Import specifications

Import specifications map and transform imported data into the records in the Medallia Experience Cloud database. The specifications can add new records, or update existing ones. They can also create and populate fields with data not included in the feed data.

Important: The import specifications are automatically configured for Medallia Conversations. Do not change them except in cases where additional fields need to be added and passed to the Conversations Engine.

In a Medallia Conversations instance, there is one specification that processes raw-invitation data to prepare it for invitations to send to Conversations invitees. This specification creates records in the database, one for each invitation, maps the data into the fields, and adds Trigger fields Omni Exporter uses to identify the records to pass to Conversations.

Importing maps and transforms raw company-supplied data into invitations Conversations can use

Other import specifications update existing records. For example, Conversations makes a call-back to update invitation-records to indicate the invitation was received. The import specification updates the Trigger fields to tell Omni Export the record was received and to not send it again.

As part of the mapping process, the importer converts channel and conversation names to the internal IDs Conversations uses to identify conversations and channels. This is accomplished in the import specification with lookup tables. For more information, see Lookup tables.

Important: The lookup tables must be updated for every conversation and channel that handles feed-based invitations. For more information, see Lookup tables.

Conversations' import specifications

In Experience Cloud each import specification is categorized as belonging to Medallia Conversations, and the name of each begins with [MC].

Auto Importer specifications filtered to the "Medallia Conversations" category

Conversations sampling operations

Use the proper sampling operations for the following survey modes:

  • One-way SMS (SMS-to-Web) — A message is sent to the person asking to respond to a survey link or web-based survey. For feeded conversations, the Auto Importer used to trigger the conversation must have a sampling_operation = PUSH_TO_SURVEY_ENGINE. This sampling operation creates surveys, and generates survey URLs, but does not send invitations (survey status is set to SURVEY_ENGINE_ONLY).

  • Two-way SMS (SMS-to-SMS) — Question and response exchange between Medallia Conversations and respondents. For feeded conversations, the Auto Importer used to trigger the conversation must have a sampling_operation = SURVEYS_ONLY. This operation imports records directly into the system, bypassing the Survey Engine (survey status is set to NO_SURVEY_ENGINE).

Screen capture showing Auto Importer UI with Conversations import spec showing sampling operations dropdown list

For information, see Sampling operation.

Required feed invitation-fields

At minimum, Medallia Conversations expects these fields in the raw-invitation feed:

  • Unit ID — The ID of the business unit associated with the respondent interaction.

  • Phone number — Respondent phone number for SMS channels.

  • Channel — Medallia Conversations Channel name to use.

  • Survey type — Medallia Conversations Conversation name.

  • Timezone — Respondent timezone used by scheduling and blackout times.

  • Messaging ID — Respondent messaging ID for messaging channels like Facebook.

There can be additional fields, which can be passed to Conversations. For example, it is common to include the respondent's name, possibly first and last.

And for surveys associated with a company business unit, the feed should include the Unit ID to include in the Experience Cloud database for reporting purposes.

Trigger fields

Omni Exporter looks at two flag fields to identify records to send to Conversations:

e_packages_bp_record_type_conversations_yn
When yes (1) the record is intended for Medallia Conversations.
e_packages_bp_mc_request_sent_to_mc_yn
When no (0), the record has not been sent to Medallia Conversations. When Medallia Conversations receives the record, it makes a call-back to Experience Cloud (through a Web Feed and import specification) to set this flag to yes (1).