External Testing

External Test generates an externally accessible test link to the survey. You can then make this link available to people who do not have a Forsta User login. In this way you can allow for example the client to test the survey prior to it being published.

After generating the External Test, you can send the resulting link by email to the tester(s).

1. The External Test can be generated from either:
   • On the Design page, click the Test survey buttom and select Generate External Test from the menu, or
   • on the Overview page in the Survey testing and preview section, select the Generate Links button under the External Test heading.

The overlay has several testing options:

• Test navigator with commenting ability allows users testing the survey to have access to a Test Navigator overlay. This will be available throughout the survey, and allows the tester to go directly to a particular question to simplify testing of different parts of the survey. The tester can also leave comments to any of the questions. See Server Reviewer Commenting for details.
• Allow auto-answer functionality allows users testing the survey to quickly automatically answer a single question or all answers on a page. The answers provided are randomly allocated and are valid answers for each question type. They can also clear all auto-answers allowing a tester to quickly fill the survey with random answers and then clear it with single button presses. Refer to External Testing section below.
• Display background questions ensures that all non-interactive background questions are also displayed in the external test survey.
• Display panel questions ensures that all non-interactive panel questions are also displayed in the external test survey
• Display hidden questions ensures that any non-interactive questions that are marked as 'hidden' are also displayed.

The overlay also has the option to include additional question information:

• Question ID. For each question, its associated Question ID is also shown.
• Masking scripts For any question that has masking scripts associated with it, the scripts are also shown above the question.
• Answer code values. For each answer in a multi-choice question, the answer code values are also shown next to each possible answer.
• Not required property For each question that is not marked as a 'required question', [Not required] is shown above the question.
• Question category For each question, its associated category is also shown.
2. Click Generate.

When the task is complete, a link to the test survey is displayed on the Overview page in the Survey testing and preview section. Note that a link is generated for each language selected for the survey. Hovering over the appropriate language reveals two buttons: one to copy the link to the clipboard, the other the launch the link in a new browser tab.



Figure 2 - The External test links on the Overview page, active when hovering over language selection

3. Click the Copy to clipboard option to copy the link to your clipboard; you can then for example create an email and paste the link into it, and send the email to the testers. Alternatively, Click the Open in new tab to launch the external test survey in a new browser tab.

If you later make changes to the survey, click Update links to re-generate the External Test and then inform the testers of the update. Note that the link(s) will remain the same so you will not need to resend it to the testers.

Note the following:

• External Test can be used on surveys that have not yet been launched to production, but any later changes to the survey will require the links to be updated such that the changes are included .
• If a new language is added to the survey the external test links will need to be updated for that language to work.
• For surveys with more than three languages, a "Show more" link is displayed.
• If there are problems whilst generating the links, an error will be displayed with a link to display details of the issue.

The Test Navigator

When an external tester follows the link, they are presented with the survey with an always-present Test Navigator overlay showing. The Test Navigator allows the tester to jump quickly to a specific question. Background data that would usually be automatically completed is also editable during testing. If auto-answer functionality was enabled when the test survey was created, the ability to automatically complete answers with random answers is available. The Test Navigator consists of three elements:

Figure 3 - The Test Navigator

Area 1 allows the tester to jump to a specific question.

Area 2 allows the tester to have answers automatically populated to questions one by one, or all questions on the current page. In addition, a Clear All On Page button clears all answers on a page with a single click. This is a time-saver when designers are reviewing the look and feel of their surveys, allowing random answers to be quickly assigned and then cleared, with one-click operations. The >> button moves onto the next page as if the Next button were clicked in the survey. Pressing the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl+Shift+→ answers all questions and submits the page.

Area 3, the question attributes section, allows you to toggle the visibility of specific question elements.

For instance, testers can choose to display or hide:

• Question IDs: Unique identifiers for each question in the survey.

• Answer Codes: The codes associated with each answer choice.

• Other question-related options: Additional attributes that can be enabled or disabled as needed.