GESS is a dedicated survey system in SurveyTester. A project set to GESS (or to Automatic) recognises a GESS survey the moment the browser extension opens it: every page with its questions, answer options, open fields and number fields, and the message GESS shows when a question was not answered. From there everything else in SurveyTester works as usual - Auto Answer, Auto Complete, SurveyBots, test cases, issues and the Pages & Routing overview.
Update the browser extension. GESS answer buttons only react to the mouse being pressed, not to a simple click. Auto Answer needs the new GESS module of the SurveyTester extension to press them. Update the SurveyTester extension to the latest version before you test GESS surveys.
What a GESS survey looks like to a tester
GESS Phone & Field is the survey software of GESS for online, telephone and field interviews. Web surveys run on the
GESS servers; the address of every page ends in .../q/SurveyServlet. A 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 pressed, and the survey keeps
the actual answers in hidden fields behind them. The Weiter button may stay disabled until the page is answered.
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 - and even a click on the picture does nothing, because GESS listens for the mouse button being pressed. SurveyTester presses the answer cells the way a respondent's mouse does, so GESS's own scripts record the answer.
- A second press undoes the answer. Pressing a chosen single-choice option again clears it. SurveyTester checks what is already chosen and only presses what needs to change.
- Shuffled answer lists. Answer options are often shown in random order, and brand lists may show logos instead of text. SurveyTester records every option with GESS'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 switches the others off exists only in the page's script. SurveyTester reads it, marks the option as exclusive and never combines it with other answers.
Supported question types
| GESS question type | How SurveyTester tests it |
|---|---|
| Single choice | One option is pressed. |
| Multiple choice, with exclusive options | Several options are pressed; an exclusive option ("none of these") is only chosen on its own. |
| Option with a text field ("Other, namely: ___") | The option is chosen and a fitting text is typed into its field. |
| Open text (one line or a text box) | A fitting text is typed. |
| Open list with a "none" option (for example "Brand 1:" to "Brand 8:" and "noticed no advertising") | Texts are typed into the list fields, or the "none" option is chosen instead. |
| Number fields, with a "Keine Angabe" (no answer) button | A plausible number is typed, or the "Keine Angabe" button is pressed. |
| Information page | Recorded as information; SurveyTester moves on with Weiter. |
Several questions on the same screen are recorded as separate questions of one page, with the screen's text as the page text.
Not supported yet
Grids (GESS singlegridq and multigridq, statements in rows and a scale in columns) are recorded as a page so
the test run continues, but their rows and scale points are not read yet. They are marked as an unknown question type
in the page structure. Answer them by hand.
Step by step
- Update the extension. Make sure the SurveyTester browser extension is up to date (see the box at the top).
- Create the project. Choose GESS as the survey system, or leave it at Automatic - the survey is recognised either way. Paste the survey link. When the link leads through a panel's start page first, that page is recognised too and SurveyTester continues into the survey.
- 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.
- Answer the survey by hand, or press Auto Answer and Auto Next to let SurveyTester fill the page and move on. Every page GESS shows becomes the next step.
- Check the result on the Pages & Routing page: every page appears with its questions, every question with its answer options, exclusive options and number fields.
Good to know
- Question names. SurveyTester uses GESS's own question names (
s6_13,sc_f1); answer values are GESS's answer codes. Options shown only as a picture (a brand logo) are recorded with their code and the picture. - Error messages. When GESS refuses to move on ("Bitte beantworten Sie die Frage"), the message is stored with the question it belongs to.
- Number ranges. GESS does not tell the page which numbers are allowed. If a number is rejected, the message GESS shows is captured with the question.
- The end of the survey. Surveys often 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.
- Support is new. GESS support was built on the pages of a real GESS study and has not yet been used in many SurveyBot runs. If you find a page that SurveyTester does not read or answer correctly, please send it to us.