After creating a data source and giving it at least one filter, you can connect it to a Free Text question. Doing this lets you use the question's keyword as either the alias of one of the data source's fields, or a means of passing values to one of its fields. When the question is displayed, its response will be filled in automatically based on the associated data source and filter.
Implementation:
- Switch to the Definition tab.
- Double-click the intended question to access its Properties tab.
- Click Data Source.
- Tick the Use the Data Source Below For This Question? check box, then use the drop-down menu immediately below it to select the intended data source.
- Using the Field to Display to the End-user drop-down menu on the left, select the data source field you want the question to display - also known as the Display Field.
- Click the Choose a Filter button.
Free Text questions are only capable of displaying one value at a time. For this reason, you must choose a Filter that is specific enough to only return a single value from the chosen Display Field. If you haven't yet created such a filter, you can do so now by clicking the Add button.
- Select the intended filter.
- Click OK.
- (Optional) Control when the question will connect to the chosen data source by ticking the Only Connect to Data Source When the Following Condition Is Met check box and typing an expression into the field provided. This will assign a Data Source Connect Expression attribute to the question, preventing it from fetching data unless the expression returns True. You can remove this limitation by either unticking the check box or manually deleting the attribute. For more information about this type of attribute, refer to Appendix: Attribute Types.
- Click OK.