Custom questions are one of the great ways to customize any of the RSVP forms to your specific event needs. This article will talk about how you can use them in your events.
Disclaimer: This article will discuss custom questions while using the Pro version of the plugin. You can use this as a guide for the free version of the plugin but certain functionality will be missing.
How to Access Custom Questions
To access the custom questions hover over the event name and you will see a set of links below it. On the second row will be a link for custom questions, click it.
Custom Question Sort Order
Once you have a few questions you might want to rearrange the way they will appear on the front-end. When questions are displayed they will be displayed in the order that is listed in the custom question screen. To change the order all you need to do is drag and drop the questions to be in a different order. Once that is done you then click the “Save Sort Order” button.
Adding / Editing a Question
When you click on “Add a Custom Question” or click on an existing one to edit you will see the following form.
Let’s break down what each field means.
The question grouping field has two values:
- Question asked to everyone (the default): each custom question will show up under each attendee to be asked and answered individually
- Question asked once per associated attendees: each custom question will only show up once and underneath the person who is RSVPing. The answered question will have the answer stored for each associated attendee.
The question type field specifies the many different types of questions we can create, the possible values are:
- Short Answer (the default): This question type just asks the question and gives the attendee a text input box to type in their answer.
- Multiple Choice: This question type will allow you to add a list of possible answers (discussed more below) and will display them as a set of checkboxes for an attendee to choose from.
- Long Answer: This question type will give an attendee a text area with multiple rows to answer a question. This is similar to the default “note” question.
- Drop Down: This question type will allow you to add a list of possible answers (discussed more below) and will then display it in a drop down for an attendee to select only one of the options.
- Radio: This question type will allow you to add a list of possible answers (discussed more below) and will then display it as a set of radio buttons for an attendee to select only one of the options.
- Admin Only: This question type is only displayed in the admin area. It can be useful when you have specific notes or items you want to have in only the admin area. A good example of this might be seating information or food choices you are defining for people.
- Read Only: This question type is mainly a way to show information to an attendee, like their table assignment or hotel room number.
The question field is where you input in the question that you want to ask the attendee.
The is required? check box specifies if the question must be answered, by default all custom questions are optional.
The only ask question to associated and new guests? check box specifies if the question should only show for associated guests or when you click “add additional guests.”
The question permission level drop down has two values:
- Public (the default): everyone sees this question and is asked it
- Private: only select attendees are asked this question
The only show question for RSVP status drop down is used for if you want a question to only be displayed for a given RSVP status.
There are two more optional areas that will show up on the form depending on some of the above options you choose for your custom question. The first optional area is the answers area, if you choose a question type that has a specific set of answers you will be able to add them in this section. This is what an answers area looks like after adding a few answers and editing the question again.
Clicking on add new answer will create a new input area for you to specify additional answer options. Each answer you can specify if it is the default choice and to delete an existing answer just check the delete box and save the question.
The second option area is when you set the question permission level to private this will display two combo boxes that allow you to select which attendees can view the question.
You can move an attendee from one area to the other just by click on the name.
Once you have the question all setup just make sure to hit save and you will be all set!