Page Rules
Adding conditional logic is simple with eDesigner. Simply click the Page Rules option as shown below:
This then provides you with the opportunity to see the rules already on the page and the means to add more:
If we click the 'Add new rule' option we're presented with the following:
The rule designer is simple and intuitive where a user can:
Give the rule a name and description to clearly understand what it does
Add a condition based upon:
An answer to a question
An option that can be selected from a drop down list
A fixed value
Add multiple conditions that can can use IS / NOT / AND / OR logic
Indicate the question, who’s answer should be used in each condition of the rule
Support behaviour where none of the conditions are met I.e. the ‘ELSE’ option.
Show content based upon the conditions of a rule being met
Hide content based upon the conditions of a rule being met
Add form rules to hide entire pages based upon the conditions of a rule being met
A Simple Page Rule
The following illustrates a simple rule / showing a question based based upon one question’s answer:
In the above, the user has said that if the question:
"Do you have any underlying health conditions?" is Yes then show the question (in the right hand side panel):
"Please provide some detail of the issues these conditions cause."
Notice that it is possible to 'Select all' of the content or 'Un-select all'.
When these are selected and the OK button pressed a count of the number of items being shown/hidden is added. I.e. in the above it has 'Show 1'. If this is clicked it then shows the content to show in this condition.
A Complex Page Rule
Example where a user is setting the answers to multiple questions in conjunction with one another will meeting certain content is shown/hidden. Here we can see the ability to use AND conditions too:
Helen's point of clarity
This section has been added at the request of a customer (she knows who she is 😄)
When should you use And conditions vs Else If conditions.
The answer really is - it depends on what you want to achieve.
However (!) to provide a simple way of understanding it (for me at least).
If you want to apply a condition based upon just one thing. E.g.
IF Question 1 = Yes then show 5 questions
You'd use ELSE IF = No or ELSE to cater for No.
I.e. if only one question's answer will be used to drive the conditional logic, you'd use IF, ELSE IF, ELSE.
However, sometimes you want to do things like:
IF Question 1 = Yes and Question 2 = No and Question 3 = 1 then show / hide something.
Whenever you're doing this you will definitely need to use AND conditions.
So let's say you had the following three questions:
Do you receive Universal Credit? – No
Will you be making a claim for Universal Credit? – No
Do you have any other income? - Yes
If you wanted to show something, say a free type box to provide details of the other income, you'd want to add a rule like:
IF Do you receive Universal Credit is No
AND Will you be making a claim for Universal Credit is No
AND Do you have any other income is Yes
Then show the free text box.
You might also therefore have an ELSE IF rule for this like so:
ELSE IF Do you receive Universal Credit is No
AND Will you be making a claim for Universal Credit is No
AND Do you have any other income is No
Then hide the free text box.
The Powerful Rules in practice example below illustrates an example of this.
Powerful Rules in practice
To illustrate how powerful rules can be, see the following:
South Cambridge District Council built a pre-planning advice service that takes account of tens of combinations of things to both ask the correct subsequent questions and calculate the price a person needs to pay. This one page has 16 rules set up on it:
And each rule has many facets to ensure that irrespective of the many different factors that affect the price to pay, they can support it:
This form was built by the communications team of the council not IT.
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