External Study Credit Granting with LimeSurvey

While these instructions refer to “credit granting”, they work for both credit and paid studies. For paid studies, participation will be marked (instead of credit granted) just like with any other paid study.

The instructions below are for version 2.50. At a minimum, be sure you are using version 2.50+ build 160210 or newer. Earlier versions contain some bugs that will prevent things from working properly.

Here are the basic steps, which are subject to change (since the product is controlled by LimeSurvey):

  1. On your Sona Systems site, change the Study URL so it includes &id=%SURVEY_CODE% in the URL. So if the LimeSurvey URL is:
    https://limesurvey.yourschool.edu/index.php?r=survey/index&sid=/651365&/lang-en
    then change it to
    https://limesurvey.yourschool.edu/index.php?r=survey/index&sid=/651365&/lang-en&id=%SURVEY_CODE%
    Note: In versions of LimeSurvey prior to 2.50, the LimeSurvey URL format was different and you will need to upgrade your LimeSurvey to use the integration.
  2. Having completed Step 1, the Study Information on your Sona Systems site now displays a URL labeled “LimeSurvey End URL”. In LimeSurvey, configure the survey to accept the survey code number, as URL Parameter named “id”. To do this, go to Survey Properties | General Settings & Texts | Panel Integration and add the URL parameter there, with no target question. Remember to use lower-case as this is case-sensitive, and be sure to click Save for both the new parameter and survey settings.

    If you would like to track within the responses, the code from the participant, so you can match it up to their sign-up on your Sona Systems site, then you should specify a target question. Make sure the target question is set to Hidden, and the Question Type is set to Short Free Text. A question is made hidden in the Advanced Settings for a question, in Display | Always hide this question.
  3. In LimeSurvey, configure the End URL (in Survey Properties | General Settings & Texts | Edit Survey Text Elements and Settings), and provide the LimeSurvey End URL from your Sona Systems site. The LimeSurvey URL should look something like this:
    https://yourschool.sona-systems.com/webstudy_credit.aspx?experiment_id=123&credit_token=4e48f9b638a&survey_code={PASSTHRU:id}

    If (and only if) you do not see a LimeSurvey End URL on your Sona Systems site, then proceed with the rest of this step. Otherwise, proceed to the next step. In LimeSurvey, configure the End URL (in Survey Properties | General Settings & Texts | Edit Survey Text Elements and Settings), and provide the Client-Side Completion URL from your Sona Systems site. However, you need to change the XXXX at the end of the URL, and instead have LimeSurvey put in the survey_code number passed as a pass-through variable. So if the client-side completion URL was:
    https://yourschool.sona-systems.com/webstudy_credit.aspx?experiment_id=123&credit_token=4e48f9b638a&survey_code=XXXX
    then enter it in LimeSurvey as
    https://yourschool.sona-systems.com/webstudy_credit.aspx?experiment_id=123&credit_token=4e48f9b638a&survey_code={PASSTHRU:id}
  4. In LimeSurvey, set “Automatically load URL when survey complete?” to Yes on in Survey Properties | General Settings & Texts | Edit Survey Text Elements and Settings | Presentation & Navigation.

These features are described on LimeSurvey’s site at the following URL:

(“URL Fields”) https://manual.limesurvey.org/URL_fields