Add an open-ended "other" choice to a list of options

lukmann · February 15, 2018, 6:02am

Hi,

This is a sample question that was generated using Google form. For option "Other", the write text tool is enabled. I wonder if anyone here can help me design this in the xlsform? Many thanks.

Capture

ARIF_AZAD_KHAN · February 15, 2018, 6:24am

See this section http://xlsform.org/#specify-other

lukmann · February 15, 2018, 7:41am

Thanks Arif. I edited the xlsform and the survey form works just fine.

However, when i tried to submit the completed survey form I got an error message "_ is an invalid column name in your form. Google sheets only allow alphanumeric characters and hyphens in column names". How can I fix this? Thanks.

ARIF_AZAD_KHAN · February 15, 2018, 8:21am

Use this xls. You can manage it using relevancy.test.xlsx (8.5 KB)

lukmann · February 16, 2018, 2:58am

I tried it but the problem still persist.

janna · February 21, 2018, 3:50pm

Hi Lukmann,
Did you solve this problem? If you still need help, could you upload your xlsform or take a screenshot of the issue in the xlsform?

Thanks!
Janna

jak · March 11, 2019, 12:39pm

Hi all,

I wonder if anyone has made progress with this issue. I've recently received the same error message and I am not sure what is causing the issue as a previous iteration of my form sent without a problem.

Here (8.9 KB) is my xml form for reference.

Thank you!

yanokwa · March 12, 2019, 4:38am

Your options are:

Don't use XLSForm's or_other construct. It automatically generates a blah_other column name which Google submissions don't allow because it has an underscore.
Manually edit the XML to replace _other with -other.

I've filed an issue at https://github.com/XLSForm/pyxform/issues/270 so we can warn people.

jak · March 12, 2019, 8:36pm

Awesome! Thank you so much. Option 2 worked great for me.