CloudResearch Connect

Connect passes its participant ID into the study link and accepts either a redirect or a fixed completion code at the end. Both of its methods map onto features Open Lab already has.

Setup

  1. Copy your study link (Open Lab)

    Open the study, go to Invitations → Public links, and copy the Study link:

    https://app.open-lab.online/studies/ABCDE
  2. Set the project link (Connect)

    Paste it into your project and append the participant ID. Connect is strict about the spelling:

    https://app.open-lab.online/studies/ABCDE?participantId={{participantId}}

    participantId — one capital letter, in the middle

    Connect expects participantId: all lower case except the I in Id. participantid and ParticipantID are different parameters as far as both systems are concerned, and the failure is silent.

    assignmentId and projectId are available the same way if you want them. Check the exact placeholder syntax in Connect's own setup screen — it is the authority, and it is the field you are pasting into.

  3. Copy the redirect URL (Connect)

    At the end of the Create a Study wizard, Connect gives you a redirect URL to use as the end-of-study action. Copy it as it stands.

  4. Add a Redirect component (Open Lab)

    In the Study Builder, add a Redirect component as the last component, paste Connect's redirect URL into Target URL, and leave Redirect behavior on Stay in this tab.

    Choose Paste a completion URL and paste Connect's URL as it stands. If it already identifies the submission on its own, that is all it needs.

    If your project is set up so that the ID has to travel back and Connect's URL carries a placeholder for it, find participantId under Parameters in this URL and click Replace with a session value. If the URL has no such parameter, add one under Values sent from this session instead.

Use the redirect only at the very end

Connect treats arrival at the redirect URL as the signal that somebody finished. A Redirect component placed before your task would mark people complete before they have done anything, so it belongs after every other component.

The completion-code alternative

Connect also accepts a fixed completion code — one code for the whole project, which participants paste back.

A fixed code is not Open Lab's completion code

Open Lab's Generate completion code feature issues a different code to every participant, which is the opposite of what a fixed code means. If you use Connect's fixed-code method, put that one code into the text of your Ending page and leave the completion-code feature off.

Open Lab's per-participant codes are still useful here, but for a different job: as a record you can reconcile against, not as the thing you hand to Connect.

Which names are yours and which are Connect's

NameWho decides itWhere it appears
participantIdFixed by the providerConnect's spelling, which you reuse as the parameter name on the study link and as the custom parameter in the Redirect component. All three must match.
assignmentId, projectIdFixed by the providerOptional extras, same mechanism. Useful if you need to tie a session to a specific assignment.

Testing

Run the project through Connect's own preview rather than a plain Open Lab link, then enable participantId on the Participants page under Columns → Custom parameters. A filled column means the inbound half works; an empty one points at the spelling of the parameter on the project link.

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