Quick Start Guide - Questions and Forms

All question-related tasks, which include creating new questions and response values are completed using the Questions tool. Once questions are created, they are available to be placed on forms using the drag and drop form builder.

All form-related tasks, which include building new forms and managing existing forms are completed using the Forms tool. Forms are displayed in your brand's look and feel. The Brand tool allows you to create multiple brands and brand codes so forms can appear in the look and feel of any of your brands.

Prior to working with questions and forms, it is important to understand some basic concepts and rules relating to them.

IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT FORM "QUESTIONS" ARE THE ACTUAL DATA FIELDS OF YOUR DATABASE. ALL OF THESE FIELDS ARE AVAILABLE FOR PLACEMENT ON FORMS.

Form-related tasks include:

• creating database fields/questions available for placement in online forms;
• creating new forms; and
• managing existing forms.

Definitions

Question-Related Definitions

Question Text is the question text that the subscriber will see on the front end.

Response Type is where you select the type of answer expected for the question in the form; e.g., it makes sense to allow a user to select a state from a pull down instead of asking them to fill in a text box. This not only makes it easier for a user to complete the form but also helps the ONEcount system to get uniform data in the database.

The response type can be text field, text area, password field, checkbox list, select, or radio button.

Details on response types are as follows:

Text Field, Text Area, and Password Field (Open Ended)
text field: The user must type in a response (e.g. first name, last name).
text area: Is the same as a text field, except allows more characters.
password field: Text entered is not shown--converted to *.

• Radio Button and Select (Single Select - user can select only one response)*
  radio button - The user clicks on round button to select one response (e.g. male / female, yes/no).
  select - The user selects one response from a drop-down menu of choices.
  Note: When selecting to "View" a generated list in the List Wizard (which allows you to run a product or demographic report and immediately view it) or generating a 3a report using Audit Report, you can only select demographic questions with Radio Button or Select-type responses for rows and columns in the reports. Multiple Select-type responses – Text Field, Text Area, Password Field, and Checkbox List – cannot be used.

Checkbox List (Multi Select)*
 The user can click on multiple check boxes to select multiple responses from a list of choices.
Note: The system will automatically create values for Checkbox List-type responses. If you will be importing data to this field, these values must be replaced in the import file.

Value is the value you want assigned in the ONEcount database for that response. Values can be numeric or alphabetic (e.g. in a Yes/No question Display Text “Yes” value could = 1 or Yes, and Display Text “No” value could = 2 or No.) .

Question Alias is used for identifying a question for a specific form. For example, you may need to create a two (or more) identical questions with different response options because the question has different possible responses for a particular form or brand; or you may need to create questions with very similar Question Text. To avoid confusion among similar questions, enter an alias for the question.

Report Header - When a list is downloaded the Report Header is the text that will appear in a viewable/downloadable report. If no text is entered in this field when creating the form, the complete Question Text will appear in the report. It is best to include a Report Header if the question text is more than several words.

Form-Related Definitions (in order of appearance in Create/Edit Form window):

The Form Name is the name of the form. It displays in large, bold letters at the top of the form.

The Form Description field is displayed at the top of the form, under the Form Name. This is the text the user will see with instructions on what to do, e.g. "Complete the form below to receive a one-year subscription to our weekly newsletter." This text can be styled to include text colors, bold/underline/italic, links, images, special characters.

Custom Header – If this field is populated, it will override a Brand, if one is set.  You can enter html/css in this field to display the header in the look and feel defined in the html without some of the issues that can be associated with using a brand (see ONEcount SSL and non-SSL Brand Pages) and without having to append a brand code to the form.

Custom Footer - If this field is populated, it will override a Brand, if one is set.  You can enter html/css in this field to display the footer in the look and feel defined in the html without some of the issues that can be associated with using a brand (see ONEcount SSL and non-SSL Brand Pages) and without having to append a brand code to the form.

Source Codes are used to track the source of a name/transaction, ie the source of the user/name in the ONEcount database.* When assigned to a form, a source code can be used as a selection when generating lists and reports, to track what form a user/subscriber completed , to track what list a user came from when importing users, or to show which e-mail campaign a user came from . (A source code tag can be appended to form links in a newsletter campaign to override the default source code assigned to a form, which allows you to identify that a user was directed to a form and came into the system from a link in that campaign.) Source Codes are created using the Source Codes tool in the INVENTORY module.

*For audited publications, source codes that identify the source of user names in accordance with cagetories in Paragraph 3b reports should be created. Forms and imported lists should be assigned the appropriate source code for the source of the name. For example:
 1) You want to identify all Internet Direct Requests from a subscription form, so you would create a source code called, for example, IDRSubForm and attach it to the online subscription form. This source code will be attached to any user record created when a user subscribes using that form. The source codes indicates it was an Internet Direct Request from the form, and when a 3b report is generated those users will be included in the count for internet direct requests.
2) You want to identify all Telecommunications Direct Requests from a telemarketing renewal campaign, so you create source code called, for example, TDR05152105 to identify that renewal list imported on May 15, 2015. When doing the import to update/renew, select that source code and all records imported will have that source attached to their record in ONEcount. So, when generating a 3b report those renewed users will be included in the count for telecommunications direct requests.

If you have a master file including multiple codes for circulation sources, separate the file by source (e.g. a sub-file for each 3b category/source of circulation) and import each sub-file using the appropriate source code created in ONEcount.

Product Prompt Text is the text found above the list of available products on the form. Including this text is optional.

Redirect URL allows you to set a page to redirect the user to after the form is submitted. This is optional.

Submission Option allows you to select from three options: Product Selection Required, Product Selection Not Required - Display Warning, and Product Selecton Not Required - No Warning.

Form Section Header allows you to create a custom header for the section of the form where demographic questions are displayed, e.g. "Name and Address" or any descriptive/instructional text.  You can add html here to style the text and/or background of the header.

Subscription Section Header  allows you to create a custom header for the section of the form where your products/packages are displayed for selection, e.g. "Subscription Term", "Select Your Package" or any descriptive/instructional text.  You can add html here to style the text and/or background of the header.

Email Confirmation (Yes/No) is where you select whether a confirmation email will be sent upon subscription to/registration for any products listed on the form..

Customized Acknowledgement Emails will be sent to a user upon completing a form or after subscribing to a product on the form. Creating these customized emails is optional, as default acknowledgement emails are configured within your system.

Rows/Columns is where you add rows to the form and set the number of columns for each row.

Questions is a listing of all questions in the database available to be placed on a form. Simply drag and drop the question onto the form.

Question Options is where you determine whether a response should be auto-populated* and where you set validations for questions on the form. Each question can have it's own unique set of validations, including Required, Email, Number Only, Text Only, Number and Text, and Match Email.

*Auto Populate allows you to tell the form what fields can be pre-populated from information already in the database when a user clicks a renewal link to a form or re-visits a form. Per audit rules, you may not be allowed to pre-populate certain demographics, even if the information is in your database. Auto Populate works in conjunction with the "&renewal=true" string in form linkouts. When the Auto Populate box is checked and the form linkout has "&renewal=true" appended to the end, the only information that will be pre-populated on the form is the information for the questions that have the Auto Populate box checked. If "&renewal=true" is not appended to the link to the form, then all questions on the form that have responses in the ONEcount database will be pre-populated, even if the Auto Populate box is not checked. Use this feature carefully to be sure you are following audit bureau reporting rules on what fields can be pre-populated in a renewal (or any) form.

Get Links – Types of Links:

Form Linkout: This is the primary URL of the form. If a user/subscriber's information is in the ONEcount database (and he/she is logged on to the site where the form is located) and this linkout is used, ALL fields/question responses (regardless of whether the question is designated to auto populate when creating or editing the form) for which there is data will be pre-populated. (See How to Create a Form for more information on designating questions to Auto Populate.)

Example: Form #999 has the question "email" designated to auto populate but not the question "street address". If the Form Linkout is used and user/subscriber information is in the ONEcount database (and the user is logged in to the site where the form is located), then both "email" and "street address" will be pre-populated (even though "street address" was not designated to auto populate) when the user accesses the form.

Renewal Link: This is the same link construction as the Form Linkout described above but has "&renewal=true" appended to the end. Per audit rules, for renewals you cannot pre-populate certain demographics, even if the information is in your database. Use the Renewal Link construction if you want only those fields/questions you designated to auto populate when creating or editing the form to be pre-populated. ** If user's/subscriber's information is in the ONEcount database (and he/she is logged on to the site where the form is located), this URL will bring him/her to the form with only those fields designated to auto populate when creating or editing the form pre-populated. (See How to Create a Form for more information on designating questions to Auto Populate.) Use this link construction in conjunction with the "Auto Populate" feature when creating/editing forms to be sure you are following audit bureau reporting rules on what fields can be pre-populated in a form.

Example: Form #999 has the question "email" designated to auto populate but not the question "street address". If the Renewal Link is used and user/subscriber information is in the ONEcount database (and the user is logged on to the site where the form is located), then only "email" will be pre-populated and not "street address".

Email Engine Links: You can place these smartlinks* anywhere in your newsletter/email message sent out through the ONEcount Email Engine to direct users to a personal renewal and/or personal edit profile/unsubscribe form.
Personal Renewal Link: The system will automatically replace OCVALIDATE with each user's email and ONEcount id when the message is sent out via email so that if a user clicks on the link, he/she will be automatically logged in and brought to his/her current account information to renew.

Edit Profile/Unsubscribe Link: The system will automatically replace OCVALIDATE with each user's email and ONEcount id when the message is sent out via email so that if a user clicks on the link, he/she will be automatically logged in and brought to his/her current account information to either edit or unsubscribe.

*A smartlink is any link that has parameters for identifying the user appended to the end of the URL. These parameters vary based on the email marketing platform you use (e.g. ONEcount's integrated Email Engine, Real Magnet/Magnet Mail, Silverpop, etc.) Upon clicking on a smartlink, two things will happen: 1) the user will be authenticated automatically for access-controlled content; and 2) the user will be identified in the system as a ONEcount user and a cookie will be set, allowing you to track as a Known user all activities across your online properties.

Essentials

Questions
REMEMBER – "QUESTIONS" ARE THE ACTUAL DATA FIELDS OF YOUR DATABASE.

• Because these "questions" are the actual data fields, they are a part of a pool of data fields/questions that are shared among ALL forms. If you change or delete a question, the change/deletion will change/delete that data field and the question on ALL forms that use the question.
• Any changes made to the Question Text, Response Type, Question Alias, Question Tage, and Lookup Question are universal and will change ALL forms in the system, not just the form you are working on.
• Deleting a question is a universal change and will remove that question from ALL forms.
• DO NOT DELETE ANY STANDARD QUESTIONS. STANDARD QUESTIONS ARE THOSE QUESTIONS THAT COME PRE-INSTALLED WITH ONECOUNT (First Name, Last Name, Email, Username, Password, Title, Company Name, Company Address, Address2, City, State, Zip/Postal Code, Country, Email, Phone, Fax).
• The order that questions appear in the Question Builder is the order that they'll appear in User Detail and the Add New User windows.
• DON'T change a select- or radio-button type question to a text or checkbox-type question. Select- and radio-button type questions are created to ensure consistency in response values, and changing to a text-type question allows for inconsistent responses. For example, Country is a select-type question with certain display text and database values. Changing the question to, e.g., to a text-type question would allow front-end users to enter any text as a response. Using "United States" as an example, users could enter US, USA, U.S.A., United States of America, Unites States (notice the misspelling), Estados Unidos, etc. If you wanted to pull a list, generate a report, create a targeting persona, you would have to determine and then include every possible variation of United States to do so. By keeping it as a select-type question, data is uniform, and lists, reports, and personas can be created consistently and accurately.
• It is best not change a text/radio button/select-type question to a checkbox-type question. Because the system assigns values to checkbox-type questions and stores them in a different manner than other question types, if users profiled are not updated with a value for the checkbox-type question, the previously assigned values won't match the new values created by the system and can't be translated to the new values. As a result, User Demographics and Demographic Activity will show a blank for the response to that question and the List Wizard won't be able to generate a list based on that demographic. This will also affect pulling analytics based on that demographic question from Web Analytics and creating a target segment in the Persona Manager. (Remember, if user profiles aren't updated to new values, the system won't be able to translate the previous values to the changed values because of the different way they are stored within the system.)
• Do NOT use comma separated values or special characters as a value for question responses. This will cause an error when displaying reports, forms, and saving user data.
• For Select-type questions, be sure to create a default answer as the first response, such as “Select One” If this is not set, any user who doesn't select an answer for the question will automatically be assigned the first value, which could be incorrect.
• Do not create any display text or value longer than 255 characters. The full text will not be saved.
• The order of questions can be changed by clicking on the gray "move" icon and dragging the question to the desired position.
• The order of responses can be changed in checkbox list, select, and radio button types of responses by clicking on the gray icon to the left of "Text:" and dragging the row to the desired position.
  
  Forms

• When working with forms, it's important to note that there are two types of questions: standard (generic questions that come with the ONEcount system--e.g first name, last name, email) and user-created. User-created questions are those that you create and are specific to your forms, i.e. the user information you wish to gather from your forms. Many of your questions will be user-created.
• Changes made to Auto Populate and Validations will NOT universally change forms – these changes will be applied only to the form you are working on.
• When a user completes and submits a form, all of the information gathered from the form is entered into the ONEcount database. Plan forms carefully to ensure that you include questions and possible responses that will provide you with all the data you wish to collect from subscribers/purchasers.
• Copying a form DOES NOT create duplicate questions in the question pool. It only creates an identical form using the same questions from the question pool, in the same order, with the same Question Text, Response Type, Question Alias, Report Header, and Required and/or Auto Populate settings as the original form. Copying a form is useful if you want to modify a form slightly but keep the original as well...you don't have to go through the entire process of creating a new form this way.
• Delete will delete the form but will not delete the questions or, if the form has been in use, user information in the ONEcount database that has already been collected by the form.
• In order for a form to display in your site's look and feel, you must first create in your CMS a blank page with only a header and footer for your brand.

You must include the following markers on the brand page you create in your CMS:

<!-onecount_header-> Place in the page where the header will END
<!-onecount_footer-> Place in the page where the footer will START

If you require a separate header/footer page for mobile, you must also create that page.