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External API

  • The external API enables you to pass data from external sources into the system.
  • This can be used if you do not wish to upload email addresses into our system. You can replace the email address with a reference number (custom data) and pass this in via a URL that you construct.
  • This feature can be used if you are running a forum and wish to track the forum members names who take the survey. It allows you to pass them in via the URL.

External Participant Data

The API currently supports collecting participant data from external sources. The participants that are collected will appear in the email list you designate.

 Parameter Description Description Description
 pcol Participant Collection Enable This parameter must be set to true to enable data collection
 plid Participant List ID. This is the email list ID that your participant will be inserted into
 pe Participant Email This is can be set to the participant's email address. This value must be URL encoded.
pfn Participant First name This field can be used to store the participants first name.
pln Participants Last name This field can be used to store the participants last name.
pca Participants custom data This field can be used to store other information like a user ID.
 pu Enforce unique This option is used to stop duplicate participants. If the option to allow participants to return and edit survey is set it also allows the participant to return to the survey using the link you provide. This can be useful for sending reminders to participants.
This value can be set to one of the above fields pe, pfn, pln or pca.

Worked example

  1. Create an empty email list. Once you have an email list you will need to get the email list ID. from the URL shown in the browser.

    Navigate to the email list edit screen

    The email list is shown above and highlighted in red. Copy the email list ID part from the browser URL.

  2. Get the survey ID. You can get the survey ID. from the browser by using Launch Survey -> Create Link

    The survey ID. is shown above and highlighted in red. Copy the survey ID part from the URL.

  3. Generate your email address, first name, last name, or custom data.

    IMPORTANT: The data you generate MUST BE URL ENCODED.

    In this example we want to the the email address [email protected] one this has been URL encoded becomes: customer365%40mybigredemailserver.com

    Use the following table to construct the URL:

    Number Fragment Description Example
      /?pcol=true Link to the eSurv.org website. This is required /?pcol=true
    1 ?s= This parameter contains your survey ID. ?s=HCIJI_5dddfbb2
    2 &plid= This parameter contains your email list ID. &plid=OHKJJ_a271577
    3 &pu= We are forcing the participant data to be unique. This combined with the return to edit survey setting allows the participant to return and complete their survey and us to send them reminders. &pu=pe
    4 &pe= In this example we are using pe which contains the participants email address. &pe=customer365%40mybigredemailserver.com
  4. We have now constructed the following URL
    /?pcol=true&s=HCIJI_5dddfbb2&plid=OHKJJ_a271577&pu=pe&pe=customer365%40mybigredemailserver.com

     
  5. You can combine multiple participant details in one link therefore you could add &pfn=andrew to the end of the URL to collect the participants first name.

We recommend keeping a log of the URL's you have issued in a spreadsheet in case you need to issue reminder emails to participants. The in this case you can simply copy the URL from your spreadsheet into the email or use the mail merge feature of your office software.

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