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Tracking the fills using the external_key parameter
Tracking the fills using the external_key parameter
Artur Zbiejcik avatar
Written by Artur Zbiejcik
Updated over a week ago

If you need to track the sources of the fillings of your respondents or you want to provide a unique identifying parameter (for example, the user's ID from your system), use the external key, parameter by adding it to the survey's link.

The external_key is added as a classic GET parameter to the survey's URL.

Example URLs

https://www.startquestion.com/survey/123456/study-satysfawod.html?external_key=facebook

https://www.startquestion.com/survey/123456/study-satysfawod.html?external_key=12jsq3exct

http://survey.mycompany.com?external_key=mailing

Parameter descriptions

Name

Description

external_key

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

The presentation and analysis of the results

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

  • Viewing single responses

  • Raw data export to the CSV

  • Raw data export to the XLSX

  • Export to the SPSS

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

What should be remembered?

It is possible to fill in the survey multiple times with this parameter.
The parameter can be used at all survey security levels

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