QuestionPro is a dedicated survey system in SurveyTester. A project set to QuestionPro (or to Automatic) recognises a QuestionPro survey the moment the browser extension opens it: the language picker, every question with its answer options, matrix rows, sliders, rankings, the pricing and choice-modelling questions, and the validation messages QuestionPro shows when an answer does not fit. From there everything else in SurveyTester works as usual - Auto Answer, Auto Complete, SurveyBots, test cases, issues and the Pages & Routing overview.
What a QuestionPro survey looks like to a tester
A QuestionPro survey runs in one browser tab from the first to the last page. When the respondent clicks Next, the answers are sent in the background and the next question replaces the current one - the address changes, but the page never reloads. Many surveys show one question at a time ("interactive mode"): a single-choice, smiley, thumbs or NPS question moves on by itself as soon as an option is clicked. Multi-language surveys start with a language picker that also moves on with a single click.
Why this is hard to test without SurveyTester
- Nothing reloads. Because the whole survey lives in one tab, a generic tool sees a single page that keeps changing. SurveyTester watches the survey itself and records a new test step every time QuestionPro swaps the question - including the language picker and the thank-you page.
- Questions that answer themselves. In interactive mode a click on an option already sends the page. Clicking Next as well would skip the following question unanswered. SurveyTester waits for the question to move on by itself and only clicks Next when it does not.
- The same question comes back. A Gabor-Granger price question is asked again at a different price, a conjoint
question shows several tasks and a MaxDiff question several sets - all under the same question number. SurveyTester
records every price, task and set as its own step (
Q164952489_T0,Q164952489_T1, ...). - Rules that only show up on Next. A constant sum that does not add up to 100, or Van Westendorp prices in the wrong order, are refused with a message under the question. SurveyTester captures the message, attaches it to the question and, in automated runs, answers again instead of getting stuck.
- Widgets without form fields. Sliders, maps and drag & drop rankings are scripted widgets. SurveyTester moves the slider handle, clicks the region on the map and places the ranking items like a respondent would.
Supported question types
| QuestionPro question type | How SurveyTester tests it |
|---|---|
| Multiple choice (one or several answers), dropdown | Options are chosen; dropdowns are set like a respondent would pick them. |
| Smiley rating, thumbs up/down, image chooser | One option (or several for image chooser with multiple answers) is clicked. |
| Net Promoter Score | One point from 0 to 10 is chosen; the end labels are kept as the question's left and right text. |
| Star rating (one or several rows), push to social | A number of stars is chosen per row. |
| Comment box, single-line text, email address | A fitting text is typed; email boxes get a valid address. |
| Contact information | Every field (name, phone, email, ...) is filled. |
| Matrix (multi-point scale, checkboxes), image rating | Every row is answered; rows keep QuestionPro's row ids (Q164952466_R164952467). |
| Matrix spreadsheet, flex matrix, side-by-side matrix | Every cell or column group is answered according to its kind (text, number, radio, checkbox). |
| Text slider, numeric slider | The handle is moved to a position on the scale or within the slider's range. |
| Constant sum | The numbers are distributed so that they add up to the required total. |
| Rank order (dropdowns), drag & drop ranking | Every item receives a different rank; drag & drop items are placed in the ranking list. |
| Date (dropdowns), calendar | Month, day and year are chosen, or a date is typed in the calendar's format. |
| Map | A region (for example a US state) is clicked on the map. |
| Van Westendorp | The four prices are entered in the order QuestionPro requires (too expensive > expensive > cheap > too cheap). |
| Gabor-Granger | Yes or No is chosen for every price shown; the price is part of the recorded question. |
| Card sorting (fixed groups) | Every card is placed into one of the groups, like dragging it into a basket. |
| Conjoint, MaxDiff | One concept is chosen per task; in MaxDiff a different item is picked as most and least important. |
| Language picker, descriptive text, heading | Recorded as such; the language is chosen like a single-choice question. |
Image hotspots and the text highlighter are recorded as information so the page keeps its shape, but they are not filled automatically. A question type SurveyTester has not met yet is still read from its controls, so the test run continues; it is marked in the page structure so you can see which type was parsed generically.
Step by step
- Create the project. Choose QuestionPro as the survey system, or leave it at Automatic - the survey is
recognised either way. Paste the survey link (
https://<account>.questionpro.com/t/...). - Start a test run from the project with the SurveyTester browser extension. The SurveyTester bar appears above the survey, and the first page (often the language picker) 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 question QuestionPro shows becomes the next step.
- Check the result on the Pages & Routing page: every question appears with its answer options, matrix rows and every validation message QuestionPro showed during the run.
Good to know
- Question names. QuestionPro numbers its questions with long ids. SurveyTester uses them as they are
(
Q164952443), so the names stay the same when the author inserts a question in between. - One question per page. In interactive mode every question is its own step. Turn interactive mode off in QuestionPro and SurveyTester records all questions of a page together.
- Validation messages. "Total should add up to 100" or the Van Westendorp order messages are attached to the question that caused them. A run that keeps failing the same page is stopped as stuck.
- The thank-you page ("Thank you for completing this survey.") ends the test run.