Tutorial: SurveyGizmo Integration Guide

Integration of data is a primary concern for many organizations. In fact, before choosing online vendors many companies consider building their own solution so it can work closely with existing systems.

Thankfully, with SurveyGizmo you can have the best of both worlds–hosted and integrated software. There are 4 types of integration possible with SurveyGizmo. This document describes them and shows you some examples.
Method 1: Passing Data to the survey via url variables and out with “Redirect Browser”
Specific Tutorial: Pushing Values into the Survey through the Query String: Part 1

This first method of integration allows you to pass information into a SurveyGizmo powered Survey/Form by attaching variables and data to the URL. SurveyGizmo will automatically track and store any data appended to a survey URL and make it available inside the survey and in reporting.

This integration method is the easiest to understand and implement. It does not require any real technical knowledge.

Here is an example of this method:

http://s-sgete-2122.sgizmo.com/?fname=Jason&lname=Joe&ident=12

In this example you can see that three pieces of information are being passed into the survey: fname, lname and id. These variables may or may not have corresponding fields in the survey. Either way, the data will be stored.

This method also works with embedded surveys and polls. You can simply append information to the src attribute of the Javascript or iframe embed and it will have the same effect as if they clicked on the link. This is great if you have a portal or intranet and want to track information behind the scenes.
Normal Survey Link:

http://surveygizmo.querystring-analysis.sgizmo.com?dept=Sales

Javascript embed version:

<script 
src="http://app2.sgizmo.com/s/survey_js2.php?id=3U84SGEP9R4DTC81F5RHZK7XL5BIW2-67533&dept=Sales" 
type="text/javascript" ></script> 
<noscript>This survey is powered by SurveyGizmo's 
<a href="www.surveygizmo.com">online survey software</a>. 
<a href="http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/67533/3u84s?dept=Sales" >Please take my survey now</a>
</noscript>

Passing information out of the survey to a webpage on your own website works the same way. On your Thank You page, add a “Redirect Browser” action to your page.

In the advanced settings for this action, you can specify which fields will be passed in the URL. After selecting which questions to send over, type the name of the variable that the destination web page or script is expecting in the column called “Your Title.” You can also specify a default value to be passed if the question was skipped (or if you are sending a static variable).

This will pass information to an external website or script the same way data is passed into SurveyGizmo – through the URL.

This integration option is available at all SurveyGizmo account levels.

Method 2: Passing Data to and from a survey using HTTP POST/GET
Specific Article: Advanced Feature: Communicating with External Databases through HTTP POST

This integration method is a bit more complex. To use it properly, you do need at least some experience with HTML Form tags or, better yet, experience creating scripts that process them.

In layman’s terms, this action simulates a web browser completing a form on a website that you specify. The form data is passed to an external script and the survey waits for a reply, which can be HTML to be displayed or variables that it can use within the survey.

Many SurveyGizmo customers use this method to integrate their newsletter sign-up with SurveyGizmo. All that’s required is to instruct a FORM POST action to fill out the newsletter sign-up form on your website. More advanced users can use this action to pre-populate their survey from an external database and/or push data collected during the survey into that same external database.

To use the FORM POST action you need a few pieces of information about the remote web script or API:

1. The URL (web address) of the script itself.
2. The variables and field names that the script is expecting to run properly
3. Which method the script requires, GET or POST
4. A SurveyGizmo Enterprise or Dedicated account.

Once you have collected this information (typically from your IT department, vendor or “web guy”) you can add an “HTTP Form Post” action to your survey.

Where to put the action is a very important decision. Typically, if you intend to populate data in your survey from an external source, then the action almost always goes on the second page of your survey at the top.

If you are pushing data out of the survey and to an external database (through a script your developer wrote), then the action almost always goes on the Thank You page.

The options for an “HTTP Form Post” are simple. The first grid of choices allows you to choose which fields and data are passed to the remote script.

The second grid of options is used to map data passed from the remote script into the survey and populate questions and hidden fields. SurveyGizmo expects data passed back into the survey though a URL encoded string. So if your developers ask, tell them their scripts should return data in that format.

Method 3: Using the SurveyGizmo API
API Documentation: SurveyGizmo Open API – Version 1.1

Our API is designed so that users can integrate SurveyGizmo’s features and campaign capabilities into their own applications (intranets, CMS, WordPress Blogs, etc) or create standalone applications such as widgets. It was specifically written for blog software authors and email service providers who want to offer top-notch surveys to their own customers from within their own application.

In order to create your own implementations using the API, you must contact SurveyGizmo support (support@sgizmo.com) to request a developer key so your app can access it. Your implementation will need to use this key in combination with a user’s personal key to gain access.

Method 4: Custom Modules

If the project you are working on requires closer integration than is available above, then contact your account representative and ask if we can build a Custom Integration Module.

Custom Integration Modules allow us to extend the core functionality of SurveyGizmo.