Linking to External Surveys

Recollective is an ideal starting point for many research ends. If a complex quantitative need arises, you can integrate an external survey with Recollective such that the survey's completions are accurately tracked in Recollective. This can be done in one of two ways:

• Using a Prompt or Poll Task within an Activity
• Using a Prompt Custom Field

Please note that the ability to configure an integration depends on your survey platform and its flexibility. In order to accurately track completions, you must be able to dynamically redirect respondents upon survey completion.

Prompt Task Setup

We recommend using the Prompt Task type to launch your survey from within a Recollective Activity. The following capabilities can also be done via Poll Task choices however (if warranted).

To get started:

1. Add a Prompt Task to an Activity in Recollective
2. Configure a Prompt button to have a label like Start Survey
3. Select Show Advanced Options and set the button's Destination to Open URL (current tab) 
4. Paste the survey address into the Destination URL

To complete the setup, you must tell the survey platform where respondents must be sent upon completion. Recollective can provide this return address dynamically via the placeholder {SuccessURL}.

Most survey platforms allow variables to be passed in as URL variable, such as: https://survey.com/abc?variable=value

Success URL is essentially a special website address that can be used to return respondents to Recollective. It will simultaneously mark the originating Prompt Task as Completed, therefore tracking the external survey's completion.

To finalize the integration:

• Update the Prompt button's Destination URL to include the {SuccessURL} as a variable  
• Configure the final step of the external survey to redirect respondents to the Success URL

In the example above, the variable onComplete was given {SuccessURL} as its value. The name of variable will depend on the survey platform however.

You may need to prefix the Success URL with https:// if this is not done for you by the survey platform. The integration must either perform an automatic redirect back to Recollective or show the respondent the Success URL as a clickable link.

Participant Experience

When the Prompt button is presented to a participant, Recollective will replace the instance of {SuccessURL} in the Destination URL with a dynamically generated URL, one that securely identifies the current participant and Task response.

Once the participant completes the survey, they should be forwarded back to Recollective via the Success URL (the redirection can simply be a custom button or link on the final page of the survey).

The Success URL  will return the participant to Recollective while marking the originating Prompt Task as Completed. The participant will automatically be taken to the next Task in the Activity. 

If the originating Prompt Task was the last Task in the Activity, the entire Activity is also deemed to be Completed.

Tracking Other States

In addition to {SuccessURL}, two other dynamic URL fields are available: {FailureURL} and {SkipURL}.

If the external survey will provide a Cancel or Back option, you may wish to pass {FailureURL} to the survey in addition to {SuccessURL}. A participant redirected to the Failure URL is essentially returned to the Prompt Task while not changing its state. The Task will still be deemed Incomplete, thus allowing the participant to restart the survey later or choose among the other Prompt buttons configured in the Task.

If the external survey will provide a Skip or Not Applicable option, you may wish to pass {SkipURL} to the survey in addition to {SuccessURL}. A participant redirected to the Skip URL will be returned to Recollective but this time the the originating Prompt will get a Skipped state instead of a Completed one. In this case, the participant will be taken to the next Task in the Activity.

Prompt Custom Field

The Prompt field type is similar to the Prompt task type, but can be utilized during screening or surfaced on a Home page card to direct participants to an external survey, or any other URL (i.e. even another study). 

Tracking Completes

When included in a Screener, Prompt field completes can be reviewed along with all other screening question responses when reviewing screened applicants. Whether included in a Screener or on a Home page card, the field will also be visible on each individual panelist's account page along with other custom profiling information:

The field can be configured such that a “Complete” status is earned by just pressing the button, or, it can require the end user be redirected to the SuccessURL (as done for the Prompt task type). The message seen after following the SuccessURL can be customized.