https://github.com/surveydown-dev/surveydown
Markdown-Based, Programmable Surveys Using R, Quarto, Shiny, and PostgreSQL
https://github.com/surveydown-dev/surveydown
markdown postgres postgresql quarto r shiny shiny-apps shiny-r supabase survey surveys
Last synced: 3 months ago
JSON representation
Markdown-Based, Programmable Surveys Using R, Quarto, Shiny, and PostgreSQL
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/surveydown-dev/surveydown
- Owner: surveydown-dev
- License: other
- Created: 2023-04-04T12:57:54.000Z (over 2 years ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2025-07-09T21:41:45.000Z (3 months ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-07-10T07:52:34.646Z (3 months ago)
- Topics: markdown, postgres, postgresql, quarto, r, shiny, shiny-apps, shiny-r, supabase, survey, surveys
- Language: R
- Homepage: https://surveydown.org/
- Size: 17.1 MB
- Stars: 118
- Watchers: 5
- Forks: 15
- Open Issues: 4
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.Rmd
- Changelog: NEWS.md
- Contributing: .github/CONTRIBUTING.md
- License: LICENSE
- Code of conduct: .github/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
Awesome Lists containing this project
- jimsghstars - surveydown-dev/surveydown - Markdown-Based Surveys Using R, Quarto, Shiny, and PostgreSQL (R)
README
---
output: github_document
---
```{r, include = FALSE}
knitr::opts_chunk$set(
collapse = TRUE,
warning = FALSE,
message = FALSE,
comment = "#>",
fig.path = "man/figures/",
fig.retina = 3
)
```
## surveydown
[](https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=surveydown)
[](https://cran.r-project.org/package=surveydown)
[](https://github.com/surveydown-dev/surveydown)
> [!IMPORTANT]
> surveydown is an early stage project under active development and may [not yet be a good fit for you](https://surveydown.org/faq.html#is-surveydown-right-for-me). If you are interested in experimenting with it, we welcome your [feedback](https://github.com/orgs/surveydown-dev/discussions)!
> [!NOTE]
> Visit our main site at [surveydown.org](https://surveydown.org) for the complete documentation and more information about surveydown.
## What is surveydown?
**surveydown** is an open-source, markdown-based platform for
programmable and reproducible Surveys using
[R](https://www.r-project.org/), [Quarto](https://quarto.org/),
[Shiny](https://shiny.posit.co/), and PostgreSQL databases like
[Supabase](https://supabase.com/).
Here's how it works:
1. Design your survey as a [Quarto](https://quarto.org/) document using markdown and R code.
2. Render your survey into a [shiny](https://shiny.posit.co/) app that can be hosted online and sent to respondents.
3. Store survey responses in a PostgreSQL database - we recommend [Supabase](https://supabase.com/) as a free, secure, and easy to use option.
The {surveydown} R package provides functions to bring this all together.
**See the [complete documentation](https://surveydown.org) to get started making your own surveydown survey!**
## Why surveydown?
Most survey platforms (e.g., Google forms, Qualtrics, etc.) use graphic interfaces or spreadsheets to define survey content, making version control, collaboration, and reproducibility difficult or impossible. The surveydown package was designed to address these problems. As an open-source, markdown-based platform, all survey content is defined using **plain text** (markdown and R code) in two files:
- `survey.qmd`: A Quarto document that contains the survey content (pages, questions, etc).
- `app.R`: An R script defining a shiny app that contains global settings (libraries, database configuration, etc.) and server configuration options (e.g., conditional skipping / display, etc.).
This approach makes your survey easy to reproduce, share, and version control with common tools like Git. And since all survey data is stored in a PostgreSQL database, you have total control over where your survey data lives. We provide direct support for [Supabase](https://supabase.com/) as a free, secure, and easy to use option.
In case you're interested in the background behind the project, this [blog post](https://www.jhelvy.com/blog/2023-04-06-markdown-surveys/) provides something of an origin story. Note that the design discussed in the post is now quite outdated with what ultimately became surveydown.
## Installation
### Install R & Quarto
You need both:
- Install [R](https://CRAN.R-project.org/)
- Install [Quarto](https://quarto.org/)
We also recommend working with an IDE that has good support for R, Quarto, and Shiny.
[RStudio](https://posit.co/products/open-source/rstudio/) is great, and we also like [VSCode](https://github.com/microsoft/vscode) and [Positron](https://github.com/posit-dev/positron).
### Install the {surveydown} R package
You can install {surveydown} from CRAN in your R console:
```{r}
#| eval: false
install.packages("surveydown")
```
or you can install the development version from [GitHub](https://github.com/surveydown-dev/surveydown):
```{r}
#| eval: false
# install.packages("pak")
pak::pak('surveydown-dev/surveydown')
```
Load the package with:
```{r}
#| eval: false
library(surveydown)
```
You can also check which version you have installed:
```{r}
#| eval: false
surveydown::sd_version()
```
## Roadmap
See our [todo](https://github.com/surveydown-dev/todo) repo for a running list of things we're working on / have already added to the project.
## License
See the [License](https://github.com/surveydown-dev/surveydown/blob/master/LICENSE.md).
## Citation
If you use this package for in a publication, please cite it! You can get the citation by running `citation("surveydown")` in your R console:
```{r}
#| eval: false
citation("surveydown")
```