[Solved] Custom Scripting Access to Radio Button Comments and Set Comment as Required Based on Radio Button Answer

Hi Jon,

I order to display the comments for questions rated “Deviation” or “Critical Deviation” I would grab the survey’s page map and iterate over it using a few different sgapi functions to access their values and comments if appropriate. For example…

// get the map of your survey
%%pagemap = sgapiPageMap();
// iterating over pages of the pagemap
foreach(%%pagemap as %%page_id => %%questions_on_page_arr){

// iterating over question types
foreach(%%questions_on_page_arr as %%question_id => %%question_type){

//if it’s a radio button
if(%%question_type == ‘RADIO’){

// get the rating
%%val = sgapiGetValue(%%question_id);

// if the rating was Deviation or Critical Deviation, get it’s comment
if(%%val == ‘Deviation’ || %%val == ‘Critical Deviation’) {

// get the comment form runtime properties…
%%comment = sgapiGetQuestionRuntimeProperty(%%question_id, ‘Comment’);

// right now %%comment is an obj, we need it as array, so cast it as one…
%%comment = (array) %%comment;

// there is another nested obj, so cast it as an array too…
%%comment = (array) %%comment[’atoms’][0];

// finally if there is a comment, get it and print it…
if(%%comment[’raw_value’] != ”) {
%%output .= sgapiPrint_R(%%comment[’raw_value’]);
%%output .= ‘<br/>’;
}
}
}
}
}

As for setting the comment fields to be required, you could potentially use sgapiSetQuestionRuntimeProperty. However, that would require a large amount of page jumping and headache so I would use a JS action instead. With JS you can evaluate DOM events and trigger errors dynamically.

Here is a rough start…

$(function(){

// add listener to page submit event
$(‘.sg-survey-form’).submit(function(e){

// select all radio buttons and iterate over them
$(‘.sg-type-radio’).each(function(){

// remove the error message if present
$(this).find(‘.sg-comment-title’).find(‘.sg-error-message’).remove();

var value = $(this).find(‘input:checked’).attr(‘title’);

// if they answered Deviation or Critical Deviation run custom validation…
if(value == ‘Deviation’ || value == ‘Critical Deviation’) {

// check to make sure there is a comment
var comment = $(this).find(‘textarea’).val();

if(comment == ”) {

//if blank throw an error message
$(this).find(‘.sg-comment-title’).append(‘<div class=”sg-error-message sg-error-display”>This comment field is required.</div>’);

// stop page from submitting
e.preventDefault();

}
}

});
});
});

The JS action would need to be on every page and it would target every question on that page that has is a radio button. To get around this (if you need to) you could add a unique class to all the questions you want targeted. I hope this helps!