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Setting Up Questionnaires
Drupal Webforms is a module that has extensive documentation which is available for questionnaire creators in the Help tab of the Webform overview page. Note that we will only provide a broad level overview of the steps involved in setting up questionnaires. It is always a good practice to consult with administrators and project managers before creating a new form as some configuration steps are required before the questionnaire can be safely administered to the patients. The repository has template questionnaires also available in yaml files which can be imported by an user with administrative privileges to create a questionnaire quickly.
⚠️ Note that the permission configuration for Webforms is detailed in Webform Permissions page.
Project Managers can access the webform overview page. Other roles cannot.
A new questionnaire can be created or an existing template copied. Click the button labelled "Add Webform" to create a new questionnaire.
A questionnaire comprises of elements which can be thought of as questions with response elements. Drupal Webform also allows setting up pages in the questionnaire so that multi-page questionnaires can be created. An alternative arrangement is a "Card" which is like a page but has some nifty javascript which allows the users to move to the next question automatically without clicking the next button. This is a bit more easy on the patients. Layouts allow us to setup questions in different ways so that two questions can be placed side by side instead of one after another. For most practical purposes we recommend that Cards are used and questions are displayed one at a time to reduce the cognitive load on the patient.
Click on Add Card button to add a new card. Enter the title (note that a key name is automatically created). You can choose to display this title or hide it as well as determine how prominent it should appear.
Once you have added a card, you can add an element to the card. To do so click the Add Element button that appears with each card.
There is a wide choice of elements available for use. For most Likert scales we recommend using the Radios element type.
The Radios element can allow the user to enter multiple options. Note that the responder can select one of the options. The option value represents the value that would be usually stored in the database. For example in the case of the EORTC questionnaires, the option "Not at all" will correpond to 0. 0 would therefore be the option value and the option text would be Not at all. There is the option to choose custom options which have been pre-defined at a system level here for consistency.
There are multiple options by which these options can be shown. For example you can show them as a radio option in a single coloumn or as a radio button.
The following image shows how the options will look like if the option of single column is choosen.
Practically however we recommend that the options are presented as buttons which are easier for the patients to respond to. In this case the buttons flexbox layout is chosen. This layout is useful as it adapts to mobile screens where the options will be displayed one after the another. In wider screens for example in tablets and desktops, they will appear side by side.
To add more questions please repeat the steps.
Branching logic refers to the situation where you would want your respondents to see a question based on the answer(s) provided for another question. For example this is recommended for the PROCTCAE questionnaires where patients are asked questions on the severity of symptoms only if they have the symptom in the first place. This reduced respondent burden. However, not all questionnaires allow use of a branching logic.Thus the use of the same will be dictated by the questionnaire being used.
In order to setup branching logic please click on Edit element and then go to the Conditions tab to configure how the element should be shown. Multiple combinations of logical statements can be added for very complex routing through the forms.
To test the form go to the Test tab. This allows you to check how the form will appear when used and if the braching logic will work as expected. If you click the submit button then the answers will be saved and can be seen in the Results tab. The Results tab also allow the project manager to download responses.
There are several important setting that will affect how the questionnaire is displayed and used on the site. We have a dedicated page on the Webform Settings for you to refer to understand the potential.
As noted in the page on Webform Node Configuration references is an obscure terminology that allows you to setup a specific "node" for each webform. We need to do this to ensure that patients can only see the questionnaire they are supposed to see and not all questionnaires on the website. In order to do this Project Managers have been provided with the permission to create new Webform Nodes. To create this go to the Add Content Link and then Enter the title, a body text (which is essentially a short summary about the form) and then select the form which this node should refer to. Please choose the language and finally the Project Name with which the questionnaire is associated with. This allows you to restrict the questionnaire to specific patients.
⭐ Note that you can create multiple node references for the SAME form. This can allow you to show the same form to multiple users in a different manner. For example the same questionnaire can be shown to patients belonging to Project A and Project B as a part of a multi-question survey with different body text for example or different titles. You just have to choose the correct Project Name in the Project Name field.
The final tab allows you to translate the webform into multiple languages. Click on the languages in which the translation is desired and click the Request Translation button to use the translation management system for translation. Alternatively you can directly edit the translation also by clicking the add button. You can paste the correct text strings in the boxes to present your respective language translation. Note that automatic translation is possible but as all questionnaires that will be used will usually have validated language translations, it would be recommended to use those translations only.
