Linking Participants to Specific Entries Using Embedded Data | XM Community
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Is it possible to use a contact list as a means of linking specific data with particular responses from participants? In my specific project, I am retrieving an ID through a URL, and I want to compare the ID with the list of IDs in my contact list to send the participant a specific URL. The goal is to use Qualtrics to redirect our participants to conduct a research study, but each participant will have their own unique link for the study.
In my mock-up contact list, I have a column for USER_ID and a column for LINK. The logic flow is to compare the the ID from the URL with USER_ID and then show the user the associated LINK.
Looking at branch logic, it seems I store these values in embedded data and compare them with an if branch, but I don't see a way to retrieve the specific LINK to display for the user.

1. If you are using a contact list, why not just create individual links?
2. A pre defined contact list sounds like what authenticators were built for. Any reason for not using them?


Hi ahmed,
By individual links, did you mean personal links? I'm new to the platform, so I just want to make sure we're on the same page.
If I understand personal links correctly, they are intended to be used via the email system to send to specific respondents. However, these links would still display the same survey or message. For my project, we want to be able to send a unique link for each respondent. Since the participants are coming from another website (Prolific), it would be ideal if they arrived at our platform using a single link (with their unique Prolific ID in the URL).
As for authenticators, let me look into those.
Edit: Just to clarify: the pipeline would be: Prolific -> Qualtrics -> external research website. Users come in from Prolific, and Qualtrics links their Prolific ID with the unique URL for the external site in the predefined contact list.


1. Is this a longitudinal study?
2. Are you passing any data to the external research website?


The experiment is not a longitudinal study, but it is synchronous. As a result, we will need to ensure we have sufficient participants before running the experiment. The current plan is to recruit participants a day or two ahead, collect their Prolific IDs, and then selectively offer those participants a follow-up study. Depending on how our recruitment process goes, we may have to run a "recruitment" study and then follow up with the actual lab experiment.
If we can use the contact list to link participant IDs with their unique website link, then we do not need to pass any data to the website. We can manually link the results of the experiment with their ID afterwards.


So, if I understand correctly, in the first run, you'll be directing participants from Prolific to Qualtrics for determining their eligibility/availability. This will "the list" that gets directed to the experiment.
If that's the case, then using the authenticator seems most appropriate. Add their prolific ids as an external data reference and use that to let the eligible one's pass.


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