Survey Links

Survey Links in Survey Design

When you create a survey link, you get a "long" link and a "short" link as well as a QR-code.

The "short" link is generated on the fly, and every time you press the "Survey Link" button, you get a new short link. They all point to the same "long" link, so as not to worry.

In general, we recommend using the short link, as this is easier to deal with.

If you send this link to someone else, e.g. a panel provider or to add it to a WEB site you must carefully instruct the persons receiving the link, that they MUST use the link you send them, and NOT any link they might get in their browser, after testing (clicking on the link you provided).

In general, on the internet, the most common syntax for a link follows this format:

protocol::path?parameters

Where: 

"protocol" is "https" a secure link. 

"path" is the address of the WEB server and its function

"parameters" are none or more pairs of name=value separated by an "&" between each pair. They follow the path separated by a "?" question mark.

E.g:

https://survey.quenchtec.net/p?qif=73fd66f4-22b6-4d7e-844d-6a28b921ef3c&qsid=9335ec13-d8cf-4239-9eac-73efee311b2b

Here:

"protocol" : "https"

"path" : "//survey.quenchtec.net/p"

Parameters:

"qif" : "73fd66f4-22b6-4d7e-844d-6a28b921ef3c"

"qsid" : "9335ec13-d8cf-4239-9eac-73efee311b2b"

The short link basically encodes this long link into a short only path based link, like:

https://url.quenchtec.net/ryeX1CJs

Additional parameters:

You or your client may add additional parameters to either the short or the long link. Such additional parameters are available in the survey logic as "sms_XXXXX" where "XXXXX" is the "name" of the parameter. Since the short link does not have initial parameters, you need to introduce the first one with "?", whereas the long link that already has parameters you just add additional ones with "&" separating each new pair.

E.g:

Add parameters to short link:

https://url.quenchtec.net/ryeX1CJs?altid=1234abc&gender=1&age=45

Add parameters to long link:

https://survey.quenchtec.net/p?qif=73fd66f4-22b6-4d7e-844d-6a28b921ef3c&qsid=9335ec13-d8cf-4239-9eac-73efee311b2b&altid=1234abc&gender=1&age=45

What happens after clicking such a link:

As soon as the data-collection server receives such a link, it will create a UNIQUE interview for this very person who clicked the link. The user will never see the original link you sent them. The link is switch into a unique link of this format:

https://survey.quenchtec.net/c?rspid=1238f8e-bf0d-4850-85b3-d78e93fc76ff&qsid=9335ec13-d8cf-4239-9eac-73efee311b2b

The "p" at the end of the path is changed to a "c" and the "qif" parameter is no longer present, and replaced with a unique "GUID" for this particular interview using the "rspid" parameter.

A common mistake we see over and over is that people click the original link, which then is replaced with the unique "rspid" link, and then they copy this unique link and distribute it to respondents. This seemingly work, until the first person completes this unique interview. From that time on, anyone else that click the link will either get the message  "This is a completed interview", or if you redirect respondents to e.g. your WEB site at the end of the survey, everyone will be automatically redirected to the same site.

This is one of the reasons we recommend using the "short" link as it is then less likely that the mistake above happens. 

"Survey links" are not like static links to e.g. a newspaper page, which is the same for everyone!