sdstudio

sdstudio is a companion package for building, previewing, and managing surveys built using the surveydown survey platform through a Graphical User Interface (GUI). The studio runs as a local Shiny web app and makes it easier to create, preview, and manage surveys without extensive programming knowledge.

Installation

The sdstudio package is not yet on CRAN, but the development version can be installed from GitHub:

# install.packages("pak")
pak::pak("surveydown-dev/sdstudio", ask = FALSE)

Launch the Studio

The surveydown studio is the main application in sdstudio. Launch it with:

sdstudio::launch()

Features

🏗️ Build Tab - Visual Survey Creation

• Drag-and-drop interface for intuitive survey construction
• 14 survey templates covering basic to advanced use cases
• Dual-pane editor with visual builder and code editor
• Real-time synchronization between visual interface and underlying code
• Undo/redo functionality for all editing operations
• Local/DB mode switching for local testing and database connection workflows

👁️ Preview Tab - Live Survey Testing

• Real-time preview of your survey as you build
• Responsive preview modes: Desktop (widescreen) and Mobile (375px) views

📊 Responses Tab - Data Management & Analytics

• Real-time analytics dashboard showing summaries of responses and local interactive data table
• PostgreSQL database integration with connection pooling
• GSSAPI encryption support with automatic fallback options
• CSV export functionality for data analysis

Database Configuration

The studio supports flexible database connection modes:

# Auto mode (recommended) - tries GSSAPI first, falls back if needed
launch()

# Prefer mode - uses GSSAPI if available, plain connection if not  
launch(gssencmode = "prefer")

# Disable mode - forces plain connection (useful for VPN environments)
launch(gssencmode = "disable")

Configure your database connection using environment variables or the built-in Settings interface within the studio.