For some reason I could not get this feature to work on my latest survey. I programmed everything the way it should work, but when I tested the survey myself, I could blow right past the required questions without answering them. I finally called technical support. The people at Perseus are always very professional when I call and this time was no exception. I ended up speaking with a man who, once he figured out I was not making a basic user error, asked me to email him my survey. I did so and he then looked it over. He thought everything looked fine, so he tested it himself. It worked fine.
We couldn't figure this out until I let him know that I had switched browsers and was using Netscape. A long pause. Then he, sounding embarrassed, informed me that this feature only works with Internet Explorer and the other browsers ignore this feature. People who use other browsers can still take the survey, but they ignore the special features such a requiring answers to particular questions. I let him know that this seemed a serious flaw in a professional (and expensive) program in a world where many people do not use Internet Explorer. He agreed and said the company was working on fixing this in their next version...
I thought I would share this in case anyone you know creates online surveys. I also expect some people may find this post via Google when they wonder "Why can I skip that required question?"
Perseus was not aware of the bug I found and could not replicate it with their software. The COO suggested I upgrade to the latest version of the software. Once I did, the problem went away. I applaud Mr. Henning for his initiative and for quickly resolving the issue.
Category: General , Category: Quests for Change , Category: Science and Technology
Well, as a longtime user of Opera, I'll have to keep that in mind next time I feel like skipping a question in an online survey... :-)
I agree with Khobrah, find a another provider or host the survey yourself. There is no excuse for them tying themselves to a specific browsers. That probably means they are using IE specific javascript...easy todo, but very unprofessional.
If I had decent programming skills, I think you are all correct. Perseus is indeed using IE specific javascrip - so even IE users can skip the questions if they turn off java support...
Update: I just checked my quixote emails and to my surprise, I found an email from the COO of Perseus dated March 3 asking for details and stating that he was unaware of the problem.
Once again, I'm amazed at the power of the internet. I'll send him the details and then post an update later.
Maybe you should simply use a SQL/PhP mounted survey page, or, alternately, query a respondant to see what browser he is using (this can be done in the background, automatically) and have different surveys depending upon the browser.
As a programmer, I would go with the SQL/PhP (ie FREE) solution, but you might be, understandably, more comfortable with the tools you are more used to.