Survey Parameters

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Inclivio sends several values to your participants' surveys to help you track survey completion, structure the flow of your survey, and capture metadata in your final dataset. With only one exception, these parameters are sent automatically and do not require any additional setup on Inclivio. These values are sent in the form of key/value pairs in the survey URL. Except for the first key/value pair, these parameters take the form of &key=value which is appended to the survey URL (e.g., https://example.com?key1=value1&key2=value2).

On this page you will find information about:

Inclivio sends the following survey parameters:

  • projectid

    Alphanumeric code (20 characters) unique to each project. The value of projectid can be found in the Settings tab of the project page.

  • scheduleid

    Alphanumeric code (20 characters) unique to each schedule. The value of scheduleid can be found in the Settings tab of the schedule page.

  • pingid

    A unique alphanumeric code used to identify each scheduled ping. This value is used in conjunction with our survey callback API to notify Inclivio when surveys have been completed. The pingid is constant across modalities (SMS, email) and reminders.

  • customid

    Optional ID to identify your participants, located in the participant page. This value is not automatically generated (you must add this yourself). Duplicate values across participants are allowed.

  • daynumber

    Numeric value indicating the Nth day of the schedule, starting at 1. For example, if your schedule is applied 1 day after enrollment and Participant A enrolls on 1/1/2022, daynumber will be equal to 1 for all pings sent on 1/2/2022, 2 for all pings sent on 1/3/2022, etc.

  • pingnumber

    Numeric value indication the Nth ping of the day per schedule, starting at 1. For example, if your schedule indicates 5 pings per day, pingnumber will be set to 1 for the first ping of the day, 2 for the second, etc.

  • remindernumber

    Numeric value indicating whether the ping was sent at the original scheduled time (remindernumber = 0) or if it was sent as a reminder (remindernumber > 0).

  • pingtotalschedule

    Numeric value indicating the total number of pings sent to the participant per schedule, at the time that the ping was sent, starting at 1. For example, if the participant has been enrolled in the study for 10 days and receives 5 pings per day on schedule X, pingtotalschedule on the 1st ping of day 11 on schedule X will be 51.

  • pingtotalproject

    Numeric value indicating the total number of pings sent to the participant per project, at the time that the ping was sent, starting at 1. For example, if the participant has been enrolled in the study for 10 days and receives 5 pings per day across all schedules, pingtotalproject on the 1st ping of day 11 will be 51.

  • pingtotalcumulative

    Numeric value indicating the total number of pings sent to the participant per project, at the time that the ping was clicked on by the participant, starting at 1. For example, if the participant has been enrolled in the study for 10 days and receives 5 pings per day across all schedules, pingtotalcumulative on the 1st ping of day 11 will be 51 for any ping (1-51) that is clicked on day 11.

  • numclicks

    Numeric value indicating the number of times the participant has clicked on this ping. Starts at 1 (i.e., the first click with have a numclicks value of 1).

  • nclickedschedule

    Numeric value indicating how many surveys have been clicked on from the schedule in which the ping was sent. For example, if you have two schedules, Schedule A and Schedule B, the current ping (i.e., survey) was sent from Schedule B, and your participant has clicked on 5 surveys from Schedule A and 2 surveys from Schedule B, nclickedschedule will be equal to 2. Duplicate clicks (i.e., clicking on the same survey from the same schedule more than once) are not added to this value. This parameter includes the participant's click on the current ping (if it is their first click on this ping).

  • ncompletedschedule

    Numeric value indicating how many surveys have been marked as complete using Inclivio's survey completion API, from the schedule in which the ping was sent. Duplicate completions (i.e., completing the same survey from the same schedule more than once) are not added to this value. For example, if you have two schedules, Schedule A and Schedule B, the current ping (i.e., survey) was sent from Schedule B, and your participant has completed 5 surveys from Schedule A and 2 surveys from Schedule B, ncompletedschedule will be equal to 2. This parameter is sent to your survey with the participant and reflects the most up-to-date information at the time the participant was sent to the survey (i.e., does not reflect actions taken within the survey). Therefore, if you choose to use this parameter to inform the participant how many surveys they have completed at the end of their current survey, you will need to add 1 to this value.

  • nclickedtotal

    Numeric value indicating the project-wide total number of pings the participant has clicked on. Duplicate clicks (i.e., clicking on the same survey from the same schedule more than once) are not added to this value. For example, if you have two schedules, Schedule A and Schedule B and your participant has clicked on 5 surveys from Schedule A and 2 surveys from Schedule B, nclickedtotal will be equal to 7. This parameter includes the participant's click on the current ping (if it is their first click on this ping).

  • ncompletedtotal

    Numeric value indicating the project-wide total number of surveys have been marked as complete using Inclivio's survey completion API. Duplicate completions (i.e., completing the same survey from the same schedule more than once) are not added to this value. For example, if you have two schedules, Schedule A and Schedule B, the current ping (i.e., survey) was sent from Schedule B, and your participant has completed 5 surveys from Schedule A and 2 surveys from Schedule B, ncompletedtotal will be equal to 7. This parameter is sent to your survey with the participant and reflects the most up-to-date information at the time the participant was sent to the survey (i.e., does not reflect actions taken within the survey). Therefore, if you choose to use this parameter to inform the participant how many surveys they have completed at the end of their current survey, you will need to add 1 to this value.

  • pingtimestamp

    String indicating the time in UTC that the ping was sent. Takes the format Www, dd Mmm yyyy hh:mm:ss GMT. For example, pingtimestamp for a ping sent right now would have the following value: Fri, 13 May 2022 03:55:12 GMT

  • responsetimestamp

    String indicating the time in UTC that the ping was clicked on. Takes the format Www, dd Mmm yyyy hh:mm:ss GMT. For example, responsetimestamp for a ping clicked on right now would have the following value: Fri, 13 May 2022 03:55:12 GMT

  • timezone

    String indicating the participant's timezone in UTC offset. Takes the format GMT+-HMM. For example, a participant in Pacific Daylight Time will have the value GMT-700 and a participant in Eastern Daylight Time will have the value GMT-400.

  • modality

    String indicating how the ping was sent. Takes the value SMS for pings sent by text message and email for pings sent by email.

  • randomsequence

    Numeric value used to implement within-person experimental designs. This value is set within each schedule. If 'None' is selected, this value is left blank. If 'All Pings' is selected, a value between 1 and the total number of pings contained within that schedule will be sampled without replacement. If 'All Days' is selected, a value between 1 and the total number of days contained within that schedule will be sampled without replacement (if multiple pings per day, each will contain the same randomsequence on any given day).

Custom Survey Parameters

You can also create your own custom survey parameters to control the flow of your survey and track additional information over time. For example, imagine you are conducting experience sampling research with individuals diagnosed with a substance use disorder. You may want to ask one group about alcohol use and another about marijuana use. In this case, it would be helpful to add your own survey parameter called substance (you can name these whatever you want, but it is helpful to keep it meaningful) that you assign different values to for each participant.

  1. Projects > {Project Name}

    Projects Page
  2. Participants > {Participant Name}

    Participants Page
  3. Scroll down to 'Custom Survey Parameters' and click 'Add Parameter'.

    Add Parameter

Adding Survey Parameters As Data In Your Survey

Qualtrics

Qualtrics reads survey parameters in the form of embedded data, which are controlled in your survey flow.

  1. Survey > Survey Flow

    Qualtrics Survey Flow
  2. Select 'Add a New Element Here' -> 'Embedded Data'

    Add Embedded Data
  3. Add all survey parameters sent by Inclivio. Select 'Move' to move the embedded data to the top of your survey flow.

    Embedded Data Config
REDCap

REDCap reads survey parameters in the form of a text box field with the @HIDDEN-SURVEY Action Tag / Field Annotation. Action Tags in REDCap surveys allow you to customize the behavior of your field (i.e., question). The @HIDDEN-SURVEY action tag hides your questions from participants but still includes it in your survey flow, allowing REDCap to unobstrusively capture survey parameter metadata.

  1. Click Add Field -> Select 'Text Box'.

    REDCap Text Box
  2. In 'Action Tags / Field Annotation', type @HIDDEN-SURVEY.

    REDCap Action Tag
  3. In 'Variable Name', enter the name of the survey parameter (e.g., 'participantid').

    REDCap Variable Name
  4. Click 'Save'.

    REDCap Save
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