Before you start
Things you need to know:
We recommend that the filename contains person, for example,
person_import.tsv.Supported file formats are TSV and CSV.
We recommend that data should be encoded as utf-8, however ucs-2 can also be used.
If all the characters in your data can be represented in the first 127 characters, then you can use US-ASCII (sometimes called ANSI).
Data structure
There are a defined set of fields that you can import for a standard person data collection. It’s also possible to extend your person data with an additional data set.
Learn more in Import additional person data for your visitors.
The standard fields are:
Parameter | Description |
e | Plain email address |
cid | Customer ID, usually a username or user ID used on your website |
curr | Currency |
eid | External ID, usually to identify users in an ESP |
fn | First name |
lang | Site language |
ln | Last name |
mobile | Mobile/Cell/SMS number |
n | Full name |
perm | Permission to send emails to the person |
sbr | Site brand |
Import person data from a secure FTP server
The secure FTP server can be provided by you, or can be arranged for you by us.
Sample file
eid email
5779280784 jonnyappleseed853@gmail.com
8979280787 janedoe51985@outlook.com
This file allows Fresh Relevance to identify visitors when they click through with, for example, eid=8979280787 on the link URL.
Configure the FTP retrieval
Before you start
Only SFTP and FTPES protocols are supported to protect your data and ensure privacy. Regular FTP is not supported.
All files in the FTP directory which match the allowed files pattern are retrieved, processed and deleted from the FTP server. Therefore, the FTP account used requires read, write, and delete permissions.
Expand the User menu and go to Settings > Imports.
Select Person Import Channels.
Expand the Set up a new channel drop-down menu and select the import type you want to create, in this case FTP.
Select CREATE IMPORT CHANNEL.
Enter the requested details.
Optionally, select the Is Service Paused? checkbox to stop the processing of this import job. Clear the checkbox to restart it.
To receive an alert if the import job encounters an error, enter an email address in the Error Alert Email field.
Separate multiple email addresses with a comma. Leave blank to receive no notifications.
Optionally, clear the Keep Most Recently Imported File checkbox to prevent a copy of the file from being stored on the FTP server after import.
Select SAVE.
Import mobile numbers for SMS
Before you start
All mobile numbers must be either:
in E.164 format with a leading +, then the country code, then the actual number
or
a local style number, accompanied by a country code. The country code must be a 2 letter upper case ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2 country code, for example GB, FR, US, AU.
To import mobile numbers, you could use a file like this:
eid mobile
5779280784 +12342342342
8979280787 +441231231231
The import mapping for this file would be:
{
"mobile":{"ftp_field_name":"mobile"},
"eid":{"ftp_field_name":"eid"},
}
Sample file
eid mobile mobile_code
5779280784 2342342342 US
8979280787 01231231231 GB
The import mapping for this file would be:
{
"mobile":{"ftp_field_name":"mobile"},
"mobile_code":{"ftp_field_name":"mobile_code"},
"eid":{"ftp_field_name":"eid"},
}If you’re uploading data which has both email and mobile numbers, just include both in the file and adjust the import mapping to match.
Import permissions
Before you start
Permission values of 0 or 1, false or true, no or yes are allowed in the file to be imported.
Email permissions
You can also use the system to import permissions from your other marketing systems. Email permission is stored in the field person.perm.
For example, to import a file including email permission:
{
"email": {
"ftp_field_name": "email"
},
"eid": {
"ftp_field_name": "eid"
},
"perm": {
"ftp_field_name": "email permission"
}
}The file might look something like:
email email permission
test.test@example.com 1
testno.test@example.com no
testyes.test@example.com true
SMS permissions
SMS is slightly different. The permission is stored in the field person.mediums.sms.perm.
For example, to import SMS data and permission, you would use this mapping:
{
"mobile":{"ftp_field_name":"mobile"},
"eid":{"ftp_field_name":"eid"},
"person.mediums.sms.perm": {"ftp_field_name": "sms_perm"},
}The file might look something like:
email sms_perm
test.test@example.com 1
testno.test@example.com no
testyes.test@example.com true
GDPR do not process permission
There is also the permission flag do_not_process which indicates whether the person has stated that they do not permit their personal information to be processed in any way. This is required for European GDPR regulations.
When enabled, the system is not able to be send any emails to this visitor and their data is not be used to personalize content.
An example field mapping for importing this flag might be:
{
"email": {
"ftp_field_name": "email"
},
"person.do_not_process": {
"ftp_field_name": "do_not_process"
}
}Which would make the resulting tab-separated (tsv) file look like this:
email do_not_process
test.true@example.com true
test.false@example.com false
test.null@example.com null
test.unchanged@example.com ""
There are two valid values for the do_not_process field:
Field value | Explanation |
true | This user’s data should not be processed and can not be used for sending emails or content personalization. |
false | This user's data can be processed. |
If the field is empty or otherwise invalid, then the existing value in the do_not_process field is not changed for that person.
Import customer ID
A Customer ID (cid) is the ID used within your ecommerce system to identify shoppers. This is most useful when your user's accounts are not identified by email.
Customer IDs can be imported along with the shoppers’ email addresses to improve your identification rate. Visitors can be identified by cid in your site's query collection fields, purchase complete images, and content server requests.
To import a Customer ID, set the field mapping to write data into the cid field.
For example:
{
"email": {
"ftp_field_name": "email"
},
"cid": {
"ftp_field_name": "customer_id"
}
}An example CSV file for this field mapping might look something like this:
email,customer_id
test1@example.com,1000001
test2@example.com,1000002
test3@example.com,1000001
Import segments and person data from your messaging provider
Expand the User menu and go to Settings > Imports.
Select Person Import Channels.
Expand the Set up a new channel drop-down menu and select your messaging provider.
Select CREATE IMPORT CHANNEL.
Enter a channel name to identify this import job.
Enter the requested details for your messaging provider.
Optionally, select the Is Service Paused? checkbox to stop the processing of this import job. Clear the checkbox to restart it.
Select SAVE.
Bulk delete person records
Before you start
Imported files must have a filename containing person_delete.
Expand the User menu and go to Settings > Imports.
Select Person Import Channels.
Expand the Set up a new channel drop-down menu and select Import records to delete from FTP.
Select CREATE IMPORT CHANNEL.
Enter the requested details.
Optionally, select the Is Service Paused? checkbox to stop the processing of this import job. Clear the checkbox to restart it.
To receive an alert if the import job encounters an error, enter an email address in the Error Alert Email field.
Separate multiple email addresses with a comma. Leave blank to receive no notifications.
Select SAVE.