LamaPoll is a dedicated survey system in SurveyTester. A project set to LamaPoll (or to Automatic) recognises a LamaPoll survey page by page: every question with its answer options, the rows of scales and matrices, rankings, and the error messages LamaPoll shows when an answer is missing or not valid. Spam protection and survey passwords are recognised too - the run waits for a person there instead of guessing.
What a LamaPoll survey looks like to a tester
A LamaPoll survey runs at an address like https://<account>.lamapoll.de/<Survey>/. The survey stays on that one
address for the whole run: a click on the next button sends the answers to LamaPoll and swaps the next page into the
same browser tab without reloading. The navigation buttons sit in a footer below the questions. The survey's last page
has no questions left, only a Beenden button; clicking it ends the survey and leads to LamaPoll's thank-you page or
to an address the author configured.
Why this is hard to test without SurveyTester
- Nothing reloads. Because the whole survey lives at one address, a generic tool sees one page whose content keeps changing. SurveyTester records each LamaPoll page as its own test step.
- Display logic runs in the browser. LamaPoll shows and hides questions on the page while the respondent answers. SurveyTester takes only the questions that are actually shown; a question hidden by a condition is skipped.
- Validation comes back from the server. A missing or invalid answer keeps the page and LamaPoll writes the message above the question text, plus a summary box for the page. SurveyTester records these messages and attaches each one to its question.
- Widgets without plain form fields. Star ratings, sliders, date pickers and drag-to-sort rankings are drawn by scripts; the actual value sits in hidden fields. SurveyTester reads the question from the widget and its hidden value together.
Supported question types
| LamaPoll question type | How SurveyTester records it |
|---|---|
| Choice (single answer) | One option is chosen; a "no answer" option is recognised as such. |
| Choice (multiple answers) | Several options are ticked, up to the maximum the author set. |
| Choice as drop-down list | One entry of the list is selected. |
| Image choice | One or several images are chosen; the image is shown with the option. |
| Option with a text field ("other, please specify") | The option and its text field are recorded together. |
| Text field, single line or multi line | A fitting text is typed. |
| Number field | A number within the allowed range is entered. |
| Date field | A date is entered; on German surveys in the format DD.MM.YYYY. |
| Time field | A time is entered as HH:MM. |
| Scale (radio buttons 1 to N) | Every row is answered with one scale point; the pole texts are kept, and a "keine Antwort" (no answer) button is recognised as a separate answer. |
| NPS | One point of the 0 to 10 scale is chosen. |
| Star rating | A number of stars is chosen. |
| Slider | A value within the slider's range is set. |
| Matrix | Every row is answered in its columns; text cells and slider cells are recorded with their column caption. |
| Ranking | Every item receives a different rank; recorded as items by rank. |
| Text block | Recorded as information, nothing to answer. |
| File upload | Shown as information in the page structure, but not answered. |
What needs a person
- Spam protection. LamaPoll can ask for the answer to a CAPTCHA image before the survey starts. SurveyTester recognises this page and the run waits until a person has solved it - CAPTCHAs are never solved automatically.
- Survey password. A password-protected survey first asks for the password. The run waits on this page as well until a person has entered it.
Step by step
- Create the project. Choose LamaPoll as the survey system, or leave it at Automatic. Paste the survey
link (
https://<account>.lamapoll.de/<Survey>/). - Start a test run from the project. If the survey shows spam protection or a password page, solve it or enter the password - the run continues from there.
- Answer the survey page by page. Each LamaPoll page becomes its own step, including pages that LamaPoll sent back with an error message.
- Finish on the end page. The page with only the Beenden button is recognised as the survey's last page and ends the run.
- Check the result on the Pages & Routing page: every page with its questions, every question with its answer options and rows, and every error message LamaPoll showed during the run.
Good to know
- Question names. SurveyTester names a question
Qplus LamaPoll's question id (Q1234567); rows of scales and matrices and the fields of a text question get the answer id added (Q1234567_8901234). A page with nothing but text is namedPplus LamaPoll's page id. The names stay the same when the author moves questions around. - Answer values are LamaPoll's ids. LamaPoll gives each answer option an id of its own, and SurveyTester keeps these ids as the option values.
- German date format. On surveys in German, date fields expect DD.MM.YYYY (for example 15.01.2026), and that is the format SurveyTester uses for date answers there.
- File uploads are listed in the page structure so the page keeps its shape, but SurveyTester does not upload a file. If such a question is required, answer it by hand.
- The end of the survey is the page with no questions and only the Beenden button. Pages before it that carry only text, for example an intro page, are normal steps.