How to allow a user with read access to respond to a Sharepoint 2013 Survey?

Question

How to allow a user with read access to respond to a Sharepoint 2013 Survey ?

I have tried with the read access only, but its not able to get the "respond to survey" link. I have also tried the "contribute access" option also and this time, I have got the button "Respond to Survey". When I tried to fill the survey details and click submit, I'm getting an access denied error message.

Solution

You cannot add items to a list (usually what is meant when you say "respond to a Sharepoint survey") with only Read permissions. Users will need either Contribute permissions or a custom permission level that includes Add Items. It is also important to distinguish the site or list that you're setting permissions for: when you say that you have "contribute access", you may only have set Contribute permissions for your site. You need to set it for the list that contains the survey results.

Lists usually inherit permissions from their parent sites, but it is often prudent to stop inheriting and set custom permissions on lists (like surveys) that everyone will need to contribute to. That will keep users in other directorates/groups/teams from mucking with the Shared Documents library (and many other things) of whatever directorate/group/team is hosting the survey.

Lists can be set up to handle access requests so that the "access denied error message" you received will include a link to request access. This may be a feature to consider on your survey to simplify the resolution of future permission errors.

Comments

[Anish V]

Thanks for the help @Aron Foster. It works when i have given the custom permissions.

[Lennon]

Which custom permissions did you set? I'm trying some custom permissions here, but whenever the user can respond the survey, he can also see others responses and delete them... :(

[Aron Foster]

@Lennon Check out the advanced settings on your list to prevent users seeing other responses. To stop deleting, create a custom permission level like Contribute, uncheck delete, and make it the permission level for your survey list. I named my custom permission level "contribute without delete".