SurveyJS -- questions

[steffejr]

Hello all,
I am successfully using the "plugin-survey.js" wrapper around surveyJS. My questionnaires are all in JSON format and everything is great, except for the overall size this plugin. I am looking for ways to optimize the performance/speed of my code and the "plugin-survey.js" is the biggest offender for performance issues. I am running the Lighthouse performance analyzer in Chrome.

My questions...

• Is the size of surveyJS the reason that there are plugins like: "plugin-survey-likert.js"?
• Can I pass JSON objects to the "plugin-survey-likert.js" and the other jsPsych survey plugins?
• I mostly use the "matrix" type of question format which does not seem to be available in "in-house" jsPsych. Should I make my own plugin for this question type to make things more efficient?

Thank you,
Jason

[kurokida]

Dear Jason,

I will answer to the best of my knowledge. I might be wrong.

Regarding the first point, I think jsPsych was created earlier or around the same time as SurveyJS.

Regarding the second point, it is impossible.

Regarding the third point, it would be best if you can create your own plugin, and you might be able to solve it using the survey-likert plugin.

Best regards,
Daiichiro

[steffejr]

Thank you Daiichiro,

Impossible! Nothing is impossible ;) I think a wrapper around the JSON that converts it what the jsPsych native plugins do would be feasible.

The more I think, the more I think that making my own plugin may be best.
Jason

[ChristopheBossens]

Hi Steffejr,

Are you using the CDN version or the locally hosted version? I noticed that the CDN version is minified and already much smaller.

[steffejr]

Hell Christophe,
I am using plugin-survey.js which comes with the jsPsych package and it is 3.9MB!!! If the CDN you are referring to is for the plugin-survey.js (and not the original surveyJS.js package) can it be downloaded and used "offline?"

I am trying to have everything work offline so I am not using CDNs (I also don;t understand them very well yet!)
The offline issue is that there are scenarios where there is no internet available and I would still like to use jsPsych.

Thank you for the feedback,
Jason

[ChristopheBossens]

Hi Steffejr,

The CDN that I am referring to is indeed the plugin-survey.js (which wraps the orignal surveyjs package I assume). If you download jsPsych from the github archive you can use the whole framework offline as well. We have done that on a few occassions in our lab as well and it works perfectly. You only need to include a local download of the data at the end of your experiment but other than that you should be fine. Let me know if you need any advice on this!

As for CDNs, I just think of them as computers that host libraries (such as jsPsych). A few benefits of using them is that they will optimize file delivery from a location nearby you, and that your browser will be able to used cached versions of files if another site is visited that refers to the same CDN hosted file.