Develop a Survey Application: Part I

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LANGUAGES:VB.NET

ASP.NETVERSIONS: 2.0

Develop a Survey Application: Part I

Getting Started

By Bipin Joshi

In today s competitive environment companies find itnecessary to get feedback on their products and services. Companies also needto know the market trends, as well as customer likes and dislikes. Companies oftencapture this vital information by conducting surveys about their products andservices. A flexible Web-based survey system plays a major role in suchscenarios. In this series we are going to develop a survey application usingASP.NET 2.0, VS.NET 2005, and SQL Server 2005. We ll kick things off in Part I witha look at the functional requirements and database schema, then create thesurvey definitions.

Functional Requirements

Because a survey application captures various pieces ofinformation from the end user it must be flexible and easy to use. A surveyconsists of questions and feedback or answers to those questions. The answerscan be the objective type or in the form of comments. The application we aregoing to develop will satisfy the following functional requirements:

We ll develop this application using ASP.NET 2.0, ADO.NET2.0, and SQL Server 2005 Express Edition. Specifically, we ll use the followingfeatures:

To begin, create a new ASP.NET Web site using VisualStudio .NET or Visual Web Developer. Make sure to choose a language, such asVisual Basic, and name the site Survey . Once the Web site is created, createa folder named Admin inside the Web site root folder. All the administrativepages will be stored in this folder. The other pages accessible to all theusers will be stored directly under the root folder.

Database Schema

All the application data will be stored in a SQL Server2005 database. To add a new database to the Web site right click on the Website, select Add New Items, then select SQL Database from the dialog box. Name thedatabase Database1.mdf. Once you have a database in your Web site you cancreate tables. Figure 1 shows the schema of various tables and Figure 2 liststhe table names and descriptions.

Figure 1: Database schema.

Figure 2: Tablenames and descriptions.

We need to develop seven Web forms and one master page forthis project; Figure 3 lists each one, along with a corresponding folder and description.

Figure 3: List of Webforms and master pages.

Creating the Master Page

All the administrative pages use a master page namedMasterPage.master. This master page provides the navigation tree and overalllayout to the other pages. To create this master page, add a new master page inthe Admin folder of the Web site using the Add New Item dialog box (see Figure 4).Figure 5 shows the master page in design mode.

Figure 4: Adding a master page.

Figure 5: The master page in designmode.

The master page consists of a TreeView control with nodespointing to other administrative pages. To design the master page simply dragand drop a TreeView control on the master page. Choose Edit Nodes from itssmart tag to open the TreeView Node Editor (see Figure 6). Then add nodes tothe TreeView so as to provide navigation structure for all the administrativepages. Set the Text and NavigateUrl properties of various nodes as shown inFigure 7. Figure 8 shows the complete markup of the master page.

Figure 6: The TreeView Node Editor.

Figure 7:Properties of various TreeView nodes.

<%@ Master Language="VB"CodeFile="AdminMasterPage.master.vb"

 Inherits="Admin_AdminMasterPage" %>

Figure 8: Markupof master page.

Managing Surveys

The first step in a survey campaign is to create a survey.We ll create a Web form that allows us to add, edit, and delete surveys.Proceed by adding a new Web form named Survey.aspx in the Admin folder. Theoverall layout of the Web form is shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9: Managing the surveydefinition.

To design the Web form, drag and drop a SQL data source control(SqlDataSource1) on the Web form and configure it to select all the recordsfrom the Survey table (see Figure 10).

Figure 10: Configuring a SQL datasource.

Then click the Advanced button and check the GenerateINSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements checkbox (see Figure 11).

Figure 11: Advanced SQL generationoptions.

Next, drag and drop a DetailsView control on the Web formand set its DataSourceID property to SqlDataSource1. From the smart tag of theDetailsView enable paging, inserting, editing, and deleting. Note that Figure 9shows a link titled Send Invitations, along with Edit, New, and Delete links.This is used to send invitations to all the participants of a current survey. Toadd this button open the Fields dialog box of DetailsView, select the CommandField, and click the Convert this field into a TemplateField button. This willconvert the command field into a template field; we can add the SendInvitations button there. Then right click on the DetailsView and select EditTemplate, then select Field[3]. This will open the template designer, as shownin Figure 12.

Figure 12: Adding the SendInvitations button.

Drag and drop a LinkButton in the ItemTemplate beside theDelete button and set its Text property to Send Invitations. Also, set itsCommandName property to Invite. This way we ll be able to identify it in ourcode. Finally, drag and drop a Label control below the DetailsView and set itsEnableViewState property to False and its Text property to an empty string.This label will be used to display a success message after sending theinvitations. Listing One shows the complete markup ofManageSurvey.aspx.

Conclusion

In Part I of this three-part series we gathered thefunctional requirements for the survey application and designed the databaseschema. We also began developing administrative Web forms by creating a masterpage and a Web form for managing survey definitions. In Part II we ll develop Webforms for managing survey questions and their choices. We ll also develop a Webform for managing survey participants.

The sample code forthis series is available for download.

Bipin Joshi is thefounder and owner of BinaryIntellect Consulting (http://www.binaryintellect.com),where he conducts professional training programs on .NET technologies. He isthe author of Developer s Guide to ASP.NET 2.0(http://www.binaryintellect.com/books)and co-author of three WROX books on .NET 1.x. He writes regularly for http://www.DotNetBips.com, a communityWeb site he founded in the early days of .NET. He is a Microsoft MVP, MCAD,MCT, and member of ASPInsiders. He jots down his thoughts about .NET, life, andYoga at http://www.bipinjoshi.com. Healso conducts workshops on Yoga and Meditation, where he helps IT professionalsdevelop a positive personality. You can contact him at mailto:[email protected].

Begin Listing One Markup ofManageSurvey.aspx

<%@ Page Language="VB" MasterPageFile="~/Admin/

 AdminMasterPage.master"AutoEventWireup="false"

 CodeFile="ManageSurvey.aspx.vb"Inherits="Admin_

 CreateSurvey"title="Untitled Page" %>

 "ContentPlaceHolder1"Runat="Server">  "DetailsView1"runat="server" AllowPaging="True"  AutoGenerateRows="False" CellPadding="4"  DataKeyNames="SurveyID"DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1"  ForeColor="#333333" GridLines="None"Height="50px"  Width="100%">  ForeColor="White" />  HorizontalAlign="Center" />  InsertVisible="False" ReadOnly="True"  SortExpression="SurveyID" />  SortExpression="Title" />  SortExpression="Description">  '<%#Bind("Description") %>' TextMode="MultiLine">    Text='<%#Bind("Description") %>' TextMode="MultiLine">    Text='<%#Bind("Description") %>'>  CausesValidation="True"CommandName="Update" Text="Update">  CausesValidation="False"CommandName="Cancel" Text="Cancel">  CausesValidation="True"CommandName="Insert" Text="Insert">  CausesValidation="False"CommandName="Cancel" Text="Cancel">  CausesValidation="False"CommandName="Edit" Text="Edit">  CausesValidation="False"CommandName="New" Text="New">  CausesValidation="False"CommandName="Delete" Text="Delete">  CommandName="Invite">SendInvitations  Font-Bold="True"Width="20%" />  ForeColor="White" />  ForeColor="#284775" />  Font-Bold="True"ForeColor="Red">
 ConnectionString="<%$ConnectionStrings:ConnectionString %>" DeleteCommand="DELETE FROM [Survey] WHERE [SurveyID] = @SurveyID"InsertCommand="INSERT INTO [Survey] (Develop a Survey Application: Part I,   [Description]) VALUES(@Title, @Description)" SelectCommand="SELECT * FROM [Survey]"  UpdateCommand="UPDATE[Survey] SET Develop a Survey Application: Part I = @Title,   [Description] =@Description WHERE [SurveyID] = @SurveyID">

End Listing One