Survey Management Tool

This directory contains survey configurations that are published to user-feedback.xml for consumption by Devolutions products (RDM, DVLS, Hub).

Overview

Surveys are managed through CloudCannon CMS, providing a user-friendly interface for Product Marketing to create, edit, and manage in-app surveys without requiring developer intervention.

How It Works

Survey Files: Each survey is stored as a Markdown file in this directory
CloudCannon: Provides a visual editor with proper field validation
Build Process: Eleventy generates /api/user-feedback.xml from all enabled surveys
Applications: RDM, DVLS, and Hub fetch and display surveys based on criteria

File Naming Convention

Files should be named descriptively to indicate their purpose:

Format: {product}-{platform}-{language}.md
Examples:
- rdm-windows-feedback-english.md
- rdm-linux-feedback.md
- dvls-windows-admin-survey-french.md

Survey Fields

Required Fields

Field	Description	Format	Example
`surveyId`	Unique identifier (GUID)	UUID	`781bce4c-c31e-4514-b08a-ab70638136d4`
`surveyUrl`	Survey URL	URL	`https://example.com/survey`
`message`	Message shown to user	Text	`Share your RDM experience`
`platform`	Target platform	Select	`Windows`, `Mac`, `Linux`, `All`
`minVersion`	Minimal product version	`A.B.C.D`	`2025.3.14.0` or `0.0.0.0` for all
`endDate`	Survey end date	`YYYY-MM-DD`	`2026-09-30`
`type`	Feedback type	Select	`Survey` (only option for now)

Optional Fields (Supported since 2025.3)

Field	Description	Default	Options
`datasource`	Datasource type	`All`	`All`, `SQLServer`, `DVLS`, `Hub`, `HubBusiness`, `HubPersonal`
`language`	Survey language	`All`	`All`, `English`, `French`, `German`, `Other`
`license`	License type	`All`	`All`, `Free`, `Licensed`
`product`	Target product	`All`	`All`, `RDM`, `DVLS`, `Hub`, `HubBusiness`, `HubPersonal`
`userType`	User type	`All`	`All`, `Admin`

Metadata Fields

Field	Description	Default
`_enabled`	Whether survey is active	`true`
`_draft`	Draft status (won't be published)	`false`

Important Notes

Survey ID Management

⚠️ CRITICAL: The surveyId must be identical for all language variants of the same survey.

For example, if you have a survey in English, French, and German targeting the same audience:

rdm-windows-feedback-english.md → surveyId: 781bce4c-c31e-4514-b08a-ab70638136d4
rdm-windows-feedback-french.md → surveyId: 781bce4c-c31e-4514-b08a-ab70638136d4 (same!)
rdm-windows-feedback-german.md → surveyId: 781bce4c-c31e-4514-b08a-ab70638136d4 (same!)

This allows the application to track that a user has already seen the survey, regardless of which language version they saw.

Version Support

Not all product versions support all fields:

Legacy versions (< 2025.3): Only support basic fields (Data, ID, Message, Platform, MinVersion, EndDate, Type)
2025.3+: Support additional filtering fields (Datasource, Language, License, Product, UserType)

The build system will include all fields in the XML, but older application versions will simply ignore fields they don't understand.

Empty Fields Warning

CloudCannon will warn you if optional fields are left empty. This is intentional - you can publish surveys without filling all fields if you want to target:

Older product versions that don't support those fields
All users regardless of datasource, language, etc.

Creating a New Survey

Via CloudCannon (Recommended)

Log in to CloudCannon
Navigate to the "Surveys" collection
Click "+ Add Survey"
Fill in the required fields:
- Survey URL: The actual survey link
- Message: What users will see in the app
- Platform: Select target platform
- Min Version: Minimum product version (use 0.0.0.0 for all versions)
- End Date: When survey should stop appearing
(Optional) Fill in targeting fields to narrow audience
Click Save
Wait for the site to rebuild (automatic)

Via Git/Manual (Advanced)

Create a new .md file in packages/website-devolutions/content/surveys/
Copy the structure from .cloudcannon/schemas/survey.md
Fill in all required fields
Commit and push to trigger build

Editing Existing Surveys

Open the survey file in CloudCannon
Make your changes
Save
Rebuild occurs automatically

Disabling a Survey

To stop showing a survey without deleting it:

Open the survey in CloudCannon
Toggle _enabled to OFF
Save

The survey will be excluded from the next XML generation.

Deleting a Survey

In CloudCannon, open the survey
Click the delete icon (⋮ menu → Delete)
Confirm deletion

Note: Deleted surveys are permanently removed. Consider disabling instead if you might want to reuse it later.

Multi-Language Surveys

When creating surveys in multiple languages:

Create one survey per language
- Example: Create 3 files for EN, FR, DE
Use the SAME surveyId for all language variants
- This prevents users from seeing the same survey multiple times
Set the language field appropriately
- English, French, German, or Other
Translate the message field
- This is what users see in their application
Keep the surveyUrl the same OR use language-specific survey links
- Depends on your survey platform setup

Example: Multi-Language Survey

English version (rdm-windows-feedback-english.md):

surveyId: '781bce4c-c31e-4514-b08a-ab70638136d4'
surveyUrl: 'https://example.com/survey?lang=en'
message: 'Share your RDM experience'
language: 'English'
platform: 'Windows'
minVersion: '2025.3.14.0'
endDate: '2026-09-30'
# ... other fields

French version (rdm-windows-feedback-french.md):

surveyId: '781bce4c-c31e-4514-b08a-ab70638136d4'  # SAME ID!
surveyUrl: 'https://example.com/survey?lang=fr'
message: 'Partagez votre expérience RDM'
language: 'French'
platform: 'Windows'
minVersion: '2025.3.14.0'
endDate: '2026-09-30'
# ... other fields

Testing

Viewing Generated XML

Build the site locally: pnpm run build:11ty
Open dist/api/user-feedback.xml in a text editor
Verify your survey appears with correct data

Testing in Development

Start dev server: pnpm run dev:11ty
Navigate to http://localhost:8080/api/user-feedback.xml
Check that only enabled, non-draft surveys appear

Testing in Applications

Product teams can test surveys by:

Pointing their app to the staging/production XML URL
Ensuring their version meets minVersion requirement
Verifying survey appears based on filters (platform, language, etc.)

XML Output Format

The generated XML follows this structure:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<UserFeedback>
  <FeedbackEntities>
    <FeedbackEntity>
      <Data><![CDATA[survey URL here]]></Data>
      <Datasource>All</Datasource>
      <EndDate>2026-09-30</EndDate>
      <ID>unique-guid-here</ID>
      <Language>English</Language>
      <License>All</License>
      <Message>Survey message here</Message>
      <MinVersion>2025.3.14.0</MinVersion>
      <Platform>Windows</Platform>
      <Product>RDM</Product>
      <Type>Survey</Type>
      <UserType>All</UserType>
    </FeedbackEntity>
    <!-- More surveys... -->
  </FeedbackEntities>
</UserFeedback>

Troubleshooting

Survey Not Appearing in XML

Check:

Is _enabled set to true?
Is _draft set to false?
Has the site been rebuilt after your changes?
Are all required fields filled?

Survey Showing in Wrong Language

Check:

Is the language field set correctly?
If the user's app language doesn't match, they might see "Other" or "All" language surveys

Survey Not Showing in Application

Check:

Does the user's version meet minVersion?
Does the user's platform match the platform field?
Has the survey endDate passed?
Do the filtering fields (datasource, license, etc.) match the user's setup?

Duplicate Surveys Appearing

Check:

Are multiple language variants using different surveyId values?
- Solution: Use the same ID for all language variants

Migration from Manual PR Process

This tool replaces the previous manual process where surveys were added via Pull Request to user-feedback.njk.

Old Process:

Developer manually edited user-feedback.njk
Added XML <FeedbackEntity> blocks
Created PR, reviewed, merged
Deployed

New Process:

Product Marketing logs into CloudCannon
Fills in form with survey details
Clicks Save
Automatic rebuild and deployment

Security & Access

CloudCannon Access: Managed by IT team
Required Permissions: Editor or Admin role in CloudCannon
Branch Protection: Master branch is protected, changes deploy via CloudCannon

Support

For questions or issues:

Technical Issues: Contact Web Development team
Survey Content: Contact Product Marketing
CloudCannon Access: Contact IT team

Schema: .cloudcannon/schemas/survey.md
Collection Config: cloudcannon.config.yml (surveys section)
XML Generator: packages/website-devolutions/pages/api/user-feedback-dynamic.njk
Legacy File: packages/website-devolutions/pages/api/user-feedback.njk (deprecated, will be removed)

Last Updated: November 12, 2025
Maintained By: Web Development Team

Survey Management Tool

Overview

How It Works

File Naming Convention

Survey Fields

Required Fields

Optional Fields (Supported since 2025.3)

Metadata Fields

Important Notes

Survey ID Management

Version Support

Empty Fields Warning

Creating a New Survey

Via CloudCannon (Recommended)

Via Git/Manual (Advanced)

Editing Existing Surveys

Disabling a Survey

Deleting a Survey

Multi-Language Surveys

Example: Multi-Language Survey

Testing

Viewing Generated XML

Testing in Development

Testing in Applications

XML Output Format

Troubleshooting

Survey Not Appearing in XML

Survey Showing in Wrong Language

Survey Not Showing in Application

Duplicate Surveys Appearing

Migration from Manual PR Process

Security & Access

Support

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