A permalink (permanent link) is a URL that points to a specific web page and is intended to remain unchanged over long periods of time, creating stability for any links you might use. You can use a permalink to display a guide on a specific page in the web application so that visitors see the guide when they open that page.
Copy a permalink string in the Visual Design Studio
This section details how to find and copy the permalink string in the Visual Design Studio. After copying the permalink, you can add it to the page URL.
- From the left-side menu, go to Guides > Guides.
- Select Create guide to create a new guide, or select an existing guide from the Guides table to open the guide's details page.
- In the top-right corner of the guide's details page, select the ellipsis (...) and then select Permalinks.
- In the Permalinks window, copy the link of the required guide step that you want visitors to see when they open a particular page in the web application.
- Open the required web page where you want the guide to display.
- Add the copied link to the URL of the page. The string looks something like
?acme=123123123123. This string is the unique identifier for the guide or step you're on.
Display criteria
Guide permalinks are subject to standard guide visibility restrictions:
- The visitor is included in the guide segment.
- The Page matches the location of the first (or only) step of the guide.
- The matched element is visible (if applicable).
- The scheduled date is in range (if applicable).
- The guide is set to Public status.
- The Page doesn't remove parameters from the URL on page load.
If the visitor doesn't meet the required criteria, then the guide doesn't display, even if a permalink URL is used.
Note: The permalink overrides the activation type of your guide. For example, if your guide has Automatic activation and a visitor has already seen the guide and selects the permalink, the guide displays for them again.
Login redirects
If the app drops parameters on login, and the user isn't logged in when they select the link, the guide doesn't appear, as they haven't yet been identified. In this case, you can ask users to ensure they're logged in before selecting the link.
Dynamic URLs
If the app has URLs that contain IDs that change from user to user or session to session, then this feature is difficult to use on those URLs, as you can't create a URL that can be shared with all users.
For example, if you have a Page for reports with a URL of:
https://app.acme.com/report/4820829203/details
This example URL includes the dynamic user ID of 4820829203. You can create and use a permalink for an individual user to share with them, but can't create a permalink to share with all users in that situation.
For this scenario, start a guide at a place in the app that doesn't have the dynamic URL, such as https://app.acme.com/reportList, and then use a walkthrough guide with the permalink to walk the user to their own specific report detail Page.