Survey Settings#

The survey’s settings screen (@@survey-metadata) is the edit form for everything that configures how the survey behaves: which actions run on submission, who may submit, how validation and embedding work, and which languages are offered. It is a SurveyJS-based form with several fieldsets; the same screen is used when a survey is created in the wizard, so the options described here apply to new and existing surveys alike.

Survey settings screen

How to get here#

  • From the survey landing page, click Metadata.

  • Directly at /my-survey/@@survey-metadata.

  • The screen requires the Modify portal content permission.

What you see#

The form opens with the shared survey header (“Metadata — Update form and submission handling settings.”) and the fieldset wizard below it. Navigate the fieldsets with the Next/Back buttons at the bottom; each fieldset groups related settings:

Basics

The survey’s title and description — the identity shown in the header and in listings.

Dates

Standard Plone fields: effective and expiry dates that define the publishing window of the survey (shown in the status bar on the landing page).

Actions

What happens with each accepted submission — a multi-select of store, mail, mail-notification and post, plus the POST endpoint URL. Every selected action runs for every submission; they are independent, not alternatives. See Actions for the full semantics.

Mail

E-mail sender, recipient (single address), CC/BCC lists, subject, body and the export formats attached to result e-mails. Used by the mail action and the manual mail export in the results view.

Mail notifications

Subject and body of the lightweight notification e-mail (no attachments) sent by the mail-notification action. Placeholders: {title}, {detail_url}, {poll_id}.

Form Settings

The security- and validation-relevant options:

  • Force Server Side Validation (default on) — every submission is re-validated by the external validator binary; tampered payloads are rejected even if the client never validated.

  • Max size payload (MB) (default 1) — hard limit for submission payloads; oversized requests get HTTP 413 before parsing. Raise it for file-upload surveys.

  • Access mode — public (anyone with the URL), trusted (requires a trusted access token in the URL) or trusted-tokens (single-use tokens, each consumed by the first successful submission).

  • Trusted access token TTL (hours) (default 168) — lifetime of cached trusted tokens.

Survey languages

Restrict the languages offered in the viewer. Empty = all supported languages. When restricted, visitors only see the listed languages in the language selector.

Embedding

Whether and how the survey may be embedded in external websites: none, iframe (recommended, secure), or direct (experimental Direct DOM embedding with origin allowlist and embed token TTL).

PDF Form / Fillable PDF

Upload a fillable PDF form (visitors download, fill and submit it) or a fillable PDF template (survey data is merged into the template for automated PDF generation).

The full field reference (every field, its type, default and a detailed description) is in Survey options; the global site-wide defaults live in the Forms control panel (see Global options).

What you can do#

Change the survey’s behavior#

  1. Open @@survey-metadata.

  2. Navigate to the fieldset you need with Next (or Back to go back).

  3. Change the values. Examples:

    • Enable the mail action and fill in recipient and subject so that every submission is e-mailed as an export attachment.

    • Switch the access mode to trusted and share generated links instead of the public URL (see Security).

    • Raise the payload limit when the survey collects file uploads.

    • Restrict the survey languages to the ones your audience speaks.

  4. Click Save changes. The survey is updated immediately; the public viewer reflects the new settings (for example, a new access mode or language set).

Add or replace a fillable PDF#

Use the PDF Form / Fillable PDF fieldset to upload the PDF files. After saving, manage and fill the template in @@fillable-pdf (see Fillable PDF).

Tips & notes#

  • Actions are additive — combining store + post keeps a local copy and mirrors it to a webhook; store + mail e-mails every submission to a reviewer (see Actions).

  • Mail settings are validated lazily — an incomplete mail configuration is logged, not shown to visitors; check the Plone logs if expected mails do not arrive.

  • Access mode changes affect the viewer immediately — switch to trusted and the public URL shows the “Access Required” state; you must generate and distribute access links.

  • The wizard for new surveys (@@survey-add) uses the same fields plus the basic creation step — see Quick Start.