External parameter – external_key
Piotr Sadowski avatar
Written by Piotr Sadowski
Updated over a week ago

External_key is a parameter in which you can pass an external identifier to be able to connect it later with the completion in questionnaire.

Usually, a unique client identifier (eg from an online system after logging in) or a source of a visit (eg facebook or mailing) are is transmitted by external_key.

The parameter is added as a classic GET parameter to the survey URL. It gives the possibility of multiple completion of the survey. What is also important, the parameter can be used in all security levels of the survey.

Examples of URLs

Description of parameters

Name

Description

external_key

It is any string of alphanumeric characters. Permitted characters are a-z, A-Z, 0-9, excluding diacritics. The maximum length of the external key parameter is 31 characters.

Presentation and analysis of results

If the external_key parameter is provided in the link to the survey, this information will appear in the following places:

  • Viewing Responses

  • Export of raw data to CSV

  • Export of raw data to XLSX

  • Export to SPSS format.

In the case of raw data and the SPSS file it will be a column in Excel or an additional change V in SPSS respectively.

External key in the widget

You can also pass external_key to the completion of the widget. However this will require a little programming work.

In the most cases, the unique client identifier (eg from the online system after logging in) or another parameter allowing the identification of the completion is transferred in this way.

The parameter is added by a JavaScript variable with a fixed name: widget_external_key.

The variable must be defined before loading the widget code.

The variable must be defined on each subpage on which the widget is displayed.

Example of code

In the following example, abcd is a unique identifier of the widget downloaded from the user’s panel, user12345 is a unique identifier of the user from the CRM system.

<script type="text/javascript">    var widget_ownerID = 'abcd';    var widget_external_key = 'user12345'; </script> <script src="https://www.startquestion.com/scripts/widget/superWidget.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

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