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Create a guide permalink

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This article is relevant for the Visual Design Studio and the Classic Designer. 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 your web app 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.

  1. In the left-side navigation menu, go to Guides > Guides.
  2. Select Create guide to create a new guide or select an existing guide from the Guides table to open the guide's details page.
  3. In the guide's details page, in the top-right corner, select the ellipsis (...) and then select Permalinks.

    permalinks.png
  4. In the Permalinks dialog, copy the link of the required guide step that you want visitors to see when they open a specified page in your web app.

    specify_step_permalinks.png
  5. Open the required web page where you want the guide to display and add the copied link to the URL of the page. The string looks something like ?pendo=123123123123. This string is the unique identifier for the guide or step you're on.

Copy a permalink string in the Classic Designer

This section details how to find and copy the permalink string in the Classic Designer.

  1. Create a guide or select an existing guide.
  2. Set the guide status to Public.
  3. Navigate to the guide's details page.
  4. Copy the string in the Permalink field. The string looks something like
    ?pendo=123123123123. This string is the unique identifier for the guide you're on.

    permalink2.png
  5. To make use of the permalink, locate the string mentioned above and attach it to the end of the page URL that you want to link to, such as:

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 Staged or Public status.

If the visitor doesn't meet the criteria required, 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 your app drops parameters on login, and your user isn't logged in when they select the link, the guide doesn't appear, as they haven't yet been identified by Pendo. In this case, you can ask your users to ensure they're logged in before selecting the link.

Dynamic URLs

If your 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 of your users in that situation.

For this scenario, we suggest you start a guide at a place in the app that doesn't have the dynamic URL, such as: https://app.acme.com/reportListand then use the walkthrough guide with the permalink to walk the user to their own specific report detail Page.

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