CustomerGauge has a tried and trusted method of uploading data using the SFTP protocol. About half of the CustomerGauge user base use this method to automatically upload data, usually daily or weekly.


This is the secure version of the FTP (File Transfer Protocol) that is standard on most server systems, It’s possible to upload files manually using an FTP client, like FileZilla, or from a UNIX command line. It’s convenient, simple to use and easy to automate.



File types accepted


  • XML
  • CSV (comma – we can accept semi-colon separated by arrangement)
  • XLS (Excel)


Field arrangement


Fields should be arranged in the order and types agreed with your client ops representative. 


The field names are different for XLS/CSV and XML files, you can download a sample XLS/CSV/XML file from your Import Data section. Note, for XLS/CSV the number and order of fields need to be same as the sample file that you download, and for XML the field names are case sensitive and should be used as provided in the sample file.

 

Date format should always be YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS (SQL date format)



How it works


Your systems upload files to your secure SFTP directory on the CustomerGauge platform

  • Periodically (hourly) new files are copied to our internal processing system ready for processing. 
  • Files then wait until preset time and are then processed, with rules to remove duplicates, merge the emails etc. This is usually on a daily cycle.
  • To check your upload  time, go to the 'In-app Upload' tab under the 'Admin' menu, and look at the SFTP/API imports, there is a  time of for the uploads displayed and it will always be the same time.  As upload processing is done 'per client' there will be a minimal difference in time depending on where you are in the queue.
  • You can view the progress using the screen in the “In-App Upload” tab, under Admin.
  • You can see number of records uploaded, errors etc.



Screen from In-App upload showing progress of SFTP uploads.




Notes

  • Files should be limited to 5000 lines of contacts, and we recommend that they are under 20Mb (this helps processing speed and debugging)
  • The files remain in the SFTP directory for approximately 4 - 6 weeks, then automatically deleted (this is to comply with security and privacy rules) 
  • Files will only be processed if they have a different name. So in case you made a data mistake, and you want to re-upload a file, you should change the name
  • If a file is sent after the upload window, it will be processed in the next day's run.