Expertsystemen

 

Texts, titles and questions

Let’s make our decision tree model more interactive by showing texts to the user and asking some questions.

Texts

To add a text, select the Actions menu and then select text icon Text.

Text item in Actions menu
Text item in Actions menu

In the window that appears, you can enter some text. When you press [OK], your text will show up in the Interface panel. You will also see it appear the Actions panel. This is the place from which you will be making changes to this text and other actions.

adding a text
adding a text

Titles

Another thing that happens when you add the first action to a node, is that a title icon title of the node is added to the top of the Actions list. You can change the title by double-clicking it.

title in actions panel
title in actions panel

To create a link, choose link icon Linked text from the Actions menu:

link in actions panel
link in actions panel

In the ensuing dialog, type the text do display in the first, larger box, and the internet address or URL in the bottom field.

link dialog
link dialog

Questions

Questions are used to obtain information or input from the user. You can use this to lead a user through a certain way in your decision tree model. To add a question icon question, press Actions > Question. The following window will pop up:

the question dialog
the question dialog

First of all, enter a name for the question under Name. This name can later on be used to identify the question, so pick one that explains the question well.

Second, enter the actual question text under Question. This is the question shown to the user.

Kinds of Questions

There are many different kinds of questions that you can add. On the left side of the window you will see these different kinds of questions. What you select here determines what kind of answer the user can give, ranging from simple text fields and date pickers to radio groups and full-fledged grids or tables.

Note that there is a lot more to questions. You can find more information on the predefined input types at Input Types. Extra information about customising the input types can be found at Custom input types. Note that these articles require some experience with xxllnc Expertsystemen.

Providing a default answer

You may provide a default answer for when the user has not yet given an answer.

NOTE Most of the time it is better to leave this blank. You may be tempted to use this field as a short instruction text (placeholder text). Do not use it for that purpose. xxllnc Expertsystemen support real placeholder texts by means of (custom) input type or the setproperty() function.