This is a step by step tutorial on how to create a simple survey with Zamic. In this tutorial we will use the FormDB widget to create the survey and set options to capture the data, we will then publish this survey page to a customizable Zamic site. Once we have some sample data, we'll be able to analyze the survey results using the spreadsheet widget.

You can view the completed demo survey site here.

Create Survey Form

We will start off by creating a page with a Form DB widget, add the questions and configure any settings.

1. The first step is to create a page, to do this click Pages and then New Page on the left hand menu, enter in at minimum a title for the page and then click the Save button.
2. Now we need to add the widget, click the Widget tab and click the Form DB widget, this will create a blank form. Click the edit icon to start editing the widget.
3. Next drag and drop the form components we wish to use for the survey. Click the edit button on the form component to change the name and set any options. Once done, click the Save button at the bottom right hand side to save the form.
4. Next we need to modify the form settings so the data is saved. Click the Settings tab, check the Save To Database checkbox, this is to capture the submitted data into a database. In this tutorial we will present the user with a 'Thank you' dialog, click the Dialog radio option and enter in some text into the edit-box. Once done, click the Save Settings button.
5. Test the form by clicking on the Preview tab, fill out the form and click the Save Form button to confirm everything is working as expected.

We can share this form in its current state by clicking the Sharing tab and sharing the form publicly. We can then just provide the link to anyone we wish to fill in the survey. To get the link, close the page and select Share and then click Clipboard.

Video Tutorial - Create Survey Form

Add survey form to a site

If you would like to customize the look and feel of our survey, we can add it to a Zamic site and configure the site's design.

1. First select Sites in the left hand menu and then click New Site. Enter in a name for the site and optionally enter in a description or any tags then click Save. We can preview the default site by clicking the Preview tab.
2. Select the Template tab to modify the template. From here we can choose a completely different template, or change the settings on an existing enabled template. Select settings, select a logo, header and icon (if we have one) and then click Update and then Close. Note: we can just deselect each of the options if we don't have any graphics to upload (see below).
3. Click the Preview tab again to see what the site looks like with our modifications.
4. To add the survey page to the site, go back to editing the survey page (an easy way to do this is click edit in the latest pages we have created). Select the Sharing tab and set the page visibility to Unlisted. Unlisted makes the page public but not listed in search, profile and news feeds. We also disable the page information from being displayed.
5. Click the To Site button at the top of the page, search for the site we just created, enter in a name and set the survey page to be the homepage. Click Add to submit our changes.
6. To view the survey inside the site, click Sites and then My Sites in the left hand menu, click view on our newly created site to open the site in a new tab.
7. Test the survey form by entering in some test data.

Video Tutorial - Add survey form to a site

Set a customized URL for our survey

When we create a site by default, the URL or link will be in the form of https://[siteid].zsite.site. We can use this link directly, but if we would like to customize it to something more memorable, we can add a custom domain name. To do this;

1. Select Sites and My Sites from the left hand menu, click edit on our survey site.
2. Click the Domains tab
3. Click the Add Domain button, enter in a desired domain name in the edit box and then click Search.
4. If the domain is available, we can then click the Add button to add the domain.
5. We can view the site with the newly created domain by clicking on the View link for the corresponding domain. The site will open in a new tab.

You can add your own TLD domain or subdomain by clicking the 'Or, use your own domain name' link. This will take you to a page where you can enter in our domain details. It may take 24-48 hours for this to be applied. You will need to make sure your domain has been preconfigured to point to the Zamic servers.

Video Tutorial - Set a customized URL for our survey

Use a basic site template

As mentioned above in configuring the site template. If we don't have any media files e.g. a logo, header and/or icon. We can just deselect these options from being shown inside the template settings.

1. In the site editor, select the Template tab and click the Settings link.
2. Uncheck all of the options and then click Update, we can now Close the dialog.
3. Click the Preview tab to see the applied changes, and then View under the Domain tab to see the site in a new tab.

Video Tutorial - Use a basic site template

Export of data

Once we have some data from the survey, (either live or testing) we need to export for reporting. The data can be exported a number of ways, you can view it inside the Form DB widget and/or we can export in a number of formats, in this tutorial we will export it as a CSV as it makes importing into the Spreadsheet widget easier.

1. Go to the page where the survey is located and edit this page, edit the survey widget and select the Settings tab.
2. Scroll down to the Data Export Scheduling group.
3. Change the Export Type drop down to CSV.
4. Click the Save Settings button to update our changes.
5. Click the Data tab and then click the Export Data button. This will run the export in the background and email it as an attachment. We can then save the attachment to a local folder on our PC.

Video Tutorial - Export of data

Video Tutorial - Reporting