Commonplace Migration - Quick Guide to Previewing and Publishing

This article provides some quick guides for actions you may be used to doing in Commonplace, and how to do them in Zencity.

If you have any further questions, please get in touch with us at support@zencity.io. You can also view other articles relating to the migration here.

How do I view/preview a survey?

Preview mode allows you to view and test a live survey as a member of the public would see it, without collecting any test data that might skew your results.

To preview a survey, navigate to the ‘Surveys’ screen and click the three-dot menu next to the survey - then select ‘Preview’.

Alternatively, from inside the survey editor click ‘View Draft’ - or, if the survey has already been published, 'View Published'.

How do I share a survey preview with someone outside my organisation?

Follow the steps above to preview the survey. Then click the ‘Share Preview’ button - this generates a shareable preview link. The preview link can be accessed by any external user, even if they don’t have a Zencity account.

The link will remain valid for seven days, and no data will be collected when the survey is completed in preview mode.

What should I do before launching a survey?

Once you're happy with your survey and you're ready to send it live, there are a few steps to follow before publishing it.

Step 1

Turn on 'Publicly visible' in the settings. This is important as it's what allows it to appear in your feed of engagement activities. Without this setting being switched on, no one will be able to find your survey unless they have a direct link.

Once a survey has been published it can be made publicly visible before it's open and collecting responses - allowing you to spread awareness of your upcoming engagement. Don't worry, no one will be able to view your survey questions before the survey becomes active.

Step 2

Set where you want your survey to be advertised. Your projects, updates, hubs and home will appear in the 'Advertise On' dropdown menu - selecting one or more of those pages will make the survey automatically appear in any 'Engagement Activities' lists on the pages you selected. Please note that the survey must be published in order to appear.

Step 3

Review the other survey settings:

• Do you want to give your survey custom branding?
• Do you want to allow people to paste in the open text fields?
• Do you want to include social sharing buttons in the survey?
• Do you want to direct people to a specific page once they've completed the survey?

How do I publish/launch a survey?

Publishing is no longer restricted to Lead Admins or Commonplace Success & Support teams. Any Client Admin or Owner of a survey can now publish it.

Publishing and launching are now two slightly separate processes. A survey can be published before it is opened to responses, allowing you to publicise it early on your project page. During this phase, the survey will be marked as Upcoming. Once the 'Opens' date is reached (see below) the survey will become Active, and it will then become Closed once the 'Closes' date is reached.

These opening and closing dates are set in the Settings screen. Remember to click 'Save' at the bottom of the Settings screen after setting these, and Republish to activate your changes.

Feel free to publicise the link to the survey while it is 'Upcoming'. Anyone who tried to access the survey link early will see a message asking them to come back at the scheduled time.

How do I share a live/published survey with the public?

From the survey editor, click into the ‘Share’ tab. From here you can share the survey link through various channels including socials and email, as well as generating a QR code or embedding the survey.

To simply get a direct link to the survey select the 'Copy Web Link...' option.

How do I close a survey?

The survey will automatically close when the date set in the settings is reached.

Can I update a live survey?

If you've spotted an error - such as a typo - in a live survey, feel free to edit it. For more substantial revisions, such as adding/removing questions or adjusting branching logic, it's recommended to take the survey offline, create a copy and then publish the copy.

How do I request a print-friendly/offline version of a survey?

To request a print-friendly version of a survey, please contact our Customer Support team at support@zencity.io.

How do I add responses collected offline?

To add survey responses collected offline, two settings must be enabled on the survey ‘Settings’ screen.

The first is ‘Kiosk Mode’, which allows more than one response to be submitted from a single device. The second is ‘Allow Paste in Text Inputs’ - this means that if you have collected offline responses in an Excel sheet or a Word doc, the text can be pasted directly into the survey.

It is recommended to use a unique code to match offline responses after they've been uploaded. Use a tool such as https://www.random.org/strings/ to generate a unique code for each response - then write this code on the offline surveys before uploading them (or in the Excel sheet or Word doc if your offline responses are in those formats).

You can then include the same code somewhere in the response (at the beginning or the end of an open text question is best) when it is submitted to the survey, allowing you to identify which response is which.