Creating import jobs

Use the import feature to bring your lists, profile extensions, or custom tables into Oracle CX Audience. The following details the wizard-driven process for creating and configuring Connect import jobs.

About source files for import jobs

After an import job runs, the upload file is archived on the server. If the job is successful, the upload file is deleted. If the job fails, the upload file is deleted only in the following circumstances:

  • The file is empty
  • The file has data issues, such as invalid data format
  • The upload file and the count file have different number of records.

To create a new job:

  1. Click A screenshot of the navigation menu icon, and select Connect from the Data menu.
  2. Click Create Job and depending on the type of data object you want to upload, select Import Profile Data or Import Custom Table Data. Select Import Profile Data to import profile list or profile extension table data.
  3. Follow the steps in the wizard to:

Step 1 – Source connectivity

Provide file server specifications related to accessing a CX Audience file server or an external server to process your import job data.

Note: Not all accounts have access to the external server options. See your account manager for details.

File server specifications

  • CX Audience File Server – Default connection; configured to transfer/upload job data via your CX Audience SCP (Secure Copy Protocol) account file server.
  • External Server by SFTP – Secure File Transfer Protocol; a secure version of FTP.

CX Audience file server configuration

By default, Connect jobs are configured to import/export via your CX Audience SCP (Secure Copy Protocol) account file server. This account includes three directories: upload, download, and archive.

Important: If not already established, Oracle CX Audience Support and your IT team will need to work together to generate an SSH-2 public/private key pair. This ensures you secure access to your SCP account via an SSH/SCP client. You may also create your own directories using an SSH (Secure Shell) client.

To complete this configuration selection, specify the directory pathname where your files can be accessed.

External server configurations by SFTP

  • Hostname – Select hostname from the dropdown menu.
  • Directory Path – Enter pathname for associated directory.
  • Username – Enter username allowing you access to your SFTP connection.
  • Authentication – Two authentication options are available: password or key authorization.
    • Password authorization – Passwords are stored, and may provide simpler access, however, they are not as secure as key authorization.
    • Key authorization – Using a key is the preferred and most secure authorization solution. For details, see Selecting, Importing, or Generating Public Keys.

      To process your first import job using a key authorization, click Access or Generate Key Information, and enter your email address. The resulting email to that address provides your public key information, as well as instructions for adding this public key to your SFTP account.

  • Test Connection – Click Test Connection (once public key is in place) to confirm that your SFTP connection configuration is valid.

Step 2 - Source specification

  • File to upload – Enter the full name of the data file to be processed, for example, Customer_List.csv. Suffix and prefix dates in various formats can be added to the file name.
  • Character set – Select the character set for that file, for example Unicode (UTF-8).
  • Field deliminter – Select the delimiter (typically a tab or comma) that divides the fields (columns) in the file to be uploaded.
  • Field enclosure – Specify whether text columns and values are enclosed in single or double quotation marks.
  • Date format - Specify the format of dates in the file.
  • First line contains column names – Select the checkbox if first line contains field names.
  • File is encrypted with PGP/GPG Key – PGP/GPG key is used when uploading jobs to specify if the uploaded file is encrypted using a key and whether it needs to be decrypted before uploading.

    Note: For details, see Selecting, Importing, or Generating Public Keys.

  • File is signed with PGP/GPG key - PGP/GPG key is used when uploading jobs to specify if the uploaded file is signed using a key.
  • File to confirm expected record count – Select the checkbox, and enter local filename/extension containing identical schema as file to be uploaded. This file is used as record count comparison between this file, and the number of records that were actually uploaded.

    Note: While this selection is optional, if used, the filename and extension are required, for example, Customer_List.cnt. If its count shows 300 records, but your loaded file only contains 100, a transfer error is noted, and the upload process is abandoned.

Step 3 – Target definition

You can set up import merge rules for a defined list, custom table, or profile extension to insert new records and/or update existing records. The procedure is different for importing data for each type of list or table:

Lists

  1. Under List, select a target List into which the incoming data should be loaded.
  2. Click The Add button under Target Definition when configuring a Connect Import job beside Target Tables.

    The Select target tables dialog opens.

    Tip: You can also choose Create new table in the Select target tables dialog.

  3. Select the List and click Select.
  4. Under Match new records to existing records using profile list fields, choose which field in the profile list to use to match new records to existing records.
    • Click Add to use a second field to match new records to existing records.
    • Choose whether to overwrite existing records if there's a match, and whether to import new records if there is no match.

  5. Choose whether to reject records if their Email Address field or Mobile Number field is empty.

  6. Select Default permission status for newly added channel as either Opt in or Opt out, and what status values to use (I for Opt In and O for Opt Out are the defaults).
  7. Select the Email Format Values in the incoming file (H for HTML format and T for Text format are the defaults).
  8. Select the Mobile number upload format for this job.Oracle CX Audience validates the format of inbound mobile numbers according to the format selected for your account. The format you select here overrides the account setting for this job.
  9. If you want to Enable filtering against the latest load with the same name, click the checkbox.

Custom tables

  1. Click The Add button under Target Definition when configuring a Connect Import job next to Custom table.
  2. Click on the custom table you want then click A screenshot of the add table icon.
  3. Click Select.
  4. You can choose between two options:
    • To completely replace the existing table records with the newly uploaded records, click the Remove all existing records and upload checkbox. Use the primary key for the upload if one exists.
    • Under Merge into table using following field, select a field to use to merge the data into the table. You can choose whether to overwrite all mapped fields in existing records if there is a match, and whether to import new records if there is no match.

Profile extensions

  1. Under List, select the list corresponding to the target profile extension table.
  2. Click The Add button under Target Definition when configuring a Connect Import job beside Target Tables.

    The Select target tables dialog opens.

  3. Select the profile extension and click Select.
  4. You can choose between two options:
    • To completely replace the existing table records with the newly uploaded records, click the Remove all records before inserting new checkbox.
    • Under Match new records to existing records using profile list fields, choose which field in the profile list to use to match new records to existing records. Click Add to use a second field to match new records to existing records. You can choose whether to overwrite existing records if there's a match, and whether to import new records if there is no match.

Step 4 – Field mapping

In this step, you map columns from the source file to fields in the target profile list, PET, or custom table. Mapping fields specifies which column corresponds to which field.

You can manually map the fields or use an upload file for the mapping. For custom tables, you can also generate default mapping.

To upload a mapping file:

  1. On the Field Mapping step, click Upload file.

    The Upload mapping file dialog opens.

  2. Click Choose File to select the mapping file.
  3. Complete the details:
    • Fields are delimited by: Select the delimiter (typically a tab or comma) that divides the columns in the file.
    • Fields are enclosed by: Specify whether text columns and values are enclosed in single or double quotation marks.
    • First line contains column names: Select this checkbox if the first line contains field names.
  4. Click Done.

To map fields:

  1. On the Field Mapping step, click A screenshot of the add icon.
  2. Make sure to also select the target table for that field.
  3. Specify the incoming field and the field it matches. If you do not want to match a field, select skip this field.

    Note: To update the list, select the match field from the List Match Fields section. To update the PET, select the match field from the Profile Extension Fields section.

  4. Click Update.

Notes

  • Long field names are truncated to 30 characters, and may only include characters defined on this page.
  • When created, field names are not case-sensitive, but are later translated to all uppercase.
  • If any changes result in duplicate field names, you will need to manually rename them.
  • All system field names (defined and reserved by Oracle CX Audience) end with an underscore character, for example EMAIL_ADDRESS_. As a best practice, Uploaded/custom-defined field names should not end with an underscore character; these are reserved for system fields.
  • Wherever possible, match like-named incoming fields with existing List fields, for example Match CUST_ID to CUSTOMER_ID_.
  • If you choose not to upload a field, click A screenshot of the arrow icon next to the related List field, and select --skip this field--.

For more details about data type and field name requirements, see Data Types and Field Names.

Step 5 – Notifications

To receive notifications about the job's status, click the Send notification to checkbox, then enter the email address that will receive the notifications.

You can set the following options for the job:

On success or failure

Sends a notification email after each job run. Email notifications provide information relating to failed and successfully completed jobs, and other issues requiring further investigation. We recommended that you send a notification to one or more email addresses.

On failure

Sends a notification email only if a job fails.

Step 6 – Schedule

Select details for when and/or how frequently this job should be scheduled. You can run it on demand, once at a preset time slot and date, or on a recurring schedule.

Important: To ensure that leap years and months with 31 days do not cause issues, you can schedule the run for the Last day of the month instead of the 29th, 30th, or 31st day of a month when scheduling monthly jobs. Additionally, you cannot schedule a recurring monthly run on the 29th, 30th or 31st day of a month.

Based on the start time you enter, the actual start time value will be selected at random from one of the following intervals: 0-15, 16-30, 31-45, 46-60. For each scheduled job, the system picks a random minute (for example, 12 within the 0-15 segment). This distributes the start times of jobs more evenly.

Note: Connect jobs will start at random times within the chosen time slot. If you try to set up a new Connect job in a slot that overlaps with the current time, an error message may be issued that states that the time selected occurs in the past. Therefore, as a best practice, choose the time slot that is after the current time slot when you schedule a Connect job.

Warning on rejected records

There are several situations in which email records are rejected during a list import:

  • Top level domain names that are not listed (for example, lala_smith@lul.xyz). See the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for a list of all allowed domain extensions.
  • Badly formatted email addresses (for example, those containing spaces or invalid characters or that are missing the domain name)
  • Improper use of field separators and enclosing characters (for example, enclosing quotation marks in another set of quotation marks)

For more information about valid email formats and top level domains, see Understanding Data and List Management.

Learn more

Understanding Connect

Sequencing Jobs in Connect

Creating Export Jobs

Selecting, Importing, or Generating Public Keys

Understanding Data and List Management

Loading Lists from Files