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Survey Countdown

Suppose you required the results of 1000 surveys before making a decision about something. Suppose further, that you wanted to publish how many more surveys are still required to reach that number.

I'll show you how to do that countdown.

Or, suppose you have a special promotion and want to award the first 100 survey takers. Suppose further that you want to publish the countdown to encourage early participation.

The same system can be used to do that countdown.

Master Survey keeps track of how many times the survey has been taken. The system presented in this article taps into that information.

This works with Master Survey version 2.8a and later. (The lastest version is 2.8c of August 6, 2007.)

How It Works

You put some JavaScript on your web page where you want the number printed for how many surveys are left to go. The JavaScript's SRC URL points to a script that provides the information. (The script can be Perl or PHP. Both are provided here.)

When the JavaScript requests the information from the script, the script finds out how many surveys have already been taken, subtracts that amount from the target amount, and sends the resulting number to the web page.

When the target has been reached, "(completed)" is printed instead of the number left to go.

You must, of course, have a survey created before implementing this.

The Template

Master Survey allows a results template to be specified where cumulative results are printed for those who have taken the survey. It's optional.

If you use results a template, you'll need to insert this somewhere within it:

<!--<EXTRACT_BEGIN>[[NUMBER]]<EXTRACT_END>-->

Do that only if you use a results template.

The Script

Now, decide whether you prefer to use Perl CGI or PHP.

Both the Perl and the PHP scripts are below. Use one or the other, not both. Customization information follows the scripts.

The Perl script requires LWP::Simple be installed on your server. Here is the script:

#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use LWP::Simple; # # On the next line, specify the target number of surveys: my $TargetNumber = 1000; # On the next line specify the survey results URL (see article): my $SurveyResultsURL = "http://example.com/MasterSurvey.cgi?display=xyz"; # No other customizations are required. my $page = get $SurveyResultsURL; $page =~ /<!--<EXTRACT_BEGIN>(\d+)<EXTRACT_END>-->/; my $number = $1; unless($number > 0) { $page =~ m!<p>Survey used (\d+) times</p>!; $number = $1; } $number = 0 unless $number > 0; my $lacking = $TargetNumber - $number; $lacking = '(completed)' if $lacking <= 0; print "Content-type: text/javascript\n\n"; print "document.write('$lacking');"; # end of script

The PHP script requires the file_get_contents() function be able to get web pages with an absolute http://... URL. Here is the script:

<?php /* The "<?php" must be at the beginning of the file. */ # # On the next line, specify the target number of surveys: $TargetNumber = 1000; # On the next line specify the survey results URL (see article): $SurveyResultsURL = "http://example.com/MasterSurvey.cgi?display=xyz"; # No other customizations are required. $page = file_get_contents($SurveyResultsURL); preg_match('/<!--<EXTRACT_BEGIN>(\d+)<EXTRACT_END>-->/',$page,$numbers); $number = $numbers[1]; if($number < 1) { preg_match('/<p>Survey used (\d+) times<\/p>/',$page,$numbers); $number = $numbers[1]; } if(! $number > 0) { $number = 0; } $lacking = $TargetNumber - $number; if($lacking <= 0) { $lacking = '(completed)'; } header('Content-type: text/javascript'); echo('document.write("'.$lacking.'");'); exit; ?>

Whichever script you decide to use, it will require these two customizations.

1. The target number (variable $TargetNumber) — Specify how many surveys are your target.

2. The survey results URL (variable $SurveyResultsURL) — To find the survey results URL, see the Master Survey control panel. Select the appropriate survey and click the "Generate Survey Form" button. On the next page, at the second note, is a form field with a URL. That URL is the survey results URL. (You do not need to re-generate the survey form, just copy the URL at that second note.)

The script may be installed on any domain.

If installing the PHP script, verify the PHP code is at the beginning of the file. No spaces or other characters, and no blank lines, may come before the PHP code. Otherwise, the PHP code will be unable to send the JavaScript header line to the browser.

If installing the Perl script, upload it to your server as a plain text file (not binary), in a directory that can run Perl scripts. Then, give the script 755 permissions.

Once the script of your choice has been installed, type its URL into your browser to verify error-free operation. (If the web page is blank, and if you're curious, "view source" to see what the script sent to the browser.)

The JavaScript

The last step is putting the JavaScript into your web page where you want the number to be printed.

JavaScript code plays havoc with some email programs, and some web mail might not display it at all. Therefore, if you have any doubt as to the correctness of the JavaScript, see the online version of the article here.

Here is the JavaScript:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://example.com/myscript.php"> </script>

Replace http://example.com/myscript.php with the URL to the Perl CGI or PHP script, whichever you decided to use.

Put the JavaScript into your web page where you want the number to be printed. Here is an example:

<p>The first 100 survey participants will get a prize. Only <script type="text/javascript" src="http://example.com/myscript.php"> </script> surveys are left to reach the goal. Take the survey now!</p>

The JavaScript doesn't have to be on the same page as the survey form, but it may. The web page with the JavaScript may be on any domain.

The System

You now have the system installed.

Whenever the web page with the JavaScript loads, it prints the number of surveys left to take before the target is reached. Once the target is reached, it prints "(completed)".

The "Caption This Cartoon" survey web page has a live example of the system in use.

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Will Bontrager
©Copyright 2007 Bontrager Connection, LLC Bontrager Connection, LLC

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