Any questionnaire created with the Survey Solutions Designer tool consists of two types of elements: sequenced and not-sequenced.

• Sequenced elements are specified in sequence, and their precedence ultimately determines the order of the questions asked in the survey. They are: Sections, Sub-sections,  Roster, Question, Static Text, and Calculated Variables.

• Not-sequenced elements are questionnaire elements that are included in the questionnaire, but their placement doesn’t affect the flow of the questions. They are included as attachments, and referred by name, such as, for example, lookup tables. They are discussed separately, see Panel of Advanced Instruments.

Group Elements

A questionnaire consists of several types of group elements:

• Section: A section is the only group permitted at the top level of the questionnaire. All other group types must be nested inside a section.

• Sub‑section: A sub‑section is a non‑repeating group nested inside another group. Sub‑sections cannot appear at the top level; they must be placed inside a section or another sub‑section.

• Roster: A roster is a repeating group nested inside another group. Rosters cannot appear at the top level; they must be placed inside a section or sub‑section. See rosters. Rosters nested inside other rosters are called nested rosters.

• Cover page: The cover page is a special section used for case identification. It is always the first section in the questionnaire. See Special Section: Cover Page.

See also nesting rules below.

Non-group Elements

The following elements are not groups and may not include other elements:

• question - question defined by its type and properties;
• static text - informational text included into the questionnaire, see static text;
• calculated variable - a named and typed calculatable expression, see variables.

Note that a question must be placed in some group, for example, a section. It may not be placed immediately in a questionnaire.

Nesting Rules

Groups may contain other elements, as permitted according to the table shown below.

Legend:

Other restrictions:

• level of roster nesting is limited;
• total level of nesting or rosters and sub-sections is limited;
• the set of question types that can be included in the cover page is limited;
• some display modes of rosters impose additional limitations on contents, see e.g. Tabular presentation of rosters;
• number of questions that can be included into a group is limited.
• a valid questionnaire must contain at least 1 question, thus any valid questionnaire must have either a cover page with at least 1 question, or a question must be placed into another section.

Operations with Questionnaire Elements

Adding Elements to a Questionnaire

We use the context menu or the buttons shown in the questions panel of the Designer (bottom menu) to add all sequenced elements, except sections.

The sections can be added by accessing the Table of contents tool in the Panel of Advanced Instruments.

Copying and Pasting Elements of the Questionnaire One can copy and paste the sequenced elements of the questionnaire by using the corresponding items in the context menu:

• right-click the element and select Copy;
• right-click an existing element and select Paste after, or select Paste in the bottom menu if no element exists in this section yet.

Deleting Elements of the Questionnaire Select the element you want to delete and click the DELETE link at the bottom-right corner. Or select the element by right-clicking on it and select DELETE from the context menu that appears.

Ordering Elements in the Questionnaire To change the position of a questionnaire element relative to other elements one can drag it and drop to the new position (within a section), or if the element needs to be moved to a different section, then the element must be selected (by left-clicking it) and moved to a different section by clicking MOVE TO link at the bottom-right corner.