How to save flow of questions/answers that are dependent on previous answers?

Question

I am making an application where I have to ask questions and depending on answers given, I have to ask other questions until the end of the process.

Example: Next question depends on A1

Scenario 1:

Q1: Are you married ? Y / N

A1: Y

Q2: Enter the date of marriage? ...

Scenario 2:

A1: N

Q2: Do you intend to get married? Y/N

A2: Y

Q3: In which country you like to get married? 1.USA 2.Canada 3.Others ...

End scenarios

Questions can be simple Yes/No, input value, Selection from multiple choices

How do I save these in a database together with the flow control of questions and answers?

Answer 1

Assuming you have a CMS backend to add questions and answers, the approach I would suggest as per my experience of working on such functionality is

1. Creat to tables in DB, eg. primary_questions and sub_questions

2. Create 1:M relationship with the tables; primary_questions HAS MANY sub_questions. Maintain the primary_que_id as foreign key

3. In your CMS while adding questions, add an action/button to add a subquery to the primary question.

4. On submit, check if POST has subquery added. If Yes, insert the main question in primary_questions table and then in response to the same insert, Insert into sub_questions table. You will get foreign key primary_que_id by insert query of primary question.

Footnote: To get the last inserted ID Exaple Queries

Hope this helps!