Hidden Fields: How to Stop Hiding and Start Using

What Is a Hidden Field?

Do you happen to know what a hidden field is? Just as the name suggests, it's a 'hidden' field. Through hidden fields, you can obtain the necessary data from respondents without them having to provide additional responses.

In a nutshell, a hidden field allows you to track information about respondents using data you already have and can be a valuable feature for enhancing the usability of Walla Forms within your organization. For instance, if you want to track the source of respondents without asking them explicitly, you can utilize hidden fields to capture UTM parameters in Walla Forms.

When and How to Use Hidden Fields

Hidden fields can be used in a wide range of scenarios, but they are particularly useful for tracking the source of respondents. When you're engaged in marketing and want to collect information, you can use UTM parameters to gather this data.

For example, let's say you're creating a Walla Form to host a webinar, and you plan to distribute this form through two channels: email and Instagram ads. You'd naturally want to know where respondents came from. With hidden fields, you can find out which channel a respondent came from without directly asking them.

1. After creating the form, navigate to the 'Project Edit' section in Walla and click on the right tab labeled 'Hidden Fields.' Here, you can enter 'source' as the hidden field name. In fact, you can enter any word you like in this hidden field; think of it as a tag that's easy for you to differentiate. This word will appear after a question mark ('?') at the end of your original Walla URL.

For instance, you can enter the following for distinguishing responses from email and Instagram:

• For the email channel: https://walla.my/survey/[ProjectKey]?source=mailing

• For the Instagram ads channel: https://walla.my/survey/[ProjectKey]?source=instagram

2. You can include these slightly different links in your email and Instagram ads.

3. Once responses start coming in, you can view them on Walla's 'View Responses' page under the 'Responses' tab. You'll find a column labeled 'source' that distinguishes responses as 'mailing' or 'instagram.'

Now, you might be wondering, "What if I want to attach multiple tags (hidden fields)?” That's a great question. Do you remember the sentence mentioning that the hidden field's word appears after a question mark in the original Walla URL? To include multiple hidden fields, you simply use an ampersand ('&') to separate them. For example, if you want to collect both the customer ID and the traffic source, you can format it like this:

https://walla.my/survey/[ProjectKey]?uid=unknown&source=instagram

To summarize formally:

[Original Walla URL]?[First Hidden Field]=[First Hidden Field Value]&[Second Hidden Field]=[Second Hidden Field Value]&[Third Hidden Field]=[Third Hidden Field Value]

By applying more advanced hidden field configurations and sending different links to each user, you can collect data more intensively for specific respondents.

Starting today, hidden fields won't be intimidating anymore, right?

• Edit by Yuvin Kim, Co-founder of Walla, Paprika Data Lab Inc.

• This content is current as of March 8, 2023.