Question

We have a custom written on-line job application… application. HR is requesting a ‘skill sheet’ added to the application. While we have yet to work with them to determine what all this could entail, I am starting to research if this is even feasible.

At this point I am envisioning something similar to some of these poll sites where you can ask a multiple-choice questions, ask ‘essay’ questions and possibly a couple other ‘defined standards’.

My initial questions come down to:

1. How do you define and store these questions?
2. How do you display these forms on the screen?
3. How do you store these answers so it can be displayed on a report? We need to see the individual answers.

We use C#.NET.

UPDATE: Is there any sample code or articles that cover this topic a bit more?

Answer 1

There are many ways to do it, but typically I will do something that has 4 tables for storing information.

QuestionTypes

• TypeId
• Description
• Other stuff <- you decide

Questions

• QuestionId
• QuestionTypeId
• QuestionText
• Other stuff <- You decide

QuestionAnswers

• AnswerId
• QuestionId
• QuestionTex
• SortOrder
• Other items <- you decide

UserQuestionAnswers

• UserAnswerId
• QuestionId
• AnswerId
• DateTime
• Detail

Granted, you need to do a bit of work for your implementation, but I’ve used similar models before with great success.