Pushing Values into the Survey – Examples: Part 3

This is the continuation of the series for pushing values into your survey through the query string. Make sure to check out Part 1: Query String Basics and Part 2: Query String Integration, if you want to get the background on what the query string is, how it's displayed within the responses, basic structure and syntax, and how to integrate it within SurveyGizmo, including sending it back out to another website through a redirect.

All of the survey links in this tutorial are live and designed to give you a feel for the behaviors that are described as well as the respondent's point of view. This section is designed as a general example of start-to-finish functionality of the query string feature, and is not all encompassing. However, it does give a step-by-step look at two of the most common uses of this powerful feature available through SurveyGizmo.

Passing Unique User Information

This example has the following goals:

Capture a unique user id for the respondent from the source website
Capture personal information such as first and last name
Personalize the survey with the first and last name
Disqualify users and add extra query string values to represent this
Redirect users at the end of the survey back to the website with the userid and personal information

The distribution link for this survey is as follows: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/925736/Tutorial-Query-String-Part-3-Panel-Example-LIVE

The following variable names will be used:

User id Number: uid
First Name: fname
Last Name: lname (this is a lowercase L)

A sample survey link including the query string is as follows:

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/925736/Tutorial-Query-String-Part-3-Panel-Example-LIVE?uid=12345&fname=John&lname=Smith

Page 1

First and foremost, page 1 includes a Hidden Value action to store the 'uid' variable, opening descriptive text that includes the first and last name, and a radio button question that includes simple page jumping if they choose to be disqualified.

At the top of the page the Hidden Value action contains the name 'uid' and the value is the merge code for the uid variable: [url("uid")]

The second addition is descriptive text which includes the merge code for the first and last name of the individual, in an effort to personalize the survey. Though not used in this example, you could place this merge code inside the 'Default Value' of an open text-box question (especially within a Contact Group question) to pre-populate the form with their personal information.

The third addition is question #1, which asks simply whether they respondent wishes to be disqualified. Once the question has been created, clicking on Add Jump/Disqualify Logic at the bottom left hand side of the page will allow you to set up Simple Page Jumping (not available for free accounts) to jump to page 3, a disqualification redirect that will be discussed later.

Page 2

Page 2 has a very simple message that confirms that you did not get disqualified. You will not have to add any logic to this page to move down to page 4 automatically. After we set up Show/When logic on page 3, it will only show up if someone on the first page was disqualified (therefore making it so it'll be hidden otherwise). This means anyone who moves forward on page 2 will go straight to page 4.

Page 3

Page 3 is our disqualification page. This is the page we jump users to when they are disqualified based upon their answers on page 1. This page has 2 items on it, a URL redirect action, and Show/When logic to hide the page unless someone has answered "yes" to page 1.

URL Redirect Action

The action contains a few key elements:

The target URL: www.surveygizmo.com - Where you want respondents to go when redirected for disqualification
The Disqualify option is turned to "yes" which will guarantee your respondent is marked as disqualified in your data
The hidden value question 'uid' is selected from the Fields to Pass-->Question to Send section and using uid as the variable name to push.
An original query string variable/value from the Fields to Pass-->Question to Send section with the title name of 'disqualify' and a default value of 1 Note: This varies greatly between panel companies; this example is used just for clarity

Show/When Disqualify Logic

After the URL redirect action has been added, there is Show/When logic added to the page as well.

Adding Show/When logic is easy, it can be accessed by clicking on the Show/When logic option in the upper right hand corner of the page.

The show/when logic contains only one key element:

Under Show/When Rule, the IF statement is set up as follows: IF Question 1 is exactly equal to Yes

This will show the page if and only if the respondent answers "yes" on page 1.

Page 4

Finally, page 4 is our Thank You page, and while it still contains the default thank you message, this will never be seen because there is another URL Redirect action to notify the panel company that the respondent has successfully completed the survey.

Similar to the URL redirect action set up on page 3, we have included the target URL of www.surveygizmo.com and included the hidden value field 'uid' and made sure to specify that the variable name ('Your Title' column) will be uid. Note however that there is no disqualification since it has been successfully completed.

We strongly encourage you to see what the query string output looks like from this survey by trying the live survey link for this example use case. Make sure you supply at least a uid to see the power of this example in action. Here is a query string example link for this tutorial: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/925736/Tutorial-Query-String-Part-3-Panel-Example-LIVE?userid=12345&fname=John&lname=Smith

Capturing Common Values for Reporting - Response Analysis

This example has the following goals:

Capture a general category from a survey link
Store that value in a Hidden Value action
Create a report that displays a graph comparing this information

The distribution link for this survey is as follows: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/925759/Tutorial-Query-String-Part-3-Analysis-Example-LIVE

The following variable name will be used:

Department Name: dept
Accepted Values:
- IT
- Sales
- HR
- Union
- Executive
Note: While not part of this tutorial, extra code has been added to this survey to restrict access to the survey unless using one of the following links below (to avoid inappropriate values as part of the query string, making it visible in the report that is viewable by anyone).

A sample survey link including the query string is as follows:

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/925759/Tutorial-Query-String-Part-3-Analysis-Example-LIVE?dept=IT

This use case could have the same results accomplished multiple ways. You could ask the respondent to identify their department (what if they lie?) or you can include this information as part of an email invitation and store it in the hidden value field that way (what if you want to use your own email system?). These are all viable options, but the query string allows you flexibility if you have this information as part of a database that can already generate the proper URL automatically for you. Be aware however, that someone knowledgeable enough (maybe they read this tutorial) could alter the query string prior to choosing to take the survey,but SurveyGizmo's email invite method described previously removes this ability.

Page 1

The key element in this scenario is the Hidden Value action (question 1 is just for fun). The Hidden Value action is required in this scenario because it must be stored as part of the survey within the editor to be available within Reporting. Notice that we are not displaying this information directly to the respondent within the survey, as this data is not relevant to them while taking this survey.

The content here is similar to the examples in Part 2: Query String Integration. The field name has been clarified slightly since it is for reporting rather than simply for inclusion in a URL Redirect action. The value uses the merge code [url("dept")] to grab the value set in the query string variable 'dept'.

When the respondent completes the survey, the response will now store this hidden value, and the report will be able to display graphs and information based on this value. A section of the 'Edit' report screen is seen below.