Question
Infosys
US
Last activity: 6 Nov 2017 8:16 EST
PegaSurvey does not clear answers on following question pages
Issue Description:
PegaSurvey does not clear answers on following question pages if the question pages are no longer displayed
In PegaSurvey, the general behavior is like following: If user changes the answer to a previous question, as a result of which, some following questions are hidden, then the answers to those hidden questions are cleared.
This works fine if the all questions are on the same single question page. But if the questions are on separate question pages, then the answers to those questions that are on separate question pages are not cleared. (I think this is because PegaSurvey evaluates the when rule specified for the question page; if it evaluates to false, i.e. the question page no longer needs to be displayed, then it will simply skip and not clear the answers on that question page)
Step to Reproduce:
create a survey with 5 question pages.
Question Page 1, Question Page 2, Question Page 3, Question Page 4, Question Page 5 (specify when rule for Question Page 2,3,4,5)
Answer questions on Question Page 1,2,3,4,5 but before ending the survey, go back to change the answer on Question Page 1. As a result, question page 2, 3, 4, 5 are no longer displayed, and the survey ends (without going through question page 2,3,4,5).
Check the clipboard, the answers to questions on question page 2,3,4,5 remains on clipboard, even though these answers no longer apply, therefore, no longer valid
***Moderator Edit: Vidyaranjan | Updated SR details***
Issue Description:
PegaSurvey does not clear answers on following question pages if the question pages are no longer displayed
In PegaSurvey, the general behavior is like following: If user changes the answer to a previous question, as a result of which, some following questions are hidden, then the answers to those hidden questions are cleared.
This works fine if the all questions are on the same single question page. But if the questions are on separate question pages, then the answers to those questions that are on separate question pages are not cleared. (I think this is because PegaSurvey evaluates the when rule specified for the question page; if it evaluates to false, i.e. the question page no longer needs to be displayed, then it will simply skip and not clear the answers on that question page)
Step to Reproduce:
create a survey with 5 question pages.
Question Page 1, Question Page 2, Question Page 3, Question Page 4, Question Page 5 (specify when rule for Question Page 2,3,4,5)
Answer questions on Question Page 1,2,3,4,5 but before ending the survey, go back to change the answer on Question Page 1. As a result, question page 2, 3, 4, 5 are no longer displayed, and the survey ends (without going through question page 2,3,4,5).
Check the clipboard, the answers to questions on question page 2,3,4,5 remains on clipboard, even though these answers no longer apply, therefore, no longer valid
***Moderator Edit: Vidyaranjan | Updated SR details***
***06/11/2017: Updated by moderator: Lochan to update as SR Parallel***
Accepted Solution
Pegasystems Inc.
IN
Hi Yining,
Those are final rules and i am afraid you cannot change them. I requested the customer support to raise a engineering request so that someone from my team can do further analysis on this.
Pegasystems Inc.
IN
This is a known behavior with the current implementation of Pega Survey. For the answers to be cleared, the stream for that particular question page must be built which doesn't happen if the question page is hidden. For the mentioned scenario, you can alternatively configure the visibility condition on question rule instead of question page.
Infosys
US
Hi emanp,
Thank you for answering. It seems that you suggest removing the when condition on question page to work around this issue. But we cannot. When we run the survey in a screenflow, we need when condition on question page to skip that question page entirely. If we simply remove the when condition on that question page, then we would see a blank screen with submit button when that question page shows up. (because all questions are that question page are hidden)
Best Regards,
-Yining
Infosys
US
Hi emanp,
Thank you for answering. It seems that you suggest removing the when condition on question page to work around this issue. But we cannot. When we run the survey in a screenflow, we need when condition on question page to skip that question page entirely. If we simply remove the when condition on that question page, then we would see a blank screen with submit button when that question page shows up. (because all questions are that question page are hidden)
Best Regards,
-Yining
Pegasystems Inc.
IN
Hi Yining,
Yes, i understand that it will be a problem in your scenario if you use conditions on questions. Is it possible to rearrange the questions in such a way that all the related questions are in a single question page and use when conditions on questions ?
I am seeing that you raised an SR for this. Fix for this issue may involve considerable amount of change and I am not exactly sure if this can be provided as a hotfix. We need to analyse other scenarios as well where user may not want to loose answers for already answered questions in other question pages if they play around with the answers in first question page. We may have to clear all such answers on submit of the complete survey by going through the visibility conditions across the complete survey. This should involve lot of discussions and in my opinion should be considered as enhancement request.
Regards, Pavan
Infosys
US
Hi emanp,
Thank you very much for answering. I understand your points.
In our Survey, we have already put related questions on same question page. And have when conditions on each question, as well as on each "Question Page".
Our Survey is in following nature (just a simplified example):
Question Page 1, question1: "Do you have a cat or dog or fish?"
Question Page 2, all questions related to cat if answer to question1 is cat.
Question Page 3, all questions related to dog if answer to question1 is dog.
Question Page 4, all questions related to fish if answer to question1 is fish.
Question Page 5, ......
The issue is: user answered "cat" initially, and continue to provide answers to questions on "Question Page 2", and then user changed answer to "dog".....
Your thought about "clear all such answers on submit of the complete survey by going through the visibility conditions across the complete survey" would solve the data corruption issue. On the other hand, our business requested to clear the answers so that user wouldn't take previous answers carelessly.
For example, here is what our business want:
Step 1: user answer "cat" initially, and continue to provide answers for cat on Question Page 2;
Step 2: the user switched answer to "dog", and then continue to provide answers for dog on Question Page 3;
Hi emanp,
Thank you very much for answering. I understand your points.
In our Survey, we have already put related questions on same question page. And have when conditions on each question, as well as on each "Question Page".
Our Survey is in following nature (just a simplified example):
Question Page 1, question1: "Do you have a cat or dog or fish?"
Question Page 2, all questions related to cat if answer to question1 is cat.
Question Page 3, all questions related to dog if answer to question1 is dog.
Question Page 4, all questions related to fish if answer to question1 is fish.
Question Page 5, ......
The issue is: user answered "cat" initially, and continue to provide answers to questions on "Question Page 2", and then user changed answer to "dog".....
Your thought about "clear all such answers on submit of the complete survey by going through the visibility conditions across the complete survey" would solve the data corruption issue. On the other hand, our business requested to clear the answers so that user wouldn't take previous answers carelessly.
For example, here is what our business want:
Step 1: user answer "cat" initially, and continue to provide answers for cat on Question Page 2;
Step 2: the user switched answer to "dog", and then continue to provide answers for dog on Question Page 3;
Step 3: the user switch answer to "cat" again. In this case, our business want the user to start answering questions on Question Page 2 from the beginning.
There are two benefits coming from this: a) UI behavior consistency. i.e. any "new" questions that are displayed won't have answer pre-populated. b) prevent user from accepting the "previous" answers carelessly. This will force them to reexamine the questions and answer again.
Infosys
US
[continue to my last reply] I realize that different businesses may require/prefer different behavior in this regard. Pega probably cannot make a hot fix that is a fit for all, except making it somewhat configurable. If a hot fix is not possible in short term, may I request a favor and ask for guidance on how to implement a local PegaSurvey change in order to meet our business requirement?
The change I am thinking about is simple on concept (I realize it is not perfect, and may incur performance penalty): when PegaSurvey evaluates the when condition for a Question Page, if it returns false, then go ahead to clear all answers on that hidden question page?
I hope there is one centralized place that I can inject this local change?
Accepted Solution
Pegasystems Inc.
IN
Hi Yining,
Those are final rules and i am afraid you cannot change them. I requested the customer support to raise a engineering request so that someone from my team can do further analysis on this.
Infosys
US
Hi Emanp,
I updated "BuildQuestionPageStream" to address our problem for the time being. See attached. Hope Pega can come up with a solution soon.
Please let me know if you have concerns, other than that "BuildQuestionPageStream" was final.
Best Regards,
-Yining
