The best way to combine information from multiple objects is through a report.  However since the report type we needed didn't already exist, we created a new report type that combined Occurrences, Connections and Answers.   We needed occurrences (so we could specify the occurrence(s) we wanted to draw from), Connections (so we knew who gave the answers, and Answers  (where the answers to the questions submitted by the volunteers during signup are stored).

Click on Setup / Create / Report types to create a new report type.

The first step is to set the object relationships.  We made a report where the primary object was Occurrences and we only wanted to look at occurrences where there was at least one Connection and that the connection had an Answer associated with it.   That way we wouldn't see any results in the report for occurrences that had no connections, or ones that were without custom questions and answers.

See this post for more detail on creating a new report type.

NOTE:  When you are ready to make this report available to other profiles - remember to edit the custom report type and make it's Deployment Status "Deployed" rather than "In Development"

We certainly didn't need all the fields from each of the records, but its easier to just leave them in.  We made sure the fields we needed for our report were present.

Unfortunately, the text of the question doesn't exist in the Answers object, only the ID.   We want to see the question itself - and the text isn't on the Answers object.  (This was why melia originally asked if there was a way to add that text as a custom field in the Answers object.   There is of course -- but its not necessary!

As recently pointed out by Chris Pokrana during a community lab session, you can Add fields to a report via lookup!

To do this just pick which object in the drop down list, and click on "Add fields related via lookup"

In this case -- we wanted to lookup the QUESTION field,  which is related to the Answers object because of the Question ID.   So we check that and click OK and the question text is now available info on our report!

The hourglass icon tells us this field is being accessed via a lookup.

There are lots of ways you could create a report that uses these fields.  In the illustration above I made a summary formatted report with a few fields.

It's summarized Based on the Volunteer Opportunity Name, Then the Occurrence start date, and then on each question.

Then for each volunteer we see their Answer.

My original report was designed to list all the occurrences taking place in the next 30 days that had connections and answers.  I also filtered out connections where the status was equal to declined.   We don't care about the answers for volunteers who are no longer attending or have removed themselves.

And this is now a handy report to have available in your report library.

Since we want to it to be available to our volunteer leaders and partner staff, we save the report in a folder that we have granted customer portal users access to.

We'll come back to these filters in a bit -- when we talk about integrating this report with the occurrence record!  

What we needed now was an easy way to give access to the report from the occurrence record!  This involved creating a custom button to place on the occurrence page that would run the report and pop it up in a separate window.  To create the button we go to  Setup / Create / Objects and went to the occurrence object since that's where we want to add the button.

You'll see the HandsOn Connect button here that pops up the "Print Check-In Sheet".   We are going to create a button that pops up our new report!  So we click on NEW

1.  We give our button a Label so people know what it's going to.

2. We choose the appropriate type of button to create.  We chose a button rather than a link.  (but we could have gone with a custom link instead of a button if we preferred).

3. We chose to have the report show up in a new window.  (There are other behaviors available for different kinds of windows, or just going to a new location in the same window)

4.  We chose as our Content Source URL.  That means we just provide a link to the report itself since it has a URL.  (You can also create buttons that execute Javascript or Visualforce)

5.  In this box we simply put in the URL for the report when it runs.  We made it a relative link.

Please see this post for detailed instructions on modifying page layouts.   Click on buttons, and then drag the button to the top of the occurrence record.

Clicking on this button will cause the report to pop up right from the occurrence record!

Our report showed all occurrences that were coming up in the next 30 days.  It would only show users the occurrences and answers that were appropriate data for them to see, but it still would have multiple occurrences in one report.  What Melia wanted was a way to have the button produce ONLY the questions and answers for the one occurrence record you were viewing.  

But how could you pass a merge field into a URL link and make this happen?!?

She modified the filters in her report and added, as the first filter Occurrence ID equals""  

This version of the report will return no results at all since it only looks at Occurrences with no ID number !?!  

Not a useful version of the report for most purposes, but watch what she was able to do with it.

She saved this new version of the report in a folder for reports that were accessible to customer portal users.

Adding ?pv0={!HOC__Occurrence__c.ID}  does the following:

1) The first part of the URL specifies the report record to go to

2) the ?pv0= points to the first filter in the report   (which was Occurrence ID equals ""

3) the merge field {!HOC__Occurrence__c.ID} says to take the ID number of the occurrence for the page the button is placed on, and merge it into the first filter value.

Here's Melia's version of the report - with a bit more detail that is useful for someone wanting a summary of questions and answers for an individual occurrence.

Notice that when the report is run from the button the formerly blank Occurrence ID filter is populated with the ID# of the occurrence record the button was located on.  So we get the report with only the questions and answers for the one occurrence.

This report is now available at a click of a button in the occurrence record and can be exported to excel or .csv if desired.

Note:  If you make this report accessible to partners and volunteer leaders, make sure you update their profile to grant them read access to the fields Questions and Answers, and that they have permission to access reports.

Thanks to Melia for digging down deeper and taking the original answers I came up with for creating the report and button to new levels!  

This kind of "How can you add new functionality" thinking shows exactly how much power there is in HandsOn Connect and the extent to which a system administrator can figure out a way to do practically anything!

We expect many of our users will find ingenious solutions like this in the future and look forward to your sharing great custom features like this that you can build yourself!

Don't forget our community lab sessions each month are a great place to share your custom creations!