Add a Survey to a React Application

This step-by-step tutorial will help you get started with the SurveyJS Form Library in a React application. To add a survey to your React application, follow the steps below:

• Install the survey-react-ui npm Package
• Configure Styles
• Create a Model
• Render the Survey
• Handle Survey Completion

As a result, you will create a survey displayed below:

View Full Code on GitHub

The SurveyJS Form Library for React consists of two npm packages: survey-core (platform-independent code) and survey-react-ui (rendering code). Run the following command to install survey-react-ui. The survey-core package will be installed automatically because it is listed in survey-react-ui dependencies.

npm install survey-react-ui --save

SurveyJS ships with the Modern and Default V2 UI themes illustrated below.

Open the React component in which your survey will be and import a style sheet that implements the required theme.

// Default V2 theme
import 'survey-core/defaultV2.min.css';
// Modern theme
// import 'survey-core/modern.min.css';

For more information about SurveyJS themes, refer to the following help topic: Themes & Styles.

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 Model constructor as shown in the code below. The model instance will be later used to render the survey.

import { ..., Model } from 'survey-core';
// ...
function App() {
  const survey = new Model(surveyJson);

  return ... ;
}

import 'survey-core/defaultV2.min.css';
import { Model } from 'survey-core';

const surveyJson = {
  elements: [{
    name: "FirstName",
    title: "Enter your first name:",
    type: "text"
  }, {
    name: "LastName",
    title: "Enter your last name:",
    type: "text"
  }]
};

function App() {
  const survey = new Model(surveyJson);

  return ...;
}

export default App;

To render a survey, import the Survey component, add it to the template, and pass the model instance you created in the previous step to the component's model attribute:

import { Survey } from 'survey-react-ui';
// ...
const surveyJson = { ... };

function App() {
  const survey = new Model(surveyJson);

  return <Survey model={survey} />;
}

If you replicate the code correctly, you should see the following survey:

import 'survey-core/defaultV2.min.css';
import { Model } from 'survey-core';
import { Survey } from 'survey-react-ui';

const surveyJson = {
  elements: [{
    name: "FirstName",
    title: "Enter your first name:",
    type: "text"
  }, {
    name: "LastName",
    title: "Enter your last name:",
    type: "text"
  }]
};

function App() {
  const survey = new Model(surveyJson);

  return <Survey model={survey} />;
}

export default App;

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:

import { useCallback } from 'react';
// ...
const SURVEY_ID = 1;

function App() {
  const survey = new Model(surveyJson);
  const surveyComplete = useCallback((sender) => {
    saveSurveyResults(
      "https://your-web-service.com/" + SURVEY_ID,
      sender.data
    )
  }, []);

  survey.onComplete.add(surveyComplete);

  return <Survey model={survey} />;
}

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));
}

In this tutorial, the results are simply output in an alert dialog:

import { useCallback } from 'react';
// ...
function App() {
  const survey = new Model(surveyJson);
  const alertResults = useCallback((sender) => {
    const results = JSON.stringify(sender.data);
    alert(results);
  }, []);

  survey.onComplete.add(alertResults);

  return <Survey model={survey} />;
}

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.

To view the application, run npm run start in a command line and open http://localhost:3000/ in your browser.

import { useCallback } from 'react';

import 'survey-core/defaultV2.min.css';
import { Model } from 'survey-core';
import { Survey } from 'survey-react-ui';

const surveyJson = {
  elements: [{
    name: "FirstName",
    title: "Enter your first name:",
    type: "text"
  }, {
    name: "LastName",
    title: "Enter your last name:",
    type: "text"
  }]
};

function App() {
  const survey = new Model(surveyJson);
  const alertResults = useCallback((sender) => {
    const results = JSON.stringify(sender.data);
    alert(results);
  }, []);

  survey.onComplete.add(alertResults);

  return <Survey model={survey} />;
}

export default App;

View Full Code on GitHub

• Create a Simple Survey
• Create a Multi-Page Survey
• Create a Quiz