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PHNXDOC.6
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1987-12-04
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PHOENIX REMOTE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM DECEMBER 4, 1987
6.0 USING QUESTIONNAIRES
Phoenix uses a simple procedure to generate Questionnaires.
Questionnaires are simple text files that are interpreted by
Phoenix. There is a very simple line-oriented pseudo-language
that interprets these scripts. There are only a couple of
"commands", and only two crude conditionals.
The answers to the questionnaire are put in a separate file,
without the questions. They are also normal ASCII text, but in a
fixed field format with field characters, to make post-
processing of the questionnaire easier.
The questionnaire consists of two files:
FIRSTNAME.QST The questionnaire script
FIRSTNAME.ANS The answers
Answers are appended to the end of the answer file; it is
created if it does not exist. The first name of the
answers file will correspond with the first name of the
questionnaire so , with multiple questionnaire files, you
will not get confused which is the proper answers file.
You may define almost ANY number of different questionnaires
to use in Phoenix and may even have a questionnaire menu!
The questionnaire name may be any LEGAL DOS FIRST NAME.
Be SURE, when creating the questionnaire, to use the
extension QST for the file. SEE THE SECTION FOR PHOENIX
MENU SYSTEM PLUS (tm) to find out how to place a questionnaire
into your menu system. If you accepted our defaults for
a new user questionnaire, then you already have one to
try out and see how it works. The command is in the
main menu (menu0.mnu).
The first character of each line tells Phoenix what to do with
the line. This first character is a normal printable character.
If the first character is not one of the known commands, the
line is merely displayed.
The questionnaire commands are:
/<prompt string>
Display <prompt string>, then input a single line of text.
Maximum line length is 78 characters. The usual editing is
available. The inputted text is written to the answer file.
*
Put user info to the answer file: name and last (current) sign-
on date. Useful for the "what kind of system ..."-type
questionnaires. Leaving this out allows confidential
questionnaires, as there is no other record of which caller
filled one in.
PHOENIX REMOTE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM DECEMBER 4, 1987
+N <prompt string>
Multiple choice. The single digit number N is the number of
possible choices (1 - 9). If an illegal number is entered, or
the number is missing, the number of choices defaults to one
but at least the system won't hang up.
The choice entered by the user
is checked for in range 1 to N, and saved in the answer file.
There is a special feature of multiple choice: an internal flag
is set if the last choice (choice N) is selected, that can be
tested by the ! command, described below.
!
To be used ONLY after a multiple choice question. If the last
choice of a multiple choice was selected, this terminates the
questionnaire. Allows asking "Do you want to fill this out (1)
yes (2) no".
_ (Underscore)
Unconditionally clears the conditional flag.
Below is an example of a new user questionnaire we have
named NEWUSER.QST:
NEW USER INFORMATION
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You are required to Register to this System. Please fill
out the following questionnaire.
Your access will be upgraded within 48 hours.
Thank you for your cooperation!
*
+2Have you Registered with this Phoenix board before? (1)No (2)Yes
!
/ What is your real name (first & last):
/ What is your Street Address:
/ City, State, Zip:
/ What is your voice phone no.:
/ Where did you hear about this board:
/ What is your age:
Your NEWUSER.ANS would be an ASCII file with the user's
answers to your questionnaire. The answers would look like the
following:
1:-> User #100, John Doe, 01 Jan 87
2:1
3:John A. Doe
4:1234 Any Street
5:Any town, ST, 12345
6:555/555-5342
7:The Aztec BBS
8:23
Each time the questionnaire was invoked, the answers would be
appended to NEWUSER.ANS. Note, if the caller had answered "2" to
the first question, the questionnaire would have been
terminated.
PHOENIX REMOTE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM DECEMBER 4, 1987
One of the easiest ways to read your answer files, is to
place the answers file name (in this case, NEWUSER.ANS) into
a dumpfile class menu call. You may then read the file
right from within Phoenix. Be sure to thoroughly read and
understand the section on PHOENIX MENU SYSTEM PLUS (tm) where
dumpfile class calls are explained!
This is, we feel, the most powerful menu system for bulletin
boards available today and it will literally allow you TOTAL
flexibility in configuring your system for features and
convenience.
If a caller selects a Questionnaire from one of your menus and
the questionnaire file does not exist,
your caller will receive the following message:
"Sorry, No questionnaire today"
If you are not going to have a Questionnaire on your bulletin
board, we recommend that you:
1. raise the access level high enough so the
questionnaire command cannot be seen by anyone.
2. simply remove the command from your menu.
This will keep the screen clean, and will not confuse
callers or waste their long distance dollars trying to
figure out that they are really doing nothing wrong, the
questionnaire simply does not exist.