Generic FTP
The Generic FTP Broadcaster can Upload Lists to an ESP that is not currently integrated with Apteco or does not provide enough functionality to do so.
Additionally once the list is uploaded you can create your own post load process to handle the list, if the ESP supports handling of additional variables you can include the SendID to in theory track responses in Apteco.
Please contact your Partner's support or Apteco support if you would like more information on using the Generic FTP broadcast channel.
We're working hard to update the full integration guide which covers Response Gathering and PeopleStage.
Channel configuration in Orbit
Basic Details
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Channel Name | Enter a name for the channel |
| Broadcaster | Select Generic FTP from the drop-down |
| Broadcaster Username | Enter your broadcaster API username, Available from your broadcaster |
| Broadcaster Password | Enter your broadcaster API password, Available from your broadcaster |
| Update Password | This button displays once a password has been set you can use this to change the password if required |
| Test Login | The Test Login function is not supported with the Generic FTP broadcaster as no API connection exists in Apteco, we recommend you ensure you test the FTP credentials and complete the URN field in the Broadcast Parameters tab |
| Email Variable | Select Email Address from the drop-down |
| Advanced Email Variable Settings | The Email Variable drop down enables the check-box option to "Select email variable during campaign creation". This is for use with PeopleStage. Do not use this channel option in Orbit |
| Email Variable Description Override | Optional - Enter the description, for example, “Email Address” Note: This must correspond to the e-mail field within the broadcaster. |
| Reply Email Address | The email address that will receive notifications when the channel is used, this is NOT the reply email address that will be used for the email send |
| Broadcaster Action | The default is Upload and Broadcast, select Upload Only for the Generic FTP as this integration does not use the broadcaster's API to trigger the broadcast. You can create your own process to do this. |
Broadcast Parameters
| Parameter Name | Parameter Value |
|---|---|
| URL | The FTP URL in the form "ftp://{USERNAME}:{PASSWORD}@ftpsite/{FILENAME}" |
| Private Key Path | If secure ftp is used above and requires a private key, this should refer to the path and filename of that key |
| Admin From Email | The from email address that administrative emails are sent from |
| File Mapping | A pipe delimited list of header values that will overwrite any defined in your output sequences |
| Use Dated List | Selected by default, deselecting this to false will remove the date and time stamp at the end of the file name |
| Dated List Format | The format for the dated list. The default is 'yyyyMMdd-HHmmss' |
| Delimiter | Delimiter character |
| Encloser | Encloser character |
| URN Field Name | URN Field Name alias |
| Encoding |
Encoding of the input file. This should be left as UTF8 unless specified differently by the broadcaster. Possible values: ASCII, BigEndianUnicode, UTF32, UTF7, UTF8, Unicode, Default |
Output Settings
| Name | Value |
|---|---|
| Allow in Transactional Output | This is a setting specific to PeopleStage and Transactional Campaigning. (Note: if you select Yes, it means you can send multiple emails to the same email address) |
| Append to List | Not applicable in the Generic FTP |
| Number of Retries | The number of times to retry on failure of the channel. It is recommended (for Broadcast Channels) to leave this at 0. The Delivery Agent also has a retry value, so setting this to > 0 can result in multiple retries and may cause undesirable results |
| Response File Key Type | This is a specific setting to channels where Response Gathering has been set up in FastStats.The key field to match responses to sends. Varies from broadcaster to broadcaster due to the fields they return in the response file. |
| Message Content Type | We do not fetch message templates from the Generic FTP integration type so this is not applicable |
| Retrieve Existing List Names | Not used for Generic FTP |
File Settings
| Name | Value |
|---|---|
| Zip File | Default is deselected, select this optional setting to compress the file if required |
| Output File Format | Default is Comma Separated Values (CSV) |
| Output Header | Default is Descriptions, will use the title of the variable in the header |
| Delimiter | Default is Tab |
| Alpha Encloser | Default is None |
| Numeric Encloser | Default is None |
| Extras | This field is empty by default, it can reference the name of Extras XML file, this area is reserved for advanced use |
| Encoding | Default is UTF-8 |
Ordinarily, you would use the default settings on this page unless the broadcaster requires a different option explicitly.
Additional Variables
Common variables used in this section are Forename, Surname, etc. The purpose here is to map any additional FastStats variables to the broadcaster's variables. For example the Forename variable in FastStats may be named FirstName in the broadcaster. This ensures any broadcaster templates that use one of the additional variables are populated correctly.
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Click the +Add Variable button to select a variable.
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Click in the Search data box.
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Select the variable to add from the system.
See the variable options below
| Name | Value |
|---|---|
| Variable | Click to search the FastStats system for the additional variable |
| Variable Description Override | Optional, use this field to override the variable header description to match the name in the broadcaster, e.g Forename - FirstName |
| Formatting | Default is Unformatted, you have the option to apply a naming convention to the variable, either UPPERCASE, lowercase or TitleCase |
| Append Additional Variables Directly | Deselected by default, select this option to change how the additional variables are added to the list, either at the End or Beginning. When not set the variables will append to the end of the list. |
| Selector and Multi-Response | Additional options are available for these types of variables |
| Chose Output | Selects what to output, either the Description or the Code from the system design, the default is description. |
| Handle "Unclassified" as | Select how to handle unclassified selector data, use the setting as specified in the system From Design or send no content Empty |