Signal Integration with Advanced Webhooks Guide

Signal Integration with Advanced Webhooks Guide

This document explains how to use Certain Signal to integrate with other applications by using Advanced Webhooks. It includes nested JSON capabilities as well as everything available in the standard Webhooks integration module.

Note: Signal also integrates with Marketo, Eloqua, and Salesforce. See separate guides for those integrations.

What is Signal? How does it work?

• Signal processes data from events in real time.
• Signal passes data from Certain Platform to the target third-party application.
• The target 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.
• Signal data processing happens at the account level. Signal processes information from events in your account. For event-level information this is based on the custom tags you attach to data such as Registration Statuses.
• Important: Signal processes outbound information, processing information from Certain and sending it to your target application.

Prerequisites

Data-Flow Considerations

• Consider whether you capture data in registration questions that will be synced to the third-party app you are integrating.
• If you do, apply tags to those questions (see “Applying Tags”).
• Consider whether you have different data mappings based on registration status or attendee type. If so, apply tags to those items (see “Applying Tags”).

Credentials in Target Application

• To set up a Connection in Signal (see “Setting up a Connection”), the administrator of your target third-party application will need to provide the information described under “Adding a Connection.”
• For example, if the chosen Authentication Method is OAuth2, the administrator will need to create an OAuth2 app and provide Endpoint, Client Id, and Client Secret.

Overview of Setup Steps

1. On Certain Platform: Add tags in the account. 2. On Certain Platform: Apply those tags. 3. In Signal: Add a Connection. 4. In Signal: Configure a Flow.

Setting up Tags

What Are Tags?

• Tags identify event-level data using labels you set at the account level.
• Tags can be applied to generic items in events, such as custom registration statuses and custom registration properties.
• Tags can be used for other purposes as well, but this guide does not cover those uses.
• When you set up a Flow in Signal to send data to your target application when an attendee’s Registration Status changes, you specify the tags applicable to those statuses, not the statuses themselves. 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. Add enough tags to apply to all of the following you will use in flows (see Flow Data Source): a. Registration Statuses b. Custom Registration Properties 7. Also add enough tags to apply to all of the following you will use in filters for flows (see Flow Filters): a. Attendee Types b. Events

Applying Tags in an Account

In each event from which you want information to flow through Certain Signal, apply tags to the relevant information: Registration Statuses and Registration Custom Properties. (You can also tag Attendee Types and Events to filter registration records by attendee type or event.)

Default Registration Statuses

1. Go to Account Settings > Management > Registration Statuses. 2. Tag at least the required statuses (including the essential “New” status). 3. If you use standard registration statuses, tag them all to enable Flows you configure in Signal.

Custom Registration Statuses

• If any Flows will watch or activate for Custom Reg Statuses, tag accordingly per event.

Custom Registration Properties

• If any Flows will watch or activate for Custom Reg Properties, tag accordingly per event.

Standard Registration Properties (Automatic)

• Tags are set up automatically with names identical to the properties themselves: Complete, Badge Printed, On To Do List, Invoice Generated, and Test.
• These tags appear in Signal and can be used to activate Flows; no editing in Certain Platform.

Attendee Types

• Optional for use with filters.
• In each event, go to Plan > Event Setup > Attendee Types.
• Tag attendee types you want to filter by.

Events

• Optional for use with filters.
• In each event go to Plan > Event Setup > Details.
• Tag the event as needed for filters.

Registration Questions

• Optional for use with mapping Certain fields to fields in your target application.
• In each event, go to Plan > Event Setup > Questions.
• Select one Tag for each question (more could cause duplicates in the target).

Opening Certain Signal

• When Signal is activated for your account, Account Settings > Implementation includes an extra option: Signal Real-Time Data Integration.
• Click that to open Certain Signal in a separate window.

Setting up a Connection

What are Connections?

• A Connection in Certain Signal specifies how to connect to your target application.
• You can have multiple connections, including 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, or during Flow configuration.

Adding a Connection

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

2. Open Signal Real-Time Data Integration in a separate window.

3. Click Connections in the left navigation panel.

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

5. Enter details in the Connection Setup screen:

• Target: Advanced Webhook (pre-selected)
• Connection Name: a name of your choice (e.g., the application name)
• Authentication Type: choose from Basic Authentication, Open / No Auth, API Key / Token, OAuth2
• Depending on the chosen type, fill in required fields (URL, Content Type, Request Method, User Name, Password, API Key/Token, Grant Type, Client Id, Client Secret, Authorization URL, Access Token URL, Refresh Token URL, Scope, Test Connection URL)
• A checkbox asks whether this is a primary connection (relevant to Eloqua, Marketo, Salesforce)

6. Click Save & Test.

7. If the test is successful, click Close. If not, verify the values specified in step 5.

Setting Up Flows

What is a “Flow”?

• A flow manages the flow of data from Certain to your target application.
• You can create multiple flows per account, which may reuse the same Connection.
• A flow, once complete, begins pulling data for each event in the account within about a minute.

The Flow List

• The Flow List shows all flows.
• The Status column shows whether a flow is completely set up.
• The Active column shows whether the flow is running; use the toggle to switch between Active and Inactive.

Configuring a Flow

• Click Add A Flow to start.
• The configuration includes: Name, Live or Test status, Source, Filters, Destination.
• Live vs Test: Live flows process all live registrations; Test flows process test registrations (including Test in live events).
• Best practice: Create new flows as Test and test before setting to Live.

Flow Data Source

• Specify the Source of data for the flow. The Flow watches data in Certain and activates based on the data.

Available sources

• Registration Create Update: a registration is created or updated.
• Registration Status Change: a registration’s status changes.
• Session Registration Status Change: a registration’s session status changes.
• Event Create Update: an event is created or updated.
• Flows can be saved incomplete and completed later.

Activate for …

• Choose one or more tags in the relevant object’s dropdown list, such as Registration Statuses and/or Registration Properties.
• If watching for Registration Status Change, activate for Registration Statuses.
• If watching for Session Registration Status Change, activate for Session Registration Statuses.
• If watching for Event Create Update, activate for Event Statuses.

Notes

• The tags shown are the ones configured for the object.

Flow Filters

• You can filter data into a flow by Event fields, Profile fields, and Attendee Type tags.
• A registration is included only if it meets the filters.

Event fields

• Standard event fields (e.g., Event Code), custom event fields, event tags.

Profile fields

• Standard profile fields (e.g., Position), custom profile fields.

Attendee Type Tags

• Tags that can be applied to Attendee Types.

Flow Destination

• Choose Advanced Webhooks as the destination action.
• You may have one or more mappings per destination (Payload and Http Header).

Mappings

• A mapping defines how each target field in the third-party app maps to a source field in Certain.
• You can create mappings, edit mappings, or preview mappings.
• If needed, you can paste a sample JSON to let Signal parse the structure.
• You can map arrays and concatenate multiple source fields.
• You can set a target field as required; if missing, a validation error may occur.

Example Mapping from Pasted JSON

• If you chose the Parsed Structure option, Signal can illustrate the example JSON and how source fields map to target fields.
• The Example Mapping section shows how to map fields from a pasted JSON to the target fields.

Parsed JSON

• When parsing a pasted JSON, Signal determines the target fields and displays them for mapping.

Metrics Dashboard

• To see statistics in Signal, click Metrics in the left navigation panel and select the period and type (Live Flows, Test Flows).
• The Metrics page has tabs: Summary, Troubleshooting, and Activity Feed.
• Summary shows aggregate counts (Changes Processed, Unique Registrations, Actions Triggered, Leads Created/Updated, etc.) and charts such as Processing Status.
• Troubleshooting provides details for failed processes (e.g., missing tags, validation errors).
• The Retry Queue shows items retried due to failures; you can filter by Integration, Status, and Category.
• The Activity Feed lists processed registrations with their status, Flow, and Event.

The Retry Queue

• If an action fails, it joins the Retry Queue to be retried (up to three retries).
• Causes of failures include untagged registrations or a down connection.
• You can resolve the cause (e.g., tag a registration or reactivate a flow) and retry.
• The retry interval depends on the reason severity.
• Filtering the queue is possible by Integration, Status, and Category.
• Submitting to the Retry Queue moves the item to the front of the queue.

Replaying a Flow

• If you change a flow while it has been running for some time, you may want to replay the flow for the same registrations.
• This cannot be done directly; you must ask Certain to arrange it.

What is Signal? How does it work? (Continued)

• Signal processes data in real time from events to target applications via webhooks, enabling prompt actions.
• Data is set up at the account level; event-level data uses tags attached to data like Registration Statuses.
• The guide explains how prerequisites, connections, flows, and mappings are configured to enable these integrations.

Contents

• What is Signal? How does it work?
• Prerequisites
• Data-Flow Considerations
• Credentials in Target Application
• Overview of Setup Steps
• Setting up Tags
• What Are Tags?
• Setting Tags Up for an Account
• Applying Tags in an Account
• Default Registration Statuses
• Attendee Types
• Events
• Registration Questions
• Opening Certain Signal
• Setting up a Connection
• What are Connections?
• Adding a Connection
• Setting Up Flows
• What is a “Flow”?
• The Flow List
• Configuring a Flow
• Flow Data Source
• Available sources
• Activate for flow
• Flow Filters
• Flow Destination
• Setting up a Destination
• Mappings
• Example Mapping from Pasted JSON
• Metrics Dashboard
• The Retry Queue
• Replaying a Flow

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