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Add Survey Creator / Form Builder to a Knockout or jQuery Application

This step-by-step tutorial will help you get started with the Survey Creator component in a Knockout or jQuery application. To add Survey Creator to your application, follow the steps below:

Survey Creator is powered by Knockout and does not have an individual implementation for jQuery. However, you can integrate the version for Knockout into your jQuery application by following the same instructions.

View Full Code on GitHub

Link Resources

Survey Creator for Knockout consists of two parts: survey-creator-core (platform-independent code) and survey-creator-knockout (view models). Each part includes style sheets and scripts. Insert links to these resources within the <head> tag on your HTML page as shown below.

Survey Creator also requires SurveyJS resources. Link them after the Knockout library, but before the Survey Creator resources:

<head>
    <!-- ... -->
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/knockout/build/output/knockout-latest.js"></script>

    <!-- SurveyJS resources -->
    <link  href="https://unpkg.com/survey-core/defaultV2.min.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/survey-core/survey.core.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/survey-knockout-ui/survey-knockout-ui.min.js"></script>
    
    <!-- Survey Creator resources -->
    <link  href="https://unpkg.com/survey-creator-core/survey-creator-core.min.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/survey-creator-core/survey-creator-core.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/survey-creator-knockout/survey-creator-knockout.min.js"></script>
    <!-- ... -->
</head>

Configure Survey Creator

To configure the Survey Creator component, specify its properties in a configuration object. In this tutorial, the object enables the following properties:

  • showLogicTab
    Displays the Logic tab in the tab panel.

  • isAutoSave
    Automatically saves the survey JSON schema on every change.

const creatorOptions = {
    showLogicTab: true,
    isAutoSave: true
};

Pass the configuration object to the SurveyCreator constructor as shown in the code below to instantiate Survey Creator. Assign the produced instance to a constant that will be used later to render the component:

const creator = new SurveyCreator.SurveyCreator(creatorOptions);
View Full Code 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Survey Creator for Knockout</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/knockout/build/output/knockout-latest.js"></script>

    <link  href="https://unpkg.com/survey-core/defaultV2.min.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/survey-core/survey.core.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/survey-knockout-ui/survey-knockout-ui.min.js"></script>
    
    <link  href="https://unpkg.com/survey-creator-core/survey-creator-core.min.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/survey-creator-core/survey-creator-core.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/survey-creator-knockout/survey-creator-knockout.min.js"></script>

    <script type="text/javascript" src="index.js"></script>
</head>
<body>

</body>
</html>

const creatorOptions = {
    showLogicTab: true,
    isAutoSave: true
};

const creator = new SurveyCreator.SurveyCreator(creatorOptions);

Render Survey Creator

Switch to the component template. Add a page element that will serve as the Survey Creator container:

<body>
    <div id="surveyCreator" style="height: 100vh;"></div>
</body>

To render Survey Creator in the page element, call the render(containerId) method on the Survey Creator instance you created in the previous step:

document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() {
    creator.render("surveyCreator");
});
View Full Code 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Survey Creator for Knockout</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/knockout/build/output/knockout-latest.js"></script>

    <link  href="https://unpkg.com/survey-core/defaultV2.min.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/survey-core/survey.core.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/survey-knockout-ui/survey-knockout-ui.min.js"></script>
    
    <link  href="https://unpkg.com/survey-creator-core/survey-creator-core.min.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/survey-creator-core/survey-creator-core.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/survey-creator-knockout/survey-creator-knockout.min.js"></script>

    <script type="text/javascript" src="index.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
    <div id="surveyCreator" style="height: 100vh;"></div>
</body>
</html>

const creatorOptions = {
    showLogicTab: true,
    isAutoSave: true
};

const creator = new SurveyCreator.SurveyCreator(creatorOptions);

document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() {
    creator.render("surveyCreator");
});

Save and Load Survey Model Schemas

Survey Creator produces survey model schemas as JSON objects. You can persist these objects on your server: save updates and restore previously saved schemas. To save a JSON object, implement the saveSurveyFunc function. It accepts two arguments:

  • saveNo
    An incremental number of the current change. Since web services are asynchronous, you cannot guarantee that the service receives the changes in the same order as the client sends them. For example, change #11 may arrive to the server faster than change #10. In your web service code, update the storage only if you receive changes with a higher saveNo.

  • callback
    A callback function. Call it and pass saveNo as the first argument. Set the second argument to true or false based on whether the server applied or rejected the change.

The following code shows how to use the saveSurveyFunc function to save a survey model schema in a localStorage or in your web service:

creator.saveSurveyFunc = (saveNo, callback) => {
    // If you use localStorage:
    window.localStorage.setItem("survey-json", creator.text);
    callback(saveNo, true);

    // If you use a web service:
    saveSurveyJson(
        "https://your-web-service.com/",
        creator.JSON,
        saveNo,
        callback
    );
};

// If you use a web service:
function saveSurveyJson(url, json, saveNo, callback) {
  fetch(url, {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
      'Content-Type': 'application/json;charset=UTF-8'
    },
    body: JSON.stringify(json)
  })
  .then(response => {
    if (response.ok) {
      callback(saveNo, true);
    } else {
      callback(saveNo, false);
    }
  })
  .catch(error => {
    callback(saveNo, false);
  });
}

If you are running a NodeJS server, you can check a survey JSON schema before saving it. On the server, create a SurveyModel and call its toJSON() method. This method deletes unknown properties and incorrect property values from the survey JSON schema:

// Server-side code for a NodeJS backend
import { Model } from "survey-core";

const incorrectSurveyJson = { ... };
const survey = new Model(surveyJson);
const correctSurveyJson = survey.toJSON();
// ...
// Save `correctSurveyJson` in a database
// ...

To load a survey model schema JSON into Survey Creator, assign the schema to Survey Creator's JSON or text property. Use text if the JSON object is converted to a string; otherwise, use JSON. The following code takes a survey model schema from the localStorage. If the schema is not found (for example, when Survey Creator is launched for the first time), a default JSON is used:

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

creator.text = window.localStorage.getItem("survey-json") || JSON.stringify(defaultJson);
View Full Code 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Survey Creator for Knockout</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/knockout/build/output/knockout-latest.js"></script>

    <link  href="https://unpkg.com/survey-core/defaultV2.min.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/survey-core/survey.core.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/survey-knockout-ui/survey-knockout-ui.min.js"></script>
    
    <link  href="https://unpkg.com/survey-creator-core/survey-creator-core.min.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/survey-creator-core/survey-creator-core.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/survey-creator-knockout/survey-creator-knockout.min.js"></script>

    <script type="text/javascript" src="index.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
    <div id="surveyCreator" style="height: 100vh;"></div>
</body>
</html>

const creatorOptions = {
    showLogicTab: true,
    isAutoSave: true
};

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

const creator = new SurveyCreator.SurveyCreator(creatorOptions);
creator.text = window.localStorage.getItem("survey-json") || JSON.stringify(defaultJson);
creator.saveSurveyFunc = (saveNo, callback) => { 
    window.localStorage.setItem("survey-json", creator.text);
    callback(saveNo, true);
    // saveSurveyJson(
    //     "https://your-web-service.com/",
    //     creator.JSON,
    //     saveNo,
    //     callback
    // );
};

document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() {
    creator.render("surveyCreator");
});

// function saveSurveyJson(url, json, saveNo, callback) {
//   fetch(url, {
//     method: 'POST',
//     headers: {
//       'Content-Type': 'application/json;charset=UTF-8'
//     },
//     body: JSON.stringify(json)
//   })
//   .then(response => {
//     if (response.ok) {
//       callback(saveNo, true);
//     } else {
//       callback(saveNo, false);
//     }
//   })
//   .catch(error => {
//     callback(saveNo, false);
//   });
// }

Manage Image Uploads

When survey authors design a form or questionnaire, they can add images to use as a survey logo or background, in the survey header, or within Image and Image Picker questions. Those images are embedded in the survey and theme JSON schemas as Base64 URLs. However, this technique increases the schema size. To avoid this, you can upload images to a server and save only image links in the JSON schemas.

To implement image upload, handle the onUploadFile event. Its options.files parameter stores the images you should send to your server. Once the server responds with an image link, call the options.callback(status, imageLink) method. Pass "success" as the status parameter and a link to the uploaded image as the imageLink parameter.

creator.onUploadFile.add((_, options) => {
    const formData = new FormData();
    options.files.forEach(file => {
        formData.append(file.name, file);
    });
    fetch("https://example.com/uploadFiles", {
        method: "post",
        body: formData
    }).then(response => response.json())
        .then(result => {
            options.callback(
                "success",
                // A link to the uploaded file
                "https://example.com/files?name=" + result[options.files[0].name]
            );
        })
        .catch(error => {
            options.callback('error');
        });
});
View Full Code 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Survey Creator for Knockout</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/knockout/build/output/knockout-latest.js"></script>

    <link  href="https://unpkg.com/survey-core/defaultV2.min.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/survey-core/survey.core.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/survey-knockout-ui/survey-knockout-ui.min.js"></script>
    
    <link  href="https://unpkg.com/survey-creator-core/survey-creator-core.min.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/survey-creator-core/survey-creator-core.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/survey-creator-knockout/survey-creator-knockout.min.js"></script>

    <script type="text/javascript" src="index.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
    <div id="surveyCreator" style="height: 100vh;"></div>
</body>
</html>

const creatorOptions = {
    showLogicTab: true,
    isAutoSave: true
};

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

const creator = new SurveyCreator.SurveyCreator(creatorOptions);
creator.text = window.localStorage.getItem("survey-json") || JSON.stringify(defaultJson);
creator.saveSurveyFunc = (saveNo, callback) => { 
    window.localStorage.setItem("survey-json", creator.text);
    callback(saveNo, true);
    // saveSurveyJson(
    //     "https://your-web-service.com/",
    //     creator.JSON,
    //     saveNo,
    //     callback
    // );
};

// creator.onUploadFile.add((_, options) => {
//     const formData = new FormData();
//     options.files.forEach(file => {
//         formData.append(file.name, file);
//     });
//     fetch("https://example.com/uploadFiles", {
//         method: "post",
//         body: formData
//     }).then(response => response.json())
//         .then(result => {
//             options.callback(
//                 "success",
//                 // A link to the uploaded file
//                 "https://example.com/files?name=" + result[options.files[0].name]
//             );
//         })
//         .catch(error => {
//             options.callback('error');
//         });
// });

document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() {
    creator.render("surveyCreator");
});

// function saveSurveyJson(url, json, saveNo, callback) {
//   fetch(url, {
//     method: 'POST',
//     headers: {
//       'Content-Type': 'application/json;charset=UTF-8'
//     },
//     body: JSON.stringify(json)
//   })
//   .then(response => {
//     if (response.ok) {
//       callback(saveNo, true);
//     } else {
//       callback(saveNo, false);
//     }
//   })
//   .catch(error => {
//     callback(saveNo, false);
//   });
// }

View Demo

View Full Code on GitHub

Further Reading

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