I have no coding experience and want to create a website or application for entering data into an existing Excel workbook or Google Sheet. The workbook was originally designed as a paper questionnaire, and I cannot change its structure.
The questionnaire needs fairly complex conditional logic. Depending on earlier answers, it should populate certain fields, skip questions, and possibly add new questions or repeat a group of questions. I first tried Google Forms, but its conditional features are not powerful enough for what I need.
Ideally, completed responses would be written into the existing Excel file, and the respondent could then download a report in PDF or Excel format. I am currently considering SurveyJS, although I am open to better suggestions. What would be the best way to approach this project as a complete beginner?
1 Answer
Before choosing a tool or starting development, write down the requirements in detail. Make a list of every question, the conditions that control whether it appears, which answers should be written to which spreadsheet cells, how repeated sections should work, and what the final PDF or Excel report should contain. It also helps to define a small minimum viable version first, such as one questionnaire section and one generated report. A simple technical design document or flowchart can make the project much easier to understand and expose gaps in the plan.
That makes sense. I’ll start by documenting the questions, conditions, spreadsheet mappings, and report requirements before deciding on the software.