Opening a Collection link
A Collection link allows anyone who has this link to add a new Record to a Form without logging in to ActivityInfo. This section describes how to open a Collection link to a Form.
After designing a Form, you can open a Collection link for that Form and share it. This allows anyone who has the Collection link to add Records to the Form without logging in to ActivityInfo. When you close the Collection link, it will no longer be possible to add Records to the Form using that link.
However, if you re-open the link, the same URL will be valid, and those who previously received the URL will be able to add Records again.
It is possible to open a Collection link for a Form that has Subforms but it is not possible to open a Collection link only for a Subform of a Form.
To be able to open a Collection link, you need to have been assigned the 'Manage collection links' permission or to be the owner of the database. This permission is included in the Administrator roles of the Multi-partner reporting template and the Blank template.
The permission is not automatically added to Roles in Databases existing before May 17th, 2021 and you would need to update the Roles or the respective permissions for selected users.
Important:
- If your Form links to a reference Form and its records, you need to change the visibility of the Reference Form to 'public visibility' so that the respondents can view the Records.
- Offline data entry when accessing forms using a Collection link is not supported.
- Uniqueness constraints of key fields are not enforced for submissions via collection links. Providing duplicate checking for collections links would expose collected data to unauthenticated users.
Learn everything you need about Collection links in our Webinar "Using collection links for online surveys and anonymous responses".
Once you are familiar with Collection links, master the feature by completing the guides "Using collection links to collect anonymous responses for a post training evaluation survey" and "Create and share a crowdsourcing survey for disaster management using collection links and a reviewer’s section".
How to open a Collection link for a Form
- Navigate to the Table View of the Form you want to open a Collection link for and click on 'Collection link'.
- Click on 'Open now' to generate the URL of the Collection link.
- Click on 'Copy URL' to copy the shareable URL. Anyone who visits this URL will be able to add Records to the Form, without logging in.
- Paste and share the URL with your target audiences using your preferred method. They will be able to add Records to the Form in the same way that users add Records to Forms. You can view the Records as they are added in the Table View.
- After adding a Record, it is possible to add another Record using the same URL.
- You can close the Collection link any time by clicking on 'Close collection link'.
