---
title: Customize the Designer and Preview Tabs
product: Survey Creator
description: Survey Creator is an extensible UI form-building tool that allows you to adjust its look and functionality any way you want. This JavaScript example shows how to customize Survey Creator Designer and Preview tabs.
framework: Angular
source: https://surveyjs.io/survey-creator/examples/customize-form-builder-ui/angular
index: https://surveyjs.io/survey-creator/examples/overview.md
---

# Customize the Designer and Preview Tabs (Angular)

The Survey Creator UI is [built upon regular surveys](https://surveyjs.io/survey-creator/documentation/property-grid-customization#add-custom-properties-to-the-property-grid) from the SurveyJS Form Library. To customize the UI, access the internal surveys within the [`onSurveyInstanceSetupHandlers`](https://surveyjs.io/survey-creator/documentation/api-reference/survey-creator#onSurveyInstanceSetupHandlers) event handler and use the [`SurveyModel`](https://surveyjs.io/form-library/documentation/api-reference/survey-data-model) API. For example, this demo handles the `SurveyModel`'s [`onGetQuestionTitleActions`](https://surveyjs.io/form-library/documentation/api-reference/survey-data-model#onGetQuestionTitleActions) event to add a custom button to question titles. In the Designer tab, this button opens a configuration dialog, while in the Preview tab, it displays an alert box with a specified message.

## Files

### `src/app/components/creator.component.css`

```css
.sv-property-editor .sd-root-modern {
    min-width: 640px;
}
```

### `src/app/components/creator.component.html`

```html
<div style="position: fixed; top: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0; left: 0;">
    <survey-creator [model]="model"></survey-creator>
</div>
```

### `src/app/components/survey_json.js`

```js
export const surveyJSON = {
  "title": "Software Developer Survey",
  "elements": [
    {
      "type": "checkbox",
      "name": "os",
      "title": "What operating system(s) do you use on your work computer(s)?",
      "popupDescription": "Please select all that apply.",
      "choices": [ "Windows", "Linux", "Macintosh OSX" ],
      "showOtherItem": true,
      "otherText": "Other (specify)"
    },
    {
      "type": "checkbox",
      "name": "languages",
      "title": "What programming language(s) do you use at work?",
      "popupDescription": "Select all programming languages that you've used in the last six months.",
      "choices": [
        "JavaScript", "Java", "Python", "CSS",
        "PHP", "Ruby", "C++", "C",
        "Shell", "C#", "Objective-C", "R",
        "VimL", "Go", "Perl", "CoffeeScript",
        "TeX", "Swift", "Scala", "Emacs Lisp",
        "Haskell", "Lua", "Clojure", "MATLAB",
        "Arduino", "Makefile", "Groovy", "Puppet",
        "Rust", "PowerShell"
      ],
      "showOtherItem": true,
      "otherText": "Other (specify)",
      "colCount": 4,
      "maxSelectedChoices": 3
    }
  ]
};
```

### `src/app/components/creator.component.ts`

```ts
import { Component, OnInit } from "@angular/core";
import { SurveyCreatorModel } from "survey-creator-core";
import "survey-core/survey.i18n";
import "survey-creator-core/survey-creator-core.i18n";
import { SurveyModel, Serializer, settings } from "survey-core";
import { surveyJSON } from "./survey_json";
import "survey-core/survey-core.css";
import "survey-creator-core/survey-creator-core.css";

import SurveyTheme from "survey-core/themes";
import { registerCreatorTheme } from "survey-creator-core";

registerCreatorTheme(SurveyTheme); // Add predefined Survey Creator UI themes

Serializer.addProperty("question", {
    name: "popupDescription:text",
    category: "general",
    visibleIndex: 1
});

const popupJson = {
  "elements": [
    {
      "type": "comment",
      "name": "popupDescription",
      "titleLocation": "hidden"
    }
  ],
  "showNavigationButtons": false,
  "widthMode": "responsive"
};
    
const popupSurvey = new SurveyModel(popupJson);

function addLearnMoreButton(options, isDesigner) {
    options.titleActions = [{
        tooltip: isDesigner ? "Configure pop-up description" : "Learn more",
        iconName: isDesigner ? "icon-toolbox-customquestion-24x24" : "icon-hint-24x24",
        action: () => {
            const desc = options.question.popupDescription;
            if (isDesigner) {
                settings.showDialog({
                    componentName: "survey",
                    data: { model: popupSurvey },
                    onShow: () => {
                        popupSurvey.data = { popupDescription: desc };
                    },
                    onApply: () => {
                        // Get values from the pop-up survey using its `data` property
                        // and update the current question
                        options.question.setPropertyValue("popupDescription", popupSurvey.data["popupDescription"]);
                        return true;
                    },
                    onCancel: () => {
                        console.log("Cancel");
                    },
                    cssClass: "sv-property-editor",
                    title: "Configure Pop-Up Description for " + options.question.title
                });
            } else {
                alert(desc);
            }
        },
    }];
}

@Component({
    // tslint:disable-next-line:component-selector
    selector: "component-survey-creator",
    templateUrl: "./creator.component.html",
    styleUrls: ["./creator.component.css"]
})
export class SurveyCreatorComponent implements OnInit {
    model: SurveyCreatorModel;
    ngOnInit() {
        const creator = new SurveyCreatorModel();
        creator.onSurveyInstanceSetupHandlers.add((_, options) => {
            if (options.area === "designer-tab") {
                options.survey.onGetQuestionTitleActions.add((_, options) => {
                    addLearnMoreButton(options, true);
                });
            }
            if (options.area === "preview-tab") {
                options.survey.onGetQuestionTitleActions.add((_, options) => {
                    addLearnMoreButton(options, false);
                });
            }
        });
        
        creator.JSON = surveyJSON; // or `creator.JSON = {};` if there is no default survey JSON schema
        this.model = creator;
    }
}
```

### `src/app/app.component.html`

```html
<component-survey-creator></component-survey-creator>
```

### `src/app/app.component.ts`

```ts
import { Component } from "@angular/core";

@Component({
    selector: "app-root",
    templateUrl: "./app.component.html"
})
export class AppComponent {
    title = "CodeSandbox";
}
```

### `src/app/app.module.ts`

```ts
import { BrowserModule } from "@angular/platform-browser";
import { NgModule } from "@angular/core";
import { AppComponent } from "./app.component";
import { SurveyCreatorModule } from "survey-creator-angular";
import { SurveyCreatorComponent } from "./components/creator.component";

@NgModule({
    declarations: [AppComponent, SurveyCreatorComponent],
    imports: [BrowserModule, SurveyCreatorModule],
    providers: [],
    bootstrap: [AppComponent]
})
export class AppModule { }
```

### `src/environments/environment.prod.ts`

```ts
export const environment = {
    production: true
};
```

### `src/environments/environment.ts`

```ts
// The file contents for the current environment will overwrite these during build.
// The build system defaults to the dev environment which uses `environment.ts`, but if you do
// `ng build --env=prod` then `environment.prod.ts` will be used instead.
// The list of which env maps to which file can be found in `.angular-cli.json`.

export const environment = {
    production: false
};
```

### `src/index.html`

```html
<app-root></app-root>
```

### `src/main.ts`

```ts
import { enableProdMode } from "@angular/core";
import { platformBrowserDynamic } from "@angular/platform-browser-dynamic";

import { AppModule } from "./app/app.module";
import { environment } from "./environments/environment";

if (environment.production) {
    enableProdMode();
}

platformBrowserDynamic()
    .bootstrapModule(AppModule)
    .catch(err => console.log(err));
```

### `src/polyfills.ts`

```ts
/**
 * This file includes polyfills needed by Angular and is loaded before the app.
 * You can add your own extra polyfills to this file.
 *
 * This file is divided into 2 sections:
 *   1. Browser polyfills. These are applied before loading ZoneJS and are sorted by browsers.
 *   2. Application imports. Files imported after ZoneJS that should be loaded before your main
 *      file.
 *
 * The current setup is for so-called "evergreen" browsers; the last versions of browsers that
 * automatically update themselves. This includes Safari >= 10, Chrome >= 55 (including Opera),
 * Edge >= 13 on the desktop, and iOS 10 and Chrome on mobile.
 *
 * Learn more in https://angular.io/docs/ts/latest/guide/browser-support.html
 */

/***************************************************************************************************
 * BROWSER POLYFILLS
 */

/** IE9, IE10 and IE11 requires all of the following polyfills. **/
// import 'core-js/es6/symbol';
// import 'core-js/es6/object';
// import 'core-js/es6/function';
// import 'core-js/es6/parse-int';
// import 'core-js/es6/parse-float';
// import 'core-js/es6/number';
// import 'core-js/es6/math';
// import 'core-js/es6/string';
// import 'core-js/es6/date';
// import 'core-js/es6/array';
// import 'core-js/es6/regexp';
// import 'core-js/es6/map';
// import 'core-js/es6/weak-map';
// import 'core-js/es6/set';

/** IE10 and IE11 requires the following for NgClass support on SVG elements */
// import 'classlist.js';  // Run `npm install classlist.js`.

/** IE10 and IE11 requires the following for the Reflect API. */
// import 'core-js/es6/reflect';

/** Evergreen browsers require these. **/
// Used for reflect-metadata in JIT. If you use AOT (and only Angular decorators), you can remove.
import "core-js/proposals/reflect-metadata";

/**
 * Required to support Web Animations `@angular/platform-browser/animations`.
 * Needed for: All but Chrome, Firefox and Opera. http://caniuse.com/#feat=web-animation
 **/
// import 'web-animations-js';  // Run `npm install web-animations-js`.

/***************************************************************************************************
 * Zone JS is required by default for Angular itself.
 */
import "zone.js/dist/zone"; // Included with Angular CLI.

/***************************************************************************************************
 * APPLICATION IMPORTS
 */
```

### `src/styles.css`

```css
/* You can add global styles to this file and import other style files */
```

### `src/typings.d.ts`

```ts
/* SystemJS module definition */
declare var module: NodeModule;
interface NodeModule {
    id: string;
}
```

### `.angular-cli.json`

```json
{
  "apps": [
    {
      "root": "src",
      "outDir": "dist",
      "assets": [ "assets", "favicon.ico" ],
      "index": "index.html",
      "main": "main.ts",
      "polyfills": "polyfills.ts",
      "prefix": "app",
      "styles": [ "styles.css"  ],
      "scripts": [  ],
      "environmentSource": "environments/environment.ts",
      "environments": {
        "dev": "environments/environment.ts",
        "prod": "environments/environment.prod.ts"
      }
    }
  ]
}
```

### `_tsconfig.json`

```json
{
  "compileOnSave": false,
  "compilerOptions": {
    "baseUrl": "./",
    "outDir": "./dist/out-tsc",
    "sourceMap": true,
    "declaration": false,
    "allowSyntheticDefaultImports": true,
    "downlevelIteration": true,
    "experimentalDecorators": true,
    "moduleResolution": "node",
    "importHelpers": true,
    "resolveJsonModule": true,
    "target": "es2015",
    "module": "es2020",
    "lib": [
      "es2018",
      "dom"
    ]
  }
}
```

### `package.json`

```json
{
  "name": "surveyjs-angular",
  "scripts": {
    "ng": "ng",
    "start": "ng serve",
    "build": "ng build --prod",
    "test": "ng test",
    "lint": "ng lint",
    "e2e": "ng e2e"
  },
  "private": true,
  "dependencies": {
    "@angular/animations": "14.1.1",
    "@angular/cdk": "14.1.1",
    "@angular/common": "14.1.1",
    "@angular/compiler": "14.1.1",
    "@angular/core": "14.1.1",
    "@angular/forms": "14.1.1",
    "@angular/platform-browser": "14.1.1",
    "@angular/platform-browser-dynamic": "14.1.1",
    "@angular/router": "14.1.1",
    "core-js": "3.6.4",
    "rxjs": "6.5.4",
    "survey-angular-ui": "latest",
    "survey-creator-core": "latest",
    "survey-core": "latest",
    "survey-creator-angular": "latest",
    "tslib": "1.13.0",
    "zone.js": "0.11.7"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@angular-devkit/build-angular": "~13.0.0",
    "@angular/cli": "~13.0.0",
    "@types/jasmine": "3.6.3",
    "@types/jasminewd2": "2.0.8",
    "@types/node": "14.14.28",
    "codelyzer": "6.0.1",
    "jasmine-core": "3.6.0",
    "jasmine-spec-reporter": "6.0.0",
    "karma": "6.1.1",
    "karma-chrome-launcher": "3.1.0",
    "karma-coverage-istanbul-reporter": "3.0.3",
    "karma-jasmine": "4.0.1",
    "karma-jasmine-html-reporter": "1.5.4",
    "protractor": "7.0.0",
    "ts-node": "9.1.1",
    "tslint": "~6.1.3",
    "typescript": "4.1.5"
  },
  "keywords": [ "angular", "surveyjs" ],
  "description": "SurveyJS-Angular example project"
}
```

## Other Frameworks

- [React](https://surveyjs.io/survey-creator/examples/customize-form-builder-ui/reactjs.md)
- [Vue 3](https://surveyjs.io/survey-creator/examples/customize-form-builder-ui/vue3js.md)
- [jQuery](https://surveyjs.io/survey-creator/examples/customize-form-builder-ui/jquery.md)
- [Vanilla JS](https://surveyjs.io/survey-creator/examples/customize-form-builder-ui/vanillajs.md)