ERGOQUEST is a dedicated survey system in SurveyTester. A project set to ERGOQUEST (or to Automatic) recognises an ERGOQUEST survey the moment the browser extension opens it: every question with its answer options, grid rows, image choices and open fields, and the message ERGOQUEST shows when a page was not answered completely. From there everything else in SurveyTester works as usual - Auto Answer, Auto Complete, SurveyBots, test cases, issues and the Pages & Routing overview.
What an ERGOQUEST survey looks like to a tester
An ERGOQUEST survey is a classic page-by-page questionnaire: the respondent answers and clicks Weiter (Next), and the server sends the next page. The answer buttons are not ordinary radio buttons or checkboxes - they are pictures that change when clicked, and the survey keeps the actual answers in hidden fields behind them. There is usually no Back button.
Why this is hard to test without SurveyTester
- No real form controls. Because the buttons are pictures, tools that look for radio buttons and checkboxes find nothing to answer. SurveyTester clicks the same answer cells and pictures a respondent would click, so ERGOQUEST's own scripts record the answer.
- Shuffled and filtered answer lists. Answer options are often shown in random order, and a follow-up question may only list what was picked before ("Which of these banks is your main bank?" shows only the banks the respondent uses). SurveyTester records every option with ERGOQUEST's own answer code, not its position on the screen, so test cases and issues stay correct however the list is ordered.
- Rules hidden in scripts. A "none of these" option that clears all others, or a limit such as "choose at most four services", exist only in the survey's scripts. SurveyTester reads them, marks the option as exclusive and never picks more answers than allowed.
- Incomplete pages come back empty. When a page is sent incompletely, ERGOQUEST shows it again with "Es wurden nicht alle Fragen beantwortet!" - and without the answers given before. SurveyTester captures the message, attaches it to the question and, in automated runs, answers again instead of getting stuck.
Supported question types
| ERGOQUEST question type | How SurveyTester tests it |
|---|---|
| Single choice | One option is clicked. |
| Multiple choice | Several options are clicked; an exclusive option ("none of these") is only chosen on its own. |
| Option with text field ("Other: ___") | The option is chosen and a fitting text is typed into its field. |
| Grid (statements in rows, scale in columns) | One scale point is chosen per row; rows keep ERGOQUEST's row codes (F20_05). |
| Image choice (one or several) | The picture tiles are clicked; a maximum ("at most four") is respected. |
| Number field (for example age) | A number that fits the field is typed; the unit next to it ("Jahre") is kept. |
| Text box | A fitting text is typed. |
| Information page | Recorded as information; SurveyTester moves on with Weiter. |
A question type SurveyTester has not met yet is still recorded as a page so the test run continues; it is marked in the page structure so you can see which type needs attention.
Step by step
- Create the project. Choose ERGOQUEST as the survey system, or leave it at Automatic - the survey is recognised either way. Paste the survey link.
- Start a test run from the project with the SurveyTester browser extension. The SurveyTester bar appears above the survey and the first page is recorded as step 1. When the link leads through a panel's start page first, that page is recognised too and SurveyTester continues into the survey.
- Answer the survey by hand, or press Auto Answer and Auto Next to let SurveyTester fill the page and move on. Every page ERGOQUEST shows becomes the next step.
- Check the result on the Pages & Routing page: every question appears with its answer options, grid rows and every message ERGOQUEST showed during the run.
Good to know
- Question names. ERGOQUEST numbers its questions; SurveyTester uses those numbers (
F2,F23), grid rows add the row code (F20_05) and text fields keep ERGOQUEST's field name (F7T01). - The same page twice. A page that was sent incompletely appears again under the same name, with the message attached. A run that keeps failing the same page is stopped as stuck.
- The end of the survey. Surveys usually end on the panel's own thank-you or redirect page. Add it to the survey end pages of the project type (or the project) so SurveyTester knows which outcome the run reached.