https://github.com/brianhicks/listenup

https://github.com/brianhicks/listenup

Last synced: 6 days ago
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• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/brianhicks/listenup
• Owner: BrianHicks
• Created: 2010-09-22T20:25:35.000Z (over 14 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2012-07-10T03:18:41.000Z (over 12 years ago)
• Last Synced: 2024-12-09T19:53:38.206Z (14 days ago)
• Language: Ruby
• Homepage:
• Size: 1020 KB
• Stars: 1
• Watchers: 2
• Forks: 0
• Open Issues: 0
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md

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README

        
# ListenUP

ListenUP is a SaaS web application to create and manage surveys. It was created

for the psychology students at John Brown University to use during a senior

seminar class on data collection.

## Design Challenges

The old system for sending surveys would have students crafting an email with

questions to send to their intended recipient. These had very low response

rates, as the non-psych students on campus would be deluged with these emails

at the end of every semester, along with the subsequent begging for responses.

These were solved by letting students write an introduction to their survey,

and then send it up to three times.

## The Good Parts

Here are some of the best portions of the codebase:

 - "app/controllers/surveys_controller.rb": Especially `#export`, which

   downloads a report as a CSV that identifies itself as an excel spreadsheet

   (a requirement of the department.)

 - "app/helpers/surveys_helper.rb": Transforms database records into answerable

   survey fields.

## Changes I'd make

Here's a list of some changes I'd make, knowing what I know now.

### MongoDB

The current state of the Survey model (and associated Question, Answer,

Recipient, and Response models) is a bit messy. I'd reimplement this to use

MongoDB, as it would be a pretty perfect way to store irregularly shaped

documents. For instance, a Response could look something like this:

    {

        "_id": ObjectID(...),

        "survey": ObjectID(...),

        "recipient": {"email": "[email protected]", "id": ObjectID(...)},

        "questions": {

            "How many pencils do you own?": 5

        }

    }

### Smaller changes

 - I'd use cancan or something similar to implement permissions - the existing

   code checks in multiple places and isn't very DRY.

 - Email should be sent asynchronously, especially bulkier mailings like these.

 - Better market research - looking back, it would have been easy to market

   this as a product to undergraduate psycology programs. They don't have a lot

   of good options when it comes to software (as of two years ago.)

 - Use a good JS library like Knockout or Ember to create a better

   user-experience when creating surveys.