Global Settings (Error Messages Tab)

The Error Messages tab on the Global Settings dialog lets you customize the error messages shown to respondents during the course of an interview. For example, when respondents specify an invalid response, or skip a required question, error messages prompt them to remedy the error. This area is also useful for customizing the messages for foreign languages.

When respondents do not complete a questionnaire page properly and click the Submit button, warning messages can appear to tell them about the error and how to fix it. If you have checked Use JavaScript 1.2 within the Format Settings tab (default), a Windows-looking dialog box appears with the error message (this happens instantaneously without submitting information to the server). If you have not checked the Use JavaScript 1.2 button (or on older browsers not supporting JavaScript 1.2), the information is submitted to the server. The Perl scripts perform the verification and the server returns the not-yet-completed page with the error message displayed at the top of the survey page. Disabling JavaScript verification requires the Web server to process more pages and generally work harder. This can result in slower performance for your respondents.

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Customizing Error Messages

When you click the Error Messages tab, the Error Message list is displayed.

You can choose the color, styles, size and justification for the error messages. Default text is provided, that you can customize for the purposes of your survey. The default text provided refers respondents to a certain question number on the current page. However, you can also customize your text to refer to specific question names (Note: if you refer respondents to specific question names, you should include the question name as part of the header text of that question).

These are the following error type classes:

Missing Answers

Reminds respondents to complete a question before continuing.

Minimum Checks

Tells respondents that the minimum number of checks required in a multiple-response select question (check box) has not been satisfied.

Maximum Checks

Tells respondents that the maximum number of checks permitted in a multiple-response select question (check box) has been exceeded.

Out of Range (Numeric)

Lets respondents know that the value they specified for a numeric question is outside the specified range. You specify the minimum and maximum range when you compose numeric questions using the Numeric Question dialog.

Invalid Input (Numeric)

This error message appears if respondents type an invalid character into a numeric entry box. Invalid characters are values other than numbers or the period and/or comma permitted for decimal answers. You may want to expand the error message text to explain these other conditions to respondents.

Minimum Characters (Openend Questions)

Informs respondents that they haven't typed enough characters in an open-end question. You can specify a minimum number of characters when you compose open-end questions using the Open-end Question dialog.

Maximum Characters (Openend Questions)

Informs respondents that they have typed too many characters in an open-end question. You can specify a maximum number of characters when you compose open-end questions using the Open-end Question dialog.

Password Closed

Appears when a valid password combination is used, but the password quota cell is full (e.g. the username/password combination has already been used.)

Finished

Informs respondents that their survey already has been submitted.

Invalid Login

Lets respondents know that the password combination they've specified is invalid.

Rank

Informs respondents that the answers to a ranking question are not valid.

Rank Count

Informs respondents that they have not yet fully ranked enough items in a ranking style question to continue.

None of the Above

Informs respondents that they cannot select an "exclusive" answer (such as "None of the above") together with other responses for the same question. This message is only shown with Perl verification.

Constant Sum

Informs respondents that the responses to a constant sum question do not total the valid amount.

Submit Only Once

If respondents click the submit button multiple times, this message asks them to wait for a moment while their responses are being processed. This message only appears if JavaScript 1.2 is enabled for the respondent's browser.

MaxDiff Unique Answers

If respondents click the same response for the "best" and "worst" items in a MaxDiff question, this message is displayed.

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Error Message Arguments

The text of the error messages includes Functions that are used to display numeric values or text strings relevant to each error in the error message. The available Functions are:

ErrField ( )

Specifies the field (question) number on the most recent interview page, where the first question on the page is question number 1.

ErrMin ( )

Specifies the minimum value for a numeric question, or the minimum number of characters for an open-end question.

ErrMax ( )

Specifies the maximum value for a numeric question, or the maximum number of characters for an open-end question.

ErrQName ( )

Returns the question name for the question on the current page causing the error. Use this argument if you prefer to refer respondents to specific question names rather than a question sequence number on the current page. (Note: if you refer respondents to specific question names, you should include the question name as part of the header text of that question).

ErrText ( )

Returns the error text provided under the Advanced... button for questions, or in the error text field for Free Format questions. If no text is provided in the error text field, the ErrText variable will be replaced by nothing (be missing) when run over a server.

ErrTotal ( )

Returns the total number of items to be ranked in a ranking-style question, or the total number of points to be allocated in a constant-sum question.

ErrCurSum ( )

Returns the current number of points that have been allocated in a constant sum question.

The actual error messages that a respondent sees when taking the questionnaire (with numeric values substituted for the string arguments above) can only be viewed when your survey is running on the Local Web server or on a remote web server.