Survey Management API

This is a robust, PHP-based backend API designed for creating and managing highly customizable surveys, polls, questionnaires, and forms. It provides a comprehensive set of endpoints to handle complex survey structures, including nested sections and a wide variety of question types, with all data persisted in a MySQL database.

Features

• Dynamic Survey Creation: Build complex surveys with extensive customization options for appearance, behavior, and security.
• Structured Content: Organize surveys into logical sections, each containing multiple questions.
• Rich Question Types: Supports various question formats, from simple text inputs to multiple-choice and ratings.
• Transactional Integrity: Ensures that a survey and all its components are created atomically, preventing partial data insertion.
• Authentication: Secures survey creation to authenticated users via session management.

Technologies Used

Technology	Description
PHP	Core server-side language for API logic and data processing.
MySQL	Relational database for storing all survey, section, and question data.
JSON	Standard data format for API requests and responses.

Usage Examples

Fetching Available Question Types

You can retrieve a list of all supported question types with a simple POST request.

curl -X POST https://your-domain.com/dashboard/question_types.php

Creating a Full Survey

Create a new survey, complete with sections and questions, by sending a JSON payload.

curl -X POST https://your-domain.com/dashboard/create_survey.php \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-b "PHPSESSID=your_session_id" \
-d '{
    "survey_type": "questionnaire",
    "title": "Customer Feedback Survey",
    "description": "Please share your feedback on our services.",
    "status": "draft",
    "sections": [
        {
            "title": "Section 1: Your Experience",
            "order_number": 1,
            "questions": [
                {
                    "question_text": "How would you rate our service?",
                    "question_type_id": 5,
                    "order_number": 1,
                    "is_required": true,
                    "options": { "min": 1, "max": 5, "label_min": "Poor", "label_max": "Excellent" }
                },
                {
                    "question_text": "Any additional comments?",
                    "question_type_id": 2,
                    "order_number": 2,
                    "is_required": false,
                    "placeholder": "Type your comments here..."
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}'

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Survey Management API

Overview

This is a PHP-based backend API for creating and managing dynamic surveys, polls, and questionnaires. It leverages a MySQL database via PDO for data persistence and provides a structured system for handling complex survey structures including sections and various question types.

Getting Started

Environment Variables

This project requires a db_connect.php file in the parent directory. This file must establish a PDO or MySQLi connection and should use environment variables for security. Create a configuration file or set the following server variables:

• DB_HOST: The database server hostname. Example: localhost
• DB_NAME: The name of the database. Example: survey_db
• DB_USER: The database user. Example: root
• DB_PASS: The database user's password. Example: your_secure_password

API Documentation

Base URL

/

Endpoints

POST /dashboard/create_survey.php

Creates a new survey along with its associated sections and questions in a single transaction. This endpoint requires an active user session for authentication.

Request: The request body must be a JSON object containing the survey details.

• Top-Level Fields:
  • survey_type (string, required): Type of survey. Must be one of poll, questionnaire, quiz, form.
  • title (string, required): The main title of the survey.
  • description (string, optional): A brief description of the survey.
  • category_id (integer, optional): The ID of an existing category.
  • status (string, optional): The initial status. Default: draft. Can be draft, published, archived.
  • require_login (boolean, optional): If true, respondents must be logged in. Default: false.
  • max_submissions (integer, optional): The maximum number of responses allowed.
  • start_date (string, optional): Survey start date in YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS format.
  • end_date (string, optional): Survey end date in YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS format.
  • allow_multiple_responses (boolean, optional): If true, allows a single user to submit multiple times. Default: false.
  • custom_url (string, optional): A unique custom URL slug for the survey.
  • ...(and many other optional customization fields as seen in the source code)
• sections (array, optional): An array of section objects.
  • title (string, required): The title of the section.
  • description (string, optional): A description for the section.
  • order_number (integer, optional): The display order of the section.
  • questions (array, optional): An array of question objects within the section.
    • question_text (string, required): The text of the question.
    • question_type_id (integer, required): The ID corresponding to a type in the question_types table.
    • order_number (integer, optional): The display order of the question.
    • is_required (boolean, optional): Whether the question must be answered. Default: false.
    • options (object, optional): A JSON object containing options for question types like multiple-choice, dropdown, etc. Example: {"choices": ["A", "B", "C"]}.
    • placeholder (string, optional): Placeholder text for input fields.

Payload Example:

{
  "survey_type": "questionnaire",
  "title": "New Product Feedback",
  "description": "Share your thoughts on our latest product.",
  "category_id": 3,
  "status": "published",
  "start_date": "2024-01-01 00:00:00",
  "sections": [
    {
      "title": "User Experience",
      "order_number": 1,
      "questions": [
        {
          "question_text": "How easy was it to use the new product?",
          "questionuuid": 5,
          "order_number": 1,
          "is_required": true,
          "options": {
            "min": 1,
            "max": 5,
            "label_min": "Very Difficult",
            "label_max": "Very Easy"
          }
        },
        {
          "question_text": "What feature did you like the most?",
          "questionuuid": 14782-Bsujem-xxxxx,
          "order_number": 2,
          "is_required": false
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Response: Success (200 OK):

{
  "status": "success",
  "message": "Survey, sections, and questions created successfully",
  "survey_id": 123,
  "section_ids": [
    45
  ]
}

Errors:

• 400 Bad Request: A required field is missing or a value is invalid (e.g., survey_type is not one of the allowed values, question_type_id does not exist). The response message will specify the error.
• 401 Unauthorized: The user is not logged in. An active session is required to create a survey.
• 500 Internal Server Error: A database error occurred during the transaction. The transaction is rolled back, and no data is saved.

---

POST /dashboard/question_types.php

Retrieves a list of all available question types from the database. This endpoint does not require authentication.

Request: The request body is empty.

Response: Success (200 OK):

{
  "status": "success",
  "data": [
    {
      "question_uuid": "1",
      "type_name": "Short Text",
      "description": "A single-line text input."
    },
    {
      "id": "2",
      "type_name": "Paragraph",
      "description": "A multi-line text input."
    },
    {
      "id": "3",
      "type_name": "Multiple Choice",
      "description": "Select one option from a list."
    }
  ]
}

Errors:

• 500 Internal Server Error: The server failed to connect to the database or execute the query.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Author

Connect with the project author for questions or collaboration.

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