Creating Periodic Full Exports

Periodic Full exports are automated exports that occur daily, weekly or monthly

They are used to create an extract of all the data (or a subset) from a specific table, in opposition to Incremental exports when only new data is taken into account.

Periodic Full are useful to transfer a full profile database or a repository catalog to a third party system, for integrations that require the complete set of data every day or at frequent intervals.

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Due to their potential to involve a heavy load of data, the number of Periodic Full exports is limited to 1 per table.

The different types of Periodic Full exports

You can create 2 different types of Periodic Full exports, for the 2 types of tables that can justify a full daily export :

• Profile exports : Can be used to export data from all the attributes of a profile table, including subscriptions and segmentations. These exports cannot contain data from Custom Tables.
• Repository exports : Can export data from all the fields of the Repository table, without any data from profiles (The entries in a Repository table are not directly linked to profiles. )

Exporting data

The following guidelines will present you the general process to create a periodic full export.

Each type of export may have some specificities and slightly different steps. They will be highlighted with the same color code as the export.

Step 1: General data

During the first stage of the export creation, you will have to define:

• The name of your export: this is the prefix that will remain identical in your resulting file.
• The name suffix: this is a date pattern that will represent the increment in your resulting file.
• The table whose data you want to export.
• The entity in which this export will be available.

Step 2: Data filter

This step allows to apply filters to select which lines of data you want to export.

In the case of a Profile export, it involves the use of the targeting module, which allow to apply filters based on all the interactions stored in Actito. For detailed information about how to use it, we invite you to read the chapter dedicated to Targeting in Actito.

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In a Repository export, there is no "Filter" step. The whole repository catalog will be exported.

Step 3: Choose data

The goal of this step is to define what columns will appear in your export by selecting what attributes to include.

Attributes of the table to export

These are the attributes of the main table that you selected to export. They are colored blue if it is a Profile export, or purple for a Repository export. You can select table components as well as technical data related to interactions (creation moment, update moment,...).

In periodic full exports, you can only export fields from the main table that you selected.

Please note that:

• It is possible to exclude columns by clicking on unwanted elements, or to click on the 'Unselect all" button and make your choice from scratch.
• In the interface, you will see the 'display name' given to the attributes. Their 'technical names' will appear by hovering your mouse over the attribute. However, your export will use the 'technical names' of the attributes in the column headers (unless the headers are modified at the next step).
• To modify the structure of the file obtained after the export, you can change the order of the blocks by dragging and dropping them.

Step 4: Configure export

At this step, you will be able to configure the format of your export.

Format of values

Configure the settings for the values of your file content.

Each of these options will only appear if your export contains attributes of the corresponding type. The relevant attributes are displayed under the format suggestions.

• Format of "booleans" type attributes : select the format for the attributes whose values are true or false (e.g.: subscriptions displayed as single-columns): 1/0, Y/N, or TRUE/FALSE
• Format of "date" type attributes: select the format of the attributes of date type (e.g.: birthdate).
• Format of "moment" type attributes: sele ct the format of attributes of time and date type (e.g.: technical attributes of creation time or of recency). Different levels of accuracy (with or without the time) and format are available.
• Multi-value separator: sel ect the separator of attributes that can take several values (e.g. single-column subscriptions, hobbies,...). This is not the global separator of the file (selected in the next section).

Format of file

At this step, you will be able to choose the settings of the file.

The File headers are, by default, the technical names of the fields.

They can however be redefined to fit the naming conventions used in your system.

The file is in CSV format, with UTF-8 encoding. You can choose what type of value separator you would like in the file:

• commas
• semicolons
• tabs

Export example

A sample of 10 profiles will allow you to preview the values and columns you will get in your export file.

Step 5: Summary

This stage will let you start the export. Your export summary is divided in different sections.

First, you'll find the 'General Data' section, reminding you of the name, database and entity of your export.

In the targeting section, you will find information on your target, as well as the number of targeted profiles.

In the 'Data' section, you will see all the data fields that will be included in the export.

In the 'Parameters' section, you will be able to verify that you selected the right data and file parameters.

File Transfer

Once you have checked the summary and you are sure that you have correctly defined your export, you can proceed to parameter the way in which you want to transfer the exported data.

As an automated export, Periodic Full exports are automatically dropped into the cloud location of your choice. Therefore, the 'Manual' button will be greyed out when creating one of these exports.

In addition to selecting the remote location among those available in your licence, you must also specify the file name, the name suffix and the type of file compression.

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By default, the Transferbox is always available as a cloud location in your licence.

The additional cloud locations options are SFTP or FTPS servers. If you would like to start using this feature, please contact our support or your Actito contact person.

If you activate the 'Expert mode', you will be allowed to fully define the file name pattern, even for the archive file. This mode gives you full control over the file name.

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You will find help by hovering the (i) icon next to the 'File name' and 'Archive file name'.

Scheduling

Finally you can schedule your export.

The standard mode allows you to schedule your export:

• Every day, at a specified time
• Every week, which allows you to choose one or several days of the week, at a specificied time (for instance, your export can run every Monday and Friday at 10:00)
• Every month, which allows you to choose the number of the day of the month and a specified time.

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Because day 29, 30 and 31 do not occur every month, it is not possible to select them.
28 is the max number you can choose, but an option to choose the last day of the month is available through expert mode.

Expert mode

By toggling on 'expert mode', you can define a frequency using a CRON expression.

This technical way of writing a frequency allow for more flexibility such as scheduling an export twice a month.

For instance, 0 0 10 1,15 * ? will schedule the export at 10:00 on the 1st and the 15th of every month.

Expert mode can also be used to schedule an export on the last day of the month thanks to the L expression, regardless of it being on the 30th or 31st (which are not allowed).

For instance, 0 0 8 L * ? will schedule the export on the last day of every month at 08:00.

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Switching between standard and expert mode is asynchronous, meaning that a frequency selected using the standard is NOT automatically translated into the CRON expression of the same value, and vice versa.

However if you 'saved as draft' the export (bottom right corner) and come back to it, then switching modes will display the correct translation (as long as the CRON expression is compatible with the standard picker).

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Though more flexible, the CRON expression does not let you schedule an export more than once a day.

Advanced parameters

Activate the advanced parameters to set up a report that will be sent to the selected recipients at every execution of the export.

This report is a notification to inform you if the export was successful, or if it encountered any issue.

Once the definition of your export is ready, click on 'Activate the periodic export'.