How and when are answers saved into the DB?

[cwilligv]

Description

I'm trying to get my head around how and when the survey's answers are being saved into the database, however, I can't seem to find the answer in the documentation.
In the database configuration section (Data Management) it's not clear how the table in the database gets created. Once I configure the connection, is that when the table gets created automatically?. If I let the survey save the data locally then I can see the preview_data.csv file and use that structure to replicate it in the database for saving. Is that the right way to do it?
Also, when are the answer being saved, after each click on the next button or after clicking submit at the end?

Thanks for your guidance here.
Regards,
Christian.

[jhelvy]

Good question. When you first set up your survey configuration and a .env file gets created, the table is not yet automatically created. It gets created after the very first respondent starts the survey (which is usually you, the survey designer, while testing things).

The data gets updated in the DB on every page turn (each time you push a next button) and after you close the browser, which is usually at the end of the survey, but just in case you close it early it will write to the DB then too.

You never need to manually create anything in the DB - it gets automatically created. After you first set up the config, run your survey locally and click past the first page, then you should see the table get created in the database. You can view it directly on supabase (if you're using supabase), or you can see the table using the dashboard by running sd_dashboard(). I'll update the docs on this.

[jhelvy]

Okay this is now updated at the bottom of the storing data page:
https://surveydown.org/docs/storing-data#table-creation-and-data-operations

[cwilligv]

Thank so much @jhelvy . It's much more clear now for us starting to use the package. Cheers!!!