James

R. Anderson III www.JamesAndersonIII.com Twitter: jrandersoniii

Save Snap! by Lectora Survey Data into a Google Docs Spreadsheet

NOTE: Read through entire directions, as they do not represent a linear step- by-step process.

Step 1. Design your survey in Snap!.

You need to have a PowerPoint document saved, before the Survey module will work. Click on Survey in the Snap! ribbon.

Step 2. Enter survey questions.

Add your survey questions and order the way you want them to appear.

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Step 3. Set survey options.

In order for the survey to publish the results to a Google Docs spreadsheet, you need: A script (provided), in this case a PHP script; Modify the script with the correct URL to a Google Docs spreadsheet set-up as a Forms database; A Spreadsheet, designed with the Google Forms tool that mirrors your Snap! survey; and The script needs to be uploaded to a server, and you need that URL.

At this point, once your survey is designed, it is best to advance to Steps 5 through 9, then return and complete this step. Click on Survey Options in the Survey dialogue box.

Click on the Results tab of the Survey Options dialogue box. Here, you need to: 1. Click the Submit Survey to Server checkbox 2. Enter the URL for the SnapSurveyScript.php file (you need to put this file on a server that is accessible by the user of your Snap! presentation). Step 6 of this document addresses changes to the script that need to be made prior to server deployment. 3. Select the POST method, if not already selected. The script is written to receive POST and not GET data. The POST method provides for the transfer of more survey data compared to the GET method.

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Step 4. Publish your Snap! presentation.

Step-by-step directions omitted. After your presentation is complete, publish in a manner that meets your needs. KNOWN ISSUE: Snap! Live does not appear to support sending survey data to script for saving/publishing.

Step 5. Create a Google Docs Form.

You need to create a Form in Google Docs, which will then create a spreadsheet that will allow for posting of data. The form should be a simple version of your survey, the survey question names or labels will become your column headers. Only enough information to make those columns meaningful is needed. In the example below, four columns will be created: Questions, Suggestions, Opinion on Surveys, and Name. Further, Google will insert a timestamp column as the first column, for a total of 5-columns. Note that only the four data elements need to be sent, the spreadsheet will automatically time and date stamp when the spreadsheet received the data.

Step 6. Obtain POST action URL and edit script

After creating your form, click the email this form option to send yourself a copy of the Google form you just created.

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Open the form via the link Google will send you. Use your browsers View Source code option. From the source code, press control-F or select Find from the appropriate browser menu and search for action (without quotes) within the source code for the form.

To the right of the word action you will find the URL that the Google form POSTS to. Copy this URL without the quotation marks making sure to include the entire URL. Now, open the SnapSurveyScript.php file in Dreamweaver, or other suitable PHP/HTML editor. This URL needs to replace the sample URL encoded on Line 44 of the script. This URL is assigned to the variable $url, so search for $url if you cant easily find line 44.

Step 7. Confirm form field names.

The script depends on the current Google Forms convention for naming of Google Form variables. If you scan down the source code for the form, you should find the form inputs are the associated names. The naming should start with: name="entry.0.single". The middle index number should increase one for every new input. If the naming convention changes, you can modify the script at line 49.

Step 8. Upload to a server.

This is a process either your or someone in IT will do. Upload this modified script to a server. The script name can be changed. You will need the script URL to complete Step 3 Part 2.

Step 9. Complete project.

At this point, your Snap! survey can be completed and you can publish your Snap! presentation once complete. At this point, go back to Step 3, setting survey options to enter the RESULT SUBMISSION parameters.

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RESOURCES

The following resources can be found on-line: Demo the Snap! survey. Includes access to the Google Docs spreadsheet where data is stored from the embedded survey: http://www.jamesandersoniii.com/DocStore/SnapDemo Script file. You may download the script to save a Snap! survey to Google Docs here: http://www.jamesandersoniii.com/DocStore/SnapScript.zip

CREDITS

The scripting code was modified from the following blog post: http://exhibita.com/blog/post/2009/09/10/Using-Google-Spreadsheets-to- Collect-Form-Data.aspx

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