The Score by Category tool is a special type of Choose One tool used in conjunction with the Score Summary tool. The Score by Category tool allows you to create radio buttons and assign values to each button. You also assign a category for each set of radio buttons. The Score Summary tool then automatically calculates and summarizes the total possible score for each category, the total assigned score, and the percent of total assigned score relative to possible assigned score. Note that the Score by Category tool can be used inside a Questionnaire container to organize the questions within a tabular format.

In the animated image below, three Score by Category fields -- Food prep area, Counters, and Dining Room -- have been created within a form, and all three have been assigned to the same scoring category, Cleanliness. The Score Summary field then calculates and summarizes the score and score percentage when a mobile user selects radio buttons for each field.

In the example above, there are three scored questions in the form, and all are assigned to the Cleanliness category. The numeric values for each answer choice are used in the score calculations, and are as follows:

Very clean = (3)
Clean = (2)
Dirty = (1)

The score calculations are handled by the Score Summary tool, which calculates the results as follows:

Food prep area received a score of Very clean = (3)
Counters received a score of Clean = (2)
Dining Room received a score of Dirty = (1)
TOTAL score = (6) out of a possible (9), for a percentage of 66.67%.

The system multiples the number of questions by the highest score possible. So in this example, there were 3 questions and the highest possible score was a 3. Therefore 9 becomes the best overall score possible. You can use the N/A option to remove a question from the high score automatically. If the user selects N/A then that question is not counted. This is not the same as making N/A equal zero. In this case the questions high score would still be counted.

It is recommended that you make all questions required and use the N/A option to allow users to skip questions.

This example will be used to help explain the properties, below.

Properties

Caption

Hint

Data name

Category: Enter a category in which this field will be scored. For example, you may have a Cleanliness category (as shown in the example above), an Operability of electric devices category, and a Smoke detectors present category. For each Score by Category tool, enter the appropriate category. When you enter the same category for multiple Score by Category tools, doForms knows to compile each of them together in the same category using the Score Summary tool, calculating total possible score for each category, total assigned score, and assigned score divided by possible score. These summaries are displayed in the mobile app when the form is completed, and are automatically added to the View Data tab.

Answers: Specifies the values of the multiple choice answers. Note that you may enter whole numbers or numbers containing decimals values.

In the example below, a Score by Category tool has been inserted into the form and given the caption Food prep area, and assigned to the Cleanliness category. Then three answer choices have been created for it, and assigned numeric values: Very clean (3), Clean (2), and Dirty (1).

Note that Answer can be assigned a score value of null (i.e., Not Applicable or NA) by selecting the NA checkbox next to it. This indicates that the null answer will not count towards a scoring summary.

For example, in the image below, the user has created five Answers for a Score by Category tool called Dining hall cleanliness (highlighted in red, below). The final Answer is labelled Not applicable, and the NA checkbox has been selected (highlighted in green, below).

In the resulting mobile form shown below, the user has entered answers of:

Kitchen cleanliness = Very clean (score of 10, or 100%)
Dining hall cleanliness = Satisfactory (score of 5, or 50%)

Both of these answers count towards the score summary total percentage (highlighted in red, below).

However, in the resulting mobile form shown below, the user has entered answers of:

Kitchen cleanliness = Very clean (score of 10, or 100%)
Dining hall cleanliness = Not Applicable (score of null)

In this situation, the Kitchen cleanliness answer counts towards the score summary. However, the Dining hall cleanliness answer is not applicable, so it does not count towards the score summary and is not tallied in the summary (highlighted in red, below).

Default value: The value of the field first presented to the user when they see the question. Unless the question is marked as “Read Only”, the mobile user will be able to change the value. This is very useful where the answer to a question is likely to repeat itself over and over. Setting a default value minimizes the work for mobile users.

Display: The answer choice options can either appear as radio buttons or as a drop-down list, using the following settings:

Down: Creates a list of radio buttons going down the page.
Across: Creates a series of radio buttons going across the page.
- Ignore across if screen smaller than: If selected, and a diagonal screen size is entered, then the Across option is ignored if the form is opened on a mobile device with a screen size smaller than the entered value. The list will instead appear going down the page.
Simple dropdown: Creates a drop-down list of choices.