Permalinks

The Short Version

If you are building Walk-Thrus targeted to users who are not already on your site, Permalinks can provide a highly effective method to engage your users or drive adoption of new features in your software. When your users click the Permalink, they will be redirected to your site, with a Walk-Thru automatically running on the relevant page.

Common use cases for Permalinks include the following:

• Send a welcome email to new employees with a Permalink to begin onboarding;
• Include a Permalink in a promotional post on social media;
• Use Permalinks in support emails to help users through a process;
• Initiate a Performance Review process from an email sent to all employees/managers.

For example: When you release a new feature on your software you may send an email to your users with directions of how to use it in the hope that they will try it out.

WalkMe helps you to take this one step further with a Permalink. Your users simply click on it in the email, and it takes them straight into your environment and launches the relevant Walk-Thru. After being guided through the new feature, your users will be more likely to continue using it.

How It Works

In order for a Permalink to work if the user is logged out, your site must be configured to preserve the URL’s parameters. Often when a user is blocked from the page and redirected to a login screen, the browser loses track of the fact that it was supposed to play a Walk-Thru. To resolve this issue, contact your website’s administrator and make sure that your website preserves URL parameters. An additional way to address this, is creating a rule in the Walk-Thru that waits for the user to login before providing additional guidance.

Construction Of A Permalink

The construction of a Permalink is simply the page that you want to open followed by “?walkme=19-” and then the Smart Walk-Thru ID, a unique ID that WalkMe generates for each Walk-Thru created.

For example, a Permalink to open the homepage of ShopMe and run a welcome Walk-Thru with ID 123456 would look like this:

In the URL, if there is already a “?” before the Walk-Thru parameter, change the “?” in the URL to “&” (the end parameter would appear as follows: “&walkme=19-123456”.

Note: The above URL structure is for Smart Walk-Thrus. For Classic Walk-Thrus, the only difference is that there would be no “19-” preceding the Walk-Thru ID.

Where To Find The WalkMe ID

All you need to create a Permalink is the URL of the website that you would like to open and the Smart Walk-Thru ID. To locate the ID, follow the below steps:

1. Navigate to the Smart Walk-Thrus app in your WalkMe Editor;
2. Click on a Smart Walk-Thru;
3. Click on INITIATORS atop the Smart Walk-Thru:
   
   
4. Click Copy to the right of the Permalink section:
   
5. Append the copied parameter to the end of your website’s URL, and you’re in business!

Note: The above applies only to Smart Walk-Thrus. For Classic Walk-Thrus, the Walk-Thru ID is located in the Walk-Thrus Setting Menu in the Advanced Settings tab or in the Engagement tab under Permalink.

Simply copy the entire URL, and replace the portion prior to “?walkme=…” with your website’s URL, and, again, you’re in business!

Permalinks To Password-Protected Sites

To build a Permalink to a password-protected site, add a Wait For Flow Step with a Rule that waits for the user to login before providing additional guidance. This way, once the login screen loads, WalkMe will wait to play the first step until the user has had time to login and land on the correct page. Make sure that your website is built to preserve URL parameters. Often when a user is blocked from the page and redirected to a login screen, the browser loses track of the fact that it was supposed to play a Walk-Thru. To resolve this issue, contact your website’s administrator and make sure that your website preserves URL parameters.

Permalinks With ShoutOuts

Permalinks can also be created with a ShoutOut. The Permalink is constructed similarly with the ShoutOut ID. Find the ShoutOut ID in the ShoutOut Options Menu. The ID is the number after “=” in the Engagement tab under Permalink.

Permalinks With ActionBot

The ActionBot permalink can be found under ActionBot > Bots > (select a Bot) > Initiators > Permalink:

Copy your desired permalink, either linking to a Bot’s dialog box or a particular conversation.

The format will always be ?walkme=29-<the specific Bot ID> (just one set of digits, e.g., ?walkme=29-12345) or ?walkme=29-<the specific Bot Conversation ID> (two sets of digits separated by a hyphen, e.g., ?walkme=29-12345-78910).

Permalinks That Open The WalkMe Menu

If you would like users to open the WalkMe Menu from an outside site, add a Permalink to a Smart Walk-Thru that contains an Open Menu Flow Step (under Action):

Try it Out

• Create a Permalink that opens the Player Menu;
• Create a Smart Walk-Thru that begins with a Wait For Flow Step with a delay of 0.5 seconds:
  1. Add an Open Menu Flow Step;
  2. Retrieve the permalink ID from the Smart Walk-Thru’s Initiator’s tab;
  3. Test the permalink after publishing the Smart Walk-Thru to confirm it opens the Menu;
  4. You can then use this direct link as a method to open the WalkMe Menu.

Note: Permalinks can be tested on the editor’s Preview Mode or in a Published environment, for more information visit this page.