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Solicitation SFTP

Charles Jorgensen
Updated

Solicitation SFTP

In this document, we will discuss the following topics regarding the Rant & Rave Solicitation:

Prerequisite

Gather SFTP connections details:

How to Drop an SFTP

  1. Download and install FileZilla or another SFTP provider: If you do not have FileZilla installed on your computer, then download and install it from the official website filezilla-project.org.

  2. Launch FileZilla: Open the FileZilla application on your computer.

  3. Configure SFTP connection: In the top menu, click on "File" and select "Site Manager" from the dropdown menu. In the Site Manager window, click on the "New Site" button and give your SFTP connection a name (you can use any name, e.g., "Rant and Rave SFTP").

  4. Enter SFTP server details: In the right-side panel of the Site Manager, enter the SFTP server details you obtained from "Rant and Rave." This includes the Hostname, Port, Protocol (usually SFTP), Encryption (if required), and your SFTP Username and Password.

  5. . Connect to the SFTP server: Click the "Connect" button in the Site Manager to establish a connection to the "Rant and Rave" SFTP server. Once connected, you will see the local files on your computer on the left side of the FileZilla interface and the remote server files on the right side.

  6. Navigate to outbound then Solicit: In the file directory (right side), this is the location where you want to upload your files. You can double-click folders to enter them, just like navigating through your computer's file system.

  7. Upload files: On the left side, browse your local computer's files and find the files you want to upload. Select the files and drag them from the local pane to the remote server pane. FileZilla will begin uploading the files to the selected directory on the "Rant and Rave" SFTP server.

  8. Monitor the transfer (optional): FileZilla will display the progress of the file uploads in the "Queued files" pane at the bottom of the interface. You can also see the transfer speed and estimated time remaining.

  9. Verify upload completion: Once the file transfer is complete, you should see your files in the specified directory on the SFTP server.

  10. Disconnect: When you have finished uploading files, you can disconnect from the SFTP server by clicking on the "Server" menu and selecting "Disconnect" or by simply closing the FileZilla application.

File Drop Criteria/ Best Practice

  • The file should always be saved as a .csv file.

  • Headers are case sensitive and should have no spaces. To get field header names, please reach out to your CSM who can provide these.

  • The first 6 columns should not be changed, anything before the meta column is classified as system columns.

The fixed Headers are:

  • Recipient: the target for the survey request - this is a mandatory column

  • Workflow: enables for multiple workflows to be defined - this is a non-mandatory column - will use the project default if missing

  • Grace Period: for each recipient it is possible to define the minimum time (in seconds) between re-surveying a single customer - this value allows for the default period to be overridden, this is a non-mandatory column - will use the workflow or project default if missing

  • Schedule: defines the time that the record should be sent - this is a non-mandatory column - will be immediate if missing

  • Window: defines the sociable contact time window when a record is permitted to be sent - this is a non-mandatory column - will use the workflow or project default if missing

  • Meta: A marker column to define the start of customer variable metadata - this allows for further control columns to be included later - this is a mandatory column (unless no metadata is required)

  • MyMeta1, MyMeta2, MyMeta3…: These are customer defined meta columns containing data to be passed through to the Rant & Rave dashboard - the column titles will match exactly the field definitions (system name) created in the Rant & Rave Dashboard.

Example file:

Scheduling

The schedule determines (on a per-message basis) the earliest time at which an item can be processed. The message may be sent later than this if the service is busy (for example, scheduling a large batch to be sent at the same time will queue the messages).

Once the scheduled time is reached, the sociable hours are checked to ensure that the message should be sent. If it is not within the given sociable hours (either because the scheduled time was outside the hours or the size of the queue has pushed the dispatch beyond the sociable hours), the message will be re-scheduled for the next available sociable time (the reported scheduled time will still show the original schedule).

Once a message can be sent within sociable hours, the grace period is checked (as well as whether the user has opted- out). If the user was contacted within the grace period (or the user is currently opted-out), the message is abandoned. Otherwise, the message is sent.

Solicitations will not be sent outside of the specified sociable hours windows (though they may be received outside these times if, for example, a mobile phone is turned off or has no signal when the message is sent, or due to network delays).

The format for the schedule is ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssZ). Fractional seconds are permitted.

The format for the sociable hours is hh:mm:ss/hh:mm:ssZ (e.g. 09:00:00/21:00:00Z to limit the hours to between 9 am and 9 pm). Hours are between 0 and 23 (inclusive), minutes are between 0 and 59 (inclusive), seconds are between 0 and 59 (inclusive). Seconds can be omitted.

Ranges can also be combined with commas and optional spaces (e.g. 09:00:00/12:00:00, 16:00:00/21:00:00Z to limit the hours to between 9am and midday, or 4pm and 9pm). Time ranges can overlap.

Time ranges are always taken in the forward direction (e.g. 21:00:00/03:00:00Z will create a range from 9pm through midnight to 3am).

The time-zone specifier (Z for UTC/GMT) should only be given on the last time in the list and may be preceded by an @ symbol. A geographic time zone can also be specified (which will allow for daylight savings time if applicable): 09:00/21:00@Europe/London.

The geographical time zones accepted can be found here (case sensitive): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones.

Finally, it is possible to specify days of the week: Mon/Fri 09:00:00/21:00:00, Sat 11:00:00/21:00:00 will use 9am-9pm Monday to Friday, 11am to 9pm on Saturday, and never send on a Sunday. If the time range crosses midnight, it is the start of the time range which is matched to the given day of the week. Any time range which does not include a day of the week is assumed to be every day. It is invalid to specify a time range of less than an hour, as this is not sufficient time to work through the queue. It is recommended to make each time range at least several hours to ensure messages will not build up.