Migrating Automations to XM Directory Workflows
About Migrating Automations to XM Directory Workflows
Workflows are the new and improved way to automate tasks in XM Directory, and will eventually fully replace automations. To get ahead of this change, we recommend following the instructions on this page to recreate common automations as workflows.
Workflows in XM Directory
The Workflows tab of XM Directory is where you can create, edit, and manage directory-related workflows. When replacing your legacy automations, this can be an easy, one-stop location to find all of your XM Directory workflows.
For more information, see Workflows in XM Directory.
Workflow Schedules
All XM Directory automations are scheduled at regular intervals. Thus, the first step to replacing your automation is to create a scheduled workflow.
- Navigate to XM Directory.
- Go to the Workflows tab.
- Select Create a workflow.
- Select Started at a specific time (scheduled).
- Select the Frequency from the dropdown menu.
- Enter the Start days, Start times, Time zone, Start, and End fields. For more information, see Scheduled Workflows.
- Select Save.
- Next, determine if you want to import contacts on a regular schedule or send a distribution.
Contact Import Automations
Contact import automations allow you to automatically upload files of contacts from a source of your choice to XM Directory. In legacy automations, contacts can come from a Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) server, the Qualtrics File Service, or Google Drive. Workflows achieve this same functionality using ETL workflows, while also supporting several more sources, such as Amazon S3, Snowflake, and Salesforce.
- Set up a scheduled workflow.
- Click the plus ( + ) sign.
- Select Add a task.
- Create one of the following data extraction tasks:
- Extract data from Google Drive
- Extract data from Qualtrics File Service
- Extract data from SFTP files
Qtip: Workflows also supports other import sources, like Amazon S3, Snowflake, and Salesforce. Dropbox is not currently supported. For more information, see Building ETL Workflows. - Click Add a data destination.
- Select the Add contacts and transactions to XMD task.
- Choose the directory to map data to.
- Select a mailing list to map data to. You can also choose to create a new mailing list for this directory each time this workflow runs.
- Select a data source. This should be the data extractor task you set up in step 4.
- If desired, you can click Choose file and import a mapping file instead of manually mapping fields.
- Manually map your fields to the XM Directory fields.
Qtip: To map field values, see Mapping Field Values. - Add a transaction data field, if you want.
Attention: When mapping transactional data, you must map at least one contact field. The Transaction Date field is required.
Qtip: Transaction dates are the dates that a transaction occurred. Dates will be assumed to be in UTC unless the time zone is included in the date value. See Date Format Syntax for more information. The following time formats are compatible:
- ISO-8601 (2006-01-02T15:04:05+07:00)
- ANSIC (Mon Jan _2 15:04:05 2006)
- UnixDate (Mon Jan _2 15:04:05 MST 2006)
- RFC822 (02 Jan 06 15:04 MST)
- RFC850 (Monday, 02-Jan-06 15:04:05 MST)
- RFC1123 (Mon, 02 Jan 2006 15:04:05 MST)
- Click Save.
Survey Distribution Automations
Survey distribution automations allow you to set a scheduled survey distribution to a mailing list or a sample of a mailing list. This same functionality can be achieved with the Email task or Send Survey via Text Message (SMS) task.
- Set up a scheduled workflow.
- Click the plus ( + ) sign.
- Select Add a task.
- Select a distribution task:
- Follow the steps from the pages linked above.
Linking Contact Import and Survey Distribution Automations
In legacy automations, users can link contact import and survey distribution automations together to send survey distributions to the contacts that were most recently imported. In Workflows, users can perform the import and distribution tasks in a single unified job.
- Follow the steps from the Tasks to create Contact Import Automation section.
- Click the plus sign ( + ).
- Select Add a task.
- Select a distribution task:
- Follow the steps from the pages linked above.
Distributing with XM Directory Tasks
If you’re using an XM Directory task to distribute your survey, you must add specific IDs to ensure that the survey is sent to the correct mailing list.
- Select the Dynamic Contact list distribution type.
- Complete the Distribution Method, Link Type, and When fields.
- Click the piped text button ( {a} ) next to the Mailing List Field.
- Select the contact import task you created.
- Click the Transaction batch ID.
- Complete the Library Field, Survey, and other distribution fields. For more information, see XM Directory Task.
People Import Automations (EX)
In this section, we’ll discuss an automation that’s only available for Employee Experience customers, and is disconnected from XM Directory.
People import automations allow you to automatically pull lists of employees from a source of your choice to your employee directory. In legacy automations, employees can come from a Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) server, the Qualtrics File Service, or Google Drive. Workflows achieve this same functionality using ETL workflows, while also supporting several more sources, such as SuccessFactors, Workday, and more.
- Set up a scheduled workflow.
- Click the plus ( + ) sign.
- Select Add a task.
- Create one of the following data extraction tasks:
- Extract Employees from Workday
- Extract Employee Data from SuccessFactors
- Extract data from Google Drive
- Extract data from Qualtrics File Service
- Extract data from SFTP files
Qtip: Workflows also supports other import sources, like Amazon S3, Snowflake, and Salesforce. For more information, see Building ETL Workflows. - Click Add a data destination.
- Select the Load Users into EX Directory task.
- Follow the steps on Load Users into EX Directory Task.