[Beta]{class="badge informative"}

Create an Acxiom Prospecting Data Import source connection and dataflow in the UI

NOTE
The Acxiom Prospecting Data Import source is in beta. Please read the sources overview for more information on using beta-labeled sources.

Acxiom’s Prospecting Data Import for Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform is a process for delivering the most productive prospect audiences possible. Acxiom takes Real-Time CDP first-party data via a secure export and runs that data through an award-winning hygiene and identity resolution system. This produces a data file to be used as a suppression list. This data file is then matched against the Acxiom Global database, which enables the prospect lists to be tailored for import.

You can use the Acxiom source to retrieve and map responses from Acxiom prospect service using Amazon S3 as a drop point.

Read this tutorial to learn how to create an Acxiom Prospecting Data Import source connection and dataflow using the Adobe Experience Platform user interface.

Prerequisites prerequisites

This tutorial requires a working understanding of the following components of Experience Platform:

  • Experience Data Model (XDM) System: The standardized framework by which Experience Platform organizes customer experience data.

  • Real-Time Customer Profile: Provides a unified, real-time consumer profile based on aggregated data from multiple sources.

  • Prospect Profile: Learn how to create and use prospect profile to gather information about unknown customers using third-party information.

Gather required credentials

In order to access your bucket on Experience Platform, you need to provide valid values for the following credentials:

Credential
Description
Acxiom authentication key
The authentication key. You can retrieve this value from the Acxiom team.
Amazon S3 access key
The access key ID for your bucket. You can retrieve this value from the Acxiom team.
Amazon S3 secret key
The secret key ID for your bucket. You can retrieve this value from the Acxiom team.
Bucket name
This is your bucket where files will be shared. You can retrieve this value from the Acxiom team.
IMPORTANT
You must have both View Sources and Manage Sources permissions enabled for your account in order to connect your Acxiom account to Experience Platform. Contact your product administrator to obtain the necessary permissions. For more information, read the access control UI guide.

Connect your Acxiom account

In the Platform UI, select Sources from the left navigation bar to access the Sources workspace. The Catalog screen displays a variety of sources for which you can create an account with.

You can select the appropriate category from the catalog on the left-hand side of your screen. Alternatively, you can find the specific source you wish to work with using the search option.

Under the Data & Identity Partners category, select Acxiom Prospecting Data Import and then select Set up.

TIP
A source card that displays Add data means that the source already has an authenticated account. On the other hand, a source card that displays Set up means that you must provide credentials and create a new account in order to use that source.

The sources catalog with the Acxiom source selected.

Create a new account

If you are using new credentials, select  New account. On the input form that appears, provide a name, an optional description, and your Acxiom credentials. When finished, select  Connect to source  and then allow some time for the new connection to establish.

The new account interface of the sources workflow.

Credentials
Description
Account Name
The name of the account.
Description
(Optional) A brief explanation of the purpose of the account.
Acxiom authentication key
The Acxiom-provided key required for account approval. This must match the proper value before a connection to the database can be made. This key must be 24 characters and can only include: A-Z, a-z, and 0-9.
S3 access key
The S3 access key references the Amazon S3 location. This is provided by your administrator when S3 role permissions are defined.
S3 secret key
The S3 secret key references the Amazon S3 location. This is provided by your administrator when S3 role permissions are defined.
s3SessionToken
(Optional) The authentication token value when connection to S3.
serviceUrl
(Optional) The URL location to be used when connecting to S3 in a non-standard location.
Bucket name
(Optional) The name of the S3 bucket set up on S3 that serves as a starting path in data selection.
Folder path
If subdirectories in a bucket are used, then you can also specify a path as a starting path in data selection.

Use an existing account

To use an existing account, select Existing account.

Select an account from the list to view details on that account. Once you have selected an account, select Next to proceed.

The existing account interface of the sources workflow.

Select Data

Select the file that you want to ingest from the desired bucket and sub-directory. A preview of the data can be provided once delimiter and compression type is defined. Once you have selected your file, select Next to proceed.

The select data and file preview interface of the sources workflow.

NOTE
While JSON and Parquet file types are listed, you are not required or expected to use them during the Acxiom source workflow.

Provide dataset and dataflow details

Next, you must provide information regarding your dataset and your dataflow.

Dataset details

Use a new dataset

A dataset is a storage and management construct for a collection of data, typically a table, that contains a schema (columns) and fields (rows). Data that is successfully ingested into Experience Platform is persisted within the data lake as datasets. To use a new dataset, select New dataset.

The new dataset interface.

table 0-row-2 1-row-2 2-row-2 3-row-2
New dataset details Description
Output dataset name The name of the new dataset.
Description (Optional) A brief explanation of the purpose of the dataset.
Schema A dropdown list of schemas that exist in your organization. You can also create your own schema prior to the source configuration process. For more information, read the guide on creating schema in the UI.
Use an existing dataset

To use an existing dataset, select Existing dataset.

You can select Advanced search to view a window of all datasets your organization, including their respective details such as whether they are enabled for ingestion to Real-Time Customer Profile.

The existing dataset interface.

Dataflow details

During this step, if your dataset is enabled for Profile, then you can select the Profile dataset toggle to enable your data for Profile ingestion. You can also enable Error diagnostics and Partial ingestion.

  • Error Diagnostics - Select Error diagnostics to instruct the source to produce error diagnostics that you can later reference using APIs. For more information, read the error diagnostics overview
  • Enable Partial Ingestion - Partial batch ingestion is the ability to ingest data containing errors, up to a certain threshold. With this capability, users can successfully ingest all their correct data into Adobe Experience Platform while all their incorrect data is batched separately, along with details as to why it is invalid. For more information, read the Partial ingestion overview

The dataflow details configurations interface.

Dataflow configurations
Description
Dataflow name
The name of the dataflow. By default, this will use the name of the file that is being imported.
Description
(Optional) A brief description of your dataflow.
Alerts

Experience Platform can produce event-based alerts which users can subscribe to, these options all a running dataflow to trigger these. For more information, read the alerts overview

  • Sources Dataflow Run Start: Select this alert to receive a notification when your dataflow run begins.
  • Sources Dataflow Run Success: Select this alert to receive a notification if your dataflow ends without any errors.
  • Sources Dataflow Run Failure: Select this alert to receive a notification if your dataflow run ends with any errors.

Mapping

Use the mapping interface to map your source data to the appropriate schema fields before ingesting data to Experience Platform. For more information, read the mapping guide in the UI

The mapping interface.

Schedule your dataflow ingestion

Use the scheduling interface to define the ingestion schedule of your dataflow.

  • Frequency: Configure frequency to indicate how often the dataflow should run. You can set your frequency to: once, minute, hour, day, or week.
  • Interval: Once you select a frequency, you can then configure the interval setting to establish the time frame between every ingestion. For example, if you set your frequency to day and configure the interval to 15, then your dataflow will run every 15 days. Interval cannot be set to zero and must be set to at least 15.
  • Start Time - The timestamp for the projected run, presented in UTC time zone.
  • Backfill - Backfill determines what data is initially ingested. If backfill is enabled, all current files in the specified path will be ingested during the first scheduled ingestion. If backfill is disabled, only the files that are loaded in between the first run of ingestion and the start time will be ingested. Files loaded prior to start time will not be ingested.

The scheduling configuration interface.

Review your dataflow

Use the review page for a summary of your dataflow prior to ingestion. Details are grouped in the following categories:

  • Connection - Shows the source type, the relevant path of the chosen source file, and the amount of columns within that source file.
  • Assign dataset & map fields - Shows which dataset the source data is being ingested into, including the schema that the dataset adheres to.
  • Scheduling - Shows that active period, frequency, and interval of the ingestion schedule.
    Once you have reviewed your dataflow, click Finish and allow some time for the dataflow to be created.

The review page.

Next steps

By following this tutorial, you have successfully created a dataflow to bring batch data from your Acxiom source to Experience Platform. For additional resources, visit the documentation outlined below.

Monitor your dataflow

Once your dataflow has been created, you can monitor the data that is being ingested through it to view information on ingestion rates, success, and errors. For more information on how to monitor dataflow, visit the tutorial on monitoring accounts and dataflows in the UI.

Update your dataflow

To update configurations for your dataflows scheduling, mapping, and general information, visit the tutorial on updating sources dataflows in the UI

Delete your dataflow

You can delete dataflows that are no longer necessary or were incorrectly created using the Delete function available in the Dataflows workspace. For more information on how to delete dataflows, visit the tutorial on deleting dataflows in the UI.

Additional resources additional-resources

Acxiom Audience Data and Distribution: https://www.acxiom.com/customer-data/audience-data-distribution/

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