so I'm looking at adding query strings to unique survey URLs, and some of our invites go out via SMS, so character limits are a thing.
I have an employee engagement survey set up, and the unique links that are generated include all of these fields:
Q_TS_RE_PID Three sixty Evaluator ID
Q_TS_ID Three sixty ID
Q_TS_PID Three sixty Person ID
Q_TS_RS Three sixty Relationship
This isn't a 360, so the PID & RE_PID are identical, and the relationship = "Self"
The reason I ask is I'm trying to use an URL shortener, and it works if I just shorten the survey URL prior to the last "/", and then I can append the rest of the full URL (so I don't have to generate a unique URL for each link). However that isn't very efficient, because it only saves me 21 characters, as I have all this other stuff that appears after that in the URL.
It seems like I only need one of those 4 fields specified in the URL, but it doesn't work if I remove any of them.
TIA.
Remove or truncate unnecessary parameters in unique survey URLS?
Best answer by JYurkovich
https://www.qualtrics.com/community/discussion/comment/34185#Comment_34185So it appears I was not using it correctly. when I tried it, I had attempted to append the fields to the shortened URL using an &, just like they were in the full URL.
I noticed you were using the /?, and that worked.
I tried it with QEED for the other fields first, and then not encoded, and it worked both ways.
So, for others that are looking for a clear step by step:
1. Starting with this survey link:
https://mysurveydomain.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_012345678901234/?Q_TS_ID=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX&Q_TS_PID=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX&Q_TS_RE_PID=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX&Q_TS_RS=Self
2a. Remove the two PID fields so it looks like this:
https://mysurveydomain.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_012345678901234/?Q_TS_ID=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX&Q_TS_RS=Self
If you are Embedding data via the query string, and it's static for this part of the link, you can append those values here
3a. Shorten that URL with your favorite service so it looks like this:
https://rb.gy/XXXX
2b. OR, if you need something less translatable in the full URL, translate everything after the ? to base 64 like is described in the link above, and append it so it looks like this, then shorten that version of the URL:
https://mysurveydomain.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_012345678901234/?Q_EED=eyJRX1RTX0lEIjoiWFhYWFhYWFhYWFgiLCJRX1RTX1JTIjoiU2VsZiJ9
4. Then append the values for the two remaining fields and anything else you're passing in the query string to the shortened URL, preceded by "/?" like this:
https://rb.gy/XXXX/?Q_TS_PID=XXXXXXXXXX&Q_TS_RE_PID=XXXXXXXXX
In my particular application, I was able to reduce the length of the link URL from 167 to 79, which is a huge improvement.
Have you tried using QEED. It works for personal links generated via the directory, I do not know about employee engagement.
https://www.qualtrics.com/community/discussion/comment/34161#Comment_34161thanks, I haven't yet. it is an interesting idea though. Not sure what that gets me, as it appears to create an even longer string of text than you start with...
You could add your common parameters to QEED, shorten it and then append the unique ones. Does that not work?
https://www.qualtrics.com/community/discussion/comment/34165#Comment_34165unfortunately no.
here's how things break down:
https://mysurveydomain.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_012345678901234/Q_TS_ID=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX&Q_TS_PID=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX&Q_TS_RE_PID=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX&Q_TS_RS=Self&_=1
I can only shorten everything up through the SV, as I need to have the shortened URL followed by the slash in order for it to let me append the other info. the other 4 fields I mentioned occur after the slash, so they can't be shortened.
Usually query parameters start with
?so you should have had
1234?Q_TS_IDinstead of
1234/Q_TS_ID. See if that work.
If it does, then these are regular query parameters and you can rearrange them however you want, which would allow you to get a url of the form
...1234?Q_TS_PID=xxx&Q_TS_RE_PID=xxx&Q_TS_RS=Self&=1&Q_TS_ID=xxxand you could shorten everything till 1, then append the required values.
https://www.qualtrics.com/community/discussion/comment/34172#Comment_34172Sorry, I should have had "/?Q_TS_ID...", which is what the URL is.
the problem is some shortened URLs don't like having things appended to them. bitly won't work at all, tinyurl works, but only if whatever is appended starts with a slash. I tried starting the appended portion with a ? and an &, and neither worked.
https://www.qualtrics.com/community/discussion/comment/34179#Comment_34179Doesn't work any different than tinyurl
It does. Are you using it correctly?
This link https://rb.gy/6cftxm redirects to a survey where the
TS_IDis empty.
This link https://rb.gy/6cftxm/?TS_ID=value_present redirects to same survey where
TS_IDis
value_present
+38I don't have access to the 360 but if it works like XMCore couldn't you define some of these in the beginning of the survey flow using an embedded data instead of putting them in the URL.
For instance, you could have a URL with just Q_TS_PID defined
URL?Q_TS_PID=XXXXXX
Then in your flow, you first set of Embedded Data be
Q_TS_PDI - set from panel or URL
Q_TS_ID - seems like this is static and could be hard coded?
Q_TS_RS - hard code "Self"
Then the next element is Embedded Data again where you put
Q_TS_RE_PID - pipe value of embedded data Q_TS_PID
https://www.qualtrics.com/community/discussion/comment/34191#Comment_34191I like where you're going with this, unfortunately when you go to set embedded data in Flow, you aren't able to define the values. "Reserved Embedded Data fields cannot have custom values".
https://www.qualtrics.com/community/discussion/comment/34185#Comment_34185So it appears I was not using it correctly. when I tried it, I had attempted to append the fields to the shortened URL using an &, just like they were in the full URL.
I noticed you were using the /?, and that worked.
I tried it with QEED for the other fields first, and then not encoded, and it worked both ways.
So, for others that are looking for a clear step by step:
1. Starting with this survey link:
https://mysurveydomain.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_012345678901234/?Q_TS_ID=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX&Q_TS_PID=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX&Q_TS_RE_PID=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX&Q_TS_RS=Self
2a. Remove the two PID fields so it looks like this:
https://mysurveydomain.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_012345678901234/?Q_TS_ID=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX&Q_TS_RS=Self
If you are Embedding data via the query string, and it's static for this part of the link, you can append those values here
3a. Shorten that URL with your favorite service so it looks like this:
https://rb.gy/XXXX
2b. OR, if you need something less translatable in the full URL, translate everything after the ? to base 64 like is described in the link above, and append it so it looks like this, then shorten that version of the URL:
https://mysurveydomain.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_012345678901234/?Q_EED=eyJRX1RTX0lEIjoiWFhYWFhYWFhYWFgiLCJRX1RTX1JTIjoiU2VsZiJ9
4. Then append the values for the two remaining fields and anything else you're passing in the query string to the shortened URL, preceded by "/?" like this:
https://rb.gy/XXXX/?Q_TS_PID=XXXXXXXXXX&Q_TS_RE_PID=XXXXXXXXX
In my particular application, I was able to reduce the length of the link URL from 167 to 79, which is a huge improvement.
+2Hi All,
I recently dealt with a similar issue when I tried to shorten survey links with query strings and then send those shortened links to participants via SMS. See below for a detailed description of the problem and the workaround I found:
The problem: I was working on a longitudinal survey, and I wanted to send a link to the follow-up surveys via SMS messages to respondents of the first survey. I needed to pass embedded data from the first survey to the follow-up survey using query strings (see information on longitudinal surveys and query strings here and here). While you can use the SMS task in workflows to create a shortened link to a follow-up survey, there is no way to create a shortened link that includes the query strings that are needed to pass the embedded data from first survey to the second one. As such, the “shortened” link looks something like the first link in the text below. But I wanted it to look like the opt out link at the bottom of the text.
The solution/workaround: There are various link shortening services (like Bitly and Rebrandly) that include a feature called “paramater passing.” These services allow you to create shortened links that pass the data -- or the parameters -- in the query string from the first survey to the second survey. Typically, you have to pay for the parameter passing feature, but I found one company, Dub, that does it for free!
Here’s how to use Dub:
- Once you create an account, click “create link” at the top right of the page.
-
- When you type the URL to your second survey into Dub, you should only type up to the question mark. For example: https:/survey.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_XXXXXXXXXXXXX?.
- You should then check off UTM Builder checkbox and type all of your query strings into the “UTM Term” box. Dub will then created a shortened link that includes all of your query strings and passes the embedded data from the first survey to the second. This shortened link can then be sent to your participants via SMS.
See more information on Dub’s parameter passing capabilities here and more information on Dub’s UTM Builder here.
Feel free to tag me in the comments if you have any questions and I can try to help!
+2This actually doesn’t work, so please ignore!!
Hi All,
I recently dealt with a similar issue when I tried to shorten survey links with query strings and then send those shortened links to participants via SMS. See below for a detailed description of the problem and the workaround I found:
The problem: I was working on a longitudinal survey, and I wanted to send a link to the follow-up surveys via SMS messages to respondents of the first survey. I needed to pass embedded data from the first survey to the follow-up survey using query strings (see information on longitudinal surveys and query strings here and here). While you can use the SMS task in workflows to create a shortened link to a follow-up survey, there is no way to create a shortened link that includes the query strings that are needed to pass the embedded data from first survey to the second one. As such, the “shortened” link looks something like the first link in the text below. But I wanted it to look like the opt out link at the bottom of the text.
The solution/workaround: There are various link shortening services (like Bitly and Rebrandly) that include a feature called “paramater passing.” These services allow you to create shortened links that pass the data -- or the parameters -- in the query string from the first survey to the second survey. Typically, you have to pay for the parameter passing feature, but I found one company, Dub, that does it for free!
Here’s how to use Dub:
- Once you create an account, click “create link” at the top right of the page.
-
- When you type the URL to your second survey into Dub, you should only type up to the question mark. For example: https:/survey.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_XXXXXXXXXXXXX?.
- You should then check off UTM Builder checkbox and type all of your query strings into the “UTM Term” box. Dub will then created a shortened link that includes all of your query strings and passes the embedded data from the first survey to the second. This shortened link can then be sent to your participants via SMS.
See more information on Dub’s parameter passing capabilities here and more information on Dub’s UTM Builder here.
Feel free to tag me in the comments if you have any questions and I can try to help!
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