Also the wobble roaster:
You keep using that word
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Retrieving and Storing Aggregated Send Data
One of the great things about the WSProxy library for Server-Side JavaScript in Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) is that it has reinvigorated the use of SOAP API objects in the platform. SOAP objects are still foundational to understanding the SFMC data model.
Here’s one of my favorite applications of WSProxy — retrieving and storing aggregated Send data in a Data Extension using a Script Activity.
First, create a Data Extension with this schema:
(BTW, check out what’s available — it’s everything in the Recent Email Sending Summary Report, plus some more details. This data in a Data Extension for use in other places — mmmmm, so good.)
Next, create a Script Activity in Automation Studio like this.
This script does a Describe of the SOAP object to get the retrievable properties, sets a filter (it’s like a where-clause in SQL), iterates through the Send Object results, and upserts them into the specified data extension. If you don’t want to retrieve all sends every time, you can uncomment the filter criteria and get more specific. I’ve generally not restricted it by date, because it’s not that much data to retrieve.
Finally, schedule this to run on an interval appropriate for your needs. At least daily is good.
Once you have data, you can toolbar-download it as needed, export it with an Extract Activity, or lookup and display it in an email or CloudPage with AMPscript.
Can you smell…
…what The Rock is cookin’?
Oh Yeah
Oh Yeah by Yello
Oh yeah
Oh yeah
Oh yeah
The moon, beautiful
The sun, even more beautiful, ah ha ha
(Bow bow) Oh yeah (Chick chicka chicka)
(Doo, bow bow) Oh yeah (Chick chicka chicka)
(Bow bow) Oh yeah (Chick chicka chicka)
(Doo, bow bow, chick chicka chicka)
(Doo, bow bow, chick chicka chicka)
(Bow bow, chick chicka chicka)
(Doo, bow bow, chick chicka chicka)
Such a good time, a really good time
(Bow bow, chick chicka chicka)
(Bow bow, chick chicka chicka)
(Doo, bow bow, chick chicka chicka)
(Doo, bow bow, chick chicka chicka)
(Doo, bow bow, chick chicka chicka)
(Doo, bow bow, chick chicka chicka)
(Bow bow) Beautiful (chick chicka chicka)
(Bow bow) Oh yeah (chick chicka chicka)
(Doo, bow bow) Oh yeah (chick chicka chicka)
(Bow bow, chick chicka chicka)
(Doo, bow bow, chick chicka chicka)
(Bow bow, chick chicka chicka)
(Doo, bow bow, chick chicka chicka)
Such a good time, a really good time
(Bow bow, chick chicka chicka)
(Doo, bow bow, chick chicka chicka)
Aaaah
(Bow bow, chick chicka chicka)
(Doo, bow bow, chick chicka chicka)
(Bow bow, chick chicka chicka)
(Chicka chicka)
(Chicka chicka)
(Chick chicka chicka)
(Doo, bow bow, chick chicka chicka)
(Doo, bow bow)
The moon, beautiful
(Bow bow, chick chicka chicka) The sun, even more beautiful
Oh yeah
(Bow bow) Oh yeah
Oh yeah
Oh yeah
(Bow bow, chick chicka chicka)
(Doo, bow bow, chick chicka chicka)
(Bow bow, chick chicka chicka)
Wikipedia – Oh Yeah (Yello Song)
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – Ferrari scene
Hey, Look at Us
Some encouragement from Paul Rudd to Paul Rudd.
Some Sunshine on Salesforce Marketing Cloud Defects
If you talk to anyone that’s worked in the Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) ecosystem for any length of time, you’ll get the drift that there’s some frustration about the transparency around “known issues” in the platform. Raises some questions, no doubt.
Questions like:
- How do support cases that identify defects arrive on the official Known Issues page?
- What communication about these defects can be expected to agencies or customers that identify them?
- How and when do issues progress through the status chronology: In Review > Scheduled > Release In Progress > Fixed or No Fix
- How seriously does SFMC take “this issue affects me” votes by the community? Is there a golden threshold that qualifies an issue for fixing?
- Can known issues fall off the list?
Let’s pull back the curtain a little and look at some of the data, shall we?
The Known Issues page happens to have an RSS feed by Status (In Review, Scheduled, Release In Progress, Fixed, No Fix) and by Tag. For example, here’s the RSS feed for Email Studio. I did a little experimenting and discovered that issues_index_rss page will accept multiple parameters. Combine those together and you can produce an RSS feed for Email Studio, No Fix items, for example.
Why not create a feed for all of the Marketing Cloud tag and status combinations? Or better yet, how about an OPML file containing all of these feeds?
Done. You can simply import this OPML file I built into your RSS reader and get notified when new entries are published:
(If you haven’t dipped your toe into RSS reader-land, here’s a good list of the players. I started with Google Reader (RIP), but I ended up hosting my own tt-rss installation.)
Seeing the new issues via RSS is nice, but there’s no good way to find issues by tag and status on the official page.
I set up a process on my site to pull all of the RSS data every hour, parse it, and then write it to a database table.
Results are displayed here: SFMC Known Issues
You should be able to search, filter, and sort by column. There’s a summary of the rows by tag at the bottom, for some perspective.
Does this resonate with you? How can Salesforce help with this?
Edit 2020-06-21: In a prior version of this post, I mentioned the 2019 Data Extension Row Count kerfluffle. It was originally posted in IdeaExchange and it wasn’t ever a “known issue” — as in posted in Known Issues. However, this event, in particular, showed the power of the greater Marketing Cloud community rallying around an issue until it was resolved in a patch release. The day that was fixed was a good day, wasn’t it?