Signal Integration with Salesforce Guide

What is Signal? How does it work?

• Signal processes data from events in real-time.
• Signal passes data from Certain Platform to Salesforce.
• This real-time integration enables sales and marketing teams to take 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.
• Signal processes outbound information, processing information from Certain and sending it to Salesforce.

Prerequisites

Data-Flow Considerations

• Data-Flow Considerations determine whether you capture data in registration questions that will be synced to Salesforce.
• If you capture data in registration questions that will be synced to Salesforce, you must apply tags to those questions (see Registration Questions).
• If you have different data mappings based on registration status or attendee type, you need to apply tags to those items (see Applying Tags in an Event).
• If you will use Signal to add Leads/Contacts to Salesforce Campaigns or update campaign members, you need to add an Event Question to record each event’s Campaign ID (see Recording an Event’s Campaign ID).

Salesforce Credentials

• For you to set up a Connection in Signal (see Setting up a Connection), your Salesforce administrator must first create an OAuth2 app in Salesforce (by going to App Manager > New Connected App). The Connected App must be a “Connected App.”
• The administrator must provide Consumer Key (used for Client Id) and Consumer Secret (used for Client Secret).
• Consumer Key and Consumer Secret are unique to the OAuth2 app your Salesforce administrator has set up (as explained under “Salesforce Credentials”). The Salesforce terms for them are Consumer Key and Consumer Secret.

Overview of Setup Steps

• On Certain Platform: Add tags in the account (Setting Tags Up for an Account).
• On Certain Signal: Apply those tags (Applying Tags in an Account).
• On Certain Platform: Add Event Question for Campaign ID (Recording an Event’s Campaign ID).
• In Each event: Answer that question in events (Recording an Event’s Campaign ID).
• On Certain Platform: Add a Connection (Setting up a Connection).
• On Certain Signal: Configure a Flow (Setting Up Flows).

Setting up Tags

What Are Tags?

• Tags are a way of identifying event-level data using labels you set at the account level.
• Tags can be applied 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, 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):

• a. Registration Statuses
• b. 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):

• 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, so that you can filter registration records by attendee type or event: see Flow Filters.)
• Default Registration Statuses 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.

• Custom Registration Statuses: 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 and 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), in each event go to Plan > Configure. 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.
• Attendee Types (Optional– for use with filters – see Flow Filters): In each event, go to Plan > Event Setup > Attendee Types. 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): In each event you may wish to include in a filter. Go to Plan > Event Setup > Details and select one or more Tags for the event.
• Registration Questions (Optional– for use with mapping Certain fields to Salesforce fields – see Mappings): In each event in which you use registration questions to capture data from attendees, and wish to pass those answers and/or questions to Salesforce, go to Plan > Event Setup > Questions. 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.”

3. In each event, 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.
• To return from Signal to Certain Platform at any time, click the appropriate link.

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 have multiple connections, perhaps to Salesforce and another application.
• Each Flow requires a Connection.
• Multiple flows may use the same Connection.
• You can set up a Connection before configuring your first Flow, or you can do so while configuring a Flow. This guide assumes you’re setting up the Connection first.

Adding a Connection

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

2. 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 (e.g., Salesforce or Salesforce Connection).
• Service URL: Enter the beginning of the Salesforce URL to which you are redirected when you log in to Salesforce (e.g., https://na8.salesforce.com).
• Authentication Type: Select OAuth2.
• Grant Type: Select Authorization Code.
• Client Id and Client Secret: These values come from the OAuth2 app configured in Salesforce (Consumer Key and Consumer Secret).
• Authorization URL: This depends on your Salesforce environment; the default may be correct for production.
• 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, Salesforce records will be updated if they differ.
• Is this a primary connection: Select only if you previously imported Registrations from Salesforce via Manage > Registrations > Import Salesforce Members.

6. Click Save & Test.

7. If the test is successful, click Close; otherwise verify the values in step 5.

Setting Up Flows

What is a “Flow”?

• A flow is a configuration to manage the flow of data from Certain to Salesforce.
• A Flow can be configured for an account; multiple flows may use the same Connection.
• A Flow is configured once at the account level.
• After a Flow is complete, it will start picking up data for each event in that account within about a minute.
• The minute’s delay exists because Signal runs independently from Certain Platform.

The Flow List

• 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.
• The configuration consists of:
• Name
• Live or Test status
• Source: What information the Flow will watch for and what it will activate for in your events.
• Filters: Optional filters to narrow down the information.
• Destination: Where and how that information goes into Salesforce.
• Live: A Live Flow will pick up all live registrations in live events; it will ignore test registrations, even in live events.
• Test: A Test Flow picks up all test registrations (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

• 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.
• Examples include watching for changes to a Registration Status and activating if a status tagged as “Registered” is reached.

Available sources

• 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.

Activate for …

• Choose what the flow should activate for by selecting one or more tags in each appropriate object’s dropdown list.
• 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
• custom registration statuses at event level
• You can also apply tags to Attendee Types and Events for filters (see Flow Filters).

Flow Filters

• Flow Filters allow you to narrow data by Event fields, Profile fields, and Attendee Type tags.
• The flow will only include a registration if it meets the rules specified in the filter.
• Event fields include standard event fields (e.g., Event Code), custom event fields, and event tags.
• Profile fields include standard profile fields (e.g., Position) and custom profile fields.
• Attendee Type Tags include tags that can be applied to Attendee Types.
• 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 (you can click New Connection to add a connection; the process is the same as Setting up a Connection).

3. Select the action for this connection from those listed (Create/Update Lead or Create/Update Contact).

• If you are using both actions in destinations for the same flow, configure the Create Contact destination before the Create Lead destination.
• For Create/Update Lead, there are options to add to Campaign and update Member Status, update existing campaign members only, or do not update the campaign.

4. For Create/Update Contact, you have options to not create/update contacts, update existing contacts only, create contact only if account exists, or create a new account and add contact.

5. For both Lead and Contact destinations, you can choose Add to Campaign Options and specify how campaigns are updated.

6. Use Mappings to map Salesforce fields to Certain source fields; you can concatenate fields and apply transformations such as lower/upper/capitalize/trim.

7. Save or test the mapping, and refresh target fields if needed.

Mappings

• The Available Mappings option is available for most actions.
• A mapping defines how each target field in Salesforce matches a source field in Certain.
• To create a new mapping, give the mapping a name (self-explanatory names are helpful).
• The left column lists Salesforce target fields; the right side shows the default source fields in Certain.
• By default, First Name, Last Name, and Email fields are mandatory; you can mark others as mandatory.
• You can concatenate multiple source fields for a single target field, and you can include fixed text.
• You can adjust transformations (lower case, Proper Case, UPPER CASE, Trim) per field; multiple transformations can be applied.
• You can add more target fields; you can delete fields in a mapping.
• After creating a mapping, you can Edit Mapping, Preview Mapping, or Refresh Target Fields.

Metrics Dashboard

• To see the statistics available in Signal, click Metrics in the left navigation panel when looking at flows.
• The Metrics page includes:
• Insights
• Leads Created
• Form Posts
• The page allows selection of Live Flows or Test Flows and a time period (e.g., last 15 minutes, 1 hour, 4 hours, or several days).
• There are three tabs: Summary, Troubleshooting, and Activity Feed.
• Summary tab: This is the default tab on the Insights page. The figures depend on flows and actions.
• Drilling down is possible on some figures (e.g., Unique Registrations) to see the registrations processed in the selected time frame.
• Filtering is possible after drilling down.
• The following metrics describe the account’s activity:
• Changes Processed: The number of registrations created or updated and processed by a flow.
• Unique Registrations: The number of registrations processed, counting each registration once.
• Actions Triggered: The number of actions triggered by flows.
• Actions Not Triggered: Displayed if registrations were processed by flows without actions.
• Active Flows: The number of flows processing registrations during the selected period.
• Leads Created: The number of leads created in Salesforce by flows.
• Leads Updated: The number of leads updated in Salesforce by flows.
• Registration Activity in Certain: Overview information.
• Processing Status: A pie chart comparing failures and successes.
• Troubleshooting tab: Shows information useful for troubleshooting.
• If a registration isn’t processed due to a missing tag, rectify the tagging to enable retries on the next attempt.
• Retry Queue: The Retry Queue shows failed actions that will be retried up to three times.
• If a failure cannot be resolved, contact your administrator or Certain for help.
• The interval between retries depends on the reason’s severity.

The Retry Queue

• When an action fails, the action usually joins the Retry Queue and will be retried.
• Failures that cannot be resolved (e.g., missing mandatory fields) are exceptions and do not join the queue.
• An action can 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 organizer control issues (e.g., a registration with an untagged status) and technical issues (e.g., a connection being down).
• If you resolve the cause of a failure (e.g., tagging a registration or setting a flow back to active), the action should succeed when retried.
• For other failures that do not resolve automatically, contact your administrator or Certain for help.
• The interval between retries depends on severity: more serious reasons prompt faster retries.
• Filtering the Queue: You can filter the items in the Retry Queue by Integration, Status, and Category.
• Submitting to the Queue: When you click an item in the Retry Queue, you see its full details. If enough information exists to solve the problem, you can click Submit to Retry Queue to move the item 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 (e.g., filters), you may want to replay that flow for the same registrations as before.
• This is not directly possible; you can ask Certain to arrange it for you.
• You may be able to specify a date range or event for the replay.

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