How to create a dynamic link

Note: Dynamic links is an add-on feature. In order to activate this functionality, you must first contact Questback Support at support@questback.no

What is it all about?

“Dynamic links” is one of several integration offerings in Questback Essentials that allows you to automate the distribution of quests. “

As with any integration where the data flow between two IT system is to be automated, “dynamic links” require basically three things:

1.    A source system that contains “people related” data, i.e. data about persons that are to be invited to provide feedback through a survey (e.g. their email addresses, their names, demographic data, etc.)

2.    A trigger (or event) to initiate the data transfer from the source system to the system that is to receive the data (Questback).

3.    A set of rules about which data are to be transferred and how they are to be handled in the system that is to receive the data (Questback).

Given that a source system is in place that supports trigger based data transfer, the set of rules on which data are to be transferred and how they are to be received in Questback can easily be handled with dynamic links, working with so-called “URL parameters”. 

Passing on data from one IT system to another with so-called “URL parameters” is a standard way of transferring data.

Why does it matter?

Automate feedback processes

Reduce manual work when it comes to handling the invitation and distribution of surveys and replace it with automated feedback processes.

Dynamic links allow automated feedback scenarios where a survey is an integrated part of a bigger picture, all available as low low-threshold offer to connect third-party IT systems to Questback surveys.

Dynamic links in Questback Essentials support two scenarios of automated distribution:

1.    Invite: Email or SMS invitation to be sent to respondent

2.    Answer: Respondent is forwarded directly to the survey to answer it

How to prepare a quest for dynamic links?

1.    Verify with your local Questback office that the feature for “Dynamic links” is enabled for your account.

2.    Create and build the quest with all the questions and all relevant settings (logo, themes, etc.).

3.    Activate the email and/or SMS invitation if you want dynamic links to trigger email/SMS invitations.

4.    Upload a file with one dummy invitee and a column for each parameter (set of data) that should captured with dynamic links.

i) File to prepare the quest, here with fields for parameters “Name”, “Role” and “Country” plus contact details for invitations

How to build a dynamic link

1.    Go to the distribution page.

2.    Scroll down to “Distribute by link” and check the box next to “Distribute by link”.

3.    Clicking the button labeled “Get dynamic link”

Dynamic link with direct answering

Clicking “Get dynamic link” opens the interactive wizard for building dynamic links:

By default, the wizard for building a direct answering dynamic link opens, as you can see because “answer” is highlighted in green. If you wish to build an invite dynamic link you can click on “invite”.

There are three main areas in the wizard for building a direct answering dynamic link:

1.    Add respondent data

a.    A list of your existing respondent data will be displayed here. To use the respondent data in your dynamic link simply move the respondent data you want to include to the right.

b.    Respondent data can be added and removed from the dynamic link by using the arrow buttons.

2.    Language

a.    This lets you select a language from the list of activated languages in the quest

3.    Draft of dynamic link

a.    This shows you an auto updating preview of the dynamic link you are building

b.    There is also a button here that lets you copy the dynamic link to your clipboard.

c.    The link will include dummy data in the variables, so remember to add your actual data to the link before using it.

Dynamic link with email or SMS invitation

There are four main areas in the wizard for building a dynamic link with invite:

1.    Distribution

a.    There are two buttons for selecting if the invitation should be sent as an email or SMS

b.    There is a checkbox for allowing duplicates. Duplicates determine whether invitations will be added if they already exist.

c.    There is a checkbox for choosing if the invitation gets sent (when the box is checked) or just added to the quest in Essentials (when the box is not checked).

2.    Add respondent data

a.    A list of your existing respondent data will be displayed here. To use the respondent data in your dynamic link simply move the respondent data you want to include to the right.

b.    Respondent data can be added and removed from the dynamic link by using the arrow buttons.

3.    Language

a.    This lets you select a language from the list of activated languages in the quest. If your quest is not multilingual the default language for the quest will be used.

4.    Draft of dynamic link

a.    This shows you an auto updating preview of the dynamic link you are building

b.    There is also a button here that lets you copy the dynamic link to your clipboard

c.    The link will include a dummy email address or mobile number. These values must be replaced with your actual data before you use the link. Note: remember to URL-encode the data you add to the link

d.    The link will include dummy data in the variables, so remember to add your actual data to the link before using it. Note: remember to URL-encode the data you add to the link

Breakdown and examples of dynamic links

Please note: (1) The parts in blue are fix URL elements, while the actual content of the orange parts must be dynamically generated by the source system where the dynamic link is embedded. (2) The names of the codes for each parameter are case sensitive and need to be identical to the headers in the prep file that was uploaded.

Examples

Please note: All dynamic links need to be generated as valid URLs and need to be properly URL encoded

(see http://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_urlencode.asp). This requires that any special character like æ, ø, å or “+”, as well as spaces need to be encoded with the respective HTML codes.