Hello everyone. I have been tasked with creating a product selection tool using the Qualtrics platform. Our goal is to create a survey where each question response gets recorded into a list, then upon survey completion the results are used to select matching rows from an excel sheet. I made a prototype of this completely in Java and it works well, but for certain reasons we need to use the Qualtrics platform. I have two methods of going about this, and I am not sure if either one is the best way of doing this. If you can help me with either method, or propose a better option, it would be much appreciated as I am not very familiar with this platform.



Option 1 - Use the mobile SDK to put all of the product selection logic into our own app

For this option, I would create our 7 question survey as normal in Qualtrics. Then, we would create a mobile intercept, and an empty Android app in Android studio that automatically brings up the "Please click the button to begin the survey" intercept. Then, the user can complete their survey within the webview and go back to the app. This would be good, because it allows for extreme flexibility by using Java to do everything not related to the survey. However, I am having some problems with this method. First, the survey opens in a web view. Is it at all possible to allow the user to take the survey in the web view, and record their answers into an array of strings in the Android studio app? If not, this option is dead. I can't find anything in the APIs on how to retrieve the actual text from each answer choices. All I can really find is a PDF summary of the answers, which isn't very useful for this. So, is it possible to retrieve the answers in this method?



Option 2 - Do everything in Qualtrics using Javascript and Google sheets

My other option is this: Allow the user to take the survey, and upon completion, collect all of the answer strings in a list using Javascript. Then, use these answers to search our excel sheet (which is currently uploaded to Google Sheets for easier integration) . Then, the most crucial part, we need some sort of page that displays all matching rows from the sheet. So, assuming it is possible to get this array of strings, I can do one of two things, and I'm not sure which is optimal or even possible: I can display an external window, (or empty page?) at the end of the survey that uses this list of answers to show all of the selected products. OR I can use the email feature to send an email with the recommended products. Are either of these options viable on this platform? Would it be possible to pass the answer choices into a new window, or process them before sending an email? Also, is it even possible to parse through an excel / Google sheets file on this platform?



Overall, I would like to go with method 1, because it provides much more scalability, which we will need in the future (e.g automatic ordering of products). My only issue with that method is that it is 100% contingent on our ability to pull the answers from the completed survey back into the app code.