Sometimes, when launching a job template, it is not possible (or desirable) to define all information up front. While it is perfectly possible to define parameters using variables in the AWX user interface, this is not always desirable, especially if you don't wish to give a user the privileges to edit a job template, only to run it. 

Surveys provide the answer to this, and on any job template you have created you will find a tab button at the top marked ADD SURVEY. A survey is essentially a questionnaire (hence the name!) defined by an administrator, where simple user input validation is performed, and then, once accepted, the entered values are stored in Ansible variables.

For example, if we wanted to capture the http_port variable value for a job template when it is run, we could create a survey as follows:

Now, when the playbook is run, the user is prompted to enter a value, and AWX ensures it is an integer in the specified range. A sensible default is also defined.