A tool to capture customer or employee feedback, through a set of structured question types.

For my final project, I wanted to focus more on creating something that would be of use in a business setting. I settled on a survey application that could be used either for an organisation’s internal employees, or with their clients. Built on a Rails API using a PostgreSQL database and JWT token authentication, the front-end uses AngularJS and Bootstrap running as a separate application on the Express framework to provide the user interface.

Whilst small in the overall development process, the part that pleased me most, was discovering a way of setting the Y-axis on the Angular-Charts pie-chart I was using; as far as I’ve been able to make out, this was previously undocumented, at least until I posted it on StackOverflow. If I was doing the application again, I’d want to expand it out to encompass organisations and the structures within them. I think I’d also want to find myself a tame designer…

Project Aims

• Build a business focused application using a Ruby-on-Rails API and an AngularJS client app
• Give an app user the ability to create a new survey containing a variety of question types
• Allow users to select and respond to a survey
• Give the originator of the survey the ability to see the results of their survey and to present this in a digestible form

Technologies Used

• HTML
• CSS/SASS
• Bootstrap
• AngularJS
• Express.js
• Ruby on Rails
• PostgreSQL
• ActiveRecord
• JWT token authentication
• Gulp
• Babel

Successes

• The database structure, whilst apparently simple in concept, was a little trickier to set up than initially imagined, but in the event worked well for the purposes of the apparently
• Solving the issue of how to zero-base the Y-axis of the pie-charts

Challenges

• Given the way in which the data for survey responses builds up in the database, being able to sort them into a usable order was one of the biggest challenges - the problem is represented in the graphic below

• Understanding the complexities of dealing with wholly separate client and API applications, whilst switching between AngularJS and Ruby-on-Rails
• Angular-Charts proved to be tricky to get installed correctly and operational

Future Development

• Expand the data structures out to encompass ‘organisations’ and the ‘groups’ within them
• Enhancements to the range and scope of the question types
• Ability to present surveys to specific individuals, or groups of individuals
• Email circulation of links to surveys
• Add notifications system into app
• Wholly divorce answer data from the user that provided it - privacy requirement

Live Version

• a live version of the app can be found on Heroku at ‘Our Survey Said’
• The code for the app can be located on ‘GitHub’ - ‘WDI_PROJECT_4 - client’
• The code for the app can be located on ‘GitHub’ - ‘WDI_PROJECT_4 - api’
• To get started, register on the site as a new user, create a new survey, then select one or more question types, provide a suitable question and click ‘Save Question’