URL Parameters For Advanced Action Sharing
What Is A URL & What Are URL Parameters?
A URL, or Uniform Resource Locator, is simply a web address such as:
URL Parameters, sometimes referred to as arguments, strings or tags, can be added to the end of a URL to track things or modify the behaviour of a page. They're added to a URL after a question mark like this:
Understanding The Elements Of URL Parameters
URL parameters may seem difficult at first, but once you understand the building blocks they're an easy, and powerful tool. It can be confusing to give each element of a URL parameter a name as they may be referred to by different names by different people, but as long as you understand what each element does it's not too complicated at all.
- https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/give-to-the-lgbtiqa-greens?source=DigitalSupport&amount=10
In the example above the URL can be broken up into five elements:
- https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/give-to-the-lgbtiqa-greens The URL of the page.
- ? The start of your parameter string.
- source The text in green is known as the key. This is used to pass information through, or define what this string is to control. This URL has two keys- source and amount.
- = The question mark separates the key from the value given to that key.
- DigitalSupport The text in yellow is your key-value. In the URL above the source has been given a value of DigitalSupport and amount has been given the value 10.
- & The ampersand is used as a separator between different parameters, allowing more than one parameter to be added to the URL.
How Can URL Parameters Be Used?
URL Parameters don't change the content of the page, but can be used to change it's behaviour or to pass through useful information for tracking purposes.
Source Tracking
Source tracking can be useful when you want to see where your action takers are coming from. For example, you may want to measure how many of your Action takers came from a particular email or Social Media post. Adding the string below to the end of your URL would record the source as DigitalSupport.
- ?source=DigitalSupport
To add this source tracking to an Action Network Action you'd simply append it to the end of your URL like this:
When adding a URL to an Action Network email the source will automatically be added.
Referrer Tracking
Referrer tracking can be useful if you've created an Action that is co-sponsored by another Action Network Group, whether that Group is part of the Green Party Network or not. Each Action Network Group has its own unique name, which can be added as a referrer in the format:
- ?referrer=another-group
In the example below the Action Network Group name of the Young Greens has been appended to the URL and so the referrer of the Action would be recorded as Young Greens.
Clear Recognised User
You've probably already noticed that when you visit the page of an Action Network Action it already recognises you as a user. This can be useful in removing effort on behalf of Action-takers, as they don't need to complete form fields for which we already hold information. However, there are instances where you don't want Action Network to recognise a user. You can tell Action Network not to recognise a user by adding the below to the end of your URL:
- ?clear_id=true&no_rewrite=true
If you're logged into Action Network you can see how this affects the page you land on. The first link below will recognise you:
Whilst the following link won't:
When you share an Action via email in Action Network a unique string will be added to the URL for each activist who receives the email. If you intend for this link to be shared you should ensure you use the above string to clear recognised users. Failure to do so could result in others being able to complete an Action on behalf of the Activist if they share the URL.
Pre-Fill A Form Question
If you want to pre-fill a Form answer you can do so by appending this string to your URL:
- ?your-question-name=answer
For example, if you wanted to capture someone's favourite biscuit preference you could format your URLs like this:
- https://actionnetwork.org/forms/the-battle-of-the-biscuits-digital-support-demo-form
- https://actionnetwork.org/forms/the-battle-of-the-biscuits-digital-support-demo-form?FavouriteBiscuit=Garibaldi
- https://actionnetwork.org/forms/the-battle-of-the-biscuits-digital-support-demo-form?FavouriteBiscuit=Jammie%20Dodgers
The first URL above will direct respondents to the blank form, ready for them to add in their own response. The second will pre-fill the Favourite Biscuit field with the value Garibaldi, and the third will pre-fill it with the value Jammie Dodgers. Note that the space between Jammie Dodgers is entered as %20. This is how you add spaces within your URL.
Pre-Fill Donation Amount
If you're running a fundraiser you usually have an idea of what amount you'd like donors to contribute. You can include this amount in your URL to ensure it's pre-filled when donors reach your fundraising page by appending a parameter in the format:
- ?amount=25
In the examples below you can see what happens when you add an amount that matches one of your pre-defined amounts (£15), and one that doesn't (£3.33). To ensure amounts that aren't pre-defined can be added via your URL you should make sure there's an "other amount" option enabled for the fundraiser.
This is useful if you're using a fundraising page for a "pay what you like" event page. You can ensure the suggested amount is highlighted for anyone signing up.
Pre-Fill Recurring Donation Options
Sometimes you may run a Fundraiser where recurring options are available to Donors. You can append the different recurring periods onto the URL using the following arguments:
- ?period=recurring_monthly
- ?period=recurring_weekly
- ?period=recurring_quarterly
- ?period=recurring_annually
In the below URL you will see that the dropdown selector for recurring donations is set to Monthly, but the checkbox to make the donation recurring isn't checked.
To set the recurring period, and to ensure the checkbox for a recurring donation is also ticked you need to combine the argument for setting a recurring donation frequency with the argument for pre-filling a Form field. You can do this by adding an ampersand (&) between your two arguments.
As you can see the checkbox field name is donation[recurring] and the value is true.
Why not use URL Parameters to add advanced donation buttons to your next email? Using URL Parameters To Create Donation Buttons In Action Network Emails
Redirect Activists To A Different Thank You Page
If you want to direct action takers to a different thank you page once they've completed an Action you can do this via a URL argument by adding a string in the format:
- ?redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fyour-website.com
There are a couple of things you'll need to do if choosing to redirect action takers to a page other than the standard Thank You page:
- Make sure the page you're redirecting action takers to makes sense. Most people will expect some sort of on-screen acknowledgement that they've submitted things correctly, so redirecting respondents to your local party homepage may be confusing. You could set up a page on your WordPress site with a standard thank you message, or perhaps redirect to another Action, such as a Fundraiser that has an acknowledgement of their previous Action in its text.
- Encode the URL you're redirecting to. Encoding a URL simply means making it readable to your browser by removing any symbols which may cause problems. You can do this manually if you know what you're doing- but it's much easier to simply head to a site like https://www.url-encode-decode.com and enter the URL you want to redirect to.
In the example below the Action will redirect action-takers to the URL https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/donate-your-biscuit-money-here/ which has been encoded as https%3A%2F%2Factionnetwork.org%2Ffundraising%2Fdonate-your-biscuit-money-here%2F. You can test this out by completing the form yourself.
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