Millisecond Forums

Generate random ID code to connect data between platforms

https://forums.millisecond.com/Topic13981.aspx

By sgriff - 8/13/2014

I am using an online service to recruit participants and hosting my surveys on Inquisit web. I want to generate a random alpha-numeric code on Inquisit that will be displayed to my participants upon completion of my study. They will then input that alpha-numeric code into the other platform to connect the data in both programs. I am struggling with how to do this because whatever code is provided to the participants must also be recorded in the data on Inquisit. I must have the code saved in both platforms otherwise I cannot connect their data. The other issue is that I need this code to appear even if they quit prior to completing the study (e.g., hit Cntrl+Q before they go through all of the survey pages). Help please? 
By Dave - 8/13/2014

Normally you'll want your survey / recruiting platform to generate that unique id and then have it forward that to Inquisit via an URL query parameter -- most, if not all, platforms should support this. You'll then have Inquisit use that id as subject identifier, which will make sure it's recorded in the data file and thus enabling you to match data between platforms -- all without your participants ever needing to write some code down and inputting it elsewhere. You'll find the general way to go about this covered in the "How to interoperate Inquisit with online survey packages" topic in the Inquisit documentation.
By maf1974 - 10/15/2014

Hi Dave,
I am in the exact situation that you describe above.  I had set this up and everything was working perfectly.  In Qualtrics I had participants redirected to INQUISIT using the following link:  http://research.millisecond.com/maf1974/AgeIAT.web&subject=${e://Field/ResponseID}

However, I then used Qualtrics Panel services to recruit a bunch of participants for me and they said I need to set up a different URL parameter called "gid".  This "gid" is the Panel providers' unique ID code for each participant so that they can track which ones have completed the entire survey for payment purposes.  Therefore, instead of the perfectly functional redirection link in my first paragraph above, I am now being instructed by Qualtrics to use the following link:  http://research.millisecond.com/maf1974/AgeIAT.web&gid=${e://Field/gid}

When I do this, the redirection takes participants to the INQUISIT site and correctly appends the gid value onto the end of the URL, but the IAT link is broken and a "page not found" message id displayed.  I think this is because I have removed the word "subject" from the link, or perhaps because the value of the gid paramerter is not recognised by INQUISIT...?  The gid parameter value is VERY long e.g.,  gid=US200007-1234-5678-9101112-13141516-17181920-aBcDefG

Can you provide any insight as to why the gid URL is being piped correctly by Qualtrics but the INQUISIT IAT launch page link is broken?

Thanks
Mike
By Dave - 10/15/2014

No. The problem is that the query parameter part of your link is broken / invalid:

The *first* query parameter in a given URL is indicated by a question mark (?). Any *additional* query parameters after that are prefixed with &.

The link you posted is
https://research.millisecond.com/maf1974/AgeIAT.web&gid=US200007-1234-5678-9101112-13141516-17181920-aBcDefG

It ought to be
https://research.millisecond.com/maf1974/AgeIAT.web?gid=US200007-1234-5678-9101112-13141516-17181920-aBcDefG