Introduction
This article explains how to test your Third Party Sample setup before launch.
Testing helps you confirm that:
- respondents are correctly forwarded into your survey,
- participant IDs are passed as expected,
- redirect links work for different interview outcomes (such as Complete or Screenout).
In the overall Third Party Sample workflow, this step comes after setup and link exchange, but before launch.
Use this guide to validate your configuration and avoid issues once real respondents start coming in.
When should you test your setup?
As soon as the third party sample distributor is set up, it is important to test it.
Option 1: Testing with links provided by the panel provider
(If the panel provider sends you links for testing)
If the third party sample provider send you links to test, then open them up and try to create a screenout.
The screenout link should look similar to this (where %someMemberID% is replaced with the ID from the testlink):
https://mypanel.com/screenout?project_id=m60553&member_id=%SomeMemberID%If this works, then the setup is correct.
Should the page of the panel provider still show an error, then make a screenshot of the Page including the visible URL of your browser and send that to the panel provider and ask them, what is wrong.
Option 2: Testing without panel provider test links
(If the panel provider did not send you links for testing)
To test the setup open the distribute tab of the survey and select the “third party sample” project.
When selected you can see the sampling project links within the collapsed area in the sidebar:
Copy the link and open an anonymous browser window (also known as incognito window).
There paste the link into the browser and add the following (bold) information to it:
https://survalyzer.survalyzer.eu/wdnionbihl?l=en&urlvar01=TestLinkIDSurvalyzerThen you can open the link and test the survey.
Verifying redirect behavior
At the end of the survey (interview states: Complete, Screenout and Quotafull), you should be forwarded to something like this in case of a screenout:
https://mypanel.com/screenout?project_id=m60553&member_id=TestLinkIDSurvalyzerIf this works, then the setup is correct.
Should the page of the panel provider still show an error, then make a screenshot of the Page including the visible URL of your browser and send that to the panel provider and ask them, what is wrong.
Troubleshooting
Missing participant ID: What if the %member_id% is missing in the forwarding?
Then most likely something in the forwarding link is not correct.
- Check the raw data and see if the ID was provided into the urlvar01
- If not, then the panel provider most likely made a mistake in the forwarding from their system to Survalyzer.
- If yes, then you need to check your forwarding links. Is the placeholder {{url.var01}} used including its brackets. Is there no typo?
If you still have issues, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager or create a ticket for the support team.
What if the link does not contain “TestLinkIDSurvalyzer” (or whatever other text you used to test)?
Download Raw Data File.
Check if the variable urlvar01 was set for that interview that you tested.
If not, then the panel provider most likely made a mistake in the forwarding from their system to Survalyzer.
If yes, then you need to check your forwarding links. Is the placeholder {{url.var01}} used including its brackets. Is there no typo?
If you still have issues, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager or create a ticket for the support team.
What’s next
Once testing is successful, you can move on to the final steps of the process:
- allow the panel provider to start recruitment
- monitor completes and quota fulfillment during fieldwork
For next steps, see: