What is Signal? How does it work?
Certain Signal processes data from your events in real-time, passing it from Certain Platform to your instance of Salesforce.
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 processes information from the events in your account.
For event-level information, this is based on the custom tags you attach to data such as Registration Statuses, as explained in this guide.
Important: Signal processes outbound information, processing information from Certain and sending it to Salesforce.
Prerequisites
Data-Flow Considerations
- Do you capture data in registration questions that will be synced to Salesforce? If so, you’ll need to apply tags to those questions: see Registration Questions.
- Do you have different data mappings based on registration status or attendee type? If so, you’ll need to apply tags to those items: see Applying Tags in an Event.
- Will you use Signal to add Leads/Contacts to Salesforce Campaigns or update campaign members? If so, you’ll need to add an Event Question to record each event’s Campaign ID: see Recording an Event’s Campaign ID.
Salesforce Credentials
- To set up a Connection in Signal, your Salesforce administrator must first create an OAuth2 app in Salesforce (by going to App Manager > New Connected App).
- The Connected App must be used.
- They then need to provide you with:
- Consumer Key (used for the Client Id in the Connection)
- Consumer Secret (used for the Client Secret in the Connection)
Overview of Setup Steps
On Certain Platform: 1. Add tags in the account
In Certain Signal: 2. Apply those tags 3. Add Event Question for Campaign ID 4. Answer that question in events 5. Add a Connection 6. 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 then apply those tags to generic items in events, especially custom registration statuses and custom registration properties for use in Certain Signal.
(Tags can be used for other purposes, 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 or give each one its own Tag.
When you set up a Flow in Certain Signal to send data to Salesforce when an attendee’s Registration Status changes, you specify the tags applicable to those statuses, not the statuses themselves. That 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 Setting up Tags):
- Registration Statuses
- 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):
- Attendee Types
- 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, so that you can filter registration records by attendee type or event: see Flow Filters.)
Default Registration Statuses
These apply to all events, so 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, but it’s essential to tag at least the New status (which Certain uses “behind the scenes” when first processing each registration).
If you do use standard reg statuses, it’s essential that you tag them all, so that you can use them in the Flows you configure in Signal: see page 9.
Custom Registration Statuses
1. If any of the Flows you configure in Signal will watch or activate for changes of Registration Status (see Available sources): 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 will watch or activate for Custom Reg Properties (see Flow Data Source):
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
These tags are set up for you automatically, with names identical to the properties themselves: Complete, Badge Printed, On To Do List, Invoice Generated, and Test.
You only see them in Signal, where, just like Custom Reg Properties, you can activate Flows for them (see Activate for …). There’s 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.
Events (Optional – for use with filters – see Flow Filters)
1. In each event you may wish to include in a filter (for example to ensure that only registrations for that event are passed to Salesforce): 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 Salesforce fields – see Mappings.)
1. In each event in which you use registration question to capture data from attendees, and wish to pass those answers and/or questions to Salesforce: 2. Go to Plan > Event Setup > Questions. 3. Select just one Tag for each question. (Selecting more could result in duplicate data in Salesforce.)
Recording an Event’s Campaign ID
If your Flows in Signal will add Leads/Contacts to Salesforce Campaigns, or update campaign members, as described on Setting up a Destination, you need to set up an event question to record the Campaign ID for each event.
1. As an Administrator in Certain Platform, go to Account Settings > Management > Event Data 2. Add an Event Question, such as “Salesforce Campaign ID” In each event: 3. As an Event Planner or Administrator in Certain Platform, go to Plan > Event Setup > Custom Event Data 4. Enter the Salesforce Campaign ID for that event in the custom question field.
Opening Certain Signal
When Signal is activated for your account, the Account Settings > Implementation menu—available to Administrators—includes an extra option:
- Signal Real-Time Data Integration
Click that link to open Certain Signal in a separate window; it runs separately from Certain Platform.
Note: To return from Signal to Certain Platform at any time, click the Return to Certain Platform button.
Setting up a Connection
What are Connections?
A Connection in Certain Signal specifies how to connect to your instance of Salesforce – your Target application.
You can actually have multiple connections, perhaps to Salesforce and another application.
(Other target applications 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, but you also have the option to do so 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 do so once – you can then use them in the Flows you set up (see Adding a Connection, below).
1. Go to Account Settings > Implementation > Signal Real-Time Data Integration.
2. As noted above, Certain Signal 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.
- Target: Select Salesforce as the third-party app to connect to.
- Connection Name: Enter a name of your own choice. This could be just ‘Salesforce’ or ‘Salesforce Connection’, for example.
- Service URL: Enter the beginning of the Salesforce URL to which you are redirected when you log in to Salesforce: the part starting with “https://” and ending with “salesforce.com”. Example: https://na8.salesforce.com
- Authentication Type: Select the authentication type to be used. For Salesforce that is currently OAuth2.
- Grant Type: Select ‘Authorization Code’
- Client Id and Client Secret: These two long strings of characters are unique to the OAuth2 app your Salesforce administrator has set up (Consumer Key and Consumer Secret in Salesforce terms).
- Authorization URL: This will depend on your Salesforce environment. The default value may be correct for a production environment. See Salesforce Developers Documentation.
- Access Token URL: Use the default value.
- Refresh Token URL: Use the default value.
- Scope: Use the default value if there is one.
- Test Connection URL: Use the default value.
- Force Update: If selected, then if Salesforce already has a record for the Contact/Lead whose data is being sent, that Salesforce record will be updated with details from Certain if they differ.
- Is this a primary connection: Select only if previously you imported Registrations from Salesforce via Manage > Registrations > Import Salesforce Members. The Signal connection will take precedence.
6. Click Save & Test.
7. If the test is successful, click Close. If it’s not, 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 Salesforce.
You create Flows from the landing page in Signal: see Configuring a Flow, below.
You may configure several flows for an account, which 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 is because Signal runs independently from Certain Platform.
So if you edit a flow then 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 Real-Time Data Integration.
The main screen in Signal 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 – see screenshot overleaf.
The configuration consists of:
- Name
- Live or Test status
- Source: What information the Flow will look for, and what it will activate for in your events.
- Filters: Optional filters to narrow down that information.
- Destination: Where and how that information goes into Salesforce.
Live or Test
The Live toggle 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: that’s all registrations in test events, plus 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 applying Flow Filters).
The Source of a Flow is what the Flow will watch for in your data in Certain and when it will activate, based on that data.
Available sources you set a flow to watch for:
- Registration Create Update: When a registration is created or updated.
- Registration Status Change: When a registration’s status changes.
- Session Registration Status Change: When a registration’s session registration status changes.
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 for 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:
- If the Flow is watching for Registration Status Change, you must activate for Registration Statuses.
- If it’s watching for Session Registration Status Change, you must activate for Session Registration Statuses.
The tags available for selection are those set up for that object; see Setting up Tags.
For example, the tags for Registration Statuses include Registration Status tags, which you can apply to:
- standard registration statuses at account level (see Applying Tags in an Event)
- custom registration statuses at event level (see Applying Tags in an Event)
Flow Filters
You can filter the data going into a flow by selecting fields in any of these three filter types: 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.
- Event
- Available fields: standard event fields (e.g., Event Code), custom event fields, event tags
- Profile
- Available fields: standard profile fields (e.g., Position), custom profile fields
- Attendee Type Tags
- Available fields: tags that can be applied to Attendee Types
Note: For custom fields you can only select enumerated questions (Select, Multi-select, Checkbox, or Radio).
Flow Destination
Select Salesforce 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.
Note: You can instead click New Connection to add a connection; the process to set one up is the same as described on Setting up a Connection.
3. Select the action for this connection from those listed as available:
- Create/Update Lead or Create/Update Contact
Your choice of action determines the other configuration options.
- Action: Create/Update Lead
- The steps for the alternative action, Create/Update Contact, are described below with an important note about what to do if using them both in destinations for the same flow.
4. Add to Campaign Options:
- Add to Campaign & update Member Status
- Update Existing Campaign Members Only
- Do not update Campaign
5. Add to Campaign Options sub-options:
- Select Campaign ID based on Event Question
- Campaign Statuses: Same as Registration Statuses per event OR Use Registration Status Tags
6. Mappings (Available Mappings)
7. Settings for Create/Update Lead or Create/Update Contact options
8. Save and test
Mappings
The Available Mappings option is available for most actions.
A mapping specifies how each target field in Salesforce matches a source field in Certain.
Select a mapping from the drop-down list.
If no mappings exist yet, click New Mapping to add one:
- Give the mapping a name of your choice.
- The left column lists Salesforce fields: the target fields.
- The right side shows the default source field in Certain.
- By default, only First Name, Last Name, and Email fields are mandatory. You may mark others as mandatory.
- You can concatenate multiple source fields for the same target field, and you can add fixed text.
- The Certain fields you can choose from as the source include: Profile Standard Fields, Profile Custom Fields, Registration Standard Fields, Registration Custom Question Tags, Registration Standard Properties, Account Standard Fields, Event Standard Fields, Event Custom Fields, Flow Fields, Macros.
- In the second column you can select a transformation option for each field: lower case, Proper Case, UPPER CASE, Trim.
- You can apply more than one transformation per field.
- You can add Target Fields to map more sources to targets.
- You can delete a field from the mapping.
- If a mapping is selected, you can Edit Mapping or Preview Mapping.
- You can Refresh Target Fields to update mappings.
Metrics Dashboard
To see the statistics available in Signal, click Metrics in the left navigation panel when looking at flows.
The choices depend on the flows and their targets.
Common sections include:
- Insights
- Leads Created
- Form Posts
- Account Insights
- Other metrics depending on flows and actions
The Retry Queue
When an action fails it usually joins the Retry Queue, where it will be retried up to three times.
To see the Retry Queue, click Retry in the left navigation panel on the Flows page.
Causes of failure include missing tags or technical issues such as a down connection.
To resolve a failure, fix the cause (e.g., tag a registration, or re-activate a flow) and retry.
The interval between retries depends on the reason’s severity.
You can filter the Retry Queue by Integration, Status, and Category.
Replaying a Flow
If you change an aspect of a flow while it has been running, you may want to replay the flow for the same registrations as before.
This is not something you can do directly; you can request Certain to arrange it.
You may specify a date range or an event for the replay.
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This article provides guidance on configuring Signal to integrate with Salesforce, including prerequisites, tagging, connections, flows, mappings, and troubleshooting.
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