---
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: Vue 3
source: https://surveyjs.io/survey-creator/examples/customize-form-builder-ui/vue3js
index: https://surveyjs.io/survey-creator/examples/overview.md
---

# Customize the Designer and Preview Tabs (Vue 3)

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

### `public/index.html`

```html
<div id="app" style="position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; right: 0; bottom: 0;"></div>
```

### `src/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.vue`

```html
<template>
    <SurveyCreatorComponent :model="creator" />
</template>
<script setup lang="ts">
    import { SurveyCreatorModel } from "survey-creator-core";
    import { SurveyCreatorComponent } from "survey-creator-vue";
    import { SurveyModel, Serializer, settings } from "survey-core";
    import { surveyJSON } from "./survey_json";
    import "survey-core/survey.i18n";
    import "survey-creator-core/survey-creator-core.i18n";
    import "survey-core/survey-core.css";
    import "survey-creator-core/survey-creator-core.css";
    import "./index.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);
                }
            },
        }];
    }
    
    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
</script>
```

### `src/index.css`

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

### `src/main.ts`

```ts
import { createApp } from "vue";
import App from "./App.vue";

const app = createApp(App);
app.mount("#app");
```

### `src/shims-vue.d.ts`

```ts
/* eslint-disable */
declare module "*.vue" {
    import type { DefineComponent } from "vue"
    const component: DefineComponent<{}, {}, any>
    export default component
}
```

### `.eslintrc.js`

```js
module.exports = {
    root: true,
    env: {
        node: true
    },
    extends: [
        "plugin:vue/vue3-essential",
        "eslint:recommended",
        "@vue/typescript/recommended",
        "@vue/prettier",
        "@vue/prettier/@typescript-eslint"
    ],
    parserOptions: {
        ecmaVersion: 2020
    },
    rules: {
        "no-console": process.env.NODE_ENV === "production" ? "warn" : "off",
        "no-debugger": process.env.NODE_ENV === "production" ? "warn" : "off"
    },
    overrides: [
        {
            files: [
                "**/__tests__/*.{j,t}s?(x)",
                "**/tests/unit/**/*.spec.{j,t}s?(x)"
            ],
            env: {
                jest: true
            }
        }
    ]
};
```

### `babel.config.js`

```js
module.exports = {
  presets: ["@vue/cli-plugin-babel/preset"]
};
```

### `package.json`

```json
{
  "name": "surveyjs-library-vue3",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "scripts": {
    "serve": "vue-cli-service serve",
    "build": "vue-cli-service build",
    "lint": "vue-cli-service lint"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "core-js": "^3.6.5",
    "tslib": "2.6.1",
    "vue": "^3.4.1",
    "survey-core": "latest",
    "survey-vue3-ui": "latest",
    "survey-creator-core": "latest",
    "survey-creator-vue": "latest",
    "vue-router": "^4.0.0-0",
    "vuex": "^4.0.0-0"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@typescript-eslint/eslint-plugin": "^2.33.0",
    "@typescript-eslint/parser": "^2.33.0",
    "@vue/cli-plugin-babel": "~4.5.0",
    "@vue/cli-plugin-eslint": "~4.5.0",
    "@vue/cli-plugin-pwa": "~4.5.0",
    "@vue/cli-plugin-router": "~4.5.0",
    "@vue/cli-plugin-typescript": "~4.5.0",
    "@vue/cli-plugin-vuex": "~4.5.0",
    "@vue/cli-service": "~4.5.0",
    "@vue/compiler-sfc": "^3.0.0",
    "@vue/eslint-config-prettier": "^6.0.0",
    "@vue/eslint-config-typescript": "^5.0.2",
    "@vue/test-utils": "^2.0.0-0",
    "eslint": "^6.7.2",
    "eslint-plugin-prettier": "^3.1.3",
    "eslint-plugin-vue": "^7.0.0-0",
    "node-sass": "^4.12.0",
    "prettier": "^1.19.1",
    "sass-loader": "^8.0.2",
    "typescript": "~3.9.3"
  }
}
```

### `tsconfig.json`

```json
{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "target": "esnext",
    "module": "esnext",
    "strict": true,
    "jsx": "preserve",
    "importHelpers": true,
    "moduleResolution": "node",
    "skipLibCheck": true,
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "allowSyntheticDefaultImports": true,
    "sourceMap": true,
    "baseUrl": ".",
    "types": [
      "webpack-env",
      "jest"
    ],
    "paths": {
      "@/*": [
        "src/*"
      ]
    },
    "lib": [
      "esnext",
      "dom",
      "dom.iterable",
      "scripthost"
    ]
  },
  "include": [
    "src/**/*.ts",
    "src/**/*.tsx",
    "src/**/*.vue",
    "tests/**/*.ts",
    "tests/**/*.tsx"
  ],
  "exclude": [
    "node_modules"
  ]
}
```

## Other Frameworks

- [Angular](https://surveyjs.io/survey-creator/examples/customize-form-builder-ui/angular.md)
- [React](https://surveyjs.io/survey-creator/examples/customize-form-builder-ui/reactjs.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)