Export Survey to PDF in a React Application

PDF Generator for SurveyJS allows your users to save surveys as interactive PDF documents. This tutorial describes how to add the export functionality to your React application.

• Install the survey-pdf npm package
• Configure Export Properties
• Export a Survey

View Full Code on GitHub

If you are looking for a quick-start application that includes all SurveyJS components, refer to the following GitHub repositories:

• SurveyJS + React Quickstart Template
• SurveyJS + Next.js Quickstart Template
• SurveyJS + Remix Quickstart Template

PDF Generator for SurveyJS is built upon the jsPDF library and is distributed as a survey-pdf npm package. Run the following command to install the package and its dependencies, including jsPDF:

npm install survey-pdf --save

Export properties allow you to customize the page format, orientation, margins, font, and other parameters. Refer to the IDocOptions interface for a full list of properties. The following code changes the fontSize property:

const pdfDocOptions = {
  fontSize: 12
};

To export a survey, you need to create a SurveyPDF instance. Its constructor accepts two parameters: a survey JSON schema and export properties. To save a PDF document with the exported survey, call the save(fileName) method on the SurveyPDF instance. If you omit the fileName parameter, the document uses the default name ("survey_result").

The code below implements a savePdf helper function that instantiates SurveyPDF, assigns survey data (user responses) to this instance, and calls the save(fileName) method. If you want to export the survey without user responses, do not specify the SurveyPDF's data property.

import { SurveyPDF } from "survey-pdf";

const surveyJson = { /* ... */ };

const pdfDocOptions = { /* ... */ };

const savePdf = function (surveyData) {
  const surveyPdf = new SurveyPDF(surveyJson, pdfDocOptions);
  surveyPdf.data = surveyData;
  surveyPdf.save();
};

You can use any UI element to call this helper function. For instance, the code below adds a new navigation button below the survey and calls the savePdf function when a user clicks this button.

If you are using Next.js or another framework that has adopted React Server Components, you need to explicitly mark the React component that renders a SurveyJS component as client code using the 'use client' directive.

// Uncomment the following line if you are using Next.js:
// 'use client'

import { Model } from 'survey-core';
import { Survey } from 'survey-react-ui';
// ...
function App() {
  const survey = new Model(surveyJson);
  
  survey.addNavigationItem({
    id: "pdf-export",
    title: "Save as PDF",
    action: () => savePdf(survey.data)
  });

  return (
    <Survey model={survey} id="surveyContainer" />
  );
}

export default App;

The following image illustrates the resulting UI with the Default V2 theme applied:

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

// Uncomment the following line if you are using Next.js:
// 'use client'

import './App.css'

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

const surveyJson = {
  // ...
};

const pdfDocOptions = {
  fontSize: 12
};

const savePdf = function (surveyData) {
  const surveyPdf = new SurveyPDF(surveyJson, pdfDocOptions);
  surveyPdf.data = surveyData;
  surveyPdf.save();
};

function App() {
  const survey = new Model(surveyJson);
  
  survey.addNavigationItem({
    id: "pdf-export",
    title: "Save as PDF",
    action: () => savePdf(survey.data)
  });

  return (
    <Survey model={survey} id="surveyContainer" />
  );
}

export default App;

View Full Code on GitHub

• Customization Options
• Export HTML to PDF
• Export Matrix Questions to PDF