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View, moderate, and export participation tool submissions View, moderate, and export participation tool submissions ========================================================= Updated 1 week ago · 9 min read Search Search **View the detail of participation tool submissions and export them in XLSX format.** When public users fill in a survey, a poll or make any other submission to a consultation, Civio Engage records their responses in a specific tab, accessible from your admin interface. To view participation tool submissions -------------------------------------- 1. In the left-hand menu bar, click **Projects**. This will show you all projects you currently have access to. 2. Click on a project to open it. 3. In the project sub-menu, under **Participation**, click on the tool type for the submissions you want to review. This will bring up a list of all participation tools available within this tool type. 4. Click on the participation tool to open it. It opens on the **Submissions** tab, which is the participation tool dashboard. 5. The submission totals and graph sit at the top of the tab. Scroll down to the **list of submissions**. ![A participation tool dashboard for the idea board Your Ideas for Riverside: the submission count and graph at the top, and below them a table of three individual submissions with their ID, Status, Location, Title and Description.](https://engage.knowledge.civ.io/storage/UqeM1joLpY28Yw6nJ3LIj9snhiWLx1Blt4TEd2HO.png) To navigate to the detail of an individual submission ----------------------------------------------------- 1. In the left-hand menu bar, click **Projects**. This will show you all projects you currently have access to. 2. Click on a project to open it. 3. In the project sub-menu, under **Participation**, click on the tool type for the submissions you want to review. This will bring up a list with all participation tools available within this tool type. 4. Click on the participation tool to open it. It opens on the **Submissions** tab. 5. Scroll down to the **list of submissions**. 6. Select a submission by clicking on the **View** button. This will open a page with details of the submission, where you can view the user fields, moderate, track past revisions, and delete. ![A submission detail view, with the moderation controls alongside the submission's title and description.](https://engage.knowledge.civ.io/storage/XromGxG4ky3hoJ9JGYMvhNS8hxMythGQ9nfYUDsW.png) ![A submission detail view, with the moderation controls alongside the submission's title and description](/storage/articles/10509603295375.png) Moderation Options ------------------ ### Automatic Moderation Automatic moderation streamlines the review process for public submissions by screening content against community guidelines before it goes live. #### How it works 1. A community member submits content through a participation tool (e.g. an idea, a question, or map feedback). 2. The system automatically screens the submission for inappropriate language, offensive content, and spam. 3. If the submission **passes**, it is automatically **Published** and appears on the public site immediately. 4. If the submission **fails**, it is marked as **Rejected** and will not appear publicly. Automatic screening has to be enabled for your site. If it is not, a tool set to **Automatic moderation** behaves like a manually moderated one: new submissions stay in **Requires approval** until someone reviews them. ![A diagram of the automatic moderation workflow, showing the passed, rejected and requires approval paths](/storage/articles/11197222303631.png) #### What happens when a submission fails A rejected submission is not permanently lost. When automatic moderation rejects a submission: 1. The submission appears in the tool's **Submissions** tab with a **Rejected** status. 2. Your team can open the submission by clicking **View** and review the content. 3. If you decide the submission should go live, you can manually change its status to **Published**. This means automatic moderation acts as a first filter, your team always has the final say over whether a submission is published or stays rejected. #### What is screened Automatic moderation checks submissions for content that does not meet community guidelines, including: - Inappropriate or offensive language - Spam or irrelevant content - Content that may breach community standards Automatic moderation also applies to **comments on ideas** when commenting is enabled on an idea board. #### Setting up automatic moderation 1. In the left-hand menu bar, click **Projects** to view the projects you have access to. 2. Click on a project to open it. 3. In the project sub-menu, under **Participation**, click on the tool type for the submissions you want to configure. 4. Open the participation tool and navigate to the **Edit** tab. 5. In the right-hand sidebar, find the moderation dropdown and select **Automatic moderation**. 6. Click **Publish** to apply the change. There is no **Save** button: while you are still creating a tool the second button reads **Save as draft**, and on a published tool it reads **New draft** if your site's workflow allows one. ![The moderation dropdown in a participation tool's settings sidebar, set to Automatic moderation.](https://engage.knowledge.civ.io/storage/0dwYr3AKfLuReGSarHh6DPByKKMAZjJlZXdT60Gl.png) #### Note You can view all moderation activity, including whether a submission was auto-published, auto-rejected, or later manually overridden, by clicking the **Logs** tab in the submission details view. ### Manual Moderation Ensure you have the appropriate permissions to moderate submissions. Check your [user role](/articles/9176861358095-User-roles) permissions to verify if you have moderation access of participation tools. 1. In the left-hand menu bar, click **Projects**. This will show you all projects you currently have access to. 2. Click on a project to open it. 3. In the project sub-menu, under **Participation**, click on the tool type for the submissions you want to review. This will bring up a list of all participation tools available within this tool type. 4. Click on the participation tool to open it. On the **Edit** tab, check that **Submission moderation** in the right-hand sidebar is set to **Manual moderation**, then open the **Submissions** tab. 5. Scroll down to the **list of submissions**. 6. Select a submission by clicking on the **View** button. This will open a page with details of the submission. 7. Tools whose submissions are visible to the public, such as idea boards, Q&A boards and map feedback, show a **Status** column in the submissions list. A submission waiting on a moderator carries the status **Requires approval**. You choose how new submissions reach that state on the tool's **Edit** tab, under **Submission moderation** in the right-hand sidebar: **Manual moderation** and **Automatic moderation** both hold new submissions for review, and **Publish immediately** does not. 8. To moderate a submission, open it with **View**. The bar at the top of the submission offers the actions available for its current status: a submission with the status **Requires approval** or **Rejected** offers **Reject** and **Publish**, a published submission offers **Reject** and **Unpublish**, and an unpublished submission offers **Publish** on its own. 9. Clicking one of those buttons opens the **Moderate submission** window. Add a **Revision message** describing why you are making the change, then click **Confirm**. The message is required when you reject or unpublish a submission. ![The detail view of Submission #400, marked REQUIRES APPROVAL, with the Reject and Publish buttons on its Moderate map feedback bar traced. Below the bar are the Location map and the Map feedback panel.](https://engage.knowledge.civ.io/storage/jIWBaHF8kOdK0w9rHu1axubcX4UimeW7VlBVx3b8.png) ### Publish Immediately For tools where submissions do not need a review, set the tool's moderation to **Publish immediately**. Submissions are then public as soon as they are submitted, with no moderation or approval step. 1. In the left-hand menu bar, click **Projects** to view your accessible projects. 2. Click on a project to open it. 3. In the project sub-menu, under **Participation**, select the tool type for the submissions you want to configure. 4. Open the participation tool, go to the **Edit** tab, and set **Submission moderation** in the right-hand sidebar to **Publish immediately**. Then click **Publish**. ![The moderation dropdown in a tool's settings sidebar, set to Publish immediately.](https://engage.knowledge.civ.io/storage/SPomAftm4krt5pT7iMIFflR3Owu9J8mnrySXuPrE.png) ### Site Default: You can set any of these moderation options as your site-wide default. In [Settings](/articles/9175641395215-Settings), under the survey settings, the field is **Default submission moderation**. New tools are created with that value already selected. #### Note You can also view the moderation activity logs by clicking the **Logs** tab in the submission details view ![The moderation log for a submission, listing each action, status change, note and date](/storage/articles/10509959891983.png) Dashboard elements ------------------ The participation tool dashboard has two main sections. - A header block holding the total number of submissions, a progress bar, the number of submissions per day, and the **submission graph** showing submissions over time. Hover over the graph to reveal its toolbar, which downloads it as an SVG or PNG image, or the underlying figures as a CSV file. The submission total and the submissions per day are whole-of-tool figures, and no date filter narrows them. - A **list overview** of the tool's submissions, shown a page at a time. Between the two sits a row of sub-tabs: **Submissions**, the list itself, and **Questions**, which shows the answers to a single question you choose. A **Natural language filter** block may also appear above the submissions table. It is an experimental feature and will not appear on every site. ![An idea board's submissions dashboard with its two main sections traced: the submission count and graph at the top, and the table of individual submissions at the bottom. The Natural language filter block between them is outside both traces.](https://engage.knowledge.civ.io/storage/UGWtxULdv3VUkJRM2nHzud6VpgbBrm7D6JmBQeUt.png) Filtering submissions by response --------------------------------- You can narrow the submissions list using the answers people gave, instead of exporting everything and sorting it in a spreadsheet. This is useful for finding a particular group of participants or reviewing how one question was answered. 1. Open the participation tool and stay on the **Submissions** tab. 2. Click **Filters**, then **+ Add filter**. 3. Under **Where**, choose the question you want to filter on. 4. Set the **Comparison** to **contains**, **equals** or **not equals**. 5. Enter the **Value** you want to match. 6. Click **Apply filters**. ![The submissions list filtered by a response, with the Filters panel showing the question, the contains comparison and the value](https://engage.knowledge.civ.io/storage/eJrmNAKz7C0eSrzww6EtoU95gVi7PqETYjDgNiQJ.png) Add further conditions with **+ Add filter**. A submission has to match every condition to stay in the list. Remove a single condition with the delete icon beside it, or clear them all with **Reset**. Applied filters are held in the page address, so a filtered view can be bookmarked or sent to a colleague and it opens exactly as you left it. To export the submission data from a participation tool ------------------------------------------------------- 1. In the left-hand menu bar, click **Projects**. This will show you all projects you currently have access to. 2. Click on a project to open it. 3. From the project sub-menu, under **Participation**, select a tool type. 4. Select a participation tool from the list. Click on the **ellipsis** on the right hand side of the listing. 5. Select **Export submissions**. 6. The Excel download will automatically start. A confirmation message on the bottom of the screen will appear. You will receive an in-app notification when your download is ready. ![The ellipsis menu on a participation tool's listing, with the Export submissions option highlighted.](https://engage.knowledge.civ.io/storage/1q1yegQYi1kPWgRIkLCavoiogDrHZsNVi16GLyGL.png) ![The confirmation message and notification shown after exporting submissions, letting the reader know the download queued rather than finishing instantly.](https://engage.knowledge.civ.io/storage/9ZutpjgK7KNOJi4A0heL8TUSTHnnkrKAvGyvmpjG.png) Answers to questions marked **Keep responses private** are included in the export, even though they are hidden from the public site. See [Hide answers from the public site](/articles/9183021959439-Survey-question-types#hide-answers-from-the-public-site). To download submission attachments ---------------------------------- 1. In the left-hand menu bar, click **Projects**. This will show you all projects you currently have access to. 2. Click on a project to open it. 3. From the project sub-menu, under **Participation**, select a tool type. 4. Select a participation tool from the list. Click on the **ellipsis** on the right-hand side of the listing. 5. Select **Download attachments**. 6. If there are any attachments associated with the submissions for the selected tool, they will be downloaded as a zip file containing all the relevant attachments. Inside the zip, each submission has its own folder named with the submission ID. Files keep the name they were uploaded with, with a short code in front: **q1-0-report.pdf** is the first file uploaded to the first file question. The letter and number (**q1**, **q2** and so on) number the file questions in the order they appear in the form, and the second number counts the files within that question, starting at 0. A **questions.csv** file at the top of the zip lists each code with its question text, so you can match files to questions. File names longer than 100 characters are shortened, keeping the file type. ![The ellipsis menu on a participation tool's listing, with the Download attachments option highlighted.](https://engage.knowledge.civ.io/storage/xEihHAIkmLqgcYqn1zAgd91nYINbYrZz0aAKMhNa.png) Was this article helpful? ------------------------- Your feedback helps us prioritise what to rewrite. Yes No [ Back to Participation tools ](/articles?category=13) On this page ### Still need help? Raise a request in the support portal and track it to resolution. 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