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Direct Access URLs

Direct Access URLs are created by the Principle Investigator to take a designated user or subject directly to the execution of a protocol.  Direct Access URLs are used in two major circumstances - self-administered surveys and experiments and run-time demonstrations.  

Unsupervised On-Line Surveys and Experiments
Self-administered on-line surveys are questionnaires that you compose on ProtoGenie in the usual way and then ask for volunteers (usually on-line) from a target population to complete the questionnaire at their own computer stations and submit it to the ProtoGenie Database.  See How to do a Self-Administered On-line Survey or Experiment.  

Run-Time Demonstrations and Reviews of ProtoGenie Protocols
There are times when a principle investigator (author) of a protocol would like a colleague or other professional in another location to look at the run-time execution of the protocol without making the protocol accessible to everyone or adding that person to the designated user list for that protocol or asking them to apply for a ProtoGenie membership, log on, find the protocol, and run it. Instead, the PI can create a URL that takes the recipient of that URL directly to the execution of the protocol for the group selected by the PI.

How to Create a Direct Access URL
To create a direct access URL, do the following:
1.  Log on to ProtoGenie.  
2.  In the Startup Page, select "Access Your Personal Library." 
3.  In your list of protocols, click on the title of the protocol to which you want to provide direct access.  
4.  In the User Action Menu, click on Edit. 
5.  Click on the link in the top menu called "Get URL."
6.  There are two sets of options in this panel.  The first is the selection of the group that you would like to be run for the recipient.  The second is to choose whether the subject will be anonymous, as in a self-administered survey or experiment, or whether the person running it will not be the subject, as in the colleague situation, above.  
7.  Click on the Create URL button and the direct run-time access URL of your specifications will appear in the url field.  This URL can be copied by highlighting it and using Ctrl/C (or right click).  Then, it can be pasted into an email to your intended receiver (colleague or anonymous subject).  The anonymous subject would get this URL in an email about the experiment (if the recipient fit the screening requirements).  
8.  Upon receipt of the URL, the intended viewer will paste it into the "Open" field of his/her browser and press "Go."  This will bring up the first page of the protocol run. 

To illustrate this feature, a direct access URL was created for a hypothetical online experiment and pasted below.  Click on it, if you would like to see an example of direct run-time access.
Example URL