Exavo SurveyStudio is a dedicated survey system in SurveyTester. A project set to Exavo (or to Automatic) recognises an Exavo survey the moment the browser extension opens it: the welcome page, every page with its questions, answer options, grid rows and text fields, the interactive "Surveytainment" questions and the end page. From there everything else in SurveyTester works as usual - Auto Answer, Auto Complete, SurveyBots, test cases, issues and the Pages & Routing overview.
What an Exavo survey looks like to a tester
Exavo SurveyStudio is the survey software of Exavo GmbH. A survey runs at
https://survey.exavo.de/studio/<account>/<project>/. Every page is a classic web page designed in Exavo's page
editor: the respondent answers, clicks Next (in German surveys weiter) and the server sends the next page.
Answer options are drawn as pictures (boxes, circles, smileys) that change when they are clicked; many surveys use
grids with a scale of smileys above the columns, and buttons can carry any caption, such as Start survey.
Why this is hard to test without SurveyTester
- No standard form fields. Exavo draws its options as pictures and keeps the answers in hidden fields; what an option means (single or multiple choice, an exclusive "none of these", a maximum number of answers) is only written in the page's script. SurveyTester reads it from there.
- Pages that move on by themselves. A page can submit itself when every question has an answer, when a time limit runs out, or after a picture was flashed (tachistoscope). SurveyTester still records the step.
- Interactive questions. Chip games, card sorts, drag-and-drop rankings and scale rankings ("Surveytainment") are tedious to click through by hand again and again. SurveyTester answers them for you.
- Several languages. A multi-language survey keeps the same question names in every language, so the pages of each language version can be compared directly.
Supported question types
| Exavo question type | How SurveyTester records it |
|---|---|
| Single choice (also with picture labels) | One option is chosen. |
| Multiple choice, with maximum and exclusive options | Several options are ticked, never more than allowed; an exclusive option is ticked alone. |
| Option with "other" text field | The option and its text field are recorded together. |
| Grid (smiley or text scale) | Every row is answered with one scale point; picture headers are named after their picture. |
| Open text | A fitting text is typed. |
| Chip game (spread coins over items) | The coins are spread over the items; all coins together give the budget. |
| Card sort (drag words onto pictures) | Every card is placed in one or more zones. |
| Drag-and-drop ranking (top N) | Cards are placed in the ranking zone up to its limit. |
| Scale ranking (drag products onto a scale) | Every product gets a position on the scale. |
| Shelf test | One product of the shelf is chosen. |
| Tachistoscope | Recorded as a page with nothing to answer; it moves on by itself. |
Welcome page, time limits and end page
- Welcome page. Pages with text only are recorded as information pages with nothing to answer.
- Time limit. Pages of a timed survey are marked; SurveyTester does not count a page that moves on by itself as stuck.
- End page. The page without a Next button is recorded as the last step of the run. Complete, screenout and quota outcomes are configured as for any other survey system, with survey end page identifiers on the project. See Survey end pages.
Step by step
- Create the project. Choose Exavo 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, or let SurveyBots run the survey. The SurveyTester bar appears above it, and the first page is recorded as step 1.
- Answer the survey by hand, or press Auto Answer and Auto Next to let SurveyTester fill the page and move on. Each page creates the next step.
- Check the result on the Pages & Routing page: every page appears with its questions, every question with its answer options, rows and scale points.
Good to know
- Question names. SurveyTester names a question after Exavo's question id (
Q425087), grid rows after the grid and their position (Q425101_1). Answer values are the options' positions on the page; grid columns count from 1. - Interactive questions on the screenshot. For chip games, card sorts and rankings SurveyTester stores the answer directly; the cards and coins may still be shown in their starting place on the screenshot of the step.
- Support is new. Exavo support was built on Exavo's public demo surveys. Question types the demos do not contain may not be answered automatically yet. If you find a page that SurveyTester does not read correctly, please send it to us.