Your survey is just "one click" away for respondents if you email them a hyperlink. The hyperlink includes the address for your survey, and optionally "passes along" information about passwords or other identifying (passed-in) information. Most email programs automatically interpret http:// as a hyperlink.
We suggest you use one of the many bulk* email packages available on the market. These permit you to automatically process hundreds or thousands of email messages at a time. When the respondent receives the email, they do not have access to the email addresses of other respondents; they only have the return path email address to your account that sent the message. An automatic bulk email package can also import customized text strings from a database into the email message. Those text strings might include the respondent's user name and/or password generated by SSI Web's Password Program/Generator.
(*Check applicable laws and regulations dealing with bulk email.)
Simple URL Hyperlink
If you type the following into an email message, it becomes a clickable "hyperlink" (underlined clickable text string, that sends respondents automatically to a web page):
Note that the "study root directory" on the server is called "gonzo" and the link sends the respondent to the opening login (password) page, called "STUDYNAMElogn.htm". However, the respondent is required to see the login page (page 1) and type a password to continue the survey.
URL Hyperlink with Passwords
If you want respondents to simply click a link that automatically logs them into a survey and supplies their passwords and/or additional "passed-in" data (that you've defined in the passwords table), you should create a URL that links respondents directly to the Perl script located in the cgi-bin directory. When respondents click such a link to start the survey, they skip the Start page (page 1). The following text included in an email message starts a survey with a studyname "tep1" located in the "gonzo" study root directory, with password fields named myusername and mypassword, with valid values of "michael" and "A6Z99":
You can also pass additional variables into the data set, as long as those are defined as Pass-in Fields within the Questionnaire Access and Passwords dialog. For example, if we define a Pass-in Field called panelid, we can specify this directly following any password information, as below:
http://www.sawtoothsoftware.com/gonzo/cgi-bin/ciwweb.pl?studyname=tep1&myusername=michael&mypassword=A6Z99&panelid=7362836
When respondents start the survey by clicking the hyperlink, if the passwords are valid (and the quota is not complete), the respondent is sent to the page following the password screen. If the respondent is restarting an interview, the page where he/she left off is displayed. Any passed in information is stored in the data file, as if it were any other question in the survey.
Important Note:
If the text string for the URL and passwords becomes very long, your email package may automatically "wrap" the text in the middle of the hyperlink by inserting a hard return. This disables the hyperlink and it will no longer work. Some email packages by default wrap after 80 characters. Some email packages let you control how many characters are displayed before automatic wrapping occurs. For example, if using Microsoft's Outlook Express, select Tools | Options | Sendand under the Mail Sending Format click the Settings... button. There is a field to specify "Automatically wrap text at ___? characters, when sending".
Make sure to test that the hyperlink works properly by sending test messages to yourself and other individuals (preferably outside your company's own internal email system) prior to emailing invitations to respondents.
Sending email in HTML format will decrease the chance of links wrapping incorrectly and becoming broken.
