Configuring the resource’s data structure

After creating a new custom resource, you must configure the data structure.

When editing the resource, in the Data structure tab, you can add:

Fields
Identification keys
Indexes
Links
Sending logs

Adding fields to a resource

You can add new fields to a resource to store data that are not part of the out of the box data model.

Use the Create element button to create a field.
Specify a label, an ID, a field type, and define the maximum length authorized for this field.

The ID field is mandatory and must be unique for each field added.

NOTE

Use 30 characters maximum.
To modify one of the fields, check the Edit Properties button.
In the Field definition screen, you can define a category that will be used for the audience and targeting, or even add a description.
Check the Specify a list of authorized values option if you need to define values that will be offered to the user (enumeration values).

Then, click Create element and specify a Label and Value. Add as many values as needed.
Once you have added your fields, check the Add audit fields box to include fields detailing the creation date, the user that created the resource, the date, and the author of the last modification.
Check the Add access authorization management fields box to include the fields stating who has access rights to that particular resource.

These fields appear in the data and metadata that can be displayed once the database update has been carried out. For more on this, refer to the Updating the database structure section.
Check the Add automatic ID field to automatically generate an ID. Please note that existing entities will remain empty. For more on this, refer to the Generating a unique ID for profiles and custom resources.
To modify the way in which the name of the resource elements will appear in the lists and creation steps, check the Customize the title of the resource elements box. Select a field from those you created for this resource.

NOTE

If you do not check this option, the automatic primary key (which is automatically created each time an entity is added to the table) will be used when you list all the entities from this table.

The fields of your resource are now defined.

Defining identification keys

Each resource must have at least one unique key. For example, you can specify a key so that two products cannot have the same ID in a purchase table.

Specify it in the Automatic primary key section the size for the storage if you would like to have a technical key automatically and incrementally generated.
Use the Create element button to create a key.

The Label and ID fields are completed by default but you can edit them.

NOTE

Use 30 characters maximum.
To define the elements making up this key, click Create element and select the fields that you created for this resource.

Created keys are displayed in the Custom keys section.

Your identification keys for the resource are now created.

NOTE

To learn about best practices when creating identification keys, see this section.

Defining indexes

An index can reference one or several resource fields. Indexes allow the database to sort records in order to recover them more easily. They optimize the performances of SQL queries.

Defining indexes is recommended but not mandatory.

Use the Create element button to create an index.
The Label and ID fields are completed by default, but you can edit them.

NOTE

Use 30 characters maximum.
To define the elements making up this index, select the fields from those that you created for this resource.
Click Confirm.

The indexes that were created appear in the list in the Index section.

NOTE

To learn about best practices when creating indexes, see this section.

Defining links with other resources

A link details the association that one table has with other tables.

Use the Create element button to create a link to a target resource.
Click Select a target resource.
Resources are shown in alphabetical order and can be filtered by name. Their technical name is displayed in brackets.

Select an element from the list and click Confirm.
Select the Link type according to cardinality. Depending on the cardinality type selected, the behavior if the records are deleted or duplicated may vary.

The various link types are as follows:
- 1 cardinality simple link: one occurrence of the source table can have at most one corresponding occurrence of the target table.
- N cardinality collection link: one occurrence of the source table can have several corresponding occurrences of the target table, but one occurrence of the target table can have at most one corresponding occurrence of the source table.
- 0 or 1 cardinality simple link: one occurrence of the source table can have at most one corresponding occurrence of the target table or none. Note that this kind of Link type can cause performance issue.
In the New link screen, the Label and ID fields are completed by default, but you can edit them.

NOTE

Use 30 characters maximum.

It is not possible to rename a link after creation. To rename a link, you must delete it and create it again.
The Category for the audience and targeting list allows you to assign this link to a category making it more visible in the query editor tool.
If needed, the Reverse link definition section allows you to display the label and ID of the resource in the targeted resource.
Define the behavior of the records referenced by the link in the Behavior if deleted/duplicated section.

By default, the target record will be deleted once it is no longer referenced by the link.
In the Join definition section, the default Use the primary keys to make the join option is selected but you can choose between two options:
- Use the primary key to make the join: This join definition allows you to use the profiles primary key to reconcile with the purchases’ primary key.
- Define specific join conditions: This join definition allows you to manually select the fields that will join both resources. Please note that if data are not correctly configured, the Purchase record will not be visible.

The links created are displayed in the list in the Links section.

NOTE

To learn about best practices when creating indexes, see this section.

Example: Link a created resource with the ‘Profiles’ resource

In this example, we want to link a new resource Purchase with the Profiles custom resource:

Create your new Purchase resource.
To link it with the Profiles custom resource, unfold the Links section in the Data structure tab and click Create element.
Select the target resource, here Profiles (profile).
In this example, keep the default 1 cardinality simple link Link type selected.
Choose a join definition, here keep the default Use the primary key to make the join.
If needed, you can define a detail screen to be able to edit Purchase and link it to a profile.

Unfold the Detail screen configuration section and check the Define a detail screen to configure the screen that corresponds to each element of the resource. If you do not check this box, the detail view of elements of this resource will not be accessible.
Click Create element.
Select your linked resource and click Add.

Your new resource will then be available in the advanced menu by selecting Client data > Purchase.
Once your configuration is done, click Confirm.

You can now publish your new resource.

By adding this link, a Purchase tab is added to the profiles detail screen from the Profiles & audiences > Profiles menu. Please note that this is specific to the Profile resource.

Defining sending logs extension

The sending log extension allows you:

to extend dynamic report capabilities by adding profile custom fields
to extend the sending logs data with segment code and profile data

Extend with a segment code

The user can extend the logs with the segment code coming from the workflow engine.

The segment code must be defined into the workflow.

To activate this extension, check the option Add segment code.

For more information on segment code, refer to the Segmentation section.

Extend with a profile field

NOTE

The administrator should have extended the Profile resource with a custom field.

Click Add field and select any custom field from the profile resource.

In order to generate a new sub-dimension linked to the Profile dimension, check the Add this field in Dynamic reporting as a new dimension option.

From Dynamic Reporting, you can drag and drop the custom field dimension into a freeform table.

For more information on Dynamic Reporting, refer to the List of components.

IMPORTANT

The number of fields sent to Dynamic Reporting is limited to 20.

Editing resource properties

In the custom resource screen, the Summary pane indicates the status of the newly created resource. You can manage its access and its general properties.

Click the Edit properties button to add a description.
If needed, modify the label and ID of the resource.

NOTE

Use 30 characters maximum.
If you need to restrict the access to this resource to certain organizational units, specify them here. Only users from authorized units will be able to work with this resource in the application.
Save the modifications.

Your modifications are saved. You need to publish the resource again to apply them.

Generating a unique ID for profiles and custom resources

By default, profiles and custom resources have no business ID when they are created. You can enable an option that generates automatically a unique ID when elements are created. This ID can be used to:

Identify exported records easily in an external tool.
Reconcile records when importing updated data processed in another application.

It can be enabled for profiles and custom resources only.

Create an extension to the profiles resource or create a new resource.
In the data structure definition, check the Add automatic ID field option, under the Fields section.

NOTE

Only new records will have an ACS ID. The ACS ID field will remain empty for profiles or elements created before activating this option.
Save and publish the modification made to the resource. If you want this mechanism to apply for elements created via the API, check the option to extend the API.

The ACS ID field is now available and automatically populated when new elements are created manually, from the API, or inserted from an import workflow. The ACS ID field is a UUID field and is indexed.

When exporting profiles or custom resources, you can now add the ACS ID column if it has been enabled for that resource. You can reuse this ID in your external tools to identify records.