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Form Builder for Vue.js

SurveyJS Vue Form Builder is an open-source UI component that seamlessly integrates with any backend system and allows you to create and style multiple dynamic HTML forms in any Vue application. This component generates form definitions (schemas) in real-time and offers a no-code drag-and-drop interface that makes form creation accessible to anyone. The form builder features a dedicated GUI for conditional rules and form branching and an integrated CSS theme editor for custom form styling and branding. This step-by-step tutorial will help you get started with the Form Builder component in a Vue 2 or Vue 3 application. To add the component to your application, follow the steps below:

View Full Code for Vue 3 View Full Code for Vue 2

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

In this guide, the terms "Form Builder" and "Survey Creator" are used interchangeably and both refer to the SurveyJS form building component for Vue.js.

Add Survey Creator to a Vue 3 Application

Install the survey-creator-vue npm Package

Survey Creator for Vue 3 consists of two npm packages: survey-creator-core (platform-independent code) and survey-creator-vue (rendering code). Run the following command to install survey-creator-vue. The survey-creator-core package will be installed automatically as a dependency.

npm install survey-creator-vue --save

Configure Styles

Import Survey Creator and SurveyJS Form Library style sheets in the Vue 3 component that will render Survey Creator:

<script setup lang="ts">
import 'survey-core/defaultV2.min.css';
import "survey-creator-core/survey-creator-core.min.css";
</script>

<template>
  <!-- ... -->
</template>

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.

<script setup lang="ts">
// ...
import type { ICreatorOptions } from "survey-creator-core";

const creatorOptions: ICreatorOptions = {
  showLogicTab: true,
  isAutoSave: true
};
</script>

Pass the configuration object to the SurveyCreatorModel 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 setup lang="ts">
// ...
import { SurveyCreatorModel } from "survey-creator-core";
// ...
const creator = new SurveyCreatorModel(creatorOptions);
</script>
View Full Code 
<script setup lang="ts">
import 'survey-core/defaultV2.min.css';
import "survey-creator-core/survey-creator-core.min.css";

import type { ICreatorOptions } from "survey-creator-core";
import { SurveyCreatorModel } from "survey-creator-core";

const creatorOptions: ICreatorOptions = {
  showLogicTab: true,
  isAutoSave: true
};
const creator = new SurveyCreatorModel(creatorOptions);
</script>

<template>
  <!-- ... -->
</template>

Render Survey Creator

To render Survey Creator, add SurveyCreatorComponent to your template, and pass the model instance you created in the previous step to the component's model attribute:

<script setup lang="ts">
import { SurveyCreatorComponent } from "survey-creator-vue";
// ...
</script>

<template>
  <SurveyCreatorComponent :model="creator" />
</template>

The code above registers SurveyCreatorComponent locally. If you want to register it globally, open the main.ts file, import surveyPlugin (for SurveyJS Form Library) and surveyCreatorPlugin, and install them using the app.use() method in the exact order shown below. In this case, you don't need to import SurveyCreatorComponent within each Vue component where you want to use it.

// main.ts
import { createApp } from "vue";
import App from "./App.vue";
import { surveyPlugin } from "survey-vue3-ui";
import { surveyCreatorPlugin } from "survey-creator-vue";

createApp(App)
  .use(surveyPlugin)
  .use(surveyCreatorPlugin)
  .mount("#app");
View Full Code 
<!-- components/SurveyCreator.vue -->
<script setup lang="ts">
import 'survey-core/defaultV2.min.css';
import "survey-creator-core/survey-creator-core.min.css";

import type { ICreatorOptions } from "survey-creator-core";
import { SurveyCreatorModel } from "survey-creator-core";
import { SurveyCreatorComponent } from "survey-creator-vue";

const creatorOptions: ICreatorOptions = {
  showLogicTab: true,
  isAutoSave: true
};
const creator = new SurveyCreatorModel(creatorOptions);
</script>

<template>
  <SurveyCreatorComponent :model="creator" />
</template>

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:

<script setup lang="ts">
// ...
creator.saveSurveyFunc = (saveNo: number, callback: Function) => { 
  // 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: string, json: object, saveNo: number, callback: Function) {
  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>

<template>
  <!-- ... -->
</template>

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:

<script setup lang="ts">
// ...
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);
// ...
</script>

<template>
  <!-- ... -->
</template>
View Full Code 
<!-- components/SurveyCreator.vue -->
<script setup lang="ts">
import 'survey-core/defaultV2.min.css';
import "survey-creator-core/survey-creator-core.min.css";

import type { ICreatorOptions } from "survey-creator-core";
import { SurveyCreatorModel } from "survey-creator-core";
import { SurveyCreatorComponent } from "survey-creator-vue";

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

// function saveSurveyJson(url: string, json: object, saveNo: number, callback: Function) {
//   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>

<template>
  <SurveyCreatorComponent :model="creator" />
</template>

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.

<script setup lang="ts">
// ...
creator.onUploadFile.add((_, options) => {
  const formData = new FormData();
  options.files.forEach((file: 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');
    });
});
// ...
</script>

<template>
  <!-- ... -->
</template>

To view the application, run npm run dev in a command line and open http://localhost:5173/ in your browser.

View Full Code 
<!-- components/SurveyCreator.vue -->
<script setup lang="ts">
import 'survey-core/defaultV2.min.css';
import "survey-creator-core/survey-creator-core.min.css";

import type { ICreatorOptions } from "survey-creator-core";
import { SurveyCreatorModel } from "survey-creator-core";
import { SurveyCreatorComponent } from "survey-creator-vue";

const creatorOptions: ICreatorOptions = {
  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 SurveyCreatorModel(creatorOptions);
creator.text = window.localStorage.getItem("survey-json") || JSON.stringify(defaultJson);
creator.saveSurveyFunc = (saveNo: number, callback: Function) => { 
  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: 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');
//     });
// });

// function saveSurveyJson(url: string, json: object, saveNo: number, callback: Function) {
//   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>

<template>
  <SurveyCreatorComponent :model="creator" />
</template>

View Demo

View Full Code on GitHub

Add Survey Creator to a Vue 2 Application

Install the survey-creator-knockout npm Package

Survey Creator does not provide a native implementation for Vue 2. However, you can integrate the version for Knockout into your Vue 2 application. Run the following command to install the survey-creator-knockout package:

npm install survey-creator-knockout --save

Configure Styles

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>

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:

<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>
View Full Code 
<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>

Render Survey Creator

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>
View Full Code 
<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>

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:

<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);
    // ...
  }
};
View Full Code 
<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>

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.

// ...
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');
        });
    });
    // ...
  }
};

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

View Full Code 
<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

View Full Code on GitHub

Further Reading

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