Using Hidden Values in Your Deformity
Hidden Values let you store extra information in your Deformity without ever showing it to the person filling out the form. For example, you might want to track a user’s ID, a campaign name, or anything else that needs to stay behind the scenes. By using Hidden Values, you can keep your form simple for users while still capturing important data in your results.
What Are Hidden Values?
Hidden Values are special “invisible” fields inside your Deformity. While they don’t appear to users, they can store things like referral links, social media sources, or other data you want to keep track of in your conversation results. This way, you can gather more context about your respondents without cluttering the form itself.
How to Add Hidden Values
It’s easy to add Hidden Values. In the Deformity builder, click “Share”. This will bring up a screen where you can specify values you don’t want the user to see.
You can also manually add parameters to the URL yourself, but the builder’s interface makes it simpler. Just type in the name of the value you want hidden, and the link will update automatically.
Sharing Your Deformity with Hidden Values
Once you've added your Hidden Values, you can customize them by modifying the link you share. Each Hidden Value will appear as a placeholder that you can replace with real data. Here's an example of how it might look in the share window:
If you have a Hidden Value called userId, you can share your Deformity using a URL like:
https://deformity.ai/d/deformityId?userId=12345
In this example, 12345 will be stored as the user’s ID without them ever seeing it. This is especially handy for tracking where your respondents come from or linking their form responses to other records you keep.
Using Multiple Hidden Values
Need more than one Hidden Value? No problem. Just give each Hidden Value a unique name. For example, if you want to track both a user ID and a campaign name, your URL might look like this:
https://deformity.ai/d/deformityId?userId=12345&campaign=Q1Launch
Both userId and campaign will be saved in your results. This makes it simple to gather multiple pieces of data behind the scenes, all without affecting the user’s experience.
Hidden Values vs. Prefilled Answers
Both Hidden Values and Prefilled Answers can be added to your Deformity through the URL, but they serve different purposes:
- Hidden Values: Stored behind the scenes and never shown to the person filling out the form.
- Prefilled Answers: Shown to the user as pre-filled responses that they can see and change if needed.
If you want users to see and possibly edit the information you’re passing in, go with Prefilled Answers. If you prefer to collect data quietly, stick to Hidden Values.
For more details, check out our Prefilled Answers guide.
