Simple Data Transfer is a file-transfer solution for Enterprise-level customers who would like to schedule the upload of their data to Higher Logic Thrive Marketing Enterprise (Thrive Marketing Enterprise).
NOTE: This integration supports these secure file-transfer protocols: FTPS (FTP + SSL) and SFTP (SSH + FTP).
Files are considered active if they've been updated in the past 90 days for uploads; after 90 days, and the original file has not been modified in the FTP, it will be archived. Tracking data is only stored in the Tracking folder for 30 days before it is archived.
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Who should read this guide?
You should read this article if you are a Thrive Marketing Enterprise user responsible for determining messaging and contact management guidelines. It assumes that you are familiar with:
- Using the Thrive Marketing Enterprise system
- Managing an FTP server
- Managing data
Additional information
The following articles provide important information about your Thrive Marketing Enterprise integration.
- See Unique Identifiers: Email Address and Custom ID to learn about these unique IDs and their differences.
- See Integration Access Levels & Permissions to learn about the access levels for integration features, and how you can set the access levels for your Admins.
Initial setup
When setting up, if access is granted via an FTP site, use an FTP service like FileZilla. Once the service has been enabled by Thrive Marketing Enterprise, you'll receive the following credentials:
- URL (transportha.magnetmail.net)
- Username
- Password
Allow the Higher Logic IP address ranges
- 205.201.46.0 /24
- 205.201.47.0 /24
FTPS settings
FTPS is the preferred method, and the one we recommend. FTPS is available via Implicit SSL/TLS or Explicit FTP over TLS.
- Port Range for implicit SSL/TLS is 990
- Port Range for explicit is standard FTP port 21 (this is preferred)
- Passive mode port range = 11000 – 11030
Confirm that the connection works, and that you are able to view the remote server files on the right panel of the FTP client.
NOTE: Cerberus only supports TLS v1.2. It does not support the older versions of TLS, including SSL v3, TLS v1.0, and TLS v1.1.
NOTE: Implicit FTPS on port 990 is enabled; Explicit FTPS on port 21 is preferred.
Failure notifications
Thrive Marketing Enterprise can automatically generate a failure report if an upload job fails and automatically send an email alert to one or more individuals. The report includes:
- the name of the file that was used,
- the group name that the file was mapped to, and
- any identifiable error message.
TIP: This is a simple way to ensure that you are alerted to upload failures and can easily explore the details of the failure.
To enable the failure report and notifications:
- Log in to Thrive Marketing Enterprise.
- Navigate to Settings > Integrations > Integration Settings.
- In the Failure Report section:
- Set Enabled to Yes.
- Click into the Run Time field and choose a time.
- Specify the email address of the person to be notified; separate multiple email addresses with commas.
- Click Save and then click Close.
Track and report on user activity
You can configure Thrive Marketing Enterprise to track and report on your users' activities (e.g., email opens, unsubscribes, event registrations, and website visits), and have the results data written to your integrated AMS/CRM database.
The tracking and reporting do not automatically happen. An Admin must select which activities to track and then schedule a synchronization with your AMS/CRM database to write the tracking results to it.
Configure tracking and scheduling
Tracking and the sync schedule are configured on the same page.
- Log in to Thrive Marketing Enterprise.
- Navigate to Settings > Integrations > [integration] Management.
(The name of your AMS/CRM will display instead of "integration.") - Click the Manage Tracking tab.
Choose activities to track
NOTE: The Full Access permission for Tracking is required to be able to enable tracking. Thrive Marketing Enterprise recommends that you limit the number of Admins granted this permission. See Integration Access Levels & Permissions to learn how to set this permission.
In the Track the Following box:
- Check the boxes for the activities that you want tracked.
Check All Bounces to select all of its sub-options; uncheck it to deselect all sub-options. - RESULTS: The Tracking History box displays daily historical results. Use the dropdown to specify how many records to display.
Schedule the sync
In the Schedule section:
- Configure the time you would like the tracking results written to your integration database.
- RESULTS: Information about the last sync displays in the lower right.
Notes
- Higher Logic recommends that the sync be set for off-peak hours to better ensure uninterrupted data transmission.
- If there were issues with the previous day's sync, this page provides detailed error descriptions for un-synced activities.
- Be sure to click Go to save your settings.
Replace Thrive Marketing Enterprise records
Thrive Marketing Enterprise provides two "handling" options when a list is uploaded.
- Add recipients - In this case, Thrive Marketing Enterprise will only add the incoming records to the group. Existing records in the group will not be updated or overwritten.
- This option will not update individual records in Thrive Marketing Enterprise.
- Replace recipients - In this case, Thrive Marketing Enterprise will replace all the records in the group with the records from the upload. The pre-upload records in the group are only removed from the group (they remain in the database) they are not deleted and there is no impact on the historical data.
- The replace option can be made the default. To do so, submit a request to your Implementation Project Manager or create a case.
- If this option is used, Thrive Marketing Enterprise's default setting to overwrite existing data, based on the unique identifier, will overwrite the corresponding data that exists in Thrive Marketing Enterprise. This can be particularly useful in instances where there is one database of record that is in the process of being constantly updated.
Upload recipients to Thrive Marketing Enterprise
Each file that is transferred to Thrive Marketing Enterprise is referred to as an upload job. Upload jobs that are allowed via the integration are:
- .csv files
- .txt files
Transfer lists from Simple Data Transfer to Thrive Marketing Enterprise
Data can be transferred from Simple Data Transfer to Thrive Marketing Enterprise via a scheduled upload or a one-time transfer from within Thrive Marketing Enterprise.
The Real Magnet Upload Scheduler (RMUS) is a feature of the integration that allows for automated uploads to the Thrive Marketing Enterprise system; it is useful if there are any lists that you regularly send to.
The RMUS allows the following upload job types:
- Run Now - This upload job will run once. Once completed, edits or changes cannot be made to this upload job.
- On Demand - This upload job will only run when the green play icon is clicked or using the Sync on Send functionality. This will deploy the upload job when a message is scheduled to send to the group attached to the upload job.
- Scheduled - This upload job will run either daily or weekly, and can be manually run by clicking the green play icon. When selecting a group connected to an active Marketing Automation campaign, this option can also upload groups on an hourly basis.
The RMUS can be accessed by logging into Thrive Marketing Enterprise and selecting Settings. The details below will cover all aspects of the RMUS.
Icons legend
The following table describes the icons in the Actions column.
| Icon | Description |
|---|---|
 |
Delete this upload job. |
 |
Edit this upload job. (On Demand and Scheduled jobs only.) |
 |
Run this upload job. (On Demand and Scheduled jobs only.) |
 |
Open the "reject report" dialog which has an option to download the list of rejected records in a text file. |
Upload Jobs tab
The Upload Jobs tab lists the upload jobs that have been created in your Thrive Marketing Enterprise account.
- List Name - The name of the file from the FTP site.
- Date Created - The date the upload job was created.
- Job Type - Whether the job is Run Now, On Demand, or Scheduled.
- Frequency - The frequency of the scheduled job, for Run Now and On Demand this will remain blank
- Scheduled time - The times the job has either completed or is scheduled to run next.
- Start Time (HH:MM) – The time the upload job is scheduled to start.
- Last Run (MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM) – The time the upload job was last executed and completed.
- Next Run (MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM) – The next scheduled time it is set to run.
- Group Results - The group in Thrive Marketing Enterprise the query was uploaded to and the results of the last upload, that includes the total number in the group and the number added. Any error that may occur on upload will surface here.
- Actions - The allowed actions a user can make to the upload job.
Create an upload job
To create an upload job:
- Select Settings.
- Select Integrations.
- Select Simple Data Transfer.
- Select Create Upload Job.
- Select a .CSV or .TXT file.
- Select Create Map.
- Select View Entire Field List or One by One.
- Select which columns you would like to bring over to Thrive Marketing Enterprise.
NOTE: These are a one-to-one relationship when mapping fields. This means that you can only map the fields on the left side of the screen with one item on the Thrive Marketing Enterprise side once.
- Click Add Filters.
- Click Create Schedule.
- Select Create New Group or Add to Existing Group.
- Select either Add to existing group or Replace existing list.
- Depending on account settings the third upload step may reveal the option whether or not to update. Select Do not Update Existing Records (Only Add Records To Group) or Update Existing Records.
- Click Create.
- Select a frequency: Run Now, On Demand, or Scheduled.
- Click Submit.
Character limits
Fields in the Thrive Marketing Enterprise system have the following character maximums. Make sure these are not exceeded when you are uploading records to Thrive Marketing Enterprise.
| Field Type | Character Limit |
|---|---|
| Email, Address 1, Address 2, all Custom Fields | 100 |
| First Name, Last Name, Phone, Fax, City, State, Zip Code | 50 |
| Company | 200 |
| Enhanced Personalization Fields | 250 |
See Custom Fields and Enhanced Personalization Fields to learn about these personalization features.
Thrive Marketing Enterprise data in Simple Data Transfer
The only information to report back via Simple Data Transfer is the tracking items selected under Initial Setup. This tracking information will update once a day in a folder in the FTP site called tracking.
NOTE: This information will contain Activity Codes and Subcodes per recipient. See Activity Codes and Subcodes to learn more.
The fields returned in this tracking report:
- ID - The tracking record's ID
- Tracking Code - The Activity Code.
- Tracking Subcode - The Activity Subcode.
- Custom Member ID - The Custom Member ID of the recipient (this is generally the AMS/CRM ID).
- Email Address - The recipient’s email address at the time of the transmission of data.
- Recipient ID - This is the unique system ID of the recipient in Thrive Marketing Enterprise (it's unique to Thrive Marketing Enterprise).
- Event Date - The date of the interaction.
- Message Name - The name of the interaction (e.g., Event Item Title, Marketing Automation Campaign, etc.).
- Group Name - The name of the Group in Thrive Marketing Enterprise.
- Category Name - The name of the category of the Group or the Message in Thrive Marketing Enterprise.
- Link URL - The URL clicked, or the website visited.
- Link Label - The Link Label clicked.
Frequently asked questions
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| How do I remove a file I no longer need? | Delete the upload job in Thrive Marketing Enterprise and then log in to the FTP site and delete the file. You can also work with your IT team to create a script or automated process to clear selected files. |
| Why was my file deleted? | Thrive Marketing Enterprise archives files that have not been updated every 90 days, tracking files are cleared our every 30 days. |
| Why are there multiple opens or link clicks in my recipient’s activity history? | Thrive Marketing Enterprise reports back gross opens and clicks. |
| Why is there no tracking data updating to my Tracking Folder? |
Did you select tracking data? Log in to Thrive Marketing Enterprise and walk through the steps below:
|
| Why am I getting the message: “This upload job has one or more groups to which you do not have access.”? | Do you have access to the group? If you have an Enterprise account, you'll need to ensure you have access to the group the Upload Job is connected to, or ensure that the group has not been archived. |
| What happens if the tracking data portion is canceled mid-stream? | Thrive Marketing Enterprise logs the failure and re-attempts to send the data through. |
| What happens if I am using Internet Explorer? |
Due to Internet Explorer’s security configurations, as part Thrive Marketing Enterprise’s compatibility steps, we recommend clients complete the following:
|