FCX API Workflow – Help Center

Introduction

The process workflows listed below outline the sequences needed to build a one-time survey integration for your clients.

Build the technical integration with Fuel Cycle.
Enable your integration for clients.
Clients publish a study on Fuel Cycle.
Members participate in a study.

Build the Technical Integration with Fuel Cycle

The following steps outline the one-time process for integrating with the Fuel Cycle platform. Once this process is complete your integration is available on FCX.

#	Step	Description
1	Partner	Welcome! Your company's partnership with Fuel Cycle opens a world of new possibilities with our Fortune 100 and enterprise clients. At this point, we should have an agreement in place.
2	Initiate	Introductions with your integration lead and Fuel Cycle. You're going to have questions and we're here to help.
3	Documentation	Fuel Cycle will provide you with the integration documentation and API. if you're reading this for the first time, odds are good you're at this point—and you're in the right place).
4	Build	The Fuel Cycle API is designed to be simple for you to implement. Often our partners already have the endpoints within their platform to connect the Fuel Cycle API. Many of our clients finish it in as little as a day.

Launch Your Integration

You've finished your integration and now you're ready to launch. The following outlines the remaining steps to launch (this mirrors the process flow):

Test and Verify
Pre-Launch
Launch

Test and Verify

Fuel Cycle verifies all integrations before releasing them on the platform. Please contact your Fuel Cycle representative when you're ready for us to test and verify your integration.

Please be prepared to include the following information to aid us in our testing.

Item

Description

Test Environment

Access to a test environment that is connected to your integration, including login credentials. This is typically hosted on your stage or testing environment at this point.

Please include the URL and login/password (if required)

Test Studies

Please have at least one test study available in your test environment that's representative of the typical study. This study should be active/published so that we can use it to test the full flow.

If the study takes longer than 5 minutes to complete, please provide us with an additional abbreviated version if possible.

Once your integration is verified by Fuel Cycle, you can switch your API endpoints to the Fuel Cycle production environment: api.fuelcyclecore.com.

Pre-Launch

Once your integration is ready to launch, we'll coordinate pre-launch activities and determine a launch date and plan.

Please provide us with any client-ready marketing and sales materials relevant to the integration.

Launch

Your integration is now available on Fuel Cycle and is now ready for clients to enable and use.

Enable the Integration for Clients

Now that your integration is available on FCX, what happens when clients want to enable it?

There are a few steps to enable your integration anytime a client wants to add it to their Fuel Cycle account. This process is designed to provide clients with a smooth customer experience that alignments with their company requirements.

#	Step	Description
1	Select	The client chooses your integration from FCX
2	Initiate	Fuel Cycle and client complete an abbreviated process to enable your services on the platform. Our existing client agreement ensures this process is efficient and fast. Fuel Cycle notifies you of the new client opportunity.
3	Setup	Fuel Cycle provides you with an API key/token (unique for each client community). You configure the new instance within your platform and notify Fuel Cycle when it's ready for the client. We'll pass along the information to the client. This includes an account for the client to access your platform and create new studies. Fuel Cycle enables your integration and notifies the client it's ready to use.
4	Ready	The client can begin using your integration on Fuel Cycle

Client Publishes a Study on Fuel Cycle

Fuel Cycle supports many different types of integrations from research studies to data synchronization. The following steps outline how clients can attach their studies to a community activity in Fuel Cycle.

#	Step	Description
1	Research Question	Every research project begins with a question. We align our client business questions with the right methodologies to answer them. Your integration opens up new possibilities for clients to answer these questions and discover more meaningful insights.
2	Create Study	The client navigates to your platform to create a new study. When a client 'publishes' a study, you call Fuel Cycle's API to alert the platform that a new study is available. In this step, you pass important study information like the name, status, participation URL, and more.
3	Attach Study to an Activity	The client returns to Fuel Cycle and creates an activity on the Fuel Cycle platform, and attaches your study to this activity. By attaching the study to the activity, community members will see a button that links to your study. It's this step (combined with redirects) that provides the seamless user experience as the participant passes from Fuel Cycle to your platform and then is handed back to Fuel Cycle (see next flow, below).
4	Publish Activity	Clients publish an activity to their Fuel Cycle community. Eligible community members can now participate in the study.
5	Close Study	If the client is no longer collecting data the study should be set to closed/archived (and notify Fuel Cycle of the study status as "DISABLED").
6	Analyze Study	Clients can view the study results on your platform and analyze the results. If you've provided Fuel Cycle with a reportURL the client can click on this link to directly access the results on your platform.

Members Participate in a Study

Community members can easily participate in studies on the Fuel Cycle platform. Fuel Cycle seamlessly can direct members to your study and you can direct them back to Fuel Cycle once the study is complete.

#	Step	Description
1	Member views an activity	Activities on Fuel Cycle invite members to participate in studies. When your study is attached to a Fuel Cycle activity, members will see a button that links to your study. Clients can determine which participants are eligible for the study. The Fuel Cycle platform enables clients to invite different segments to participate.
2	Member Clicks to Participate	When a member clicks on the study button, Fuel Cycle will seamlessly direct them to your website to participate in the study. Fuel Cycle passes along several URL parameters that include: the unique member ID, a unique survey response tracking ID, and the redirect URL back to Fuel Cycle.
3	Member Arrives at Study	When the member arrives at your study, you can present and initiate the study. At this time you can fetch the member's profile point information via the member id provided in the URL query string from step 2.
4	Member Completes the Study	When the member completes the study (or the study terminates), you will redirect them back to Fuel Cycle using the URL passed to you when the member first arrived at your site. You can attach the member's participation status to this URL (or optionally call it separately via API).

See the documentation on redirects for more information.