Sona Systems

Sona puts a one-time survey code into the study link, Open Lab carries it through the session, and a Redirect component hands it back at the end. Sona grants the credit.

Sona's own guide is out of date

The page at sona-systems.com/help/openlab/ documents the previous version of Open Lab, and three of its four steps no longer apply. Follow the steps below instead. We have asked Sona to update their page.

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

    There is no longer an “invitation with a permanent link”. This is its replacement, and it is permanent.

  2. Set the Study URL (Sona)

    Paste that link into the study's Study URL field in Sona and add the survey code as a named parameter:

    https://app.open-lab.online/studies/ABCDE?survey_code=%SURVEY_CODE%

    The old guide had you append %SURVEY_CODE% on its own. It now needs a name in front of it. The name survey_code is your choice — but whatever you use here must match step 4 exactly.

  3. Copy the client-side completion URL (Sona)

    From the Study Information page in Sona. It has roughly this shape, with your own institution, IDs and token:

    https://YOURSCHOOL.sona-systems.com/webstudy_credit.aspx?experiment_id=123&credit_token=9185d436…&survey_code=XXXX

    Client-side, not server-side

    Sona offers both. The server-side URL is for platforms that call Sona from their own servers; Open Lab does not do that. What Open Lab does is send the participant's browser to a URL at the end of the study, which is exactly what the client-side one is for.

  4. Add a Redirect component (Open Lab)

    This is the step that has genuinely moved: there is no redirect field on the study edit page any more. Redirecting is a component you place in the study itself — and it takes Sona's URL as it comes, without editing it.

  1. Open the Study Builder and add a Redirect component last
    It has to be the final component, after your task — a same-tab redirect ends the session.
  2. Choose “Paste a completion URL”
    Then paste the provider's URL exactly as it was given to you, placeholders and all. Nothing needs deleting. Sona's URL ends with a literal &survey_code=XXXX; that placeholder is what the next step points at.
  3. Point at the parameter that carries your value
    Under Parameters in this URL, find survey_code and click Replace with a session value. Everything else in the URL is sent exactly as it arrived.
    That fills in survey_code as the custom parameter to take the value from — the name you used on the study link. Change it below if you used a different one.
  4. Leave Redirect behavior on “Stay in this tab”
    Open Lab writes the participant's completion before navigating away, so nothing is lost by them leaving the page.

The URL preview under the editor shows the finished link with a placeholder in place of the real value. If the value is missing when the study runs — the participant arrived without it — the parameter is dropped rather than sent with whatever the provider's URL originally carried.

The preview should read:

https://YOURSCHOOL.sona-systems.com/webstudy_credit.aspx?experiment_id=123&credit_token=9185d436…&survey_code=SURVEY_CODE_VALUE

SURVEY_CODE_VALUE is the editor's placeholder. Each participant's real Sona code goes there when the study runs.

Which names are yours and which are Sona's

NameWho decides itWhere it appears
survey_codeYours to chooseThe name you invent. Used twice: on the study link (step 2) and as the custom parameter in the Redirect component (step 4). They must match.
%SURVEY_CODE%Fixed by the providerSona's placeholder, replaced with the participant's real code when it builds the link. Type it exactly.
experiment_id, credit_tokenFixed by the providerAlready inside the completion URL you copied in step 3. Leave them alone.

Do not send the participant code

The old guide asked you to check that the redirect URL ended in %PARTICIPANT_CODE%. Do not do that, and in particular do not choose Participant code as the value source in step 4.

Open Lab generates its own participant codes — P12345 and similar — which Sona has never seen and will reject, so no credit is granted. The value Sona needs back is the survey code it issued, which is why step 4 uses the custom parameter.

Testing

Take the study once yourself through Sona's own preview link rather than the plain Open Lab link — the survey code only exists once Sona generates it, so that is the only way to see the whole round trip. Do this before releasing the study to students.

If a credit does not arrive, the participant's survey_code column on the Participants page tells you which half broke:

  • Column empty — the code never arrived. Check the Study URL in Sona (step 2).
  • Column filled, no credit — the redirect is wrong. Check the Target URL and the parameter (step 4).

Either way you can grant the occasional credit by hand from that column, since it holds each participant's Sona code. Enable it under Columns → Custom parameters; it appears once at least one participant has arrived carrying the parameter.

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