Customers' data import from SFTP server

If you gather your customers' data in several sources, you can use Automation Hub to synchronize it with the customers' profiles in Synerise. It’s possible thanks to the HTTP and SFTP integrations that allow you to send data to Synerise from external sources and the other way round.

This use case describes how to prepare an automated workflow that launches every day and donwloads an updated list of customers with their agreement for email communication from an external resource to Synerise. The automation connects to an external resource using the SFTP protocol and imports data from a CSV file. One of the challenges addressed in this use case is renaming a column in the CSV file while importing the data.

Prerequisites

• Host the .csv file with customers' marketing agreements data on an SFTP server.
• Prepare a sample of data that will be used in data transformation. To do this, you can take the real file and remove rows until about 10 are left.

Process

1. Create a transformation that will transform data from the .csv file.
2. Prepare a workflow that imports data about customers' marketing agreements from the SFTP server to Synerise.

Create a transformation

In this part of the process, you define the rules of modifying data. The transformation which is the output of this part of the process is used later to automate sending the data.

The sample file is used to configure the transformation and preview its results. With a library of transformation steps, you can modify the file by adding, renaming, and merging columns, as well as editing the values in the rows, and so on.

In this example, we will use the Rename Columns step to transform a customers' marketing agreements file so it meets Synerise's requirements.

1. Go to Automation Hub > Transformations > New transformation.
2. Enter the name of the transformation.
3. Click Upload a new file or drag one here.

Add file with sample data

This step allows you to add a data sample. In further steps, you define how the data must be modified. Later, when this transformation is used in the workflow, the system uses the rules created with the sample data as a pattern for modifying actual data.

1. Upload the file with the sample data.
   Below is the sample used in this article. It consists of two columns, where the first contains a customer's email address, and the second contains the marketing consent: 0 means disabled, 1 means enabled.
   

   email;newsletter agreement
   john.doe@synerise.com;1 
   

2. Set Delimiter to ; and provide Quotation mark and Escape character.
3. Click Apply.

Result: The editor displays data from the sample.

Rename Columns

The column name is the key under which the data will be imported to Synerise and appear in the output file. In this example, we will use the Rename Columns step to rename the newsletter agreement column to agreements.email.

1. On the right panel, click Add step.
2. From the dropdown list, select Rename Columns.
3. Click the Rename Columns step.
4. In the configuration of the step:
   1. Select the newsletter agreement column.
   2. Under Rename by, select Replacing.
   3. In the text field, enter agreements.email.

   

5. Before you save the settings, you can check the preview of the file after changes in the Results tab.
6. Confirm by clicking Apply.

Preview and save the transformation

1. Preview the results in the Output tab.
2. In the upper right corner, click Save.
   Result:

   

After the transformation is saved, you can use it in the Data Transformation Studio node while preparing a workflow that imports the files.

Prepare a workflow

As the second part of the process, create a workflow which imports customers' marketing agreements every day to Synerise.

1. Go to Automation Hub > Workflows > New workflow.
2. Enter the name of the workflow.

Define the launch date

1. As the trigger node, add Scheduled Run.
2. In the configuration of the node:
   1. Select the Repeat runs option.
   2. From the Timezone dropdown list, select the time zone consistent with the timezone selected for your workspace.
   3. Define the frequency of the workflow (for example, everyday at 6.00 A.M.).
      The workflow will automatically launch everyday at the specified time.

   

3. Confirm by clicking Apply.

Configure settings for SFTP protocol

Use the Get File node to retrieve the file from your server using the SFTP protocol.

1. Add the Get File node by clicking THEN > SFTP.

2. In the configuration of the node:

   1. Select the SFTP connection type as Public key, choose the connection in the Select connection field, and click Next.
   2. Enter the path to your server.
   3. Select the port.
   4. Enter the path to the directory.
   5. Enter the name of the file to import.
   6. From the File format dropdown list, select CSV.
   7. Verify and modify the delimiters if needed.

   

3. Confirm by clicking Apply.

Select the transformation

1. Add a Data Transformation Studio node.
2. In the configuration of the node, keep the default From workflow context option.
3. In the editor, click Templates library:
   1. Select the transformation you have created before.
   2. Click Use template.

   

4. Confirm by clicking Apply.

Import customers

1. Add the Import Profiles node. In the settings of the node, you can check the list of the optional columns.
2. Optionally, in Advanced settings, you can change the import mode.
3. Confirm by clicking Apply.

Add the finishing node

1. Add the End node.
2. In the upper right corner, click Save & Run.
   Result:

   

Check the use case set up on the Synerise Demo workspace

You can check the transformation directly in Synerise Demo workspace.

Also, you can check there the created workflow.

If you’re our partner or client, you already have automatic access to the Synerise Demo workspace (1590), where you can explore all the configured elements of this use case and copy them to your workspace.

If you’re not a partner or client yet, we encourage you to fill out the contact form to schedule a meeting with our representatives. They’ll be happy to show you how our demo works and discuss how you can apply this use case in your business.

Generated events

This use case generates approximately 6 events per workflow execution: automation.clientStartPath (~1), automation.clientPathStep (~3), automation.clientEndPath (~1), profile.updated (~1).

Read more

• Data Transformation
• Behavioral Data Hub