SOFTWARE SYNTHESIS OF THE WEB-BASED

QUESTIONNARIE SYSTEM

Masahiro Yamamoto

Faculty of Intercultural Communication, Hosei University

Keywords: Software Synthesis, Questionnar

ie System, Web-based System.

Abstract: The questionnaires on the web are increasing in the fields of business and personals recently. However, staff

peoples of business areas and conventional personals can not implement them by themselves. Usually they

ask professionals of information technology fields for building of such kinds of questionnaires. In this case

it takes many times and costs much. If staff peoples of business fields and personals can easily make it by

themselves, it is very useful. Software synthesis system of a web–based questionnaire system for them is

developed.

1 INTRODUCTION

Today, the questionnaires on the web have been

increasing in the fields of business and personals

recently. However, staff peoples of business areas

and conventional personals can not implement them

by themselves. Because, some expertise of

information technology, e.g. a script language and a

database, is required to make a questionnaire on the

web. So, usually they ask professionals of

information technology fields for building of such

kinds of questionnaires. In this case it takes many

times and costs much more. Therefore, it is required

that even if staff peoples of business fields and

personals can easily make it by themselves. In order

to overcome this problem, we have developed

software synthesis system of a web–based

questionnaire system for them

2 SYNTHESIS METHODOLOGY

Web-based application systems are usually

represented with HTML. Therefore, our aim is to

generate questionnaires represented by HTML. In

order to do, generate computer screens on the web

which people to make questionnaires easily input a

question and answering items into the system on the

web. At this time, the system has prepared basic

several question patterns of questionnaires

conventionally used. When people to make a

questionnaire input the question name and

answering items corresponding to the question into

the system, the system generates the questionnaire

systems screen according to the input information.

At this time, the mechanism to store answering data

replied by people to answer is provided. Using

generated questionnaire’s screen on the web, most

people can answer it as a conventional web based

questionnaire

3 OVERVIEW OF THE SYSTEM

Synthesis system has major three functions, making

a questionnaire, answering to a questionnaire and

viewing results of a questionnaire.

3.1 Making Questionnarie

The system generates a questionnaire building

screen on the web page. In this system, usually three

kinds of questionnaire questions are prepared.

Multiple Selections

Single Selection

Text Input

People involved in making the questionnaire select

e type of question first. After that, they describe a

question.

Then, they write answering items corresponding to

e type of question. If the type is Multiple

161

Yamamoto M. (2006).

SOFTWARE SYNTHESIS OF THE WEB-BASED QUESTIONNARIE SYSTEM.

In Proceedings of the First International Conference on Software and Data Technologies, pages 161-164

DOI: 10.5220/0001308001610164

 SciTePress

Selections or Single Selection, they can describe

multiple answering items. In the case of Input Text,

a blank space for writing view is left.

Making

Questionnaire

System Input

Answering

Questionnaire

Data

base

umber

Question

Questions

ame an

answering

results #1

Questions

ame an

answering

results #n

Viewing

Questionnaire

After every question there is Continue and Finish

button. If the administrator wants to make more

questions, then he presses the Continue button while

End button is used when there is no more question to

include.

Then the system starts to synthesize process. When

Multiple Selections is selected, a question name and

input answering items with checkbox are generated.

When Single Selection is selected, a question name

and input answering items with radio button are

generated. When Text Input is selected, a question

name and input answering items with a text input are

generated.

3.2 Answering to Questionnarire

Answering to a questionnaire is performed

according to the synthesized screen, generated by

Making Questionnaire. This is the same to the

traditional web-based questionnaire. When people

answering to a questionnaire reply to questions,

answering items on the screen are stored into the

database in the system.

3.3 Viewing Results of

Questionnarie

The system creates the web screen to show the

answering result of a questionnaire. In this case,

when a question is Multiple Selections or Single

Selection, a question and answering items with the

total number of voting and graph representation in

%. In case, when a question is Text Input, answering

texts are displayed in order of answer

4 SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION

OF SYNTHESIS SYSTEM

Synthesis system is composed of major four

functional modules, System Input Screen

Generation, Making Questionnaire Generation,

Generation of Answering to Questionnaire and

Generation of Viewing Results of Questionnaire, as

shown in Fig. 1

Figure 1: Software Configuration of Synthesis System.

4.1 System Input Screen Generation

When the system runs, at first, System Input Screen

is generated as shown in Fig. 2. In this screen,

making a questionnaire and answering to a

questionnaire are possible

Figure 2: Software Configuration of Synthesis System.

4.1.1 Making a Question

So that only authorized people can make a

questionnaire and update a questionnaire, password

checking is performed. To do this, passwords of

permitted people are stored into the database

4.1.2 Answering to a Questionnarie

In order to enter into the screen of answering to

questionnaire, two types of answering are

considered, that is, everybody or only permitted

ICSOFT 2006 - INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SOFTWARE AND DATA TECHNOLOGIES

162

person can answer. Here, only permitted person can

answer after user name and password checking. To

do this, previously user names and passwords of

permitted people are stored into the database

4.2 Making Questionnarie

Generation

When making a questionnaire, a screen is generated

as shown in Fig. 3. Conventionally usable three

types of question to a questionnaire are generated

the following as shown in Fig. 3.

1. Multiple Selections

2. Single Selection

3. Text Input

Figure 3: Screen of Making Questionnaire.

Based on this screen, people of making a

questionnaire select one of three question types and

insert a question name.

When a question type is Multiple Selections or

Single Selection, multiple answering items are

described corresponding to a question. Then they

send the screen to the system. According to this, a

question is generated. At this time, a database to

store the number of questions is generated. A

database to store a question name and answering

items corresponding to a question are also generated.

When a question type is Text Input, a database to

store the number of questions is generated. A

database to store a question name and an answering

text area corresponding to a question is generated.

At this stage, a process of generating a question is

finished. When they want to make a next question,

they continue this process repeatedly. At making a

second question, a previously generated database to

store number of questions is increased by one. In

addition, a database to store a question name and

answering items corresponding to a question or

answering text corresponding to a question are

generated. After that, this process is continued for

another question if required more. After this stage

the process of generating a question is finished

4.3 Answering to Questionnarie

Pushing the Finish Button at Making Questionnaire,

a screen of Answering to Questionnaire is generated

as shown in Fig. 4. People to answer a questionnaire

reply to questions based on this screen

Figure 4: Screen of Answering to Questionnaire.

When a type of question is Multiple Selections,

check the voting button (multiple checking is

allowed) to the answering item. When a type of

question is Single Selection, check the voting button

(just one) to the answering item. When a type of

question is Text Input, insert an answering text

corresponding to the question. After checking a

voting button or inserting an answering text, push

the voting button at end. After that, if question is

Multiple Selections or Single Selection, the database

corresponding to the answering item is increased by

one. If a type of question is Text Input, answering

SOFTWARE SYNTHESIS OF THE WEB-BASED QUESTIONNARIE SYSTEM

163

text is added to the database corresponding to the

question

4.4 Generation of Viewing Results of

Questionnarie

After finishing making a questionnaire, a screen of

thanks is displayed. At this screen, there are two

buttons of View the Statistics of Questionnaire and

Back. When pushing the button of View the

Statistics of Questionnaire, a screen of Viewing

Results of Questionnaire is generated as shown in

Fig. 5. Result of a questionnaire is displayed

according to a database which stores a question

name and answering items

Figure 5: Screen of Results of Questionnaire.

When a type of question is Multiple Sections or

Single Section, a question name is displayed and

answering items, number of voting and voting graph

represented scale are displayed. When a type of

question is Text Input, a question name and

answering texts are displayed. This process is

performed for all questions of a questionnaire by the

number of questions stored in a database

5 SYSTEM CONFIGURATION

The system is composed of a browser, a www

server, synthesis software and a database as shown

in Fig. 6

Making Answering

Viewing

Browser

Database

Figure 6: System Configuration.

Browser. Browser is used for displaying screens of

Making Questionnaire, Answering to Questionnaire

and Viewing Results of Questionnaire. It is the same

to a conventional browser, e.g. Internet Explorer.

WWW server. A www server stores synthesis

software and a database for results of answering. At

here, Apache Active Server is adopted.

Synthesis software. Synthesis software is nucleus

of this system and composed of four functional

modules described before. It is written with a script

language, Perl.

A database. As a database, a relational database,

MySQL is used.

6 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE

WORK

Using this system, non expert people of information

technology fields can easily develop a web-based

questionnaire system. As a result, implementation

time is reduced and production cost is also saved.

In this system, three types of questions are prepared.

If more different types are required, it is possible to

easily extend the system.

This system is a prototype system. User interface is

to be improved for practical use. In addition, the

function to print results of questionnaire as a

graphical format is to be added.

REFERENCES

Paul DuBois, 1996 、 MySQL and Perl for the Web.

Pearson Education。

Shishir Gundavaram, 1996 、 CGI Programming on the

World Wide Web .O’Reilly & Associates。

Colin Ferm, 1998 、Intro to Perl for CGI. O'Reilly &

Associates

。

Mark Riehl, 2002, XML and Perl. New Riders Pub

Randal Lee Kobes,Randy Kobes, 2002、 Professional Perl

Development.Wrox。

WWW Server

Synthesis

System

ICSOFT 2006 - INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SOFTWARE AND DATA TECHNOLOGIES

164