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Completing Surveys with Survey Links

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Participants normally complete their surveys using the MyDataHelps participant website or app, either on their own device or using a shared device in a lab or other clinical setting. You can also allow participants to complete surveys on the MyDataHelps participant website without ever creating an account or installing the app.

Table of Contents

About Survey and Task Links

Survey and task links are URLs that take the participant to the MyDataHelps website, where they can complete the desired survey. However, they operate in subtly different ways:

  • Survey Link - A reusable URL that lets the participant complete the survey as many times as they wish.
  • Task Link - A URL that allows the participant to complete the survey one time. The task will appear in the participant's task list with a due date, both in MyDataHelps (if they were to use the app) and in the participant details screen.
Both survey and task links are unique to the participant and the survey. The participant must be added to your project, even if they have not created an account or installed MyDataHelps.

Enabling Survey and Task Links

If you wish to use either survey or task links, you must first enable them for your project as a whole:

  1. Go to your project settings.
  2. Select the "General" tab.
  3. Check the box for "Allow Survey Completion via Link."

survey-link-project-settings.png

Next you must enable them for the each survey you wish to deliver via link:

  1. Open the survey editor.
  2. Go to the "Settings" tab.
  3. Enable "Allow Task Completion Via Link."
  4. If desired, also enable "Allow Survey Completion Via Link." You must also enable task completion for this option to be available.

survey-link-survey-settings.png

Generating a Task Link

To deliver a survey to a participant using a task link:

  1. Add or invite the participant, if you haven't already.
  2. Go to the participants tab of the project settings.
  3. Select the participant.
  4. Select the "Task List" tab.
  5. Select an existing survey task, or select "Choose a Survey to Manually Deliver" to deliver a new one.
  6. Click the "Copy Link" button next to the task.
  7. Send the link to the participant, typically via email.

survey-link-copy.png

You will only see the "Copy Link" option if survey links are enabled for your project and for the specific survey.

Using Survey Links in Notifications

Since survey links are not associated with a task, there is no way to deliver them using the participant screen. Typically projects will use survey links in notifications, sending an email to selected participants to notify them of the survey.

In a notification, you can use the <%LinkIdentifier%> dynamic field to build a link that will be customized for each participant it's delivered to. For example:

Welcome to the Awesome Study! Take your first survey today by visiting: https://mydatahelps.org/mydatahelps/<%LinkIdentifier%>/surveylink/Welcome%20Survey

Be sure to replace "Welcome%20Survey" with your survey's name.

You will need to use URL encoding on any special characters in your survey name, including spaces. For example, a space is "%20"; "Welcome Survey" would become "Welcome%20Survey".

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