Question library

In the Question library you manage, as an organization administrator, the reusable questions that forms and letter templates are built from. Every question has a fixed key, a type and a version history, so existing submissions stay valid when a question is changed.

Overview

Route	/organization/forms/questions
Audience	Practitioner (organization administrator)
Required permission	questions.manage

Open the question library via Organization → Forms → Questions. For each question the list shows the question text, the key, the type, whether the question is required, the version number and the creation date.

How it works

A question is not a loose line of text but a reusable building block with its own history. Read this section before you change or clean up questions, so you understand why a question gets a version, why the key is fixed, and why a question can sometimes be archived but not deleted.

Versioning: editing creates a new version

A question is never overwritten "in place". Every time you edit a question, Scrivio records a new version and increases the version number by one. Answers that have already been recorded stay linked to the version they were answered with — they do not change along with it.

This keeps a completed form a faithful representation of what the client or practitioner saw at the time: if you later adjust the question text, type or options, that only applies to new entries. In the version history you can see, per version, which text and type applied at which moment; the top version is the current version used in new forms.

The key binds answers — and is fixed

Besides its text, every question has a key (for example client_first_name). The key is the technical, immutable identifier: forms and letter templates refer to the question through this key, and answers are linked to it. This keeps a single question recognizable across versions and across forms and letters — even when the visible question text differs per version.

Because the key binds answers, it cannot be changed after creation. Only the presentation (text, description, type, options, required) can be adjusted through a new version. So choose a key carefully: it is meant as a stable, meaningful label that you will recognize later in forms and templates.

Archiving versus deleting

There are two actions for cleaning up a question, and which one is available depends on whether answers have already been recorded for the question:

Situation	Delete	Archive
No answers yet	Possible — the question is permanently deleted.	Possible, but usually not needed.
Answers already recorded	Blocked — Scrivio reports that the question cannot be deleted.	The intended route.

This block protects existing submissions: deleting a question that already has answers would render those answers meaningless. Archiving is the soft alternative — the question disappears from the default list and can no longer be chosen in new forms, but keeps existing so that already-completed submissions and linked letter templates stay valid. An archived question can later be restored.

Downstream: questions feed forms and letters

The question library sits at the start of the chain. Questions you manage here are used as building blocks in:

• Forms — a form is a composition of questions; the client's or practitioner's answer is stored per question (and version).
• Letter templates — templates refer to a question through its key to insert the answer into the letter automatically.

Changes here therefore propagate to those screens. That is why a question with existing links is protected against deletion, and why versioning keeps earlier submissions intact while new forms use the current version.

Create a question

1. Click New question in the top right.
2. Fill in the fields:

Field	Required	Description
Key	Yes	Unique, technical identifier of the question (for example client_first_name). Used to link answers and cannot be changed after creation.
Type	Yes	The kind of answer: Short text, Long text, Yes/No, Single choice, Multiple choice, Date or Number.
Question	Yes	The question text shown to the user.
Description	No	Additional explanation or instruction for the question.
Options	Yes (for choice types)	For Single choice and Multiple choice you add the answer options here.
Required	No	Tick if the question must be answered.

3. Click Save.

The new question appears in the list with version number 1.

Edit a question

When you change an existing question, Scrivio automatically creates a new version. Earlier answers stay linked to the version they were filled in with.

1. Click the pencil icon (Edit) next to the question.
2. Adjust the question text, description, type, options or the required setting. The key cannot be changed.
3. Click Save.

Note: if you change the type of a choice question to another type, the existing answer options are removed.

The version number in the list is increased by one.

View version history

1. Click the history icon next to the question.
2. The Version history dialog shows all versions from newest to oldest. The top version is marked as the current version.
3. For each version you see the version number, the change date, the type and the question text.

Click Close to return to the overview.

Delete a question

A question can only be deleted if no answers have been recorded for it yet.

1. Click the trash icon next to the question.
2. Confirm in the Delete question? dialog with Delete.

This action cannot be undone.

If the question already has answers, a message appears explaining that the question cannot be deleted. In that case use Archive to hide the question.

Archive a question

Archive a question you no longer want to use but which is still linked to existing submissions or letter templates.

1. Click the archive icon next to the question.
2. Confirm in the Archive question? dialog with Archive.

Archived questions are hidden from the default list, but remain available for existing form submissions and letter templates.

Restore a question

1. Turn on the Show archived questions toggle.
2. Click the restore icon next to the archived question.

The question reappears in the default list and is available for use again.

Sort

Click a column header (Question, Key, Type, Required, Version or Created) to sort the list by that column. Click the same header again to reverse the sort order (ascending or descending).

Show archived questions

Tick Show archived questions above the list to also see archived questions in the overview. Clear the checkbox to show only the active questions.