Question themes

Introduction

  Update 25.01.2021: At the moment, the LS3 themes are not automatically converted and imported to LS4. Make sure the themes are compatible with LS4 beforehand.

Question Themes can be used to customize existing question types and change their visual appearance. Question Themes can only be built on core Question Types.

Access

To access the Question Themes, go to Configuration > Themes > Question Themes.

Here you can visualize both question types, core question themes, and user question themes.

Visibility

Question Themes are by default visible, but can be switched off. Once turned off, they will no longer be displayed inside the question type selector.

When the Option "show as question type" is enabled, all Question Themes will also be displayed inside the Question Type Selector.

File:QuestionThemes3Visibility.png

File:QuestionThemes4Visibility.png

Uninstall and Available Question Themes

All themes that are available for installation will be displayed in this section.

If you want to uninstall a question you can do so by selecting the Question Theme and choosing "uninstall" inside the dropdown menu under the table. They will now appear inside the available Question Themes table.

If a theme is uninstalled, it won't be available anymore inside the question type selector.

Used Question Themes cannot be uninstalled while they are still used inside a Survey.

Broken Question Themes

If there are errors while loading the available question themes, they will be displayed in this category with an error message.

Importing Question Theme

It is possible to import Question Themes using the import button. During the import, the theme will be automatically installed and available for use.

When a theme is imported from LS3 or above, it will be automatically converted into the current standard.

The imported Theme must be in the ZIP format.

Before compressing the folder to zip, it must have the following structure:

File:QuestionThemes6ImportStructure.png

NAME/survey/questions/answer/QUESTIONTYPENAME/config.xml

List of question types/IDs and default CSS classes

Question Type	Question Class	Question ID
5 point choice	.choice-5-pt-radio	5
Array (10 point choice)	.array-10-pt	B
Array (5 point choice)	.array-5-pt	A
Array (Flexible Labels) dual scale	.array-flexible-duel-scale	1
Array (Increase, Same, Decrease)	.array-increase-same-decrease	E
Array (Multi Flexible) (Numbers)	.array-multi-flexi	:
Array (Multi Flexible) (Text)	.array-multi-flexi-text	;
Array (Yes/No/Uncertain)	.array-yes-uncertain-no	C
Array (flexible labels)	.array-flexible-row	F
Array (flexible labels) by column	.array-flexible-column	H
Boilerplate question	.boilerplate	X
Date	.date	D
Gender	.gender	G
Huge free text	.text-huge	U
Language switch	.language	I
List (dropdown)	.list-dropdown	!
List (radio)	.list-radio	L
List with comment	.list-with-comment	O
Long free text	.text-long	T
Multiple numerical input	.numeric-multi	K
Multiple options	.multiple-opt	M
Multiple options with comments	.multiple-opt-comments	P
Multiple short text	.multiple-short-txt	Q
Numerical input	.numeric	N
Ranking	.ranking	R
Short free text	.text-short	S
Yes/No	.yes-no	Y

Configuration

The configuration of a question theme can be found inside config.xml.

An example can be found in the docs folder.

Metadata

The Metadata describes the question theme. These settings will also be saved in the database.

File:QuestionThemes7MetaData.png

Tag	Type	Mandatory	Description
name	string	x	The name of the extension
type	string	x	Type of the extension; can be "plugin", "theme", etc; see below
title	string	x	The title that is displayed in the frontend
creationDate	date (YYYY-MM-DD)		Date the extension was created
lastUpdate	date (YYYY-MM-DD)		Date of the latest update
author	string	x	Plugin author
authorUrl	url	x	URL to author web page, necessary so that customers can contact author for support
copyright	string	x	Copyright Information
license	string	x	Extension licence
version	string as semantic version	x	Extension version number
apiVersion	string	x	Api version number
description	string	x	Information that will be shown as help text
questionType	string	x	The Question Type the Theme is associated with
group	string	x	The Group inside the selector it should be assigned to
subquestions	string	x	If or how many Subquestionscales should be displayed
answerscales	string	x	If or how many Answerscales should be displayed
hasdefaultvalues	string	x	If the Theme has default values
assessable	string	x	If the Theme can be used for Assessments (Quiz)
class	string	x	The HTML class name for the Theme

Files

List of the of files loaded via asset manager.

File:QuestionThemes8Files.png

General Attributes

General attributes are attributes that are displayed on the right side of the question editor.

These attributes are predefined and are the same for all Question Themes. Currently, no new ones can be added. If you want to show or hide certain options for a Question Theme, you can remove or add the attribute.

File:QuestionThemes9GeneralAttributes.png

Attributes

Attributes are options you want to give to a Question Theme and can be customized. They are visible at the bottom of the question editor.

File:QuestionThemes10Attributes.png

Tag
name	The internal name
category	The category tab in which the attribute should be displayed. This can also be a new one.
sortorder	At which position inside the tab it should be display from top left (smallest) to bottom right (highest)
inputtype	What type the input should be rendered as
default	The default value for the input field
help	The help text
caption	The frontend Title for the Theme
i18n
readonly
readonly_when_active
expression

Engine

Configuration for special load options

File:QuestionThemes11Engine.png

Tag	Type	Mandatory	Description
load_core_css	boolean		If core css should be loaded
load_core_js	boolean		If core js should be loaded
show_as_template	boolean		If the Theme should be loaded
show_as_question_type	boolean		If the Theme should be listed inside the question type selector

Compatibility

Converting LS3 to LS4

When updating to LS4, the custom Question Themes will be updated to the LS4 standard. If the theme has missing attributes that cannot be automatically inserted, they will not be installed and instead be available for installation. If errors occur, they can be found under the broken question themes table.

If you want to import a Question Theme from LS3 into LS4 after upgrade, you can simply use the import function which automatically converts the LS3 theme to the LS4 standard.

The question themes created for LS4 are not backwards compatible (cannot be used in LS3!).

LS4 changes

The "custom_attributes" tag is no long needed. Attributes will always be defined inside the attributes tag instead. There is no need for different naming since they will be merged together when reading the Question Type.

Also, there have been additions to the metadata section of the xml. Additions are marked in red.

File:QuestionThemes12Compatibility.png