Field - Constant Sum

Field - Constant Sum

Constant Sum is a method that will allow us to setup and group multiple constant sum fields together to ask the respondent to enter a values that will match the total value we've specified.

In the example above we have a question with three constant sum fields linked using the connections of the type settings. The respondent will need to answer each field with a number and the total of all fields must reach 100.

In order to make constant sum work we always need to have a "master" ranking type that will manage the values of the group of constant sum fields.

In this case the "master" type is "Quality". "Quality" has subscribed to the other constant sum types value using the connections of the type settings. We have also set the total of the sum to reach from the extended settings of the "Quality" type. To learn more about ranking we suggest watching the Constant Sum Tutorial.

The field is not mandatory by default, if you want to make it mandatory you make check the mandatory option in the type settings.

Type Settings

Answer Text is the text that will be shown next to the field.

Image URL we can give an image URL (http://www.mydomain.com/myimage.gif) in order to show it instead of showing the answer text.
Type allows us to change the current type of the answer we want in our survey. Respondent answers already collected will not be deleted if we change the type.
RegEx Server Side Validation allows us to validate the content of the textbox field using a regular expression. Several regular expression validation are provided out of the box and it is very easy to create new one using the Regular Expression Editor. This check is done server-side.
Mandatory allows us to set if the textbox field requires to be filled. This check is done server-side.
Default Text Value allows us to set a default value inside the textbox field. It is also possible to fill the textbox with a default value coming from an external source using following tags :

##yourquerystringvariablename## will set the default text with a query string variable's value.
@@yoursessionvariablename@@ will set the default text with a session variable's value.
&&yourcookievariablename&& will set the default text with a cookie variable's value.
%%servervariablename%% will set the default text with a server side variable's value.
Pipe Alias allows us to specify an alias that we can use in other questions to pipe the textbox field value. To learn about piping and pipe alias we suggest reading the Piping Introduction.
Reporting Alias is the text that can be shown instead of the answer text inside our reports.
Extended Report Filter we will be able to use directly the text answers of the respondent as a filter in the General Report Settings.To learn more about piping and extended report filters we suggest reading the Extended Filter Introduction.
Connections will let us choose with which child constant sum type items this type will be linked to. To learn more about constant sums we suggest watching the Constant Sum Tutorial.

Extended Type Settings
Extended type settings are extra specific properties of a type that are only availble once a type has been created.

To edit the extended settings of a type we will have to click on the edit button of the answer overview once we've added our type to our question or changed an existing type to a new one by clicking the update button.

Constant Sum To Reach is the total that need to be reach across all constant sum types that are linked to the master constant sum type.