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Append answer values to the ActivityLink pipe

Lisa Wong
Updated

Pass information into your activity by editing the activity link variable in the body of the invitation.

Note:
  • You can append either profile variables or answer values to the [%ActivityLink%] pipe, but not both at the same time.
  • Appended answer values do not appear in member hub invitations.
You can append answer values to an activity link in an email invitation and pass information about your participants into your activity. When a participant clicks the link, the answer value that appears in the link will be automatically recorded. These values appear as answers in reporting, and you can use them to:
  • Pipe answer values into a subsequent question.
  • Direct participant segments to different questions in your survey using Survey Logic actions.

Example

You are distributing two versions of an email invitation. In your reports, you want to be able to record which version of the email has the better response rate.

To do this, you begin your survey with a hidden Single Choice question named Version. Then, in each answer field you assign a letter to each version of the invitation, so that your question looks like this:

Version
  • Email_A
  • Email_B

Then you create a new email invitation and append the first option (Email_A) in the hidden question to both activity links in the invitation. After you are finished appending the values, the survey links will look like this:

Create another email invitation, and append the second option (Email_B) in the hidden question to both activity links in the invitation.

After the email is distributed, the answer values are encrypted in the:
  • Body of the invitation

  • Participant's browser

    https://CommunityName.com/s/Respond/UniqueResponseId

When participants click the link, their answer value for "Version" will be automatically passed into the survey, and you will be able to view it in the Report tab and use it in Survey Logic conditions or piping.

  1. Create an invitation.
  2. Append both the [%ActivityLink%] variables in the body of the invitation:
    Option Description
    To append the Click here to start hyperlink
    1. Click Source to switch to HTML view, and search for the activity link: 
      
<br />
<a href="[%ActivityLink%]">Click here to start</a><br />
<br />
    2. Place your cursor at the end of the activity link variable, and type an ampersand (&). 
      
<br />
<a href="[%ActivityLink%]&">Click here to start</a><br />
<br />
    To append the [%ActivityLink%] variable in the body of the invitation Place your cursor at the end of the activity link variable, and type an ampersand (&).

    Example: [%ActivityLink%]&

  3. Type the question name and answer value after the ampersand (&).
    Note:
    • Question names and answer values are not case sensitive.
    • Replace spaces in the question name and answer values with %20. For example, an answer value of Home Page should appear as Home%20Page in your survey URL.
    • Characters such as a slash mark (/), ampersand (&), percent (%), or equal sign (=) may be interpreted by the browser as URL commands. Use alphanumeric characters in your question names and answer values when appending values to a survey link.
    • The system uses your browser language for reports, and the community locale for pipes and URL variables. To avoid unexpected response data, do not append dates and numbers to an URL if your browser language is different from the community locale.
    Question type Description

    Short Answer

    Long Answer

    Open End (Power surveys)

    Numeric Text Field

    Numeric Slider

    Single Choice

    Multiple Choice

    1. Type the question name (QuestionName).
    2. Type an equals sign (=).
    3. Type the answer value (AnswerValue).

      Example

      [%ActivityLink%]&QuestionName=AnswerValue

    Note:
    • To pass more than one answer value in a Multiple Choice question to a survey link, repeat the question name and use & between each question name and answer value pair.

      Example

      [%ActivityLink%]&MultipleChoice=AnswerValue1&MultipleChoice=AnswerValue2

    • For Numeric Slider questions, the value to append to the link must be within the minimum and maximum value allowed for the question. For more information, Create a Numeric Slider question.
    • Numeric text values that contain special characters, such as commas, should be encoded before appending them to an activity link.
    • Numeric answer values with decimals are not supported.

    Single Choice (Power surveys)

    Multiple Choice (Power surveys)

    1. Type the question name (QuestionName).
    2. Type an equals sign (=).
    3. Type the Precode value (PrecodeValue).

      The Precode value is located to the left of the answer value.

      Example

      [%ActivityLink%]&QuestionName=PrecodeValue

    Note: You cannot pass more than one answer value in Multiple Choice question to a survey link.
    Rating
    1. Type the question name (QuestionName).
    2. Type an equal sign (=).
    3. Type the scale number.
    4. Type a space. (This will be converted to %20.)
    5. Type the shape name (star, heart, or thumb). This value can be singular or plural depending on the scale number.

      Example

      [%ActivityLink%]&QuestionName=1 star

      [%ActivityLink%]&QuestionName=3 hearts

      [%ActivityLink%]&QuestionName=2 thumbs

      This value also varies depending on the survey language. To check for the correct value, click the Report tab and open the standard report. On the report toolbar, click Filter. Add a filter condition using the Rating question from the survey, and then check the array of answer values.

      Example

      In Spanish, heart and hearts would be corazón and corazones, respectively.

    Single Choice Grid

    Multiple Choice Grid

    1. Type the question name (QuestionName).
    2. Type a forward slash after the question name (/).
    3. Type the row text (RowText).
    4. Type an equals sign (=).
    5. Type the answer value (ColumnText).

      Example

      [%ActivityLink%]&QuestionName/RowText=ColumnText

    6. To add another answer in the same question, type an ampersand (&) and repeat steps 1-5.

      Example

      [%ActivityLink%]&QuestionName/RowText_1=ColumnText_1&QuestionName/RowText_2=ColumnText_2

    Note: You cannot pass values from a grid question in a Power Survey to an activity link.

    Single Choice Grid (Power surveys)

    Multiple Choice Grid (Power surveys)

    1. Type the question name (QuestionName).
    2. Type an underscore after the question name (_).
    3. Type the row number (RowNumber).
      Note: Grid rows are not numbered in the application. To count the rows, start at the top row with the number zero (0).
    4. Type an equals sign (=).
    5. Type the Precode value (PrecodeValue).

      The Precode value is located to the left of the answer value.

      Example

      [%ActivityLink%]&QuestionName_RowNumber=PrecodeValue

    6. To add another answer in the same question, type an ampersand (&) and repeat steps 1-5.

      Example

      [%ActivityLink%] &QuestionName_RowNumber=PrecodeValue&QuestionName_RowNumber=PrecodeValue

    Date
    1. Type the question name (QuestionName).
    2. Type an equals sign (=).
    3. Type the date in the following format: MM/DD/YYYY.

      Example

      [%ActivityLink%]&QuestionName=MM/DD/YYYY

    Email
    1. Type the question name (QuestionName).
    2. Type an equals sign (=).
    3. Type the email address in the following format: email@example.com.

      Example

      [%ActivityLink%]&QuestionName=email@example.com

    ZIP / Postal code
    1. Type the question name (QuestionName).
    2. Type an equals sign (=).
    3. Type the post code in the following format:
      • Zip: 12345
      • Postal Code: A1A1A1

      Example

      [%ActivityLink%]&QuestionName=12345

    Phone Number
    1. Type the question name (QuestionName).
    2. Type an equals sign (=).
    3. Type the phone number in the following format: 604.555.1212

      Example

      [%ActivityLink%]&QuestionName=604.555.1212

    Note:
    • In some browsers, the maximum character limit for an URL is 2048 characters, including the protocol (for example, HTTP or HTTPS). To prevent participants from seeing an error message, limit the number of answer values you append to your survey link and test the URL in several modern browsers before you distribute your survey.
    • You must convert any non-ASCII characters into UTF-8 encoding so they can be displayed in your URL. For a complete UTF-8 encoding list, see this UTF-8 encoding reference.
  4. Optional: To append the survey URL with another question and answer set, type an ampersand (&) followed by the question and answer set.

    Example

    [%ActivityLink%]&QuestionName=AnswerValue&QuestionName=MM/DD/YYYY
  5. Send a test email.
Parent topic: Editing and sending distribution emails
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