Hi there,

In addition to a pre-defined set of answer options for multiple choice or single choice drop-down questions, I would like to add answer options based on previous, unique "other" responses for the same question (no matter which respondent submitted the data).

Use case: Let's say you are surveying a large area for types of bacteria found. The 10 most common types are already pre-defined as answer options, and you can enter "other". As more and more survey responses come in, the person entering the data can select from response options that are based on the (ever growing and -ideally- alphabetically ordered) number of unique values previously submitted for a particular question, or add their own “other“ response which becomes part of the growing list of unique values when the form is loaded next time.

This would be a questionnaire that grows smarter over time, and I could avoid having to re-code many different spellings of the same "other" option on the back-end because respondents can see what previous responses contained for "other".

Is there any way I can do this with Limesurvey?

Limesurvey does not offer this out of the box. You might be able to create a workaround with Ajax though.

This would be a questionnaire that grows smarter over time, and I could avoid having to re-code many different spellings of the same "other" option on the back-end because respondents can see what previous responses contained for "other".

Instead you will have "precoded" wrong spellings. And don't think you will solve your problem of not having to recode. Given my experience with item batteries and other options: Usually you find answers in the other section that should have been chosen from the item battery, because it is already there...

Thanks for the reply, @holch, I appreciate the thoughts on the pros and cons of doing this. I have a concrete use case and think having the option to do this would add value, so I'd be quite interested in the practical implementation if anyone else has any thoughts?

I have no practical experience with ajax calls, so I won't be able to help there.

You cannot use an AJAX call to add answers within a survey. Answers and sub-questions must be added in the back end and sub-questions can only be added to an inactive survey.