Dynamic Portal, Theme and Language

You can have several portals linked to the same panel, and each portal can have multiple themes and languages. This makes it possible to customize different interfaces for different groups of panelists. To assist the panelist with selecting the desired theme and language, you can include a “Theme selector” and a “Language selector” (visual components) within the portal pages.

The portal, theme and/or language to be used can be set via panel variables, or they can be set by including parameters in the portal URL. When these options are set they are stored in a cookie, so that the next time the panel is opened it will use the same portal, theme and/or language, unless it is overridden by a parameter or panel variable.

Setting Portal, Theme and Language Via Parameters in the URL

• The code identifying the portal is set in the Portal properties (the Portal Code property). If this property is set to 1 for a particular portal, you can add pc=1 to the portal link (pc for portal code) to open this portal, for example:

http://survey.confirmit.com/communities/default.aspx?p=pXXXXXXXX&pc=1

If nothing is set, the default portal will open.

• The code identifying the theme is set in the Theme properties for the portal (“Theme code”). If this is set to red for a theme, you can add tc=red to the portal link (tc for theme code) to open the portal with this theme, for example:

http://survey.confirmit.com/communities/default.aspx?p=pXXXXXXXX&tc=red

• The code identifying the language will be the standard Forsta language codes (as found in Home > Help > Language Overview), for example 9 for English. You can then use l=9 (l for language) to open the portal with English as the language:

http://survey.confirmit.com/communities/default.aspx?p=pXXXXXXXX&l=9

These three codes can also be used in combination, for example:

http://survey.confirmit.com/communities/default.aspx?p=pXXXXXXXX&pc=1&tc=red&l=9

Note: The language, portal and theme codes are all optional. If your portal(s) are just in one language, you do not need to use language codes. If you just have one portal, or just one theme within the portal(s) you do not need to provide portal codes or theme codes.

Setting Via Panel Variables

The language, portal and theme can also be set using panel variables. In the portal properties you can specify panel variables that can be used to determine which language, theme or portal is to be used for a particular panelist. These settings are made in the Portal Code Variable, Theme Code Variable and Language Code Variable fields. These are all optional settings, but if they are used, then once the panelist has logged on the system will automatically open the portal, theme and/or language according to the codes set for that panelist in the variables specified.

Instead of specifying a particular portal for the panelists, you can allow the portal, the theme and/or the language to be selected automatically for the individual panelist, based on the panelist's answers to a previous question, or a background question, or a combination of these. This is set up in the portal's Properties page.

Important:
The codes on the questions used for “Portal Code Variable”, “Theme Code Variable” and “Language Code Variable” must match the codes for the portals, themes and languages in the Portal.

The Portal Code Variable must be the same for all portals (it is the codes that are different), so you can therefore only change it on the default portal. It is this portal that opens when a panelist first accesses the site but before he/she has logged on. Once the panelist has logged on via the default portal, Forsta will check the panelist's data against the settings here and will switch to the specified portal. The theme and language can be set separately within any portal.

Note: You must have a question in the panel that includes as its answers all the possible options that you wish to use to call the various portals. The codes of the answer options will be used to specify which portal is used, or the theme and/or language for the portal. Once the question and its answer codes exist...

1. Go to the Panel Portal, right click on the portal name in the Panel Portal toolbox and select Properties.

The Properties page opens - .



Figure 1 - Selecting the Portal Code Variable

To select a portal for a respondent based on the respondent's answer to a variable:

2. Click the down-arrow beside the Portal Code Variable field and select from the drop-down list the variable you wish to use as the basis of the selection - .



Figure 2 - Selecting a variable from the drop-down list of those available in the attached panel

The drop-down list will include all the suitable variables currently included in the Panel Portal to which the portal is attached. Note that the Panel Portal's database must be generated for new variables to be included.

3. Type into the Portal Code field the code of the answer that you wish to use to call this portal - .



Figure 3 - Adding the Portal Code Variable and the Portal Code to the Properties sheet

4. Save the changes.

Now, when a panelist logs in, Forsta will check the answer that the panelist has provided for the selected question (in this case the Country question), and the appropriate portal will be used.