Question Type: Allocation of Resources

This type of question is designed to allow the user to allocate resources between various choices. Examples of this include the allocation of funds, a certain limited resource, or some other material, which can be measured in dollars or units. Basically, the respondent is given the choices, the amount of the resource, and some guidelines or restrictions on how it can be allocated. Then, he or she is asked to allocate the resource between various choices.

The following is the general form of the allocation markup:

General Form

    <allocation>    <text —allocation question text -- >    <limit 999>                          // specifies allocation limit    <list /choice1/choice2/choice3/choice4/choice5....>    </allocation> 

They will allow the user to type in the entries to allocate some resource.

There is <allocation>, which is the question type identifier. This should be at the beginning of the markup and be on a line by itself.

The <text [question text] > should be placed after text keyword, in brackets.

The allowed allocation limit comes next. This should be in brackets, such as <limit 2000>.

The <list.....> should follow the previous commands, which consists of an opening bracket, the keyword list, followed by a list of allocation choices, separated by forward slashes (/). The closing bracket completes the command, while </allocation> closes the markup.

This text example:

    <allocation>    <text ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES: You have a total of $500.00>    <limit 500>    <list/clothes/vacation/computer/stereo>    </allocation> 

will produce the following output:

    ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES: You have a total of $500.00    clothes  ?    vacation ?    computer ?    stereo   ?    Total ????