Add a Survey to a Knockout Application
This step-by-step tutorial will help you get started with the SurveyJS Form Library in a Knockout application. To add a survey to your Knockout application, follow the steps below:
As a result, you will create a survey displayed below:
See the Pen SurveyJS - Add a Survey to a Knockout Application.
Link SurveyJS Resources
The SurveyJS Form Library for Knockout consists of two parts: survey-core (platform-independent code) and survey-knockout-ui (view models). Each part includes scripts and style sheets that implement the Modern and Default V2 themes illustrated below:
Insert links to the scripts and style sheets within the <head> tag on your HTML page after the Knockout link:
<head>
<!-- ... -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/knockout/build/output/knockout-latest.js"></script>
<!-- Default V2 theme -->
<link href="https://unpkg.com/survey-knockout/defaultV2.min.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">
<!-- Modern theme -->
<!-- <link href="https://unpkg.com/survey-knockout/modern.min.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet"> -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/survey-core/survey.core.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/survey-knockout-ui/survey-knockout-ui.min.js"></script>
<!-- ... -->
</head>
For more information about SurveyJS themes, refer to the following help topic: Themes & Styles.
Create a Model
A model describes the layout and contents of your survey. The simplest survey model contains one or several questions without layout modifications.
Models are specified by model schemas (JSON objects). For example, the following model schema declares two textual questions, each with a title and a name. Titles are displayed on screen. Names are used to identify the questions in code.
const surveyJson = {
elements: [{
name: "FirstName",
title: "Enter your first name:",
type: "text"
}, {
name: "LastName",
title: "Enter your last name:",
type: "text"
}]
};
To instantiate a model, pass the model schema to the Survey.Model constructor as shown in the code below. The model instance will be later used to render the survey.
const survey = new Survey.Model(surveyJson);
View Full Code
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>My First Survey</title>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/knockout/build/output/knockout-latest.js"></script>
<!-- Default V2 theme -->
<link href="https://unpkg.com/survey-jquery/defaultV2.min.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">
<!-- Modern theme -->
<!-- <link href="https://unpkg.com/survey-jquery/modern.min.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet"> -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/survey-core/survey.core.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/survey-knockout-ui/survey-knockout-ui.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="index.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
const surveyJson = {
elements: [{
name: "FirstName",
title: "Enter your first name:",
type: "text"
}, {
name: "LastName",
title: "Enter your last name:",
type: "text"
}]
};
const survey = new Survey.Model(surveyJson);
Render the Survey
A survey should be rendered in a <survey> page element. Bind its survey parameter to a view model property that contains the survey model (model in the code below):
<body>
<survey params="survey: model"></survey>
</body>
To render a survey in the page element, activate Knockout bindings:
const survey = new Survey.Model(surveyJson);
document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() {
ko.applyBindings({
model: survey
});
});
If you replicate the code correctly, you should see the following survey:
View Full Code
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>My First Survey</title>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/knockout/build/output/knockout-latest.js"></script>
<!-- Default V2 theme -->
<link href="https://unpkg.com/survey-jquery/defaultV2.min.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">
<!-- Modern theme -->
<!-- <link href="https://unpkg.com/survey-jquery/modern.min.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet"> -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/survey-core/survey.core.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/survey-knockout-ui/survey-knockout-ui.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="index.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<survey params="survey: model"></survey>
</body>
</html>
const surveyJson = {
elements: [{
name: "FirstName",
title: "Enter your first name:",
type: "text"
}, {
name: "LastName",
title: "Enter your last name:",
type: "text"
}]
};
const survey = new Survey.Model(surveyJson);
document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() {
ko.applyBindings({
model: survey
});
});
Handle Survey Completion
After a respondent completes a survey, the results are available within the onComplete event handler. In real-world applications, you should send the results to a server where they will be stored in a database and processed:
const SURVEY_ID = 1;
function surveyComplete (sender) {
saveSurveyResults(
"https://your-web-service.com/" + SURVEY_ID,
sender.data
)
}
function saveSurveyResults(url, json) {
const request = new XMLHttpRequest();
request.open('POST', url);
request.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json;charset=UTF-8');
request.addEventListener('load', () => {
// Handle "load"
});
request.addEventListener('error', () => {
// Handle "error"
});
request.send(JSON.stringify(json));
}
const survey = new Survey.Model(surveyJson);
survey.onComplete.add(surveyComplete);
In this tutorial, the results are simply output in an alert dialog:
function alertResults (sender) {
const results = JSON.stringify(sender.data);
alert(results);
}
const survey = new Survey.Model(surveyJson);
survey.onComplete.add(alertResults);
As you can see, survey results are saved in a JSON object. Its properties correspond to the name property values of your questions in the model schema.
View Full Code
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>My First Survey</title>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/knockout/build/output/knockout-latest.js"></script>
<!-- Default V2 theme -->
<link href="https://unpkg.com/survey-jquery/defaultV2.min.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">
<!-- Modern theme -->
<!-- <link href="https://unpkg.com/survey-jquery/modern.min.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet"> -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/survey-core/survey.core.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/survey-knockout-ui/survey-knockout-ui.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="index.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<survey params="survey: model"></survey>
</body>
</html>
const surveyJson = {
elements: [{
name: "FirstName",
title: "Enter your first name:",
type: "text"
}, {
name: "LastName",
title: "Enter your last name:",
type: "text"
}]
};
const survey = new Survey.Model(surveyJson);
function alertResults (sender) {
const results = JSON.stringify(sender.data);
alert(results);
}
survey.onComplete.add(alertResults);
document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() {
ko.applyBindings({
model: survey
});
});