Encoding Automated Documents 101

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Basic Question Type Output
• Addresses
• Multi-Fields
• Data Tables
• Multi-Select Fields
• Calculate the Number of Items in a Table
• Conditional Logic

Quick Tip before you get started:

Upload Word document to start from: 

Navigate to the "Microsoft Word Template" tab and upload the document you want to begin encoding.  

Once you have uploaded an initial Word document template, you can edit it by selecting "Open in Word for the web" or using the above option of the Template Editor. A new tab will open and prompt you to log in using your Microsoft Business 365 account if you're not already logged in. You can then make changes to your template and any revisions will be automatically saved to Rally.

Alternatively, you can use the Template Editor (explained below) to edit your document.

Using the Template Editor:

Once your document is uploaded using the above steps, you can click on the "Template Editor" tab and begin making edits to your document directly in Rally. 

The Contet section on the right will autopopulate with any of the question fields you create in the Questionnaire tab. 

Copy ID's

Inserting the question fields into the document from the template editor is as easy as dragging and dropping from the Content section into the document. In some cases there are multiple options for how the question can appear in the document; clicking the 3 dots next to the question type will provide you with those options so you can choose. 

Summary View

To view a summary of every question and their associated IDs, click the Summary tab at the top of the Template Editor. You can use the circled icons below to copy any ID to your clipboard with or without brackets.

Basic Question Type Output

Question IDs can be used as a reference when creating Word Document Templates. Let's say you have added the following question to the template in the Questionnaire Builder:

Question: What is the employee's name?

ID: employeeName

The answer to the question will be reflected in the Word document by inserting the ID between two curly brackets:

The employee's name is {employeeName}.

After the client answers the question What is the employee's name? with "John Doe" will result in Rally producing:

The employee's name is John Doe.

This method of wrapping the ID in curly brackets applies to the following question types:

• Client Name
• Currency
• Entity
• Date
• Dropdown
• Number
• Short Text
• Long Text
• Percent
• Phone Number

Addresses

The Address field type is a great way to collect address information. By tapping into the Google Maps API, addresses are automatically validated and completed, lending to a great user-experience. When displaying this information in output documents, you have control over each part of the address. See the example below.

Address Question: What is your address?

ID: address

The whole address can be displayed by using the following:

{address.line1}{#address.line2}

{address.line2}{/} {address.city},

{address.subnationalDivision1} {address.postalCode}

{address.country}

Note that by using the example above, Line 2 of the address field is only displayed if a value was entered. Learn more about Conditional Statements.

The spacing is also important when entering the codes, the format of the address above will give you a block address output like this:

1 Infinite Loop

Cupertino, California 95014

United States of America

You can also choose to have the address outputted on one line if you space the code like this:

{address.line1}{#address.line2}, {address.line2}{/}, {address.city}, {address.subnationalDivision1} {address.postalCode}, {address.country}

The output would then look like this:

1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California 95014, United States of America

You can also decide to just use the City or Country anywhere in your document. Simply just select the applicable code:

City: {address.city}

Country: {address.country}

The method described above will work for the Client Address and Address question types. 

Learn more about the Client Address Question Type.

Learn more about the Address Question Type.

Multi-Fields

This question type enables you to collect multiple inputs related to one overarching question.

Multi-Field Question: What is your full legal name?

ID: name

Fields within the Question:

First Name:

ID: first

Middle Name:

ID: middle

Last Name:

ID: last

To properly encode the Word document template to produce the name, use what is referred to as dot notation. Enter the overarching question ID first, followed by a "." followed by the ID of each field.

Full Legal Name: {name.first} {name.middle} {name.last}

First Name: {name.first}

If the user submitted the following answer:

First: John

Middle: Smith

Last: Doe

The output would be as follows:

Full Legal Name: John Smith Doe

First Name: John

Learn more about the Multi-Field question type.

Data Tables

These question types store information in such a way that the information must be cycled through in order to be outputted. Consider the following question:

Data Table Question: Who will be the officers of the corporation?

ID: officersTable

Column 1:

Question: Officer's Name

ID: name

Column 2:

Question: Officer's Position

ID: position

To properly encode the Word document template to generate the list of officers, it would be done as in the following example:

The officers are:

{#officersTable}{name}, {position}

{/officersTable}

If the user submitted the following answers to the question:

Data Table Question: Who will be the officers of the corporation?

Table Entry 1:

Name: Amy Alpha

Position: CEO

Table Entry 2:

Name: Billy Beta

Position: CTO

The output based on the encoding above would be the following:

The officers are:

Amy Alpha, CEO

Billy Beta, CTO

Alternatively, you could put the output into an actual table. The system is intelligent enough to know to create a new row for each officer entered using the following method:

The output would look like this: 

Multi-Select Fields

Multi-select fields are used when you want the client to select more than one answer for a question. An example of this would be: 

Which types of ID do you have available? (ID = documents)

Drivers License (ID = driverslicense)

Birth Certificate (ID = birthCertificate)

Passport (ID = passport)

Canadian Issued Credit Card (ID = creditCard)

The encoding in the document would look like this: 

{documents.driversLicense | checkBox}Driver’s License

{documents.birthCertificate | checkBox}Birth Certificate

{documents.passport | checkBox}Passport 

{documents.creditCard | checkBox}Canadian Issued Credit Card

NOTE: the word checkBox needs to be written out with a capital B, if you use checkbox it will not work, it must be checkBox

The output in the final document would look like this: 

If you want to just display the answers, rather than having a check box next to the response, you would encode it this way: 

{#documents.driversLicense}Driver’s License{/}

{#documents.birthCertificate}Birth Certificate{/}

{#documents.passport}Passport {/}

{#documents.creditCard}Canadian Issued Credit Card{/}

Calculate the Number of Items in a Table

If you wish to display the total number of Officers that were entered in the table, you can do so by specifying the document output the "Table Length" using the code below. 

Number of Officers: {officersTable.length}

Learn more about the Data Table Question Type.

Conditional Logic

Learn more about Conditional Logic.