launch_builder: Launch the surveyframe visual survey builder

In surveyframe: Survey Instrument Workflows

Launch the surveyframe visual survey builder

Description

Opens the SurveyBuilder, a self-contained HTML application for visual survey design. The builder runs client-side without an R session or Shiny server. Save instruments as .sframe files from the browser and load them into R with read_sframe().

Usage

launch_builder(open = TRUE)

Arguments

open	Logical. When TRUE (the default), the builder HTML file is opened in the system's default web browser with utils::browseURL(). Set to FALSE to return the file path without opening it, which is useful for automated testing.

Details

The builder includes a three-mode interface.

Build

An item editor with a persistent inspector panel, drag-to-reorder, undo/redo, and autosave to browser localStorage.

Preview

A full live render of the survey showing welcome, body, and thank-you pages.

Analyse

A role-based analysis planner with method-specific options, planned outputs, reporting references, and decision rules.

The builder includes a pure-JavaScript SHA-256 fallback for browsers or security policies where crypto.subtle is unavailable on ⁠file://⁠ origins. Saved .sframe files can be loaded and validated with read_sframe().

Value

The path to the bundled builder HTML file, invisibly.

See Also

launch_studio(), read_sframe(), run_analysis_plan()

Examples

# Retrieve the builder path for inspection without opening the browser
path <- launch_builder(open = FALSE)
file.exists(path)

surveyframe documentation built on July 25, 2026, 1:07 a.m.