Introduction to Online Surveys and Go

Online surveys have become an essential tool for gathering feedback, conducting market research, and understanding audience opinions. When it comes to building a platform for conducting online surveys, choosing the right programming language and tools is crucial. Go (also known as Golang) is a modern, efficient, and scalable language that is well-suited for this task. In this article, we will guide you through the process of creating an online survey platform using Go.

Setting Up Your Development Environment

Before diving into the code, ensure you have the necessary tools installed:

  1. Install Go: Download and install Go from the official Go website.
  2. Set Up Your IDE: Choose an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) like Visual Studio Code, IntelliJ IDEA, or Sublime Text with Go plugins.
  3. Initialize Your Project: Create a new directory for your project and initialize it with go mod init survey-platform.

Step 1: Designing the Database

To store survey data, you will need a database. For simplicity, we will use SQLite, but you can easily switch to other databases like PostgreSQL or MySQL.

  1. Install SQLite Driver:

    go get github.com/mattn/go-sqlite3

  2. Create the Database Schema:

    package main

import (
    "database/sql"
    "log"

    _ "github.com/mattn/go-sqlite3"
)

func main() {
    db, err := sql.Open("sqlite3", "./survey.db")
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    defer db.Close()

    // Create tables
    _, err = db.Exec(`
        CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS surveys (
            id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
            title TEXT NOT NULL,
            description TEXT
        );

        CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS questions (
            id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
            survey_id INTEGER NOT NULL,
            question TEXT NOT NULL,
            FOREIGN KEY (survey_id) REFERENCES surveys (id)
        );

        CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS answers (
            id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
            question_id INTEGER NOT NULL,
            answer TEXT NOT NULL,
            FOREIGN KEY (question_id) REFERENCES questions (id)
        );
    `)
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
}

Step 2: Building the API

Next, you will create a RESTful API to handle survey-related operations. We will use the Gorilla Mux router for routing and the net/http package for handling HTTP requests.

  1. Install Gorilla Mux:

    go get github.com/gorilla/mux

  2. Create the API Endpoints:

    package main

import (
    "database/sql"
    "encoding/json"
    "log"
    "net/http"

    "github.com/gorilla/mux"
    _ "github.com/mattn/go-sqlite3"
)

type Survey struct {
    ID          int    `json:"id"`
    Title       string `json:"title"`
    Description string `json:"description"`
}

type Question struct {
    ID       int    `json:"id"`
    SurveyID int    `json:"survey_id"`
    Question string `json:"question"`
}

type Answer struct {
    ID        int    `json:"id"`
    QuestionID int    `json:"question_id"`
    Answer    string `json:"answer"`
}

func getSurveys(db *sql.DB) ([]Survey, error) {
    rows, err := db.Query("SELECT * FROM surveys")
    if err != nil {
        return nil, err
    }
    defer rows.Close()

    var surveys []Survey
    for rows.Next() {
        var survey Survey
        err = rows.Scan(&survey.ID, &survey.Title, &survey.Description)
        if err != nil {
            return nil, err
        }
        surveys = append(surveys, survey)
    }
    return surveys, nil
}

func getSurvey(db *sql.DB, id int) (*Survey, error) {
    row := db.QueryRow("SELECT * FROM surveys WHERE id = ?", id)
    var survey Survey
    err := row.Scan(&survey.ID, &survey.Title, &survey.Description)
    if err != nil {
        return nil, err
    }
    return &survey, nil
}

func createSurvey(db *sql.DB, survey *Survey) error {
    _, err := db.Exec("INSERT INTO surveys (title, description) VALUES (?, ?)", survey.Title, survey.Description)
    return err
}

func main() {
    db, err := sql.Open("sqlite3", "./survey.db")
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    defer db.Close()

    router := mux.NewRouter()
    router.HandleFunc("/surveys", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
        surveys, err := getSurveys(db)
        if err != nil {
            http.Error(w, err.Error(), http.StatusInternalServerError)
            return
        }
        json.NewEncoder(w).Encode(surveys)
    }).Methods("GET")

    router.HandleFunc("/surveys/{id}", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
        vars := mux.Vars(r)
        id, err := strconv.Atoi(vars["id"])
        if err != nil {
            http.Error(w, err.Error(), http.StatusBadRequest)
            return
        }
        survey, err := getSurvey(db, id)
        if err != nil {
            http.Error(w, err.Error(), http.StatusNotFound)
            return
        }
        json.NewEncoder(w).Encode(survey)
    }).Methods("GET")

    router.HandleFunc("/surveys", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
        var survey Survey
        err := json.NewDecoder(r.Body).Decode(&survey)
        if err != nil {
            http.Error(w, err.Error(), http.StatusBadRequest)
            return
        }
        err = createSurvey(db, &survey)
        if err != nil {
            http.Error(w, err.Error(), http.StatusInternalServerError)
            return
        }
        w.WriteHeader(http.StatusCreated)
    }).Methods("POST")

    log.Fatal(http.ListenAndServe(":8080", router))
}

Step 3: Implementing Frontend

For the frontend, you can use a simple HTML and JavaScript setup to interact with your API. Here is an example of how you might create a basic survey form:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>Survey Platform</title>
    <style>
        body {
            font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
        }
        .survey-form {
            max-width: 500px;
            margin: 40px auto;
            padding: 20px;
            border: 1px solid #ccc;
            border-radius: 10px;
            box-shadow: 0 0 10px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <div class="survey-form">
        <h2>Create Survey</h2>
        <form id="survey-form">
            <label for="title">Title:</label>
            <input type="text" id="title" name="title"><br><br>
            <label for="description">Description:</label>
            <textarea id="description" name="description"></textarea><br><br>
            <button type="submit">Create Survey</button>
        </form>
        <div id="survey-list"></div>
    </div>

    <script>
        const form = document.getElementById('survey-form');
        const surveyList = document.getElementById('survey-list');

        form.addEventListener('submit', async (e) => {
            e.preventDefault();
            const title = document.getElementById('title').value;
            const description = document.getElementById('description').value;

            try {
                const response = await fetch('/surveys', {
                    method: 'POST',
                    headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
                    body: JSON.stringify({ title, description }),
                });
                if (!response.ok) {
                    throw new Error('Failed to create survey');
                }
                window.location.reload();
            } catch (error) {
                console.error('Error creating survey:', error);
            }
        });

        async function loadSurveys() {
            try {
                const response = await fetch('/surveys');
                if (!response.ok) {
                    throw new Error('Failed to load surveys');
                }
                const surveys = await response.json();
                surveyList.innerHTML = '';
                surveys.forEach(survey => {
                    const surveyHTML = `
                        <div>
                            <h3>${survey.title}</h3>
                            <p>${survey.description}</p>
                        </div>
                    `;
                    surveyList.insertAdjacentHTML('beforeend', surveyHTML);
                });
            } catch (error) {
                console.error('Error loading surveys:', error);
            }
        }

        loadSurveys();
    </script>
</body>
</html>

Conclusion

Creating an online survey platform with Go involves several steps, from setting up your development environment to designing the database schema, building the API, and implementing the frontend. This guide provides a comprehensive overview of each step, allowing you to build a functional survey platform.

Additional Considerations

  • Security: Ensure that your API endpoints are secure by implementing authentication and authorization mechanisms.
  • Scalability: Consider using cloud services or containerization (e.g., Docker) to scale your application.
  • Testing: Write unit tests and integration tests to ensure your code is robust and reliable.
  • Deployment: Deploy your application on a server or cloud platform, and configure monitoring and logging tools.

By following these steps and considering additional aspects such as security, scalability, testing, and deployment, you can build a robust and efficient online survey platform using Go.