Add Survey Creator / Form Builder to a Vue.js Application

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

• Install the survey-creator-knockout npm Package
• Configure Styles
• Configure Survey Creator
• Render Survey Creator
• Save and Load Survey Model Schemas
• Manage Image Uploads

View Full Code on GitHub

If you are looking for a quick-start application that enables all Survey Creator features, refer to the following GitHub repository: SurveyJS + Vue Quick Start Boilerplate.

Survey Creator does not yet have a native implementation for Vue. However, you can integrate the version for Knockout into your Vue application. Run the following command to install the survey-creator-knockout package:

npm install survey-creator-knockout --save

Import Survey Creator and SurveyJS Form Library style sheets as shown below:

<script>
import "survey-core/defaultV2.min.css";
import "survey-creator-core/survey-creator-core.min.css";
</script>

Note that although standalone surveys support multiple predefined themes, surveys within Survey Creator apply only one theme ("Default V2"). However, you can use the survey configuration (JSON object) produced by Survey Creator to build a standalone survey and apply any theme to it. You can also customize Survey Creator theme colors as shown in the following example:

View Demo

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:

<script>
import { SurveyCreator } from "survey-creator-knockout";
// ...

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

export default {
  name: "survey-creator",
  mounted() {
    const creator = new SurveyCreator(creatorOptions);
  }
};
</script>

<script>
import { SurveyCreator } from "survey-creator-knockout";
import "survey-core/defaultV2.min.css";
import "survey-creator-core/survey-creator-core.min.css";

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

export default {
  name: "survey-creator",
  mounted() {
    const creator = new SurveyCreator(creatorOptions);
  }
};
</script>

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

<template>
  <div id="surveyCreator" />
</template>

<style scoped>
#surveyCreator {
  height: 100vh;
  width: 100vw;
}
</style>

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

<script>
// ...
export default {
  // ...
  mounted() {
    const creator = new SurveyCreator(creatorOptions);
    creator.render("surveyCreator");
  }
};
</script>

<template>
  <div id="surveyCreator" />
</template>

<script>
import { SurveyCreator } from "survey-creator-knockout";
import "survey-core/defaultV2.min.css";
import "survey-creator-core/survey-creator-core.min.css";

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

export default {
  name: "survey-creator",
  mounted() {
    const creator = new SurveyCreator(creatorOptions);
    creator.render("surveyCreator");
  }
};
</script>
<style scoped>
#surveyCreator {
  height: 100vh;
  width: 100vw;
}
</style>

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:

<script>
// ...
export default {
  // ...
  mounted() {
    // ...
    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
      );
    };
    creator.render("surveyCreator");
  }
};

// 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);
  });
}
</script>

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"
        }]
    }]
};

export default {
  // ...
  mounted() {
    // ...
    creator.text = window.localStorage.getItem("survey-json") || JSON.stringify(defaultJson);
    // ...
  }
};

<template>
  <div id="surveyCreator" />
</template>

<script>
import { SurveyCreator } from "survey-creator-knockout";
import "survey-core/defaultV2.min.css";
import "survey-creator-core/survey-creator-core.min.css";

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"
    }]
  }]
};

export default {
  name: "survey-creator",
  mounted() {
    const creator = new 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.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);
//   });
// }
</script>
<style scoped>
#surveyCreator {
  height: 100vh;
  width: 100vw;
}
</style>

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.

// ...
export default {
  // ...
  mounted() {
    // ...
    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');
        });
    });
    // ...
  }
};

<template>
  <div id="surveyCreator" />
</template>

<script>
import { SurveyCreator } from "survey-creator-knockout";
import "survey-core/defaultV2.min.css";
import "survey-creator-core/survey-creator-core.min.css";

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"
    }]
  }]
};

export default {
  name: "survey-creator",
  mounted() {
    const creator = new 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');
    //     });
    // });
    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);
//   });
// }
</script>
<style scoped>
#surveyCreator {
  height: 100vh;
  width: 100vw;
}
</style>

View Demo

To view the application, run npm run serve in a command line and open http://localhost:8080/ in your browser.

View Full Code on GitHub

• Localization
• Property Grid Customization
• Toolbox Customization
• Survey Customization
• Create a Custom Widget