Connectors

Warning: While file encryption is not enforced by default for connectors, Medallia recommends that companies use PGP keys for secure file transfers. Ask your Medallia expert to file a Feature activation request with Medallia Support, then share the Speech Public PGP key with the IT administrator responsible for connector setup.

A connector is an out-of-the-box, pre-built integration for contact center platforms to bring signals — such as audio data, chat, or email transcripts — into Medallia Experience Cloud. Every connector is designed to ingest a specific type of signal.

Consequently, instead of building your own integration with Experience Cloud, you just configure a connector to handle the interaction with specific vendors. This includes the ability to manage the frequency and timing of when a connector should run, and the ability to transform the data into a format that can be imported into Experience Cloud.

Connectors perform operations such as storing or fetching data, and operate at scale. Creating a connector on Medallia Experience Cloud automates tasks such as importing or exporting data from external sources into Experience Cloud, triggering events in other systems, or taking action in Experience Cloud.

After a connector is created, it appears in your environment, and is available to edit.

Experience Cloud Connectors enable you to create and modify all connectors, and test them end-to-end.

To use and access Connectors, see Accessing Integrations.

Connectors screen

The Connectors screen allows you to manually configure connectors. This screen lists all of the connectors available for that particular company instance. Connectors are sorted by the date of last data ingestion and can be filtered by connector type. Use the search bar at the top of the list to search for a particular connector. For example, if you follow a naming convention for connectors based on their type, search can help you locate those connectors more quickly.

Layer 1 1 2 3 4

  1. Details pane

  2. Details pane menu

  3. Search bar

  4. Filter

Details pane

Click a connector to reveal its details pane, which shows the following:
Status
Status of the connector. Status can be:

  • Active — Connectors only run when marked as Active. Connectors run at the time they are scheduled.

  • Activating — Activating a connector is an asynchronous process, so the connector has this status until it is active.

  • Inactive — Inactive connectors do not run, no data is imported or exported, no action is performed. Only inactive connectors can be edited or deleted: to update or delete an existing connector, it must be made inactive.

Connector Type
Type of vendor or data source. These types can be:

  • API-based — this type of connectors pull or receive data via API.

  • File-based — these connectors pull or receive data from a flat file, stored in an SFTP or S3 location.

    Important: File-based connectors support CSV, XLSX, and JSON file formats. For information, see Supported file types for file-based connectors.

Additionally, connectors can be:

  • Pull connectors — These connectors pull data from an external source into Experience Cloud. Pull connectors must be initiated by a schedule, either hourly or daily.

  • Push connectors — These connectors require an external system to push data to Experience Cloud.

The full list of connectors is:

  • Speech API — API-based, pull connector.

  • NICE inContact Central Speech — API-based, pull connector.

  • NICE inContact Central Chat — API-based, pull connector.

  • NICE inContact Central Email — API-based, pull connector.

  • NICE inContact UserHub Speech — API-based, pull connector.

  • NICE inContact UserHub Chat — API-based, pull connector.

  • NICE inContact UserHub Email — API-based, pull connector.

  • Genesys Cloud Speech — API-based, pull connector.

  • Genesys Cloud Web Messaging — API-based, pull connector.

  • Genesys Cloud Chat — API-based, pull connector.

    Warning: Genesys Cloud is retiring their Chat feature and will be migrating all customers to Web Messaging. This change will have no impact on the credentials used in the connector. Clients, partners, and administrators must migrate to the new service.

  • Genesys Cloud Email — API-based, pull connector.

  • RingCentral Engage — API-based, pull connector.

  • Red Box Speech — API-based, push connector.

  • Amazon Connect Speech — API-based, pull connector.

  • Amazon Connect Chat — API-based, pull connector.

  • Zendesk Chat — API-based, pull connector.

  • LivePerson Chat — API-based, pull connector.

  • Medallia Speech S3 — File-based, pull connector.

  • Medallia Speech SFTP — File-based, pull connector.

  • Five9 — File-based, pull connector.

  • Generic REST API connector — API-based, pull connector.

Connector ID
Unique identifier of the connector.
Created
Date and time the connector was created and the user who created it.
Last modified
Date and time the connector was last modified and the user who modified it.
Next run date
Only shown for active connectors. Date and time when the next scheduled run will take place.

Details pane menu

For the selected connector, click More vertical icon. the details pane menu to activate, deactivate, view history of that connector for each run, trigger a historical pull, or delete the connector.

The details pane menu for a connector

Activate
Activates the connector. Activating a connector is asynchronous; the system shows a progress bar until the connector is active.

When a connector is activated, it runs on its schedule and performs its defined set of tasks (such as importing call recordings).

Initial activation of connectors

Connectors that require pulling data in or pushing data out often filter out by datetime. For example: a speech-to-text connector that runs daily at 8:07 AM PT:

  • Feb 1, 2021 8:07 AM PT — Fetch all call recordings for the last day, from Jan 31, 2021 8:07 AM to Feb 1, 2021 8:06 AM.

  • Feb 2, 2021 8:07 AM PT — Fetch all call recordings for the last day, from Feb 1, 2021 8:07 AM to Feb 2, 2021 8:06 AM.

  • Feb 3, 2021 8:07 AM PT — Fetch all call recordings for the last day, from Feb 2, 2021 8:07 AM to Feb 2, 2021 8:06 AM.

In the above examples, each run of the connector pulls in data for the last 24 hours.

However, when a connector is first activated, there might be older records or files to import into Experience Cloud. In such cases, select On activation pull historical data in the progress bar, and set a date to go back in history (the files must still be available in the third party system or bucket). For example: set it to go as far as January 1, and all files from January 1 and after are pushed into Experience Cloud.

Screen capture showing the Pull historical data option enabled when activating a connector

After the first execution is completed, the connector reverts to its configured schedule (i.e. hourly or daily).

Note: Experience Cloud determines your time zone from your browser.

Reactivation of connectors

By default, when a connector is deactivated and activated once again, it starts importing records from 2 hours before the current time. To set a different date: click On activation pull historical data in the progress bar, set a date in the past when reactivating. The connector will import records from that date.

This allows for reprocessing records. For example: if you activate a connector on August 1, deactivate it on August 5, change its mappings or settings, and then you activate it again to start importing records from August 1, the connector will reprocess the original records according to the new parameters.

Warning: When sandboxes go into hibernation, its connectors are deactivated and they remain in a deactivated state when the sandbox wakes up. You have to manually reactivate them. For information about sandboxes, see Sandboxes.
Important: Coordinate historical pulls with your Medallia expert. Large historical pulls can impact processing.
Deactivate
Deactivates the connector. Deactivating a connector is asynchronous; the system shows a progress bar until the connector is inactive.

When a connector is deactivated, it does not perform any of its future scheduled tasks.

Important: If a connector is running at the time of deactivation, the current job is allowed to finish, but the following scheduled execution is canceled.
View Run History
Shows all scheduled runs during the last 14 days. It displays information such as the connector type, run date and run results from the processing report.
Run Historical Pull
Run a specific, one time historical pull for the connector. Set a start date and end date and click Process.
Important: Coordinate historical pulls with your Medallia expert. Large historical pulls can impact processing.

Screen capture showing the Pull historical data option

The connector immediately starts importing records from the specified date, it does not wait for the next scheduled time. However, this pull does not affect the regular schedule of this connector. This option is available for active or inactive connectors. Once the historical pull is complete, the connector will remain in the active or inactive state that was set when the historical pull was initiated.

When you run a historical pull, expect one large execution run to show in the connector run history that can take hours or sometimes days to process, depending on the range of data that is specified.

Restriction: This option is not available for push connectors. It is only available for schedule-based connectors. For information about push connectors see Data transfer and retention.
Duplicate
Create a new connector that duplicates the source connector. Experience Cloud creates the new connector in inactive status.

To create a duplicate, enter a name for the new connector in the Duplicate Connector dialog and click Create.

Screen capture showing Duplicate Connector dialog

Delete
Deletes the connector if not used.

Connector run history

Run history report shows all scheduled runs of that connector during the last 14 days. Each run creates an entry on the list with its own status. The list displays information such as the connector name, type, run date, number of ingested records, and run results. Connector runs are sorted by run date and can be filtered by connector name, run result, and run period.

To access the connector run history report, go to Connectors screen and click View Run history in the details pane menu or at the bottom of the details pane.

Connector history screen lists all connector runs during the last 14 days and shows their status

Each entry in the Connector history screen represents a time the connector is triggered. It does not represent each metadata file ingested. When multiple metadata files are picked in a run window, all files are concatenated to produce a single entry in this list view.

For the Speech API connector, each entry in the list represents an API payload sent to the Speech API. It does not represent an individual record imported into Experience Cloud.

Click a connector to reveal its details pane. This pane summarizes information about the run; particularly the run result, which can be:

  • In Progress

  • Processed

  • Failed

  • Attention — Not all records could be successfully ingested. For more details, select the run and check the counters on the details pane.

  • Cancelled

It also shows the run date, the total number of records, the records that could be ingested and the number of records that failed.

To download the processing report in .XLSX format with data about each run, select Download Report at the bottom of the run details pane. The processing generates an MS Excel file that reports details about the records processed, and indicates their success or failure, and why.

Each report has at least three tabs:

  • Summary report contains information about the connector and the processing job.

    Screen capture showing the Summary report tab of the processing report

  • Input contains the records in the run (up to 5,000) that were discarded or had an issue.

    Screen capture showing the Input tab of the processing report

  • Output contains the data mappings for each record, and the final status of the ingested record.

    Screen capture showing the Output tab of the processing report

  • Excluded contains the excluded calls that get transferred to a queue due to compliance or privacy reasons.

    Screen capture showing the Excluded tab of the processing report

The processing report shows discarded records along with the associated metadata within the processing report so that admins can easily identify the records.

Retry

Restriction: This option is only available for S3 and SFTP connectors.

Click Retry to trigger a manual run of all records in that specific run. The action creates a new execution in the history record.

Retry failed records

Restriction: This option is only available for S3 and SFTP connectors.

Click Retry failed records to trigger a manual run just for the records that failed. The action creates a new execution in the history record.

Create and manage connectors

To create a connector, complete the following steps:

  1. On the Connectors screen, click New Connector. This opens the library of available connector types.

  2. Select the type of connector from the list.

  3. On the Connector Details tab, enter a name and a description.

    1. Optionally, link the connector to an Experience Program.

      Link the fields used in the connector to the selected programs. For information, see Link connectors to Experience programs.

  4. On the Connectors Settings tab:

    1. select the credentials for the connector from the drop down list.

      1. Optionally, if you do not have a set of credentials, click Add icon. Add to create credentials applicable to the connector. See Credentials for more information.

        Note: Push connectors, such as Red Box connectors, don't use credentials but rely on a connection identifier for their connection profile. For information about this parameter see Get started with Medallia Speech and Connector settings.
        Restriction: Each connector has a reference to one set of credentials, so it can only retrieve data from a singular data source.

    2. Configure settings for the connector.

  5. On the Connector Schedule tab, configure the schedule for the connector.

    Note: Push connectors and Medallia Speech API connectors do not need a schedule, since they run automatically when you upload files to the Medallia Media File Transfer bucket provided by Medallia as part of Speech provisioning. For information see Get started with Medallia Speech.

  6. On the Data Mappings tab, map input fields to data fields in the system and transform the input data to the format required for the output fields.

  7. On the Data Filters tab, create custom filters based on fields and basic logic behavior or, additionally, set filters to import files that belong to specific call queues or are associated with specific skills.

  8. Click Save.

Manage connectors

To manage a connector, click Edit to modify its content. Only inactive connectors can be edited, duplicated, or deleted: to update or delete an existing connector, it must be made inactive first by clicking Deactivate to edit at the bottom of the details pane, or simply Deactivate in the details pane menu.

The type of connector cannot change once a connector has been created.

Supported file types for file-based connectors

File-based connectors pull or receive data from a flat file stored in an S3 or SFTP location. They support CSV, Excel, and JSON metadata formats dynamically. This dynamic implementation can resolve the file format of metadata files at runtime and work out of the box without any additional configuration in the connectors setup: the connector just needs to be properly configured to fetch the desired files in the metadata folder.

Supported formats:

FormatNotes
ExcelXLSX (Microsoft Excel 2007 and above or exported Google Sheets Excel).
Restriction: The maximum file size for Excel format is 1 MB.
CSVASCII or UTF-8 encoding.
JSONSupports JSON lists for multiples records and JSON objects for single records.

JSON format

File-based connectors support the JSON list format for many records:

[
{
  "CALL ID": "A"
 }
 {
  "CALL ID": "B
 },
...
]

And can also ingest lists for a single record.

{
  "CALL ID": "A"
}

Experience programs store all the assets required to collect, analyze, and act on the signals you bring into Medallia Experience Cloud. When you link a connector to Experience programs, the signals processed by the connector and the fields stored in Experience Cloud are linked to those programs.

To link the connector to programs, click Add icon. Add and select the program.

Restriction: Experience Cloud only shows the Experience programs that the user's active role has permission to edit. Likewise, you cannot remove linkage to any Programs to which your role does not have edit permission.

Experience Cloud shows a confirmation dialog informing that the fields will be added to the programs. Click Link connector to confirm the operation, and then click Save at the bottom of the screen.

Confirmation dialog to link the connector with Experience programs

When you update the connector, Experience Cloud refreshes the fields on the Experience program.

To remove the connector from programs, click Remove icon. Remove on each program.

Experience Cloud shows a confirmation dialog asking if you want to remove the fields from all Experience programs. To remove all fields, select the checkbox on the dialog and click Unlink connector, and then click Save at the bottom of the screen.

Confirmation dialog to remove the connector from Experience programs