Logic

A form with no logic runs straight down the list. Everyone answers every question and everyone lands on the same ending. The Logic tab is where you change that. Each rule you write decides where one answer sends the respondent next. Logic only moves people. It cannot reveal a question halfway through, and it cannot change an answer. To keep a question out of the form entirely, use Hidden. To switch one off for a single vacancy or candidate, see Configuring a form per record.

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Where the rules live

The Logic tab sits above the field list, between Content and Evaluation. Every question gets an Add Rule button and a footer target, and the rules you write belong to that question. Endings sit below the Endings divider and get neither. Nothing follows an ending, so a rule on one would have nowhere to point.

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Anatomy of a rule

A rule reads if <question> <operator> <value> then go to <field>.

• if starts the condition. The question picker offers this question and the ones above it, never a later one and never an ending, so a rule cannot read an answer nobody has given yet.
• The operator list comes from the question’s type. See Operators by field type.
• The value box holds whatever the operator compares against. has response compares nothing, so no box appears beside it.
• Add Condition puts a second condition in the same rule. The rule fires only when every condition matches. For alternatives, write a second rule instead.
• then go to picks the destination. Every field is offered except this one and anything set to Hidden, so a rule can send someone backwards as well as forwards.
• Delete Rule removes the rule and its conditions.

Under the rules sits the footer target, reading All other cases go to once the question has a rule and Always go to when it has none. A question can carry as many rules as it needs.

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How HireData picks the next field

Once a respondent answers a question, HireData reads that question’s rules from top to bottom and follows the first one whose conditions all match. If none match, it follows the footer target. If there is no footer target, the respondent goes on to the next field in the list. Order is what people get wrong. A broad rule above a narrow one always wins, so put the narrow rule first.

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Operators by field type

The type of the question in the condition decides the operators. Each field page explains what its operators match. The fifth row is the one that catches people out. Date, Time, Datetime, and File Upload questions can only ask whether an answer arrived. Their operator picker is greyed out, because there is nothing else to choose, so you cannot branch on one date falling before another.

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Patterns

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Branch on a choice

The everyday case. One option leads somewhere the others do not. Multiple Choice and Dropdown are the only types that offer is one of, and its value box takes several options at once. Three answers that all lead to the same follow-up are one rule, not three.

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Branch on a Yes/No

Same shape, two answers. The value box offers Yes and No.

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Ask a follow-up only when the last question was answered

has response is the operator for optional questions. It matches whatever the answer was, so long as there is one.

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Require two answers at once

Add Condition puts both conditions in one rule, and both have to match. A question the respondent never reached has no answer, so a condition reading it cannot match and the whole rule stays quiet.

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Send different respondents to different endings

Point the rule at one ending and the footer target at another.

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Skip a block of questions

A question with no rules can still jump. Set Always go to and everyone who answers it lands on the same later question, whatever they said.

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Required questions and logic

A required question has to be answered before the respondent can move on, which means its rules only run once there is an answer to test. One class of answer currently gets stuck instead.

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When a rule does not fire

Work down this list when a rule does nothing, or sends people somewhere you did not intend.

• A rule above it matched first. HireData stops at the first match. Move the narrow rule above the broad one.
• The rule needed every condition. All the conditions in one rule have to match. Split them into two rules to get either-or.
• The condition reads a question the respondent skipped. A jump that steps over a question leaves it unanswered, so any later condition on it fails and the footer target applies.
• The question is required and the answer was No, off, or 0. See the warning above.
• The rule fired and sent them backwards. A target can be a question the respondent has already passed, and nothing stops them going round the same questions twice. Try any backwards jump in Interactive Preview before you publish.
• You wrote the rule on the wrong question. Rules live on the question being answered, not on the destination.

Interactive Preview in the right-hand panel runs the same logic the published form runs, so it is the fastest way to check a route. Test & Evaluate fills in a whole response at once, which is better for checking the evaluators than the branching.

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Related

• Form builder overview covers the builder, the shared settings, and every field type.
• Objects and Data sources cover the records and lists a form can draw on.
• Creating a form in HireData walks one form from blank to published.