Smart Keys
Smart Keys are encrypted values generated for each contact and company record in the a2z system. When passed as a URL parameter, they can be used to seamlessly log an individual or company into a password protected area of your a2z-powered event site.
Smart Keys are now included in several of our reports, so they can be easily extracted and concatenated into Smart Links.
Smart Links
Smart Links are composed of your event site, the specific page to which you would like to direct your user, and their unique Smart Key.
Here is an example:
https://s23.a2zinc.net/clients/ABCExpo/Show/Public/e_ExhibitorConsole.aspx?LI=aOuwRJ1OyziLz1oENJgmRvIG%2b7p4Wm49GANYGPcmFP0%3d
This looks like a lot of information to start, but it can easily be broken down into four basic components:
- Your site URL
- The specific page you'd like users to visit
- "?LI=" which allows us to append the Smart Link to the URL
- The Smart Key value
Building Smart Links from reports
Classic Reports
If you have run a classic report, including a company or contact Smart Key, you can easily concatenate a Smart Link for your communications purposes.
1. Add Company or Contact Smart Key as a column when running your report in Excel.
2. Once the report is generated and exported to Excel, add a column containing the site URL, the page you'd like users to visit, and "?Li=". So from our example above, this would be:
https://s23.a2zinc.net/clients/ABCExpo/Show/Public/e_ExhibitorConsole.aspx?LI=
Copy this URL for the entire column.
3. Add a column for Smart Link and use the concatenate feature to combine the two values into a single hyperlink. In this example, the formula is =HYPERLINK(CONCATENATE(F2,G2)), because we are using the F and G columns and the first row with a value is 2.
Copy this formula for the entire column.
4. The resulting links are smart links that can be used in your email communications.
Note: Before and after merging, check a few records to ensure that you haven't inadvertantly copied the same smart key for all records.
Business Intelligence and Reporting Engine
The new Business Intelligence and Reporting Engine supports adding formulas directly in the report, which you can leverage to concatenate your Smart Links.
1. Duplicate the report from which you would like to merge and save it to your "My Custom Reports" folder. In this example, we'll use the Company Report.
2. The Company Smart Key is listed by default, but you may need to add it again if you previously removed it from your copy.
3. Click "Add Formula"
4. In the resulting formula cell, we will use the following formula, since we want the user to go to the Exhibitor Console and we are working with the Company Smart Key.
Concatenate('https://s23.a2zinc.net/clients/ABCExpo/Show/Public/e_ExhibitorConsole.aspx?LI=',{Company.Company Smart Key})
a. If you are unsure of what value to place in the curly brackets, simply hover over the column.
5. The resulting links are smart links that can be used in your email communications.
Note: Before and after merging, check a few records to ensure that you haven't inadvertantly copied the same smart key for all records.