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How can users complete the rest of their survey from where they left off


We want to use Typeform to capture feedback as they look around our system.

The side bar type options slide away nicely but when you click back on them they restart the survey fromt the first page.  We want to just hide the Typeform panel and reshow it when the user clicks it again.

Is there a way to do this?

Best answer by mathio-tf

Hello @captbob and @Liz 

There actually is a solution for this, however you have to kind of build it yourself.

You need to embed your typeform as a widget and handle positioning, opening and closing by yourself. You can find an example of this solution here:

https://glitch.com/edit/#!/tf-popup-from-side

Edit:  See my updated answer below.

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12 replies

Liz
Community Team
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  • Tech Community Advocate
  • 14840 replies
  • June 24, 2021

Hi @captbob great question! 

Your audience doesn't have to complete a typeform in one sitting. They can start to fill one in, close it, and then return later and their answers will still be there. The only rule is they have to be on the same browser and device (and not in Incognito or Private browsing mode). Their answers will be kept safely in their browser's local storage, for 15 days.

Once they open the form, though, it will restart from the very first question. The upside is their answers will already be there so they can skip right on through until the reach the question they left off on!

I hope this helps, and let me know if you think of any other questions. 


  • Author
  • Explorer
  • 1 reply
  • June 25, 2021

Hi Liz

Once they open the form, though, it will restart from the very first question. 

This is the bit we need to change or manage somehow.  

We want to tell them to do something,  they close TF,  do the thing on our system sat underneath,  open TF click OK,  get next page and instruction in TF,  close TF,  do the thing.

You see what we want I hope,  so restart each time makes this a non starter.

Any other ideas,  may be to hide the TF element somehow.  Has anyone done this?

 


Liz
Community Team
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  • Tech Community Advocate
  • 14840 replies
  • June 28, 2021

Hi @captbob This isn’t a feature we offer at this time. I don’t have any easy workarounds offhand, but possibly @mathio can confirm if there are any!


mathio-tf
Typeform
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  • Typeform
  • 888 replies
  • Answer
  • June 29, 2021

Hello @captbob and @Liz 

There actually is a solution for this, however you have to kind of build it yourself.

You need to embed your typeform as a widget and handle positioning, opening and closing by yourself. You can find an example of this solution here:

https://glitch.com/edit/#!/tf-popup-from-side

Edit:  See my updated answer below.


Liz
Community Team
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  • Tech Community Advocate
  • 14840 replies
  • June 29, 2021

oo! Thank you, @mathio !!!


Another paid user adding a request for this feature @Liz.

 

I am switching from Qualtrics to Typeform. As part of this process, I have run into lots of unexpected limitations but am happy to have figured out a workaround almost always. This issue truly doesn’t have a workaround though, and i feel I need to suggest it again and explain why it is so necessary. I can also explain all the workarounds that I have tried and why they all don’t work:

 

The need: I want people to be able to close their browser and then come back a day later to EXACTLY where they left off. It is essential.

 

Current situation: If people close the browser and come back, even if on the same device, they always start from Page 1. This confuse people because they may think they need to update the response. And it isn’t a smooth experience in general, because even if they are not confused, it’s tedious to click through everything they have already answered again. Big problem when you have a longer survey (which is actually paid for). Qualtrics can let you leave and come back to exactly what you left.

 

Attempted solution #1: Breaking it into 2 surveys. People will be redirect to the 2nd survey. But if they close the browser, they only have URL to the first survey. Won’t work.

 

Attempted solution #2: Set up a binary variable in the logic. The initial value is 0. If they have completed a question in the first half of the survey, then the variable will be set to 1. And I *imagined* that next time when someone opens the survey, the variable, which is already updated and saved, will trigger a logic that can allow them to skip to the second half of the survey. No. Next time when they come back to the survey, they survey only remembers the responses, but not variables. Really?

 

Now I don’t have a good workaround anymore. Is it possible that at least the eng team can make the survey remember both responses and variables, so Solution #2 might work? Ideally of course, it would be amazing if they could just reopen the exact page where they left off. 

 


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  • Explorer
  • 6 replies
  • September 15, 2022

Hello,

Is it possible to open the Typeform on a specific page. We have an embedded typeform on our web app. If the user does not complete the typeform in one sitting is it possible for them to open it on the page that they were on last and not at the start.

Thanks,

EL


Liz
Community Team
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  • Tech Community Advocate
  • 14840 replies
  • September 15, 2022

Hi @knockrobin I’ve added your post here where we have the answer. ðŸ˜€


Forum|alt.badge.img
  • Explorer
  • 6 replies
  • September 15, 2022

@Liz Thanks! The link by @mathio does not work? If it is still available somewhere then I would love to have a look at it


mathio-tf
Typeform
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  • Typeform
  • 888 replies
  • September 16, 2022

I deleted all my glitch pages built on old embed SDK. I will rebuild this example using the new embed SDK and let you know.


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  • Explorer
  • 6 replies
  • September 16, 2022

Thank you so much @mathio ðŸ™Œ !


mathio-tf
Typeform
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  • Typeform
  • 888 replies
  • September 16, 2022

Here is a new example: https://tf-sidetab-keepsession.glitch.me/

The good news is that our current version of embed SDK makes this much simpler. You can use the data-tf-keep-session option (or keepSession: true if you are using the JS API):

<div
  data-tf-sidetab="HLjqXS5W"
  data-tf-button-text="Feedback"
  data-tf-custom-icon="👻"
  data-tf-keep-session
></div>

This will allow your respondents to continue exactly where they left off when they closed the typeform. It will however not preserve the state between page reloads.