Signal Connector Integration with Advanced Webhooks Guide

Source: https://platform-support.certain.com/hc/en-us/articles/10901963994519-Signal-Connector-Integration-with-Advanced-Webhooks-Guide

Published:

Keywords: Certain, Signal Connector, Advanced Webhooks

Document ID: https://platform-support.certain.com/hc/en-us/articles/10901963994519-Signal-Connector-Integration-with-Advanced-Webhooks-Guide#split1

This document is a guide to using Certain Signal Connector to integrate with other applications by using Advanced Webhooks. This includes the use of nested JSON as well as everything available in the standard ‘Webhooks’ integration module.

If you are using that standard module, please see the separate guide to integrations using standard webhooks.

(Signal Connector also integrates with Marketo, Eloqua, and Salesforce – see separate guides.)

Certain Signal Connector for Advanced Webhooks is not included with Certain Platform by default. If you’re interested in adding this or any other Signal Connector integration to your instance of Certain, please email help@certain.com, including your account name and the Signal Connector integration(s) you’re interested in.

What is Signal Connector? How does it work?

Certain Signal Connector processes data from your events in real time. Signal Connector passes the data from Certain Platform to your target third-party application. The target third-party application could be any app with webhook integration, such as Slack or Google Forms.

This real-time integration empowers sales and marketing teams to take intelligent, prompt action on the right event data.

Almost everything is set up at the account level. Signal Connector processes information from the events in your account.

Event-level information is based on the custom tags you attach to data such as Registration Statuses, as explained in this guide.

Important: Signal Connector processes outbound information. Signal Connector processes information from Certain. Signal Connector sends the information to your target application.

Prerequisites

Data-Flow Considerations

Credentials in Target Application

For you to set up a Connection in Signal Connector (see “Setting up a Connection”), the administrator of your target third-party application will need to provide you with the information described under ‘Adding a Connection’.

For example, if your chosen Authentication Method there is OAuth2, create an OAuth2 app in that system. Provide the Endpoint, Client Id, and Client Secret.

Overview of Setup Steps

On Certain Platform

1. Add tags in the account. 2. Apply those tags.

In Certain Signal Connector

3. Add a Connection. 4. Configure a Flow.

Setting up Tags

What Are Tags?

Tags are a way of identifying event-level data using labels you set at the account level.

You can apply those tags to generic items in events. You can apply those tags especially to custom registration statuses and custom registration properties for use in Certain Signal Connector.

(Tags can be used for other purposes as well, but this guide doesn’t cover that.)

For example, your events may have several custom registration statuses in addition to the standard ones.

You can apply the same Tags to more than one status. You can also choose to give each status its own Tag.

When you set up a Flow in Certain Signal Connector to send data to your target application when an attendee’s Registration Status changes, you specify the tags applicable to those statuses. You do not specify the statuses themselves.

That design means the flow can apply to any event in your account.

Setting Tags Up for an Account

1. As an Administrator, go to Account Settings > Management >Tags. 2. Enter a Name and a Label for the tag. 3. Select the Object(s) to which the tag can apply. For example, ‘Registration Statuses’ and/or ‘Custom Registration Properties’. 4. Click Add. 5. Repeat as required for as many tags as you need. 6. Important: Add enough tags to apply to all of the following that you will use in flows (see 'Flow Data Source'): 1. Registration Statuses 2. Custom Registration Properties 7. Also add enough tags to apply to all of the following that you will use in filters for flows (see "Flow Filters"): 1. Attendee Types 2. Events

Applying Tags in an Account

In each event from which you want information to flow through Certain Signal Connector, apply tags to the relevant information. The relevant information includes Registration Statuses and Registration Custom Properties.

You can also tag Attendee Types and Events. You can then filter registration records by attendee type or event. See Filters.

Default Registration Statuses

These apply to all events. An Administrator applies the tags at the account level.

1. Go to Account Settings > Management > Registration Statuses. 2. Select one or more Tags for each status.

Important: Even if you don’t use any standard registration statuses, best practice is to set up tags for all of them. It’s essential to tag at least the ‘ New ’ status. Certain uses “behind the scenes” processing when first processing each registration.

If you do use standard reg statuses, it’s essential that you tag them all. This tagging enables usage in the Flows you configure in Signal Connector. See 'Configuring a Flow'.

Applying Tags in an Event

Custom Registration Statuses

If any of the Flows you configure in Signal Connector will watch or activate for Custom Reg Statuses:

1. In each event, go to Plan > Event Setup > Custom Statuses. 2. Select at least one tag for each status.

Custom Registration Properties

If any of the Flows you configure in Signal Connector will watch or activate for Custom Reg Properties:

1. In each event, go to Plan > Configure. 2. Under Custom Registration Properties, select at least one tag for each custom reg property in the event.

Standard Registration Properties (Automatic)

These tags are set up for you automatically. The tag names are identical to the properties themselves: Complete, Badge Printed, On To Do List, Invoice Generated, and Test.

You only see these tags in Signal Connector. In Signal Connector, you can activate Flows for them.

There is nothing to edit on Certain Platform.

Attendee Types

(Optional– for use with filters – see 'Flow Filters'.)

1. In each event, go to Plan > Event Setup > Attendee Types. 2. Select one or more Tags for each attendee type on which you may wish to filter registrations. See Filters.

Events

(Optional– for use with filters – see 'Flow Filters'.)

1. In each event you may wish to include in a filter. The filter can ensure that only registrations for that event are passed to your target application. 2. Go to Plan > Event Setup > Details. 3. Select one or more Tags for the event.

Registration Questions

(Optional– for use with mapping Certain fields to fields in your target application – see 'Mappings')

1. In each event in which you use registration questions to capture data from attendees, and wish to pass those answers to your target application: 2. Go to Plan > Event Setup > Questions. 3. Select just one Tag for each question. Selecting more could result in duplicate data in your target application.

Opening Certain Signal Connector

When Signal Connector is activated for your account, the Account Settings > Implementation menu—available to Administrators—includes an extra option:

Click that link to open Certain Signal Connector in a separate window. The separate window runs separately from Certain Platform.

Note: To return from Signal Connector to Certain Platform at any time, click the duplicate-data icon.

Setting up a Connection

What are Connections?

A Connection in Certain Signal Connector specifies how to connect to your target application.

You can have multiple connections. You can connect to other third-party applications. (Marketo, Eloqua and Salesforce are covered in separate guides.)

Each Flow requires a Connection. Multiple flows may use the same Connection.

You can set up a Connection before configuring your first Flow. You can also set up a Connection while configuring a Flow. This guide assumes you’re setting up the Connection first.

Adding a Connection

As an Administrator, you may set up one or more Connections for your account.

You need only set up Connections once. You can then use Connections in the Flows you set up.

1. Go to Account Settings > Implementation > Signal Connector Real-Time Data Integration.

2. As noted above, Certain Signal Connector opens in a separate window.

3. Click Connections in the left navigation panel.

4. Click Add A Connection in the Connection List page that opens.

5. Enter the details in the Connection Setup screen that opens.

| Basic Authentication | Open / No Auth | API Key / Token | OAuth2 | |---|---|---|---| | • URL • Content Type • Request Method • User Name • Password | • URL • Content Type • Request Method | • API Key / Token | • Grant Type • Client ID • Client Secret • Authorization URL • Access Token URL • Refresh Token URL • Scope • Test Connection URL |

Basic Authentication

Open / No Auth

The lowest level of security.

API Key / Token

OAuth2

All these values must be provided by the administrator of your target application.

6. Click Save & Test. 7. If the test is successful, click Close. 8. If the test is not successful, check that the values in step 5 are all correct.

Setting Up Flows

What is a “Flow”?

A flow is a configuration to manage the flow of data from Certain to your target application.

You create Flows from the landing page in Signal Connector. See ‘Configuring a Flow’, below.

You may configure several flows for an account. Those flows might all use the same Connection.

You only need to configure a flow once at the account level.

When a flow is complete, it will start picking up data for each event in that account within about a minute.

The minute’s delay happens because Signal Connector runs independently from Certain Platform.

If you edit a flow, the same slight delay occurs before that change takes effect in the processing of the registrations.

The Flow List

As an Administrator in Certain Platform, go to Account Settings > Implementation > Signal Connector Real-Time Data Integration.

Certain Signal Connector opens in a separate browser window.

The main screen in Signal Connector is the Flow List, which lists all flows.

The Status column shows whether a flow is completely set up.

The Active column shows whether the flow is running.

Click the toggle button to change a flow from Active to Inactive, or vice versa.

Configuring a Flow

Click ADD A FLOW to start setting up a new flow.

The configuration consists of:

‘Live’ or ‘Test’

The Live toggle switch determines whether your Flow is Live or Test.

A Live Flow will pick up all live registrations in live events. It will ignore test registrations, even in live events.

A Test Flow picks up all test registrations. This includes all registrations in test events. This includes any registrations marked as ‘Test’ in live events.

Best Practice: Set a new flow up as Test—and test it—before setting it to Live.

Flow Data Source

Next, specify the Source of data for the flow. Optionally apply Filters.

The Source of a Flow is what the Flow will watch for in your data in Certain. The Source determines when the Flow will activate, based on that data.

For example, the Flow might watch for any change to a Registration Status. The Flow activates when an attendee’s status has changed to a status tagged as ‘Registered’.

Available sources

You set a flow to watch for any one of the following:

Note: You can always save an incomplete Flow and complete it at a later date.

As soon as a Flow is complete, it will start picking up data after the usual minute’s delay.

Activate for …

Choose what the flow should activate by selecting one or more tags in each appropriate object’s dropdown list.

As shown in the screenshot above, you can activate for tags applied to Registration Statuses and/or Registration Properties.

Other options may be added depending on what the Flow is watching for:

The tags available for selection are those set up for that object.

For example, the tags for Registration Statuses include Registration Status tags. You can apply these tags to:

Flow Filters

You can filter the data going into a flow by selecting fields in any of these three filter types.

The three filter types are Event fields, Profile fields, and Attendee Type tags.

The flow will only include a registration if it meets the rule(s) specified in the filter.

Note: For custom fields, you can only select “enumerated” questions. Enumerated questions have pre-configured answers.

Enumerated question types include Select, Multi-select, Checkbox, or Radio.

Flow Destination

Select Advanced Webhooks from the integrations set up by Certain for your account.

Setting up a Destination

1. Give the Destination a Name of your choice. 2. Select the Connection to use. 3. Select Advanced Webhook as the Action for this connection. 4. Select or add the mappings to use, as described next.

Note: You can instead click New Connection to add a connection. The process to set one up is the same as described on page 'Setting up a Connection'.

Mappings

Select or set up a set of mappings.

You can have two mappings. One mapping is for the Payload. The second mapping is for the Http Header if required.

The setup process is the same for each.

A mapping specifies how each target field in your third-party application matches a source field in Certain.

Select a mapping from the drop-down list.

If nobody has set any mappings up yet, or if you need something other than one of the existing mappings, click New Mapping to add one.

The Mapping Setup screen opens.

1. Mapping Name: Give the mapping a name of your own choice.

2. Select Root Element Type: In the great majority of cases, leave this set to the default value, Object.

3. Hint: As it says on screen, the easiest way to start setting up an Advanced Webhooks destination is to obtain a sample JSON from the source.

Paste that sample JSON into the text box.

Signal Connector parses out the structure you’ll need to support it.

This approach works out what the source fields are. It saves you from typing them in yourself.

(If you’d prefer to enter them manually instead, click ‘Let me set them up myself’ and proceed to step 10.b.)

Caution: Only do manual entry if you are completely comfortable with JSON syntax, as explained on [https://www.w3schools.com/js/js_json_syntax.asp, for example.

4. ‘Parsed Structure’ Option: Continue here if you’re going the route of pasting in a sample JSON and letting Signal Connector parse it to determine the data structure.

5. Obtain a sample JSON payload from your target application.

6. Paste the sample into the Sample JSON from Destination text box.

7. Click Parse JSON.

8. Signal Connector will determine the target fields in that JSON.

9. Signal Connector displays the target fields on screen as if you had entered them yourself.

10. Proceed to step 10.c below to map those fields to source fields in Certain Platform.

10. ‘Manual Setup’ Option (and mapping parsed fields)

For each of the target fields in your target application:

If you chose to let Signal Connector parse a JSON (per steps 3 to 9), skip the next step and go straight to step 10.c.

The list of target fields will be prepopulated for you.

(As mentioned in step 8 above, see an example screenshot of The screenshot below shows how Signal Connector would parse this JSON.)

a. Parsed JSON b. If you chose not to let Signal Connector parse a pasted JSON to determine the data structure, so clicked ‘Let me set them up myself’ in step 3, then: i. Enter the name of the target field and click Add. ii. Select the data type for that field in the adjacent drop-down list of JSON data types.

JSON data types include: String, Number, Boolean, Object, Array of Strings, Array of Numbers, Array of Objects, or Array of Booleans.

Caution: The type must map the type of data in the JSON payload.

c. Click to select the “source” field in Certain that matches that target field.

Example: if the target field is ‘Title” in your target application, the source field might be ‘Position’.

In that example, the value of the Position field in Certain populates the Title field in your target application.

The Certain fields you can choose from as the source of the data going into the target fields include some of the following, depending on what your flow will activate for.

Note: Unlike a standard Webhooks integration (see separate guide), an Advanced Webhooks integration can include arrays.

For that reason, the Certain source fields you can select from include lists such as Registration Question List, as listed above.

Note: You can concatenate multiple source fields for the same target field.

You can also type fixed text.

For example, for target field ‘Title’ you could choose source fields ‘Position’ and ‘Organization’, separated by two spaces and “@”:

d. To make a target field a required field, select the checkbox next to it.

e. To delete a source field, click the x after its label.

11. In the second column you can select a transformation option for each field.

The default of no selection sends the data to your target application unchanged.

The options are:

Note: You can select more than one transformation for a field.

For example, you could change it to Proper Case and trim it. 12. Continue adding more target/source field pairs as necessary.

If you’ve selected a mapping, two other buttons are enabled. The button labels are self-explanatory:

13. Save the mapping.

Example Mapping from Pasted JSON

If you chose the ‘Parsed Structure’ option in Step 4, the next three pages illustrate the three steps involved:

1. An example JSON you might paste in for Signal Connector to parse. 2. A screenshot showing how Signal Connector parsed that JSON. 3. A screenshot showing those source fields mapped to target in CertainExample JSON.

The screenshot below shows how Signal Connector would parse this JSON.

Parsed JSON

See the screenshot below for an example of how you might map these fields.

Parsed JSON with each target field mapped to a source field in Certain

Metrics Dashboard

To see the statistics available in Signal Connector, click Metrics in the left navigation panel when looking at flows.

The choices in the new navigation panel you then see for Metrics depend on the flows and their targets.

The first one will be Insights, as illustrated and described below.

Other links may include, for example, Webhook Posts. These work in the same way as Account Insights.

Account Insights

Select whether you want to see Live Flows or Test Flows.

Select the period for which you want to see the data.

Examples include: for the last 15 minutes, 1 hour or 4 hours, or a number of days.

There are three tabs: Summary, Troubleshooting, and Activity Feed.

• Summary tab

This is the default tab on the Insights page.

Figures shown depend on the flows and actions.

For some figures, you can click the number to drill down further.

For example, click Unique Registrations to see the registrations processed by any flows in your selected time frame.

You can filter or search for records when you’ve drilled down.

For example, filter on an Event Code to see only the registrations in that event.

These figures are shown for the whole account.

The whole account includes all events and registrations, and all flows in your account.

Your account’s flows might include flows that are not Webhooks integrations.

Some figures shown might not be applicable to webhooks.

For each figure, you can click the number to drill down to details.

Drilling down into failures provides a high-level view for troubleshooting.

For example, you can see why an action has failed.

If a planner can address the reason, the planner can expedite the fix in Signal Connector by going back to Flows and clicking Retry in the left navigation panel.

See Retry Queue.

• Troubleshooting tab

The second tab on the Insights page shows information you may find useful for troubleshooting.

For example, if some registrations are not processed because a Registration Status isn’t tagged, troubleshooting provides a chance to rectify tagging.

Rectifying tagging enables processing on the next retry.

The numbers shown are as follows.

Click a number to drill down to see details of the actual records.

• Activity Feed tab

The third tab on the Insights page lists the registrations processed.

The list notes success or failure, Registration Code, Event, Flow, etc.

The activity feed is a rolling history by date.

It is another way to access lower-level data you could see by drilling down in the Summary or Troubleshooting tabs.

The Retry Queue

When an action fails, the action usually joins the “Retry Queue”.

In the Retry Queue, the action takes its turn to run again.

Failures that can’t be resolved, such as missing mandatory fields, are exceptions.

These exceptions do not join the queue.

An action can be retried up to three times.

After three times, the action does not rejoin the queue.

To see the Retry Queue, click Retry in the left navigation panel on the Flows page.

Causes of failure include ones under your control as a planner, such as a registration with a status that hasn’t been tagged.

Causes of failure include technical ones such as a connection being down.

Where you can resolve the cause of a failure, such as tagging a registration or setting a flow back to being active, you can address it.

The action should succeed when retried.

For other failures that don’t resolve themselves, contact your administrator or ask Certain for help.

The interval between retries depends on the severity of the reason.

The more serious the reason, the sooner the retry.

Filtering the Queue

You can filter the records shown in the Retry Queue using these three filters:

Submitting to the Queue

When you click an item in the Retry Queue, you see its full details.

If that knowledge is enough to solve the problem, click Submit to Retry Queue.

Submitting to the Retry Queue adds the item straight to the front of the queue.

Replaying a Flow

If you change an aspect of a flow while it has been running for some time, you may want to replay that flow for the same registrations as before.

This replay approach makes the changes act as if the changes had been made earlier.

This replay action is not something you can do directly.

You can ask Certain to arrange it for you.

You may be able to specify a date range.

You may also be able to specify an event.