Pass URL parameters

URL parameters are a way to pass information at the start of a Mint journey through its workflow URL.

You can insert query parameters into your workflow URLs so that you modify the value of variables in your user journeys.

What are URL parameters?

URL parameters consist of a key and a value separated by an equals sign (=) and joined by an ampersand (&). The first parameter always comes after a question mark in a URL. For example, https://example.com?key1=Value1&key2=Value2

How it works

URL parameters allow you to pass data into the user journey through the workflow URL. For example:

https://example.com/mint/2a9aeac8?name=Peter&email=petpar@example.com

The above workflow URL contains the following URL parameters:

• name=Peter
• email=petpar@example.com

These key-value objects are now available in the environment of the user journey. Note how URL parameters allow you to change the data for every new user journey.

For example, you can pass the values to populate text and input data in a web form, as shown below:

Showing URL parameters in a web form.

The image above displays a form in a user journey where the name (Peter) and the email (petpar@example.com) are automatically populated.

How to configure URL parameters

On a high-level, you need to complete the following steps to configure URL parameters in your user journeys:

Workflow overview

1. Add a URL parameter in the workflow settings.
2. Add a Set Variables step at the beginning of your workflow to map the URL parameters.
3. Optional. Use the values by referencing the variables in any other step.
4. After publishing, craft the workflow URL to include the URL parameters.

Prerequisites

To proceed with the tutorial, you must have completed the following initial preparations:

1. Sign up to the Signicat Dashboard and register your profile. For more details, see the Get started with Signicat guide.
2. In the Dashboard, make sure you have set up an organisation, an account and a domain.
   Sandbox and production accounts

   We recommend you create a sandbox account to test our services before going live. Sandbox and production accounts must be set up separately.

If you require assistance, you can contact us by creating a support ticket in the Dashboard.

Mint permissions

To create and edit Mint workflows, your user in the Signicat Dashboard needs the Account Viewer role and at least one of the following permissions:

• Mint Admin
• Mint Editor
• Mint Workflow Builder Editor

For more information, see the Managing roles and permissions page.

0. Create new flow

With Mint you define all your operations inside a workflow. To create a new Mint workflow, do the following:

1. In the Signicat Dashboard, go to Products > Signicat Mint.
2. From the Mint sidebar, select Builder.
3. Select Blank to create a flow without template.
4. Enter a name and a description.
   What your end-users see

   The name and description of a workflow are visible to the end-users at the start of the user journey.

5. Select Create flow.

1. Add URL parameters

To add URL parameters in your workflow, you need to define the individual parameters in the advanced workflow settings. To do this in the Mint Builder:

1. Select the Settings gear icon (settings) at the top right.
2. In the Flow settings, navigate to the Advanced tab.
3. In the URL parameter section, select + Add parameter.
4. Enter the key of the parameter. For example, name.
5. Repeat steps 3-4 to add more parameters. For example, add email.

2. Declare and map variables

To import the values of the URL parameters in the user journey, your workflow needs to have variables that map to the key of the URL parameters. You can define these variables with the Set Variables step.

Workflow order

It is important that you declare the variables (Set Variables) at the beginning of your workflow so that the URL parameters are available for import in all downstream steps.

To declare and map the URL parameters as variables in your workflow, do this:

1. In the canvas, select the plus icon (+), then Step to add a new step.
2. In the left "Steps" menu, select Primitives > Set Variables.
3. Configure the following:
   • Key: Set this to name.
   • Value: Add the following Liquid expression: {{Input.name}}. This is an advanced feature.
4. To add one more variable, select + Add entry and configure the following:
   • Key: Set this to email.
   • Value: Add the following Liquid expression: {{Input.email}}. This is an advanced feature.

This is how the Set Variables step could look like in your workflow:

Configuring Set Variables to read in the URL parameters keys.

3. Reference variables in a web form

Where to reference variables

Note that you can reference variables in all Mint steps that accept input data. This is not limited to web forms only.

In your Mint workflows, you can use web forms to collect and display information to the end-users. To reference and show the values of the variables from a previous step in a web form, do this:

1. In the canvas, select the plus icon (+), then Step to add a new step.
2. In the left "Steps" menu, select Signicat > Form to add an empty form.

Add a header

1. In the left "Elements" menu, select Special elements > Header.
2. In the canvas, select Placeholder to edit the header element.
3. In the left menu, edit the Text field to Hello, . Then, type or select the + (plus) icon and choose Variables.name. The header input should display Hello, {{Variables.name}}.

Add an email input

1. To add an email input field to the form, select the Inputs > Email element.
2. In the canvas, select email box to configure it.
3. In the left menu, edit the Value field by typing or selecting the + (plus) icon and choosing Variables.email.

Save your progress

After adding a step, it is important to save your flow to prevent losing any progress you made. You can save a flow by selecting Save at the top right.

4. Publish and customise the workflow URL

When you publish a flow, Mint generates a public URL where your end-users can start a web-rendered version of the flow: the user journey. After publishing, you can share the URL with your end-users.

Anatomy of a workflow URL

Typically, a Mint workflow URL follows this structure:

https://<YOUR_DOMAIN_WITH_SIGNICAT>/mint/<WORKFLOW_ID>?query=parameter&more=data

For example, this might look like this:

https://example.signicat.com/mint/947d590c-da6c-4af6-8041-a84e19115386?name=Peter&email=petpar@example.com

Publish a workflow

When you are ready to publish a flow, do the following:

1. At the top right, select Publish. The workflow URL is automatically copied in your clipboard.
2. To copy the URL again, select the More Options icon (more_vert), then Copy workflow URL.

Specify the URL parameters

To run a user journey where you pass data through URL parameters, edit the workflow URL to include values for each of the URL parameters you defined in the workflow settings. For example, you can build the worflow URL like this:

https://example.signicat.com/mint/947d590c-da6c-4af6-8041-a84e19115386?name=Peter&email=petpar@example.com

What happens when you don't specify URL parameters

When you don't pass URL parameters in the workflow URL, the values are left empty. This might affect how your users experience the user journey. For example, the text/fields in a web form might be blank when the URL parameter is missing.

User journey without URL parameters.

To mitigate this, you need to design your workflows to account for cases with missing URL parameters. For example, you could only use URL parameters to prefill input fields or define parallel paths with conditional logic to handle missing data.

5. Test a user journey

To run a test user journey, do the following:

1. Open a tab on your browser and paste the workflow URL with the URL parameters.
2. Review the data you passed through URL parameters. Optionally, edit the email address.
3. Select Submit to end the user journey.

At the end of a user journey, you can access all the data in the Mint Journeys.

Success!

You have just completed a user journey with URL parameters.

Next steps

Continue your journey with Mint:

Mint tutorials

Explore more Mint tutorials

Steps

Learn about the building blocks of your flows