Flow Chart

The CAPI Designer makes a flow chart display available as a simple diagnostic for questionnaire logic.

To view the flow chart from the first (physical) question:

  1. Select an instrument;
  2. Go to the Tools menu | Show Flow.
To view the flow chart from a particular question, skip to the explanation below.

After chosing Show Flow from the Tools menu, the flow chart window will appear as shown in the figure below. The flow chart display will start from the first physical question, i.e., the first question in the first section of the selected instrument.

A question enclosed in a red box indicates the question that is currently being viewed. Question names to the left of the current question represent question(s) that can lead to the current question, and questions to the right side of the current question represent questions that follow the current question. On the right of the current question, question names within a blue box indicate questions that will be reached by the "Default Next Question" flow, and a question names within a green box indicate questions that will be reached if some jump condition is fulfilled.

Viewing a flow chart from a particular question

The flow chart function may be used from any given question in the flow.

To view the flow chart from a particular question:

  1. Select the question from which you want to view the flow;
  2. In the Designer interface, click the 'Flow' button (it is located by the question type icon).
The flow chart display will have the currently selected question as the current viewing question and the flow will be displayed both to and from this question.

To generate a flow chart report:

  1. Have the flow chart displayed;
  2. Click the 'Save Flow Chart' button; and
  3. Select a number of questions, specify a file name, then click the 'Create Report' button.
    Note: Presently (13May03), selecting more than 50 questions may make the Designer crash.
    This problem will be fixed soon.
Future enhancements
1. There is a new button, Flow, in the Question Design interface (on the right of the question type button). By the 'question name' text field, there are three buttons: the "check syntax" button, the "question type" button, and the "flow" button.

2. There are four more flags in the "instrument" interface. There are: 'audio autoplay flag, enable audio flag , enable image flag, and enable video flag. These flags are used by the survey program.

3. In question design interface, the 'audio' button (above the public/private comment) has been changed to the 'media' button. Media includes audio, image, and video. To specify media for a question, the user should click the media button. To play the audio, video, or display image, there are three buttons by the media button for these purposes. (see the snap shot below)