Expertsystemen

Let’s imagine you want to know what brand of car the user owns. You are only interested in three well-known brands, and the others don’t really matter. Therefore, a radio group with the options Audi, Mercedes, Volkswagen and Other will do. To make them, add a question (Actions > Question). In the question screen, select Radio group and click the .

Doing so will open the Data Types dialog. It will automatically create a new input type for you. The first thing you should do is give it a logical name. In this case, consider ‘car brands’ or something related. You can later reuse this data type, which is why you have to name it. Next, enter all options the user can enter in a separate field. You can add a field by pressing [Enter] or using the buttons to the right of the field. Your screen should now look like this:

If you press [OK] and run your model (click or press [F9]) you can see your newly created input type in action!

If at any point you want to edit your input type, you can select the edit button next to the add button and the edit screen will reappear.

Expert mode

For some questions, you might need some more options. In that case you can check the Expert mode box in the bottom left of the screen. This will show more options than the normal input type screen.

Required

will make the question required. That means a user can’t go to the next screen unless the question is answered.

Read only

will not allow the user to answer the question: it will be readable but not editable.

Base type

is the input type your own type is based on. For example, you can change this to a time or date. This is only possible when you create the input type for the first time, not while editing one (see advanced custom input types).

You might wonder why there are two columns: one labeled ‘key’ and the other ‘value’.

This design allows you to use values that differ from the actual text the user sees. Essentially, the user sees the text while the system uses the value. This can be particularly useful in certain scenarios. For instance, imagine we want to assign a score to someone’s car brand, with that score determining the next step. By giving each car brand a numerical value, we can set conditions to check if the score is high enough to proceed to the next node.

Be aware that changing the key value can cause quite some confusion! This is especially important when you are not the only editor of the model.

Let’s imagine you want to know what is your users favourite type of fruit. Let them choose between apples, oranges, bananas, strawberries and ‘other’. To create this list, first add a radio group as learned in the guided tour .

Then press the plus-button next to the current subtype:

This will open the Subtype dialog. The first thing you should do is give it an appropriate name. In this case, let us choose ‘fruit’. You can later reuse this data type, which is why you have to name it. Next, enter all options the user can enter in a separate field. You can add a field by pressing [Enter] or using the button at the bottom of the list. Your screen should now look like this:

Besides settting the items, you can also make the question be required or read-only.

You might wonder why there are two columns: one labeled ‘value’ and the other ‘text’.

This design allows you to use values that differ from the actual text the user sees. Essentially, the user sees the text while the system uses the value. This can be particularly useful in certain scenarios. For instance, imagine we want to assign a score to someone’s choice of fruit, with that score determining the next step. By giving each type of fruit a numerical value, we can set conditions to check if the score is high enough to proceed to the next node.

Be aware that changing the value can cause quite some confusion! This is especially important to keep in mind when you are not the only editor of the model.

If you press [Save] and run your model (select the Preview tab—shortcut: [g] then [p]) you can see your newly created input type in action!

If at any point you want to edit your input type, you can select the edit button next to the add button and the edit screen will reappear.