➡️ Hidden Fields is available to customers on the Analyze Tier or higher.
Hidden Fields is a new enrichment method on OpinionX surveys, enabling you to associate external data together with survey answers so that you can conduct advanced analysis using OpinionX's built in segmentation and clustering features.
Unlike the manual data imports, the most common form of enrichment on OpinionX, the Hidden Fields feature uses URL parameters (data stored inside the survey link) to associate data against survey participants. Once a participant completes their survey, this URL data gets saved on the Enrichment Tab and will appear throughout the results pages on OpinionX, just like how normal enrichment data appears.
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When should you use Hidden Fields?
Imagine you are planning a customer segmentation study. You'll use a ranking method like MaxDiff Analysis to measure what problem statements your target customers are most urgently interested in solving. You already have a lot of data on your customers that you'd love to use during the analysis afterwards so that you could compare differences by pricing plan, country, or industry — so how do you get this data into OpinionX for analysis?
You could manually import this data into the Enrichment Tab and a list of unique links for each participant or trigger email invites directly from inside OpinionX, but if you have a very large userbase, this becomes impractical very quickly.
Instead of importing data, you could create a template link with 'gaps' for each type of data you'll want to add, and then run this through an external data source like your CRM to programmatically generate a customized link for each survey participant.
Once they finish the survey with this link, you'll see an "Enrichment Data" section on your Results Overview tab and this enrichment data will be included in all of OpinionX's segmentation and clustering tools:
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How to create Hidden Fields with URL Parameters on OpinionX?
To start, you'll need to define the structure of your Enrichment Tab. You can do this in one of two ways:
Manual Setup → Create fields for each parameter you want included in your Hidden Fields link so that OpinionX can correctly store this data for you.
File Import → Create a list of data points you want included as URL Parameters. Next, create a spreadsheet where each column represents one data type.
For both of these approaches, you'll need to decide two things for each field:
Data Type: Is this data Unique, Categorical, or an Email Address?
Categoricaldata is when many participants share the same answer (eg. Gender, Country) and groups participants into segments you can compare later on.Uniquedata is free form text where people generally have their own values, like for names, ID numbers, and addresses. This is used to identify who each person is.Emaildata can be used in OpinionX's email invites feature.
Data Name: Give each field its own name, which will be used as the parameter name in your hidden fields link. Avoiding duplicate names, use underscores instead of spaces, and exclude special characters — this will prevent potential issues later on with your URL parameters.
You can see in the example below how the structure of your smart link matches your Enrichment Tab:
Now you're ready to copy your smart link and get your survey started!
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Link Parameter Symbol
URL Parameters come in two common formats, some with a question mark (?) and some with a hashtag (#). OpinionX allows both formats, but you need to specify which you intend to use when copying the link from the Hidden Fields menu:
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Important Notes
▸ Special Characters: Ampersand (&) symbols are not allowed in hidden fields. If you include & in a value, the ampersand and all text after it will be ignored. For example, if for first_name you included Robert&Mary, the saved value will be just Robert. In general, the fewer special characters, the less likely something will go wrong.
▸ Data Gaps: You can exclude a data name from the Hidden Field or put the values in a different order, it will not break the link.
▸ Character Limit: If your URL is over 2000 characters once enriched, there is a chance that the data will not be saved (different browsers have different URL character limits). As we cannot know the length of the URL until you have enriched the value fields with participant data, this is something that you must ensure on your end. If you are limited by character count, I would suggest prioritizing identifier data (like user ID or email) and using a post-survey enrichment import to get the remainder of the data into OpinionX for analysis.
▸ New Categories: If you include a value for a categorical field that doesn't already exist on your survey, it will be added as a new option.
▸ Pricing Plan: While the Hidden Fields link is visible to all users, it will only collect and store data if your survey is on the Analyze tier or higher.