entering a numeric or currency value. When you use SharePoint Foundation to create a question, you can specify the type of answer, as summarized in the following table.
Answer Type | Question Type | Description |
Single Line Of Text | Open | Use this answer type when you want users to enter only a few words. You can specify the maximum number of characters that a user can type. |
Multiple Lines Of Text | Open | Use this answer type when you want users to type one or more sentences. You can specify the maximum number of lines that a user can type and the type of text in which a user can format responses. The three formatting options are:
|
Choice | Open, Closed | Use this answer type when you want users to choose from a set of selections that you provide. You can create a multiple-choice question in which users pick the best answer or answers from among the possible choices, represented as a drop-down list, a set of option buttons, or a set of check boxes. You can make the question open-ended by allowing users to type their own answers. |
Rating Scale | Closed | Use this answer type (often called a Likert scale) when you want users to choose their preference on a numeric scale. Questions with this type of answer are often used to obtain feedback on provided services. Users indicate how closely their feelings match the question or statement by using a rating scale. The number at one end of the scale represents the most agreement, or “Strongly Agree,” and the number at the other end of the scale represents the least agreement, or “Strongly Disagree.” |
Number | Open | Use this answer type when you want users to enter a numeric value. You can specify a lower and upper limit for the value, as well as the number of decimal places that users can enter. |
Currency | Open | Use this answer type when you want users to enter a monetary value. You can select the currency format based on a geographic region, a lower and upper limit for the value, and the number of decimal places that users can enter. |
Date And Time | Open | Use this answer type when you want users to enter a date or a date and time. |
Lookup | Closed | This answer type is very similar to the Choice answer type, in that responses are predetermined. Use this answer type to point users to an existing list on your site that contains the available choices. When you add this answer type to your survey, you can select to enforce relationship behavior and select to display multiple columns from the lookup list. You can then decide to display the lookup columns on the survey response form, on the Graphical Summary of Responses page, or on the All Responses page. |
Yes/No | Closed | This answer type presents the user with a check box and can be used when you want users to respond with Yes or No (or True or False). Questions that require this answer type are sometimes known as categorical questions. |
Person or Group | Closed | This answer type is very similar to the Choice answer type, in that responses are predetermined. Use this answer type to choose a user or SharePoint Group that has access to the SharePoint site. Multiple users or groups can be chosen. |
Page Separator | Not applicable | Use this answer type when you want your survey to span multiple pages. |
External Data | Closed | This answer type is very similar to the Choice answer type, in that responses are predetermined. Use this answer type to point users to external systems outside SharePoint Foundation that contain the available choices. |
Managed Metadata | Closed | If your website is created on a Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 installation, you are presented with this answer type. It is very similar to the Choice answer type, in that responses are predetermined. Use this answer type to point users to a Metadata term store that contains the available choices. |
A survey is a type of list, and therefore survey answer types are comparable to column types, and survey questions are comparable to columns. You can specify whether an answer is required or optional and provide a default answer for each question. However, unlike other list data entry forms, surveys allow you to define a branch in the survey so that you can skip to a specific question based on the user response.
Important
With surveys, as with columns, you can configure list-level validation, and when you use the answer types Single Line of Text, Choice, Number, Currency, and Date and Time, you can use column (survey answer) validation. However, on surveys, the user message that you provide is not displayed on the survey form. An error page is displayed with the generic text “List data validation failed” and a link to go back to the site. Therefore, you may not want to use list-level validation or column-level validation with surveys. A subsequent Microsoft hotfix or service may implement the same validation behavior on surveys that currently apply to other list types.
In the following exercise, you will create a survey on a SharePoint website.
Set Up
Open the SharePoint site in which you would like to create your survey. The exercise will use the http://wideworldimporters site, but you can use whatever site you want. If prompted, type your user name and password, and click OK.
Note
BE SURE TO verify that you have sufficient rights to create a list. If in doubt, see the Appendix A at the back of this book.
Click Site Actions, and then click More Options.
The Create dialog is displayed.
In the left pane, under Filter By and then under All Categories, click Data, and then click Survey.
In the right pane, click More Options.
In the Name box, type Office Furniture Survey.
In the Navigation area, leave the Yes option selected.
In the Survey Options area, for the Show user names in survey results? and Allow multiple responses? options, select Yes.
At the bottom of the page, click Create. The New Question page is displayed.
In the Question and Type area, in the Question box, type What is the size of your organization (Number of employees worldwide)?, and then select the Choice (menu to choose from) option.
In the Additional Question Settings area, for the Require a response to this question option, select Yes.
In the Type each choice on a separate line box, type the following four lines:
Under 25 employees
Small (25-50)
Medium (51-249)
Large (250+)
Under Display choices using, make sure that the Radio Buttons option is selected. This is the default setting.
At the bottom of the page, click Next Question.
In the Question and Type area, in the Question box, type To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements?, and then select the Rating Scale (a matrix of choices or a Likert scale) option.
In the Additional Question Settings area, for the Require a response to this question option, select Yes.
In the Type each sub-question on a separate line box, replace the existing text with the following three lines:
We try to buy furniture made from recycled material.
We like unique furniture from around the world.
We purchase the majority of our furniture at low prices from discount stores.
Click the down arrow to the right of the Number Range box, and then click 10.
In the first Range Text box, type Strongly Agree. Delete the text in the middle box, and, in the last box, type Strongly Disagree.
At the bottom of the web page, click Next Question.
In the Question and Type area, in the Question box, type Would you like us to contact you?, and then select the Yes/No (check box) option.
In the Additional Question Settings area, select Yes. This is the default setting.
At the bottom of the web page, click Next Question.
In the Question and Type area, in the Question box, type Please enter your name, address and any queries you may have:, and then select the Multiple lines of text option.
In the Additional Question Settings area, for the Require a response to this question option, select Yes.
In the Specify the type of text to allow option, select Enhanced rich text (Rich text with pictures, tables, and hyperlinks).
At the bottom of the web page, click Next Question.
In the Question and Type area, in the Question box, type How much money, in total, did you spend on furniture over the last year?, and then select the Currency ($, ¥, £) option.
In the Additional Question Settings area, for the Require a response to this question option, select Yes.
To the right of the Number of decimal places box, click the down arrow, and then click 2.
At the bottom of the web page, click the Finish button. The Survey Settings page is displayed.
In the Questions area, under the Question column, click Would you like us to contact you? The Office Furniture Survey Survey Settings Edit Question page is displayed.
In the Branching Logic area, under Possible Choices, to the right of Yes, click the down arrow, and then click Please enter your name, address and any queries you may have.
To the right of No, click the down arrow, and then click How much money, in total, did you spend on furniture over the last year?
Click OK. The Survey Settings page is displayed.
Important
You can use the Edit Question page to modify or delete an existing survey question. However, you must be careful not to change questions after you have allowed users access to the survey and received some responses. Changing a survey question might cause you to lose data that you have already collected.
Responding to a Survey
As surveys are created on a SharePoint website, you might find that you need to take them yourself. Surveys are created to gather information, and users must respond to your survey so that you can analyze the information they give you. It is important that you know how people are interacting with the surveys that you create. Once you have created a survey, it is good practice to view the survey from a user’s perspective by completing at least one test response.
In this exercise, you will respond to a survey.
Set Up
Open the SharePoint site in which the survey is located. If prompted, type your user name and password, and click OK. The exercise uses the Office Furniture Survey created in the previous exercise, but you can use whatever survey you want.
Note
BE SURE TO verify that you have sufficient rights to contribute to the list. If in doubt, see the Appendix A at the back of this book.
On the Quick Launch, under Surveys, click Office Furniture Survey. The Office Furniture Survey Overview dialog is displayed.
Click Respond to this Survey. The New Item dialog is displayed.
Select the Under 25 employees option. For the ranking question options, select 1, 2, and 8, and leave the check box selected for the Would you like us to contact you? question.
Important
When you add a page separator to a survey, a Save And Close button is added to all but the final page of the survey. You must answer all required responses on a survey page before you can successfully click Save And Close. If you click Save And Close, the survey responses are saved and categorized as not completed. You are not prompted for responses to questions on subsequent pages, even if the responses were set as required. For those questions in which you have enabled branching, survey questions automatically insert a page separator after the branch-enabled question.
Click under Please enter your name, address and any queries you may have: and type Erin M. Hagens, [email protected]
Click in the money question box. The Ribbon tabs disappear, but the Ribbon remains visible. Type 200 in the money question box.
To display the Editing Tools ribbon tab to format the contents of the Please enter your name, address and any queries you may have: box, click Erin.
Click Finish. The Office Furniture Survey – Overview page is displayed.
Repeat Steps 2 through 7 several times, entering different responses each time.
Troubleshooting
If you do not allow multiple responses when you create a survey and you try to test the survey more than once, an Error page is displayed stating that you are not allowed to respond to the survey again. To correct this problem, display the Office Furniture Survey - Overview page, click Settings, and then click Survey Settings. On the Survey Settings page, under the General Settings area, click Title, Description And Navigation. On the Office Furniture Survey Survey Settings General Settings page, in the Survey Options area, select Yes for the Allow Multiple Responses option, and then click Save. In the Quick Launch, under Surveys, click Office Furniture Survey to enter additional responses.
Viewing the Results of a Survey
After users respond to your survey, you need to examine and analyze the results. SharePoint Foundation provides three ways to display a quick summary of the survey data:
Overview. This view displays the survey’s name, description, date, and time of creation, as well as the number of responses.
Graphical Summary. This view displays the response data for each survey question in the form of a graph. The number of responses is displayed as a value and as a percentage of the total number of responses received.
All Responses. This view displays a list of each survey response, the date and time the response was last modified, whether the user completed the survey, and the name of the user who created it, if applicable. In this view, responses can be modified or deleted.
Important
Surveys are created with item-level permissions so that all responses can be read by all users, but users can edit only their own responses. If you want to prevent users from changing their responses, display the survey, click Settings, and then click Survey Settings. On the Office Furniture Survey Survey Settings page, under the General Settings area, click Advanced Settings. On the Survey Settings Advanced Settings page, in the Item-Level Permissions area, under Create And Edit Access: Specify Which Responses Users Are Allowed To Create And Edit, click None.
Setting survey permissions is similar to setting document library permissions. On this page, you can also set whether the survey should be visible in the search results, whether the survey should be available for offline clients, and whether to launch forms as dialogs.
See Also
For more information about setting document library permissions, see Chapter 5.
You can also export survey result data to a spreadsheet, where you can use the data analysis features available in Microsoft Excel 2010.
In the following exercise, you will view the responses to your survey. After editing one of your responses to the survey, you will export the results of the survey to Excel and then find the average amount spent on office furniture by users who responded to your survey.
Set Up
Open the SharePoint site in which the survey is located. If prompted, type your user name and password, and click OK. The exercise will use the Office Furniture Survey used in the previous two exercises, but you can use whatever survey you want. You will need Excel 2007 or Excel 2010 to complete this exercise.
Note
BE SURE TO verify that you have sufficient rights to edit the survey. If in doubt, see the Appendix A at the back of this book.
On the Quick Launch, under Surveys, click Office Furniture Survey. The Office Furniture Survey Overview page is displayed.
To the right of the page, next to View, change the Overview setting to Graphical Summary. The Office Furniture Survey page is displayed in Graphical Summary view.
To the right of the page, next to View, click Graphical Summary, and then click All Responses. The Office Furniture Survey page is displayed in All Responses view.
Point to the View Response #1 survey item, and click the down arrow. In the drop-down list, click Edit Response.
Select the Medium (51-249) option, and then click Save and Close.
Click OK in the information message dialog box that opens.
On the breadcrumb, click the down arrow to the right of All Responses, and then click Overview.
Click Actions, and then click Export to Spreadsheet.
If the File Download dialog box appears with a warning that some files can harm your computer, click Open. In the Microsoft Excel Security Notice dialog box, click Enable.
The survey responses are displayed within Excel, with AutoFilter enabled in the header row of every column. The Excel workbook contains a column for each question and a column for Created By, Item Type, and Path To The List.
In column E, click the first blank cell outside the Excel list, and then click the Formulas tab.
Click the down arrow to the right of AutoSum, and click Average.
Excel displays the average amount that survey respondents spent on their office furniture in the last year.
On the Quick Access Toolbar, click Save. The Save As dialog box appears.
In the File name box, type OfficeFurnitureSurvey.xlsx, and click Save.
See Also
For more information about how to use Excel with SharePoint Foundation, see Chapter 14.
Creating and Using a Discussion Board
Discussion boards provide a forum on which visitors to your site can converse about topics of interest. SharePoint sites created with the Team, Document Workspace, or Social Meeting site templates include a discussion board. You can display the discussion board by using the Quick Launch.
You can use a discussion board to initiate new discussions, as well as sort and filter existing discussions. You can also change the design of the discussion board and create alerts that notify you of changes to the discussion board.
Discussion boards are usually displayed in one of three views:
Subject view. This view enables you to view a list of discussions.
Threaded view. This view enables you to view comments grouped by discussion or thread. All messages that are a part of the same thread appear together in the order in which they were created.
Flat view. This view lists replies in the order in which they were created.
You can post replies to the Team Discussion discussion board, or you can create new discussions. You can configure discussion board security settings so that users can participate in one discussion but not another.
Important
Discussion boards are created with the same item-level permissions as surveys; that is, all discussions and replies can be read by all users, but users can edit only their own discussions and replies.
In this exercise, you will create a new discussion board, add a new topic, delete a topic, and then remove the discussion board.
Set Up
Open the SharePoint site in which you would like to create a discussion board. If prompted, type your user name and password, and click OK.
Note
BE SURE TO verify that you have sufficient rights to create a list. If in doubt, see the Appendix A at the back of this book.
On the Quick Launch, click Discussions. The All Site Content page is displayed.
Click Create. The Create dialog is displayed.
In the left pane, under Filter By and then under All Categories, click Communication, and then click Discussion Board.
In the right pane under Discussion Board, type Furniture Survey Discussion.
Click Create. The Furniture Survey Discussion page is displayed.
Important
Because surveys and discussion boards are both lists, the name of the list needs to be unique within the site. Therefore, you cannot call the discussion board in this exercise “Furniture Survey” because this name would conflict with the “Furniture Survey” survey that you created in the first exercise in this chapter.
Click Add new discussion to display the New Item dialog.
In the Subject box, type Office Furniture Survey – overall comments.
In the Body box, type What did you think of the range of questions on the Office Furniture Survey? and then click Save.
The Subject view of the Furniture Survey Discussion list with the List Tools ribbon tab is displayed.
Click Office Furniture Survey – overall comments.
The Furniture Survey Discussion page is displayed in Flat view, where each reply has a title bar that displays the date and time the reply was created, a View Properties link, and Reply links.
Click Reply to display the New Item dialog.
In the Body box, type We could add an additional question that asks users whether they subscribe to Wide World Importers’ monthly newsletter. The answer type would be Yes/No.
Click Save. The Discussion Board page is displayed in Flat view.
On the breadcrumb, click the down arrow to the right of Flat, and then click Threaded.
All replies to the Office Furniture Survey – Overall Comments discussion are displayed in Threaded view.
On the title bar for the reply We could add an additional question . . ., click View Properties. The Furniture Survey Discussion dialog is displayed.
On the View tab, click Delete Item in the Manage group.
Click OK to send the item to the site’s Recycle Bin.
The Office Furniture Survey – Overall Comments page is displayed.
On the Ribbon, under List Tools, click the List tab, and then click List Settings in the Settings group.
The Discussion Board Settings page is displayed.
In the Permissions and Management area, click Delete this discussion board.
In the browser’s dialog box that asks whether you are sure you want to send this list to the site’s Recycle Bin, click OK. The All Site Content page is displayed.
Enabling a Discussion Board for Email
As detailed in Chapter 4, SharePoint Foundation allows list managers to assign an email address to discussion boards. Before this email feature can be used, the SharePoint Foundation server administrator must configure the web application for outgoing email. You should contact this person in your organization if you want to use this email feature.
In the following exercise, you will configure a discussion board so that users can email their discussions.
Set Up
Open the SharePoint site in which the discussion board is located. If prompted, type your user name and password, and click OK. The exercise uses the Team Discussion created as part of a Team site, but you can use whatever discussion board you want.
Note
BE SURE TO verify that you have sufficient rights to manage a list. If in doubt, see the Appendix A at the back of this book.
On the Quick Launch, under Discussions, click Furniture Survey Discussion. The Furniture Survey Discussion Subject view is displayed.
On the List tab, click List Settings in the Settings group. The Discussion Board Settings page is displayed.
Under the Communications area, click Incoming e-mail settings.
Troubleshooting
If this option is not available, a SharePoint Foundation farm administrator will need to configure the web application for incoming emails.
The Incoming E-Mail Settings: Furniture Survey Discussion page is displayed.
In the Incoming E-Mail area, for the Allow this list to receive e-mail option, select Yes and enter an email address, such as SurveyDiscussion@wideworldimporters.com. You need to provide only the part of the email address that precedes the “at” sign (@).
At the bottom of the page, click OK. The Discussion Board Settings page is displayed.
See Also
For more information about configuring email settings for a list, refer to Chapter 7.
Viewing a Discussion Board in Outlook
SharePoint Foundation allows you to contribute and search discussion boards from within Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2010. Discussion questions and replies can be made available even when you are offline. Chapter 13, provides more details on the integration of Outlook and SharePoint Foundation.
In the following exercise, you will view a discussion board from within Outlook.
Set Up
Open the SharePoint site in which the discussion board is located. If prompted, type your user name and password, and click OK. The exercise uses the Team Discussion created in a Team site, but you can use whatever discussion board you want.
Note
BE SURE TO verify that you have sufficient rights to manage a list. If in doubt, see the Appendix A at the back of this book.
On the Quick Launch, under Discussions, click Furniture Survey Discussion. The Furniture Survey Discussion Subject view is displayed.
On the Ribbon, under List Tools, click the List tab, and then select Connect to Outlook in the Connect & Export group.
If a dialog box appears, stating that a website wants to open web content using Outlook on your computer, click Allow.
Outlook opens, and it might ask you to supply your user name and password.
An Outlook dialog box appears, stating that you should connect lists only from sources you know and trust.
Click Advanced. The SharePoint List Options dialog box appears.
In the Folder Name box, type WideWorldImporters – Furniture Survey Discussion.
Click OK, and then, in the Microsoft Outlook dialog box, click Yes. Outlook displays the WideWorldImporters – Furniture Survey Discussion area under the Outlook SharePoint Lists folder.
Key Points
A survey allows you to create questions and control the format of responses.
In a survey, you can create both open-ended and closed-ended questions.
SharePoint Foundation provides three views in which to summarize survey responses: Overview, Graphical Summary, and All Responses. You can export survey responses to a spreadsheet to perform more complex data analysis.
A discussion board allows users to create and reply to discussion subjects.
You can view discussions in either Subject, Flat, or Threaded view.
You can enable a discussion board to receive incoming emails.
You can connect discussion boards to Outlook. These appear under the SharePoint Lists folder.
Surveys and discussion boards are specialized lists. Their permissions can be controlled independently of both the site and of other lists. You can apply item-level permissions to prevent users from editing their survey responses or discussion messages.