Other specify in combobox (dropdown) questions

Question

Gentlemen, good afternoon.

Currently using Sawtooth Software SSI Web, version 8.4.8.
I would like to display a textbox in a dropdown question, when the respondent chooses the "Other (specify)" option.
As far as I know, the default Select question does not offer that possibility. I would like to confirm if the Free Format is the way to go in this case.

Thanks a lot for your time.

Best,

Mauricio.

Answer 1

I would suggest using the branching question from the question library, https://sawtoothsoftware.com/community-question-library/1731-branching,

I usually set up my combobox select question followed by a single line open end and then use the branching question logic to only have the open end text box show if they selected the 'other' option in the combobox question.

Comments

Jay,

thanks for the answer. I understand that I might need to do some adaptions to run it in SSI Web, is that correct?

Best Regards,

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Your branching question (the open end question) should be set to not require a response.

The actual text question with the branching logic will need to have the logic specified in the footer.  Find the section for 'RadioQ' and set the question from BranchQ to the name of your open ended question.  Then set the vars from RadioQ to the name of your combobox question.  Set the result to the list number for your other response.

Then you can add some script in the Custom JavaScript Verification to make sure they entered a response to the open end.
You can try this script:

if($('#[% QuestionName() %]_div').is(':visible') && SSI_GetValue ("[% QuestionName() %]") == "")
{
var strErrorMessage = "Please record a response";
}

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Jay,

after testing the adaption, I can say it has worked. Thanks a lot for the patience and for indicating the places where I should make the adequate changes for the code to work!

Best Regards,

Mauricio.

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Glad I could help and that you were able to get it all sorted to your satisfaction.  That's what makes this forum such a great place!