Extension:QuickSurveys

MediaWiki extensions manual

QuickSurveys Release status: stable
Description	In article quick surveys or external surveys. Polling readers for opinion.
Author(s)	Jon Robson, Joaquin Hernandez, Rob Moen, Bahodir Mansurov, Sam Smith
Latest version	1.3.0
MediaWiki	1.26+
License	MIT License
Download	Download extension Git [?]: Download Git master browse repository (GitHub) commit history code review
Parameters $wgQuickSurveysConfig
Hooks used BeforePageDisplay ResourceLoaderGetConfigVars ResourceLoaderRegisterModules
Translate the QuickSurveys extension if it is available at translatewiki.net
Check usage and version matrix.

The QuickSurveys extension allows for showing in-article banners, in order to ask users so that we can gather opinions and feedback on different matters.

Documentation

• Rationale
• Deploying surveys
• Documentation on metawiki

Prerequisites

QuickSurveys depends on EventLogging and won't work without it.

Installation

• Download and place the file(s) in a directory called QuickSurveys in your extensions/ folder.

• Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php:

  wfLoadExtension( 'QuickSurveys' );
  

•  Done – Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.

Configuration

Here is a configuration for two kinds of surveys: "internal survey" and an "external survey". An "internal survey" provides a question and a set of possible answers in the article itself, whereas an "external survey" links to a survey provided by another platform (e.g. Google Forms).

// A copy-and-pasteable example of an internal and external survey. The
// QuickSurveys extension includes these messages so you can copy and paste the
// following into your LocalSettings.php to see an example of each survey.
$wgQuickSurveysConfig = [
	// Example of an internal survey
	[
		// Survey name
		'name' => 'internal example survey',
		// Internal or external link survey"
		'type' => 'internal',
		// Survey question message key
		'question' => 'ext-quicksurveys-example-internal-survey-question',
		// The message key of the description of the survey. Displayed immediately below the survey question.
		'description' => 'ext-quicksurveys-example-internal-survey-description',
		// Possible answer message keys for positive, neutral, and negative
		'answers' => [
			'ext-quicksurveys-example-internal-survey-answer-positive',
			'ext-quicksurveys-example-internal-survey-answer-neutral',
			'ext-quicksurveys-example-internal-survey-answer-negative'
		],
		// Label for the optional free form text answer
		'freeformTextLabel' => 'ext-quicksurveys-example-internal-survey-freeform-text-label',
		// Who is the survey for? All fields are optional.
		'audience' => [
			'minEdits' => 0,
			'maxEdits' => 500,
			'registrationStart' => '2018-01-01',
			'registrationEnd' => '2080-01-31',
			// You must have CentralNotice extension installed in order to limit audience by country
			'countries' => [ 'US', 'UK' ]
		],
		// Whether to shuffle the display of the answers
		'shuffleAnswersDisplay' => false,
		// Whether the survey is enabled
		'enabled' => true,
		// Percentage of users that will see the survey
		'coverage' => 0.5,
		// For each platform (desktop, mobile), which version of it is targeted
		'platforms' => [
			'desktop' => [ 'stable' ],
			'mobile' => [ 'stable' ]
		],
	],
	// Example of an external survey
	[
		'name' => 'external example survey',
		// Internal or external link survey
		'type' => 'external',
		// Survey question message key
		'question' => 'ext-quicksurveys-example-external-survey-question',
		// The i18n key of the description of the survey
		'description' => 'ext-quicksurveys-example-external-survey-description',
		// External link to the survey
		'link' => 'ext-quicksurveys-example-external-survey-link',
		// Parameter to add to external link
		'instanceTokenParameterName' => 'parameterName',
		// The i18n key of the privacy policy text
		'privacyPolicy' => 'ext-quicksurveys-example-external-survey-privacy-policy',
		'audience' => [
			// Show survey only to anonymous users
			'anons' => true,
		],
		// Whether the survey is enabled
		'enabled' => true,
		// Percentage of users that will see the survey
		'coverage' => 0.5,
		// For each platform (desktop, mobile), which version of it is targeted
		'platforms' => [
			'desktop' => [ 'stable' ],
			'mobile' => [ 'stable' ]
		]
	],
];

Defining an audience

It is possible to define audiences for a survey based edit count, whether a respondent is logged in, user registration date, and their country (based on IP).

The audience field is optional and can be omitted if you want the survey to show to everyone (as defined in coverage). You can also only include some of the parameters. For example, including just minEdits will target users who have at least that many edits with no maximum.

Note, the audience is not included in sampling, so for example if coverage is 0.5, 50% of all users will be bucketed for the survey, but only the users in that 50% that match the audience will actually see the survey.

All audience keys are additive.

We will accept several keys:

• minEdits: the minimum number of edits a user should have
• maxEdits: the maximum number of edits a user should have
• anons: is the survey targeted to anons (true) or logged-in (false) only? If undefined, both groups will potentially be included.
• registrationStart: if the survey is targeted by registration date, user had to join on or after this date. Date is in format YYYY-MM-DD
• registrationEnd: if the survey is targeted by registration date, user had to join before or on this date. Date is in format YYYY-MM-DD
• countries: a list of two letter country codes that are matched against window.Geo.country

		'audience': {
		    'minEdits': 2,
		    'maxEdits': 5,
		    'registrationStart': '2018-01-01',
		    'registrationEnd': '2018-01-31',
		    'countries': [ 'US', 'UK' ]
		},

Adding message keys

Messages can be defined as part of an extension e.g. WikimediaMessages or by wiki page. For example the message "ext-quicksurveys-example-internal-survey-answer-positive" can be defined by editing the wiki page MediaWiki:ext-quicksurveys-example-internal-survey-answer-positive

For editing messages ensure you have the right permissions. You will need edit-interface right.

How to load a specific survey

You can bypass the sampling and load a survey using one of the methods below. Please note that the survey you want to load needs to be enabled and passed to the front end. See the "Notes and Gotchas" section if you are having trouble seeing a survey.

• To load a random survey append ?quicksurvey=true to the URL;
• To load an internal survey whose name is 'internal example survey' append ?quicksurvey=internal-survey-internal example survey to the URL;
• To load an external survey whose name is 'external example survey' append ?quicksurvey=external-survey-external example survey to the URL.

Note: The quicksurvey parameter is not the literal survey name. It's the type and survey name. The leading internal-survey- or external-survey- is stripped when looking up the survey name in the configuration. E.g., ?quicksurvey=internal-survey-drink-survey picks the survey named drink-survey not internal-survey-drink-survey.

Developer guide

Getting installed

Vagrant has a role! If not using Vagrant it's also easy:

wfLoadExtension( 'QuickSurveys' );

// Load LocalSettings.php so the browser tests work and you have some quick surveys defined!

include_once "$IP/extensions/QuickSurveys/tests/browser/LocalSettings.php";

Take a look at LocalSettings.php to see how a survey is defined. Don't worry too much about it.

Displaying a survey

Next thing is you'll want to see a random survey:

http://localhost:8888/w/index.php/Spain?quicksurvey=true

(Refresh a few times)

There are 2 types of surveys - internal survey (has buttons) or an external survey (has a link).

You can force an example of each using the following URLs:

• http://localhost:8888/w/index.php/Spain?quicksurvey=internal-survey-internal%20example%20survey
• http://localhost:8888/w/index.php/Spain?quicksurvey=external-survey-external example survey

Rules for displaying a survey

Much of this logic seems to reside on the client.

mw.config.get( 'wgEnabledQuickSurveys' )

tells you what surveys are available.

QA

I've setup reading web staging with QuickSurveys so we have a shared environment for testing.

• https://reading-web-staging.wmflabs.org/wiki/Pharmacovigilance?quicksurvey=external-survey-internal%20example%20survey
• https://reading-web-staging.wmflabs.org/wiki/Pharmacovigilance?quicksurvey=internal-survey-internal%20example%20survey

Notes and Gotchas

• window.Geo is provided by CentralNotice. To avoid setting up an extension run JSON.stringify( window.Geo ) in production and add window.Geo = <data>; to your code.

Note that a survey won't show up when:

• on the Main Page;
• on non-article page;
• on non-existent article page. Be careful when using the MobileFrontend content provider!;
• when the browser's "Do Not Track" feature is turned on;
• on skin Minerva when the beta opt in panel is shown;
• if a survey is an external one and points to non-https location when the config variable `wgQuickSurveysRequireHttps` is set to `true`.