Checksum tokens are arguably one of the coolest yet most overlooked features of CiviCRM. It allows you to send targeted emails for donations, membership and event registration in a way that
- increased user response/convenience because the form is pre-filled
- preserves your data by reducing duplicates (when the same person enters another email and/or name)
But checksum is tricky to use, not obvious to the end user, and easily forgotten by users who know about it. Let's make it more visible and easier.
Here are instructions I recently gave to a client who has been using CiviCRM for 9 years, and struggles to understand or use Checksum.
Note: You can use a token to auto-fill their info on event forms! Where 'XXX' is the id# of the event, copy-paste this registration link.
https://myorg.org/civicrm/event/register?reset=1&id=XXX&{contact.checksum}&cid={contact.contact_id}
Highlight text such as "Register Now", click the Link icon, and paste in the above link, after replacing XXX with the real ID#.
Wow, right? That's a lot to wrap your head around if you're a non-techie, isn't it?
Idea: when entering a link that links to your own CiviCRM (base_url) that is a registration page, contribution page, or profile, popup a "Would you like to tokenize this link?" dialogue. It then adds the token without the copy paste.
