Metadata fields

Metadata fields, or M-fields, exist temporarily in the Survey engine while a survey is being taken. They can't be viewed or configured in Experience Cloud, and are not stored anywhere after the survey is submitted. They are accessible only from within a ballot while the survey is being taken, and their values are updated every time the survey taker navigates off a page.

Metadata fields are primarily useful for conditioning within a survey; they store up-to-the-minute data and get updated as a survey taker progresses through a survey. For example, a page or content element can be conditioned with Mobile access = No (m__is_mobile = false) to show it only on desktop, or with Language = Spanish (m__language = “es”) to show it only to those taking the survey in Spanish.

Important: Metada field can't be directly referenced in Imports, Exports, or Reports, but many automatically sync to corresponding System fields, which are stored in the survey record and can then be referenced more broadly.
To check the current values of Metadata fields within a ballot, add &debug=spec to the end of the survey URL (internal IP addresses only).

Metadata field reference

Field nameDescriptionSample value
Ballot ID (m__ballot_id)Internal ID of the ballot (raw invitation record).
Duplicate code (m__duplicate_code)When a Feedback field has Use for duplicate checking selected, this is the duplicated value the survey taker enters that matches an existing value.
Language (m__language)Language selected in language dropdown (if enabled) or set by locale.“en_US”
Mobile access (m__is_mobile)Yes (true) if the survey was first accessed via a mobile device.

See Behavior of Mobile access field below.

false
Mobile survey taking (m__is_mobile_ever)Yes (true) if the survey was ever taken via a mobile device; No (false) is the survey has always been taken via a desktop device. false
Finished survey (m__finished)It is 1 once the survey is completed. The End page automatically conditions off this.1
Finished survey date (m__finishdate)When the Finish button is clicked. This corresponds to the Response date value.
Test survey (m__is_test_survey)Present for Preview survey links as they contain a reusable ID (reusable_id)“web-nps”
Last page (m__last_page)Number of the last page shown to the survey taker (the one they’re currently on).2
Last page name (m__last_page_name)Name of the last page shown to the survey taker (the one they’re currently on).“3 - Reasons for Score”
Highest page number (m__page_seen_highest)Highest page number shown to the survey taker.2
Submitted pages (m__pages_submitted)Number of pages the survey taker has submitted.2
Submitted pages name (m__last_submitted_page_name)Name of the page the survey taker last submitted.“2 - Likelihood to Recommend”
Page path (m__page_path)JSON with page numbers and times submitted for each. [{"pageNumber":1, "datetime":"2016-01-15T21:36:07.798Z"}, {"pageNumber":2, "datetime":"2016-01-15T21:36:12.905Z"}]
Enabled screen reader (m__screen_reader_enabled)Yes (true) if the survey taker is taking the survey from a screen reader.false
Spec ID (m__spec_id)Read-only field containing the survey version ID.1050-company
Survey taker's IP address (m__log_ip)Survey taker’s current IP address64.124.157.9
Survey start datetime ( m__log_start_date)Timestamp when the survey taker started the survey 2016-01-15T13:36:03-0800
Survey taker's browser and OS (m__log_agent)Survey taker’s web browser and operating system info."Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_11_2) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/47.0.2526.111 Safari/537.36"
Survey base URL (m__log_host)Base URL where the survey taker accesses the survey."survey.medallia.com”
Survey cookies (m__cookies)Various data stored by Experience Cloud to survey taker’s device. "sEc.voiceofmedallia=a897d67f5d89;“
Anonymous survey name (m__feedless)For Anonymous surveys, the Anonymous survey name."mplfeedback”
Anonymous survey type (m__feedless_type)0 for normal Anonymous surveys.0
Anonymous survey parameters (m__feedless_url_parameters)XML with parameter configuration for this survey build.<feedlessUrlParameterList><feedlessUrlParameter name="recordtype" surveyField="e_company_transactiontype_radio" defaultValue="3" altMappingOption="1" required="false" /> </feedlessUrlParameterList>
Anonymous survey referrer (m__feedless_referrer)RegExp that validates the HTTP Referer header for an Anonymous survey. Ignored if unset or no HTTP Referer header is present in the request..*medallia\.com.*

Behavior of Mobile access field

The value for the Mobile access field is recorded when the survey is first opened, and not updated if later opened from a different device. A personalized survey first opened from a desktop device has this value set to No (false), and it remains that way even if the un-submitted survey is later accessed from a mobile device.

Anonymous surveys create a new feedback record each time the survey link is opened. The new record has its own Mobile value, based on the device used when opening the link. Therefore, the Mobile access field always matches the current device.