Step by Step Guide to Building a SurveyMonkey API Integration in Ruby

Aug 2, 2024 • 5 minute read

Introduction

Hey there, fellow developer! Ready to supercharge your Ruby projects with some survey magic? Let's dive into the world of SurveyMonkey API integration. With the power of the surveymonkey gem, you'll be creating, managing, and analyzing surveys like a pro in no time.

Prerequisites

Before we jump in, make sure you've got:

A Ruby environment up and running
A SurveyMonkey account with API credentials (if you don't have one, go grab it!)

Installation

First things first, let's get that gem installed:

gem install surveymonkey

Easy peasy, right?

Authentication

Now, let's get you authenticated and ready to roll:

require 'surveymonkey'

client = SurveyMonkey::Client.new(access_token: 'YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN')

Replace 'YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN' with your actual token, and you're good to go!

Basic Operations

Let's start with some basic operations to get your feet wet:

Fetching Surveys

surveys = client.surveys.list
puts surveys

Retrieving Survey Details

survey_id = 'YOUR_SURVEY_ID'
survey_details = client.surveys.find(survey_id)
puts survey_details

Getting Survey Responses

responses = client.surveys.responses(survey_id)
puts responses

Advanced Operations

Feeling confident? Let's kick it up a notch:

Creating a New Survey

new_survey = client.surveys.create(title: 'My Awesome Survey')
puts new_survey

Adding Questions

question = {
  family: 'single_choice',
  subtype: 'vertical',
  heading: 'What's your favorite color?',
  answers: {
    choices: [
      { text: 'Red' },
      { text: 'Blue' },
      { text: 'Green' }
    ]
  }
}

client.surveys.questions.create(survey_id, question)

Handling Responses

Got some responses? Let's make sense of them:

responses.each do |response|
  puts response['answers']
end

Want to export? No problem:

client.surveys.export(survey_id, format: 'csv')

Error Handling and Best Practices

Remember to wrap your API calls in begin/rescue blocks to handle any hiccups:

begin
  # Your API call here
rescue SurveyMonkey::Error => e
  puts "Oops! #{e.message}"
end

And don't forget about rate limits! Be kind to the API, and it'll be kind to you.

Example Use Case

Let's put it all together with a simple app that creates a survey and prints out the responses:

survey = client.surveys.create(title: 'Favorite Programming Language')

question = {
  family: 'single_choice',
  subtype: 'vertical',
  heading: 'What's your favorite programming language?',
  answers: {
    choices: [
      { text: 'Ruby' },
      { text: 'Python' },
      { text: 'JavaScript' }
    ]
  }
}

client.surveys.questions.create(survey['id'], question)

puts "Survey created! ID: #{survey['id']}"

# In a real app, you'd wait for responses here

responses = client.surveys.responses(survey['id'])
responses.each do |response|
  puts "Response: #{response['answers']}"
end

Conclusion

And there you have it! You're now equipped to create some seriously cool survey integrations with Ruby. Remember, this is just scratching the surface - there's so much more you can do with the SurveyMonkey API.

Keep exploring, keep coding, and most importantly, have fun! If you need more info, check out the SurveyMonkey API docs and the surveymonkey gem documentation.

Now go forth and survey like a boss! 🚀📊