Taking a snapshot of data
Use the Snapshot process to capture data for export to a table or file. Select the source of the values that you want to capture and define the output table or a file for those values.
1.
Open a campaign and click a flowchart tab.
2.
Click the Edit icon Tiny pencil icon in the flowchart window.
3.
Drag the Snapshot processCamera iconfrom the palette to your flowchart.
4.
Connect one or more processes to provide input to the Snapshot process.
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All of the cells that you select as input must have the same audience level.
5.
Double-click the Snapshot process in the flowchart workspace.
The Process Configuration dialog opens.
6.
Use the Snapshot tab to specify how to capture data.
a.
Use the Input list to specify which cells to use as the data source for the snapshot.
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If the Snapshot process is not connected to a process that provides output cells, there are no cells to select from in the Input list. The Multiple Cells option is only available if the input process generates multiple cells.
b.
Use the Export To list to specify the table or file for the Snapshot output.
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You can test the Snapshot process by running the process with output exported to a temporary file that you can review.
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If the table that you want to use is not in the list, or if you want to output to an unmapped table, select Database Table. Use the Specify Database table dialog box to specify the table and database names. User variables are supported in the table name you specify here.
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If you select File from the Export To list, you can specify the type of file you want to write the output to, the file name, and corresponding data dictionary.
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If you want to create a new user table, select New Mapped Table from the Export To list. For instructions, see the IBM® Campaign Administrator's Guide.
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You can also export to an extract table.
c.
Select an option to specify how updates to the output file or table are handled:
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Append to Existing Data. Add the new information to the end of the table or file. If you select this option for a delimited file, labels are not exported as the first row. This is a best practice for database tables.
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Replace All Records. Remove any existing data from the table or file, and replace it with the new information.
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Update Records. Available only if you are exporting to a table. All fields that are specified for the snapshot are updated with the values from the current run of the process.
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Create New File. Available only if you are exporting to a file. This option is selected by default if you are exporting to a file. Each time that you run the process, a new file is created with "_1," "_2" and so on, appended to the file name.
7.
Specify which fields to snapshot.
a.
Use the Candidate Fields list to select the fields that you want to include in your output.
You can use Campaign Generated Fields by expanding the list of Campaign Generated Fields, or use derived fields by clicking Derived Fields. Select multiple fields by using Ctrl+Click, or select a contiguous range of fields by using Shift+Click.
b.
Move the selected fields to the Fields to Snapshot list by clicking Add.
c.
If you selected a table as the snapshot destination, the fields in that table display in the Candidate Fields list under the Field Name column. You can automatically find matching fields by clicking Match. Fields with exact matches for the table field names are automatically added to the Export Fields list. If there are multiple matching fields, the first match is taken. You can manually modify the pairings by clicking Remove or Add.
d.
You can reorder the fields in the Fields to Snapshot list by selecting a field and clicking Up1 or Down1 to move it up or down in the list.
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To view the values in a field, select the field in the Candidate Fields list and click Profile.
8.
To skip records with duplicate IDs or to specify the order in which records are output, click More.
The Advanced Settings window opens.
a.
To remove duplicate IDs within the same input cell, select Skip Records with Duplicate IDs. Then choose the criteria to determine which record to retain if duplicate IDs are found.
For example, you can select MaxOf and Household_Income to specify that when duplicate IDs are found, Campaign exports only the ID with the highest household income.
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This option removes duplicates only within the same input cell. Your snapshot data can still contain duplicate IDs if the same ID displays in multiple input cells. To remove all duplicate IDs, use a Merge or Segment process upstream of the Snapshot process to purge duplicate IDs or to create mutually exclusive segments.
b.
To sort the snapshot output, select the Order By check box, then select the field to sort by and the sort order. For
example, you can select Last_Name and Ascending to sort IDs by surname in ascending order.
9.
Click OK.
10.
(Optional) Click the General tab to assign a name and descriptive note.
The name displays on the process box in the flowchart. The note displays when you hover the cursor over the process box in the flowchart.
11.
Click OK.
The process is now configured. You can test run the process to verify that it returns the results you expect.
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