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Warnings

Adding warnings to the questionnaire

There are multiple ways to ensure that the end user provides valid answers in the questionnaire. Warnings are one of the tools you can use for this, but it is a good idea to also consider alternative options, such as validation using constraints in the variable settings and instructions added in the variable guidance.
Questionnaire warnings are used to flag issues with answers that have already been provided. They are especially useful when you want to draw the user’s attention to a combination of answers which are valid on their own but may be a cause of concern when used together.

Compulsory and non-compulsory warnings

There are two types of questionnaire warnings: compulsory warnings and non-compulsory warnings.
Compulsory warnings
 will force the user to provide compliant answers before being allowed to assemble a document. If the user closes questionnaire without resolving a compulsory warning, the answers will be saved but no documents will be generated.
Non-compulsory warnings
 will flag an issue with the answers but will not prevent the documents from being generated. They should be used in cases where you want the user to review the answers provided and perhaps seek additional guidance for their specific situation, but it is still possible to proceed to document generation without changing the answers.
On the questionnaire, any warnings that have been triggered will display in the top left corner. A compulsory warning will be marked with a red icon and a non-compulsory warning will be marked with an amber icon.
Warnings displaying in the questionnaire before saving the template.
Note that in Contract Express 8.9 or higher, the variables that have been evaluated to trigger this warning are also linked below the warning message. Earlier versions of Contract Express will have a different layout.

Warning set up

Go to the Dictionary Editor and click on
+
 to add a new warning.
Add warning option in the Dictionary Editor.
The new warning will be added to the list of warnings.
On the
General
 tab, update the warning by adding the message. This is the text that will appear on the questionnaire if the warning is triggered.
Warning message updated in the General tab.
The compulsory checkbox should be ticked if this is a compulsory warning.
Compulsory checkbox.
In scenarios where a complex expression is used as a warning condition, you may consider hiding the navigation links to questions relevant to the warning condition. For example, if the condition uses the collect function across a large data set, the list of questions relevant for the warning condition may be very long and confusing to the user. With the checkbox “Hide links to questions” ticked, only the warning message will be displayed in the questionnaire warning.
Hide links to questions checkbox.
On the
Condition
 tab, enter the logical expression that evaluates the answers to determine if the warning should be triggered.
Condition window to enter logical expression.
To delete an existing warning, right-click it in the dictionary editor and select
Delete
.

Customising the user experience using Profiles

The user experience in the questionnaire can be defined in the template profile settings. Profiles are created and applied to templates within the Contract Express web application.
The default profile option is to display the warnings on the questionnaire pages that contain answers that are relevant for the warning that has been triggered. Also, the user will not be stopped from navigating to other questionnaire pages.
In Profiles you can select different options, and these are the settings that you would consider modifying.
Customising user experience to different profiles.
If the Profile option to block page navigation is enabled, users will be able to navigate to other pages using the variable links in the warning message (functionality introduced with Contract Express 8.9) allowing the user to review all variables from the warning condition. Standard page navigation and saving the answers will be blocked until the warning is resolved.

This article applies to:

  • Product: Contract Express

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