Conditional Sections

Survey templates in ScopeStack group questions into sections. Sections help respondents understand the context for each set of questions, which is especially useful when sharing surveys externally with people who may not be familiar with your organization’s terminology.

Sections can also be shown or hidden based on answers to earlier questions. This lets you build a single survey template that adapts to different scenarios instead of creating separate surveys for each case.

For example, if you provide migration services between platforms ABC, DEF, and GHK, you might have common questions that apply to every migration plus platform-specific questions. Rather than maintaining three separate survey templates, you can use conditional sections to show the right questions based on the respondent’s selected platform.

Setting Up Conditional Sections

Start by creating your survey template as usual. See Building a Survey Template for the full walkthrough. We recommend using the Introductory Text field to let respondents know the survey will progress through stages.

On this screen: The survey settings form showing the survey Name field, a Published checkbox, an Introductory Text textarea (displayed at the top of the survey), and a Thank You Text textarea (displayed after submission). Below those fields are optional settings for Notification List, Redirect after survey?, and Tags.

1. Add Common Questions

When you create the survey template, the platform automatically creates a first section with the same name as your survey. This section is the right place for common questions that every respondent should answer.

2. Add Discriminant Questions

Include questions whose answers will determine which conditional sections appear. The simplest approach is to use questions with Select Options or boolean values, because their possible values are well-defined and easy to test against.

On this screen: The Questions tab for a survey, showing the first section (named after the survey) with its questions listed in a table. Each row shows the question text and a drag handle for reordering. A + Add Question link appears in the table footer. A + Add New Section link appears below the section to create additional sections.

3. Create Conditional Sections

1. Click Add New Section.

2. Give the section a descriptive Name and Introduction. Respondents will see both of these, so clear titles help them understand the context.

3. Fill in the Display Condition. This field uses the same expression syntax as survey calculations. Reference question values by their slug and use comparison operators like equality (==), inequality (!=), greater than (>), etc.

   The section is displayed only when the Display Condition evaluates to true. For example, if you have a question with the slug source_platform and options “abc”, “def”, and “ghk”, a section with the condition source_platform=="abc" will only appear when the respondent selects “abc”.

On this screen: The Survey Section form for a Conditional Section. The Name field holds the section title. The Display Condition (Optional) field accepts an expression such as source_platform=="abc" — when this evaluates to true, the section is shown. Helper text reads: “When this evaluates to true, the section will be displayed. Leave blank to always display.” Below those fields is an Introduction textarea for the section’s introductory text.

4. Add questions to this section as usual. These questions will only be shown when the respondent’s answers satisfy the display condition.
5. You can drag and drop to reorder questions within a section and move questions between sections.

Conditional Recommendations

Your service, product, or governance recommendations can also depend on the same discriminant questions. If a recommendation only applies when a specific conditional section is active, add a matching condition to the recommendation. For example, if a “Build ABC Source Adapter” service should only be recommended when the source platform is ABC, set the recommendation’s condition to check that source_platform equals “abc”.

How Conditional Sections Work When Taking the Survey

Whether taken internally or shared externally, the survey initially displays only sections with no Display Condition. The respondent fills out the visible questions and clicks Continue.

On this screen: The survey form showing only the sections with no Display Condition — the initial visible sections. Questions are grouped under their section headings. At the bottom of the form is a Continue button (the button label is “Continue” when multiple sections exist, indicating that submitting will evaluate whether additional conditional sections should appear).

The platform evaluates the responses to determine which conditional sections should appear. If any match, those sections are added to the form and the respondent provides additional answers.

On this screen: The same survey form after clicking Continue, now showing the newly revealed Conditional Section appended below the original section. The conditional section’s name and introduction are shown as a section header, followed by its questions. The page scrolls to bring the new section into view automatically. The Continue button remains available to submit and evaluate for any further conditional sections.

When all questions have been completed and no more conditional sections can be displayed, the survey shows Recommendations and the Review/Add Project Details button appears in the top-right corner.