How to Create Personality Assessment Type Quizzes Using Gravity Forms Plugin

Have you taken the ‘What kind of X are you’ quiz? I have.

Most of the times you can predict the result and manipulate it. Nevertheless, it is just as fun. It basically is a very crude personality assessment quiz. The answers are multiple-choice and are always displayed in a particular order. The results are based on the answers you choose.

So, say there are 4 choices for each result (a,b,c,d). Mostly a’s would mean you are type A, mostly b’s would mean you are type B, and so on. Optionally the answers have weights, and you evaluate based on your score. You get the idea.

If you have no clue on how to add such a quiz on your WordPress or LearnDash website, I’d suggest you search for a plugin. A suitable solution would really depend on your requirements. But, if you want total control on the functionality you’ll be better off building it yourself or having it custom-built by professionals.

I’ll warn you right away, that there will be some code involved. Don’t stress. But, code is not scary. Once you have the logic in place, coding is a breeze.

Here’s what we’ll need to do:

1. Get the Gravity Forms plugin (if you do not already have it)
2. Create an Assessment Type Quiz
3. Evaluate and Display Results

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Why Gravity Forms?

We’ll be using the Gravity Forms plugin as a base for the quiz. The reason we have selected the Gravity Forms plugin is that it reduces the effort by- a LOT!

You see, the functionality you need is readily available. You have an option to add radio buttons, and also to effortlessly split the questions across sections to create a multi-part form. (This will be clear when we actually create the form).

You have the option to store results in a hidden field, style the form as per your theme, allow notifications to be sent on form submission, as well as the option to process values using available hooks.

You basically have your job cut out.

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How to Create the Quiz?

Since we will be essentially creating a quiz, some of you might be wondering if we will be using the Quiz Add-on for Gravity Forms. We won’t be using this add-on, because it doesn’t help us. This add-on is focussed on creating examination type quizzes, and instead of tweaking it, we’d be better off creating our own solution.

Moving on.

For every quiz we create, we have to create a new form. As an example, let’s consider we want to create a ‘Which Superhero are you’ quiz.

Step 1: We’ll have to create a new form and name it ‘Which Superhero are you’.

Step 2: Each question will have to be added as a ‘Radio Buttons’ field. Add the question as the field name, and options as possible answers.

Step 3: To assign weights to each answer, check the ‘show values’ checkbox for the field, and add values.

Step 4: If every question has to be answered, make each question a required field.

Step 5: To format the display of the form, you can choose to create a multipart form, and add a question on every section. For this, you would need to add a ‘Page Break’ field after every question.

Step 6: We’ll also be using a hidden field to store the result. This will be used once the form is filled but before notifications are sent. Add this field at the end of the form in the last section.

Once you have the fields in place, save the form. Pay attention to the form and field ids, we will be needing these in our code.

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How to Evaluate and Display Results?

Now, we’ve come to the main point. We have to evaluate inputs and display the corresponding results. For this we need to use the ‘gform_pre_submission’ hook. Using this hook, we can calculate the aggregate of the results and update the hidden field value, before the form entries are saved.

Lets consider you’ve added 5 questions, and the sixth field is the hidden field. Since we have assigned a value to each field, we would have to calculate the total of all selected fields and show the result based on the total. In the $_POST variable, the key for each field would be input_{field_id}. For example, for field id 4, the value would be $_POST[“input_4”];

add_filter("gform_pre_submission_3", "wdm_evaluate_results");

function wdm_evaluate_results($form)
{
    $total = 0;

    // add the values of selected results
    $total += $_POST["input_1"] ;
    $total += $_POST["input_2"] ;
    $total += $_POST["input_3"] ;
    $total += $_POST["input_4"] ;
    $total += $_POST["input_5"];

    // set the value of the hidden field
    $_POST["input_6"] = $total;
}

Now that we have the result, we can display a message using the confirmation notification settings for the form, and by using some conditional logic.

In continuation with our example, say you are ‘Batman’ if your score is less than 30. In that case you have to add a confirmation, which will be displayed only if the value of the hidden field is less than 30.

And you’re set! You have your own personal assessment quiz.

Wrapping Up

A majority of our clients who’re always looking to upgrade the quizzing modules of their site are primarily LMS and LearnDash website owners. If you’re one of them, here’s something that might interest you.

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That’s all for today. Be sure to try it out and send me links of the assessment quizzes you create using the comment section below!

Cheers!

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