Data Synchronization Wizard

• Setting the general properties
• Defining the sync

 

Setup step

When creating or editing a Data Synchronization, the Setup step is visible.
This step contains two tabs: Setup and Advanced.

Setup tab

On the Setup tab, you can define all the settings for the Data Sync.

Properties

Connector — Choose any connector configured for the current organization in the Admin Configuration of Marigold Engage.
When a connector is selected, the header for the drop-down below changes from 'Connector table' to '<Connector name> table'.

Note: Currently we support Salesforce CRM, MSDynamics, SugarCRM, CDM, Shopify and Adobe Commerce as possible connectors.

Connector table — Select any table from the drop-down by clicking and scrolling through the list or by entering part of a table name (which filters the list) before making your selection. This list contains the tables from your Data source database, sorted alphabetically.

Engage list — Select any Engage list that exists in the current organization.

Note: As soon as you have selected all the properties, a Next button becomes available to navigate to the Sync step

Asset label — The label(s) assigned to this asset. Select one or more labels from the drop-down. (These labels are configured in the Admin configuration.) Users with the proper Access permissions can also create new labels here by typing the new label value in the field.

Note: Once you have defined the settings in the Sync step (created at least one record), and you return to the Setup step to change the connector, data source table or Engage list, a warning states that all sync settings will be lost.

Click 'Undo' to revert your changes to the original properties with the defined sync settings.

Note that you are only allowed to change the connector, data source table or Engage list, as long as the Data Sync has not yet been saved.

 

Schedule

By default, the Schedule switch is disabled, which means the Data Sync is not scheduled.
In that case, a notification is shown to explain that you can manually start the data sync execution and run it once.

The execution can be manually started through the Execute once now button on the Connector Data Syncs Start page.

 

When the switch is enabled, the schedule settings become available:

Start date and End date — You can set a start date and/or end date for the sync. For example, your task can start now but needs to run indefinitely.

Periodicity — Indicate when the sync should run:

• Daily — Select the times of day at which the sync should run. You can select more than one.
• Weekly — Select the day of the week on which the sync should run. The sync can run more than once a week. You can also set the start time.
• Monthly — Select the days of the month on which the sync should run. You can also select the time of day at which the sync should start.
• Periodically — Set the recurrence of the sync, expressed in minutes. For example, the sync runs every 10 minutes.
• Once — Set once if the sync needs to be executed just once. You can set the start time at every half hour of the day

 

Notification

A message can be sent when the Data Sync has been completed successfully, or if it fails or a timeout occurs.
To activate a notification, simply enable the corresponding switch and enter one or more email addresses (multiple email addresses are separated by a semicolon). You can also select a notification group. These notification groups are created in the Admin Configuration.

Note: Notifications are optional. When enabling one or more notifications, you need to provide at least one email address or group for each enabled notification.
Notification emails about erroneous data syncs contain the same information as shown on the History tab.

Advanced tab

On the Advanced tab, you can define the Data source batch size and the Engage batch size.

• Data source batch size — Used to determine how many records are retrieved per batch from the Data source (in case of Data source  to Engage sync) or updated/inserted in the Data source (in case of Engage to Data source sync).
• Engage batch size — Used to determine how many records are retrieved per batch from Engage (in case of Engage to Data source sync) or updated/inserted in Engage (in case of Data source to Engage sync).

Example
Data source batch size is set to 500 and Engage batch size is set to 100.

- Data source to Engage sync — Per batch, 500 records are retrieved from the data source and put into a temporary table. The Engage batch size is then used to update/insert those 500 records from the temporary table to the Engage table in batches of 100. This process is repeated until all records are processed.

- Engage to Data source sync — Per batch, 100 records are retrieved from Engage and put into a temporary table. The Data source batch size is then used to update/insert those 100 records from the temporary table to the Data source table in batches of 100 (not 500, as only 100 records exist in the temporary table per batch). This process is repeated until all records are processed.

 

When you've completed the setup, press Next.
This will take you to the Sync step.

 

Sync step

This step contains three tabs: Sync, Filters and History.

Sync tab

The sync tab lets you define the Data source fields that need to be synchronized with the Engage fields. A mapping between the fields is defined as well as the direction of the sync. Engage fields can be selected from the parent list as well as linked lists.

Technical note: Make sure that the type and field length of the mapped fields correspond (such as syncing a Data source date field only with a Marigold Engage date field).

Note: When setting up a sync between the Data source and Engage, Data source tables and Engage lists can be used just once in a sync.

• Data source field — Data source fields can be selected from the Data source table (selected in the setup step) by clicking and scrolling through the list or by entering part of a field name (which filters the list) before making your selection.

Note: When syncing a Engage list field with a Data Source field having a picklist associated to it, the picklist is automatically created as an Option list in Engage.

• Scope — The Engage list (selected in the setup step) can be selected as parent list, and all of its 1:1 relations. By default, the scope 'Master' is selected.

Note: When using an Engage list that has linked lists that are not shared with the current organization, you will not be able to use fields from these linked lists in the data sync. The user is informed when trying to select such a list in the data sync configuration.



• Field — Fields from the scope can be selected (a combo-box appears only when a scope is selected).

 

You can also determine the direction of the data sync using the following buttons

• — Engage list to Data source table
• — Both ways
• — Data source table to Engage list

Note : Computed fields (non-persisted and persisted) can be selected as field when the chosen direction is (Engage list to Data source table). For 'bi-directional' and 'Data source table to Engage list', computed fields can not be selected.
More info about computed fields in lists can be found here.

 

Creation of new fields

It's possible to add a new field to the target list (selected as scope), using the 'Create new field' option.

When this option is selected, a new text field appears underneath the drop-down in which a field name can be entered. This value is required.

• The new field name has a default value equal to the Data source field name (in uppercase) unless that field name already exists. In this case, the field is empty (a placeholder is shown instead).
• The new field name cannot be the name of an existing field, already configured new field or a non-permitted keyword (front-end validation).
• Spaces in the field name are converted to underscores (for consistency).
• The type of the new field is automatically derived from the type of the selected Data source field.
  • If the selected Data source field has data type TEXT or LINK with length=0, then the new field will have data type LONGTEXT
• As soon as the datasync is created/updated, the new fields are created on the list selected as scope.

Sorting

Syncs can be sorted by clicking on one of the column headers (Data source Field, Direction, Scope, Field).
Clicking on a header sorts the results in ascending order of the column values.
Active sorting is indicated by an up (ascending) or down (descending) arrow next to the column header.
Clicking on a header of an already active sorting column, changes the sorting direction for that column.

Deletion

A complete row can be deleted by clicking on the trash bin icon:
The last remaining row cannot be deleted.

 

Filters tab

On the Filters tab, the user can define

• a Data source filter — This is a text-area in which you can type a filter. Only records matching the filter will be synchronized. The filter syntax depends on the connector that you are using. For more details on the syntax, please consult the corresponding manuals/support site.
• a Engage filter — Only records matching this filter will be synchronized during the datasync run. This filter can be built using the Constraint Builder, containing the same options as for building dynamic segments.

Note: Defining filters is optional. By default no filters are set.

When a filter is set for either the Data source fields or the Engage fields, this is indicated by a filter icon () next to the corresponding header on the 'Sync' tab.
When you click on a filter icon, the Filters tab is opened.

 

An organization filter is automatically applied to the Data Sync when it's defined on the audience list (See the List Sharing section in the List properties).

Note: This can only be the case for synchronization of audience list data from Engage to the Data source.

Note: If an organization filter and a Engage filter are applied, the Data Sync will be executed taking into account both filters.

 

History

The history of a data sync provides details on previous executions; This includes

• the source and destination table of the data sync
• the details per run :
  • the run date
  • the direction of the data synchronization
  • the total number of records included
  • the number of records that successfully synchronized, and the ones that failed
  • the starting time of the sync
  • the duration of the sync

 

Note: When no synchronization has been executed yet or no data is available yet, the user is informed:

Each run can be expanded by clicking on the down-arrow on the left, to show more details about failed records.
When erroneous data is available, it will be shown here.

Note: When a data sync generates an error, this error will also be visible from the notifications in the top menu bar. Clicking a notification takes the user to the specific task's page.

When there are new unread messages, the number of unread messages is displayed on the Notification entry:

Failed records for which an error message is returned, can be exported to a CSV file. An Export button is available to launch the export. This Export button will NOT be available when the cause of the failed record is UNKNOWN or when there are no failed records.

When a failure happens before the individual records are captured, the system doesn't know how many records would have been included in the sync.
In that case, 'Unknown' is shown instead of the number of failed records.

Note : In case of a long list of failed records, only the first 10 failed records are shown.

 

Create/update Data sync

When you've finished configuring the sync, press the 'Save' button (or 'Update' button if you are modifying an existing Datasync).

The 'Save' (or 'Update') button is only available when at least one field map is defined. Otherwise the button is grayed out.

 

When everything has been set up correctly, the Data sync will be created and visible on the Start page.