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Database Automation

Rajesh Basavaraju
Updated

Table of Contents

Overview

Database automation allows for you to update information in your ATS without any input/feedback from anyone. These happen completely in the background and are not recipient-facing.

There are two main types of database automation:

Bulk Database Clean-ups

  • A bulk database clean-up is meant to run updates on ATS data at a specific time. We allow you the option to start/stop/cancel/re-run these types of automation (there is no activation/deactivation toggle). 
  • Bulk clean-ups have their own section of the dashboard, located on the left navigation pane called 'clean-ups'. There, you'll find a homepage for all of your current clean-up events, and that's where you'll be able to create new ones. 
  • Clean-ups cannot be combined with any other types of events or journeys - journeys of this type can contain one event and must be a bulk database clean-up event.
  • So there can be no email/chatbot/sms/data enrichment/field triggered database automation on this journey (this capability will come with field-triggered automation, described below).
  • These are meant for large clean-ups simultaneously.

Field Triggered Database Automation

  • A field triggered database automation is meant to run updates over time, based on date/value relative to an ATS field (for example: as a candidate completes a placement, updates their status to 'looking'.) 
  • These events are meant to be added to existing journeys containing email/sms/chatbot/etc. events.
  • These events are meant to keep the data clean as the database changes.

The main differences are: a bulk clean-up has no schedule page (unnecessary since they are 'run now' type of event), and the audience set-up portion is the first step in the creation process (makes it a little easier to preview how to change rules will affect audience members this way).

In addition to the clean-ups tab, there will be another new section in the dashboard:

  • Audit Section - will store a table of all the database automation that has happened - will allow the user to see: person, entity, event name, old value, new value, status (success/fail/etc.), date value was updated. There will also be the ability to filter the view by event/date/person/etc. to see all the database automation that happened for any particular group/person.

How to set these up: 

  1. Navigate to the 'Bulk Cleanup' section of the dashboard.Screenshot
  2. Click Create New Cleanup
    Screenshot
  3. Select Journey Type and Click Save and Continue.
    Cleanup
  4. Click Add Candidates List(s) to add audiences to the Cleanup. You can create a list from scratch or attach candidates from existing lists. Please take a look at How to use a List.
    NOTE: you can skip the audience creation for now but will not be able to preview change rules since there will be no audience rules
    Cleanup
  5. Once the audience is set up, click Change Rules.
    Screenshot
    Build your change rules while the audience is generated - this is where you can select which fields you want to update and what the updated values should be. 
    • Update a field's value:
      • To empty
      • To a new value based on another field
      • Increment a date
      • Add text to a different field's value
      • To one of the multiple choice options (if the field is a dropdown)
      • To free text value
    • Update a person linked (owner/client contact/etc - any person related entity)
      NOTE: Options are limited based on what type of a input a field can accept in BH
      mceclip2.png
  6. Test using the Preview changes to view audience members and show what these rules will do to their field's values.
  7. You can change the Name and Permissions to View in the Settings tab.
    Screenshot
  8. The next page displays the Status of this bulk database automation event. Since this will have yet to be started during initial creation, it's mostly just an empty state page but will show that there will be a record for run history.Screenshot
  9. After you have started the operation and it has completed (time to completion can vary due to the number of updates), you'll be able to see how many total updates happened. If you click on that number, you'll be redirected to the Audit section of the dashboard in case you'd like to look in further detail. Screenshot

Important notes

  • Bulk clean-ups are available for all ATSs
  • There is only one event per bulk database clean-up. You can never have more than one.
  • Once the audience is built and the journey has started, you cannot edit the audience or change the rules. If you need to do so, you must create a new journey. 
  • While the audience is being built, we will pull a randomized subset of members for the preview modal on the change rules page.

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