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Question Types

So far we've only looked at one type of question - single text. Docassemble comes pre-loaded with many different question types that give you options on how to ask users for information, as well as how to present options to your users.

The example block is your friend​

At the bottom of the Playground there's a segment called Example blocks. This many examples of common structures and methods used in creating Docassemble interviews, and is the best reference guide for starting out, and even if you've been using Docassemble for a while.

Using multiple fields in the same question​

What if we want to ask the user for multiple pieces of information using only a single question?

question: |
  What are your favorite things to eat?
subquestion: |
  Please be specific.
fields:
  - Vegetable: fav_veggie
  - Fruit: fav_fruit
  - Mineral: fav_mineral

Restricting the user to a specific type of answer​

What if we want the user to only answer with a number, a date, or an email address? Use the datatype specifier:

question: |
  Please answer my questions:
subquestion: |
  Please be specific.
fields:
  - Dollar value: big_bucks
    datatype: currency
  - Favorite round number: big_number
    datatype: integer
  - Favorite decimal number: deci_number
    datatype: number
  - Your birthday: user_bday
    datatype: date
  - Your email: user_email
    datatype: email

Creating true-false questions​

The yesno question type is an easy way to have users set a variable to true or false:

question: |
  Are you at least 18 years of age?
yesno: over_eighteen

Multiple choice questions​

Docassemble gives you different ways to present multiple choice questions.

Radio buttons:

question: |
  What type of shoes do you wear?
field: target_variable
choices:
  - Sneakers
  - Sandals
  - Clogs
  - Other

Dropdown:

question: |
  What type of shoes do you wear?
field: target_variable
dropdown:
  - Sneakers
  - Sandals
  - Clogs
  - Other

Combobox:

question: |
  What is your favorite color?
fields:
  - Color: favorite_color
    input type: combobox
    choices: 
      - Red
      - Green
      - Purple

Showing the user more than one screen​

If you would like the user to see more than one screen in your interview, you need to:

  1. Make sure the screen is itself mandatory or required by a mandatory block
  2. Make sure that the user can reach the screen (that is, it's not blocked by another screen)

It's not enough to add another mandatory block​

In the Hello, World exercise, we used a single mandatory: True on the final screen of the interview. If we want to display another screen after the mandatory: True screen, our first guess might be to add another block with mandatory: True, like this:

mandatory: True
question: |
  Hello, World!
---
mandatory: True
question: |
  It's a beautiful day today!

The problem is that the "Hello, World!" screen doesn't have a continue button. Docassemble only displays a continue button if the question sets the value of a variable.

Adding an invisible field to get Docassemble to display a continue button​

If we want to display a continue button to a screen that doesn't ask any fields, we can add the continue button field modifier, like this:

mandatory: True
question: |
  Hello, World!
continue button field: hello_screen_1
---
mandatory: True
question: |
  It's a beautiful day today!

The first "Hello, World!" screen will set the value of hello_screen_1 to True when the continue button is pressed.

Using an "interview order" code block instead​

While using more than one mandatory block is fine for a short interview, it can get confusing fast in a longer interview. Instead, we recommend using a single mandatory block in each interview. To do this, we can use a mandatory code block that mentions a variable on each screen we want to display.

We will use the name of:

  • A field if the question asks for a field.
  • A continue button field if the question is only informational and doesn't ask a question
  • An event for an ending screen that doesn't have a continue button
mandatory: True
comment: |
  This is an interview order block
code: |
  user_name
  hello_screen_1
  ending_screen
---
question: |
  What is your name?
fields:
  - Your name: user_name
---
question: |
  Hello, ${ user_name }!
continue button field: hello_screen_1
---
event: ending_screen
question: |
  It's a beautiful day today!

Learn more​

Read more about controlling interview order.

Your assignment​

  1. Modify your Hello, World exercise so that it uses three different question types. You can use the continue button field modifier if you want to display the "Hello, World" question first.

Sam Harden, June 2020