I need to dynamically generate questionnaires in aspnet 3.5 using sqlserver 2005 data.

Question

I have been given an assignment that requires dynamically creating many web data entry pages mostly in questionnaire form.

I am using visual studio 2008, aspnet , c#3.5 and sqlserver 2005.

The questions are hierarchical and are stored in sqlserver with hierarchy info and info on which questionnaire(s) they belong to.

Some questions require answers via radio button y/n/na and some require an int as input.

I was thinking of using listview or gridviews (bound to the database with a sqldatasource that filters the questions for the questionnaire being generated) for the data entry.

One listview or gidview would contain the question and a column of radio buttons. I would have to loop thru it row by row to save the data in the db.

The other listview or gidview would have a column bound to a integer column in the db. An inline edit would update the db automatically.

Is there a tool that does this? Preferably with a gui that the enduser can use to enter, edit and change the order and hierarchy of the questions?

Open source is best, but a reasonably priced tool is ok also.

Any other suggestions are also appreciated.

Answer 1

I might do this purely with XML. Use an XML query to SQL server to retrieve the hierarchical information as XMK, then use XSLT to transform the XML into the correct HTML (or XHTML).

Answer 2

I am doing something very similar for a sitefinity website. Unfortunately the poll module that comes out of the box with sitefinity does not meet the requirements for a questionnaire.

Found a good post here in SO.

There are some survey engine toolkits in the market.

Here are some:

1. http://www.mentor-logic.com/index.php/products/components/zodiacnet
2. http://www.classapps.com/SelectSurveyFeatures.asp
3. http://www.novisystems.com/
4. http://www.nsurvey.org/

Open source:

• VoteControl
• NetPolls - The web poll engine