RefractSurvey Getting Started

This page walks through installing RefractSurvey by hand on a server you've already got. If you're starting from a completely bare Linux box and want the setup automated for you, see Automated Server Setup instead — it does everything below for you plus the server-level setup.

What you'll need

A web server running Apache with mod_rewrite available (clean URLs are optional but recommended)
PHP 8.1 or newer, with the pdo_mysql, mbstring, json, session, and zip extensions enabled
MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.3+

Most standard shared or VPS hosting already has all of this. The install wizard checks every one of these requirements for you and won't let you continue until they're met, so there's no need to double-check by hand beforehand.

Installing

Copy the refractsurvey/ folder to your web server, so its contents are what a visitor to your domain actually reaches.
Make sure the config/ folder is writable by the web server's user — the installer needs to write your database credentials there.
Visit install.php in your browser and follow the wizard. It walks through:
- Requirements — a live checklist of the PHP/Apache requirements above, with a re-check button if you need to fix something and try again.
- Database — where your MySQL/MariaDB server is and which database to use.
- Database user — the wizard creates a new, scoped database account for the app to use day-to-day, rather than reusing your admin database credentials.
- Appearance — pick a starting color theme (you can change this, and pick from the full set of 15, any time afterward from Manage > Application Config).
- Your account — create the first admin login and your first project.
That's it — you'll land on the login page ready to sign in.

install.php refuses to run a second time once config/config.php exists, so there's no need to delete it afterward for safety's sake. If you ever do want to re-run the wizard from scratch, deleting config/config.php on the server is the supported way to do that.

Everyday use

Staff sign in at /login. Everything else in the navigation (Surveys, Manage) requires being logged in and having the relevant permission — see Permissions and Roles.
The site's root URL (/) is always the public survey landing page — it asks an anonymous visitor for their access code and nothing else. That's the link you hand out to testers.
Build a survey under a project, add groups and questions, then publish it. Generate access codes from the survey's Codes page and hand them out — see Codes.
Save any survey's current questions as a template from its builder page, then start a new survey from that template later — see Templates.

Next steps

Projects — set up your first project
Upgrading — what to do when a new version comes out
Security Notes — what RefractSurvey already does to keep things locked down