Survey builder

The Survey builder is where administrators design the questionnaires the rest of ShelterSync uses. It builds two things with the same tools:

• Activity surveys — the short questionnaires volunteers fill in after an activity.
• Assessment templates — the scored behavioral assessments run on the Assessments page.

Who can use this page: administrators. This is the most technical page in ShelterSync, so this section goes into detail.

The pieces of a survey

A survey has a few top-level settings and a list of questions.

• Title — the human name people see.
• Code — a short, stable machine name for the survey (for example DOG_BEHAVIOR_ASSESSMENT). Unlike the title, the code is meant not to change; it's how the survey is referenced behind the scenes and in any integrations. Use letters, numbers, and underscores.
• Description — optional notes about what the survey is for.
• Purpose — either Activity survey or Assessment. This decides where the survey is used and whether it's scored.

Questions

Add questions one at a time. Each question has:

• Question text — what you're asking.
• Type — how it's answered (see below).
• Key — a short, unique name for the question within this survey, in lowercase_with_underscores (for example food_aggression). The key is how each answer is stored and how other questions refer to this one. Once people have answered, avoid changing keys.
• Dimension (optional, for assessments) — a grouping label. Questions that share a dimension have their scores added together, so you can see a subtotal per area (for example all the aggression questions).
• Options — for choice questions, the answers to pick from. Each option can carry a score (see scoring below).

Question types

Type	How it's answered
Single choice	Pick one option from a list.
Multiple choice	Pick any number of options.
Yes / no	A simple true/false.
Yes / no with a note	Yes or no, plus an optional comment when relevant.
Rating	A 1–5 scale.
Number	A numeric value.
Short text / Long text	Free text — a line, or a paragraph.

Choice, rating, and number questions can contribute to a score; text and note questions are for context and aren't scored.

Showing questions only when relevant (visibility)

A question can have a visibility rule so it only appears when it's needed — based on how earlier questions were answered. For example, a "describe the bite" question might appear only if an earlier "has this animal bitten?" question was answered yes. You write the rule in terms of other questions' keys and their answers; if the rule isn't met, the question is hidden and skipped.

Checking answers (validation)

A question can also have a validation rule that the answer must satisfy before the survey can be submitted — for example, keeping a number within a sensible range. If an answer fails validation, the person is asked to fix it before they can finish.

TIP

Visibility and validation rules are powerful but easy to get wrong. Build the survey, then fill it in yourself to confirm questions appear and validate the way you expect.

Scoring and risk (assessments)

Assessment templates turn answers into a score, and the score into a 🟢 green / 🟡 yellow / 🔴 red risk level.

1. Give answers points. On a choice question, set a score on each option (a "calm" answer might be 0, an "aggressive" answer 3). Rating and number answers can contribute their value.

2. Set the thresholds. The survey's scoring rules say which total maps to which color. They're written as a small block of JSON. For example:

   {
     "riskThresholds": [
       { "color": "green",  "max": 4 },
       { "color": "yellow", "max": 8 },
       { "color": "red",    "max": null }
     ]
   }

   Read it top to bottom: a total of 4 or less is green, 5–8 is yellow, and anything above 8 is red (max: null means "no upper limit — everything else").

When someone submits an assessment, ShelterSync adds up the points, picks the color from these thresholds, and (for red) restricts the animal until staff review it. See Behavioral assessments.

Connecting an activity survey to activities

For an activity survey, you choose which activity types it follows. You can also set, per activity type:

• First time only — show the survey just the first time an animal does that activity.
• Required — the volunteer must complete the survey before the activity can be ended.

Fields explained

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