Digital EX browser extension

The Digital EX browser extension helps organizations to embed Digital Feedback tools within web-based applications, where often the Digital embed code cannot be deployed. Unlock powerful insights proactively from employees where they frequently spend their time. Seamlessly tap into the wisdom of your people by meeting them anywhere they are within the daily flow of work. Uncover in real-time what is impacting experiences and how best to respond with Medallia’s unrivaled anytime digital listening capabilities.

The typical method of deploying Digital to a organization's site involves embedding an HTML tag somewhere on a page. This method is well suited to a web site that an organization can modify, but cannot easily be used with third-party SAAS applications. Web-based applications such as Salesforce, Workday, Google suite, Microsoft365, and so on do not usually support the embedding Digital requires.

The Digital EX browser extension provides an alternative method of deploying Digital that is compatible with web-applications commonly encountered by employees in their day-to-day work. This opens a number of new possibilities to collect EX feedback directly in the moment. For example, provide an always-on survey to capture feedback from a SAAS tool used to record employee attendance. Or target employees at a specific step in a process to request vacation time and collect targeted feedback on a recent change in policy.

The Digital EX browser extension is designed to be distributed by an organization using industry standard Master Data Management tools that modern IT departments are familiar with. Once the Digital EX browser extension is distributed across the organization's employee browsers, managing the Digital Feedback program is very similar to using a typical Web property - changes are made to the program without further changes required from the browsers where the Digital EX browser extension is installed.

From Digital Web version 2.58, the Digital EX browser extension also supports employee authentication. Organizations can use their existing OAuth 2.0 based identity provider to enable employees to log in, using SSO in a way they are familiar with from tools such as Okta and Google. A logged in employee is then identified in Digital, so their feedback includes identity provider based metadata that enables a richer level of feedback without any additional effort required. And logged in employees can be targeted based on the metadata, enabling a new level of precision in who you target.

Common use cases

The Digital EX browser extension is well suited to these use cases.

  • Enable employees to provide feedback and ideas about systems and processes while they are interacting within their time recording solution
  • Capture new employee feedback and sentiment after just joining the new company and training in their learning management systems to ensure they are enabled and on the path to success
  • Engage employees at any moment in the flow of their work to understand if documentation is confusing or outdated, what system makes it difficult to service customers, and so on, within their task, transactional, or operational system
  • Meet customer facing employees in a system used to support customers for feedback and ideas in the moment

How it works

The Digital EX browser extension contains a pre-packaged version of the Digital Feedback runtime code. The Digital EX browser extension is compatible with Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge and complies with Extension Manifest V3.

The extension is executed within its own browser sandbox, preventing interference with other applications. Each extension is built to execute only on pre-approved application URLs.

The high level steps of deploying Digital EX browser extension are:

  1. Determine the applications that you wish to run the EX extension on. This results in a list of one or more URLs that you provide to your Digital Expert.
  2. Receive extension details from Medallia.
  3. The organization's IT department deploys the extension to all employee browsers.
  4. Start with our pre-built configuration and scale at a self-service manner.

Consider these points when working with Digital EX browser extension:

  • After the initial deployment of the Digital EX browser extension, to remain current use the MDM should deploy an update to the extension every 90 days or whenever a change such as after a new application is added to the feedback program. This is a single-click operation.
  • The organization must add Medallia’s domains to their allow-list
  • When using the Browser Extension Employee Authentication feature, custom parameters can only be picked up from the URL or the user profile
  • Single page application page targeting support is limited
  • Freeze mode is enabled when certain configuration changes are made.
  • Embedded forms are supported only where there is an empty DIV element to contain the survey

  • Only specific URLs are targeted, and they are contained in the specific Digital EX browser extension deployed. To change the URLs being targeted contact your Digital Expert for an updated Digital EX browser extension and deploy it.

Deploying the Medallia Digital Browser Extension

This section is intended for anyone who deploys the Digital EX browser extension across an organization. This information is not required for managing an Digital Feedback program, or for using the Digital EX browser extension.

To deploy Digital EX browser extension across your organization using a Master Data Management tool you should receive a URL and ID from Medallia.

  • URL (~string) - is the dedicated source of the browser extension and any subsequent updates
  • The ID (~key) is this URL's unique identification, used for internal identification as well as an extra security step to validate the browser extension

URL and ID are added to the standard management system profile, and this is usually done only once. Subsequent updates to the Digital EX browser extension are provided from the same URL, making upgrading employee's browsers part of the distribution task.

An example of a profile with URL and ID:

<key>ExtensionSettings</key> <dict> <key>YOUR_KEY_HERE</key> <dict> <key>installation_mode</key> <string>force_installed</string> <key>update_url</key> <string>https://MedalliaDigitalUrl/XXXX/ex-extension/update.xml\</string\> <key>override_update_url</key>

Use the configured Master Data Management tool to mass deploy the extension to employee's browsers and power the feedback program.

Updating the Digital EX browser extension

Once the Digital EX browser extension is deployed across an organization, regular updates are required. For example, when Medallia release a new version of Digital, or if the organization decides to change the URLs the Digital EX browser extension targets.

When an upgrade is required, the property enters what is called freeze mode - which means that no configuration changes can be made until the upgrade has taken place. This ensures that the organization remains in control of when an update takes place. All upgrades described here are automatic, no manual work is required to distribute the updated Digital EX browser extension because updates are provided from the same URL used during the initial configuration of deployment.

Freeze mode

While a property is in freeze mode it is important to remember that Digital still collects feedback because the older version of the Digital EX browser extension is still supported. But in freeze mode feedback program configuration changes cannot be made. Before unfreezing a Digital EX browser extension property, ensure that all employee browsers have upgraded to the new extension version.

Important: In the event that any employees are using the older version of the Digital EX browser extension after the property is unfrozen, they lose the Digital functionality and the extension does nothing. Ensure the new browser extension version has been correctly deployed across the organization before proceeding.
Example banner showing property in freeze mode.

To unfreeze a property a Digital administrator connects to the Digital Command Center and clicks the Confirm Update button in the banner about the property being in freeze mode.

Dialog showing the confirm update warning.

The confirm update dialog provides a final chance to abort the unfreezing process. To proceed, click Confirm Update.

This removes the freeze mode for the property and feedback program configuration changes can continue.

Browser Extension Employee Authentication

From Digital Web version 2.58, Digital EX browser extension enables organizations to use their existing identity provider for authorized employees when they provide feedback. This makes it much easier for the respondent to provide feedback because they do not have to identify themselves. It also opens a way to make targeting more specific to employees, for example only targeting a certain group.

Employees log in to the Digital EX browser extension in exactly the same way they are familiar with logging in to other web-based applications. Once an employee has logged in, the extension can use data provided from the login process within the feedback program. The Digital EX browser extension then makes it possible to target employees in web-based applications, to collect feedback where it would have been traditionally not possible to embed Digital. The Digital EX browser extension uses the company's identity provider to match authorized employees to their feedback, making this information much more accurate.

The advantages include:

  • No need to manually collect employee identifier as part of the feedback form
  • More effective ability to close the loop because feedback is identifiable
  • Connect the feedback record with MEC data for deeper insights
  • Additional identification fields can be configured by your IT department, unlocking more targeting and reporting use cases

Adding Employee Authentication Flow

To use the Employee Authentication feature, the organization's IT department define Digital EX browser extension as an application in their OAuth 2.0 console. These are standard steps for using OAuth 2.0 and depend on the tools the organization is using for their identity provider. They should then provide Medallia with a client ID, client secret, authorization URL and User info URL.

The Digital expert uses this information to configure the authentication settings and provides the organization with a test extension in order to validate configuration. Once testing is completed, the IT department push an update and authentication is enabled.

When the updated Digital EX browser extension is deployed, employees can log in. This is a simple one click operation that authorizes the employee using the chosen identity provider.

Metadata as custom parameters

When an employee has logged in to the Digital EX browser extension, additional metadata is available as custom parameters. In order to define such a custom parameter define a new custom parameter, setting type to "String" and source to type "Var".

By default, the values of these parameters are populated via the login process:

  • md_ex_profile.displayName
  • md_ex_profile.email
  • md_ex_profile.family_name
  • md_ex_profile.given_name
  • md_ex_profile.name

Additional parameters such as department, role, and so on can be added by the organization's IT department.

These custom parameters can be used in Digital in the usual way, for example as part of rules and conditional display. To set up these parameters use the format md_ex_profile.parameter.