Create and configure a connection to use with Customer Journey Analytics

The following information explains how to create and configure a connection, as well as how to add Experience Platform datasets to the connection you create. For additional information about creating and configuring a connection, see Create or edit a connection.

Create and configure the connection

1. In Customer Journey Analytics, select Connections, optionally from Data management, in the top menu.

2. Select Create new connection.

   

3. Configure the connection settings.

   Setting	Description
   Connection name	Enter a unique name for the connection.
   Connection description	Describe the purpose of this connection.
   Sandbox	Choose a sandbox in Experience Platform that contains the dataset/s to which you want to create a connection. Adobe Experience Platform provides sandboxes which partition a single Platform instance into separate virtual environments to help develop and evolve digital experience applications. You can think of sandboxes as “data silos” that contain datasets. Sandboxes are used to control access to datasets. Once you have selected the sandbox, the left rail shows all the datasets in that sandbox that you can pull from.
   Enable rolling data window	This checkbox, if checked, lets you define Customer Journey Analytics data retention as a rolling window in months (1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and so on), at the connection level. Data retention is based on event dataset timestamps and applies to event datasets only. No rolling data window setting exists for profile or lookup datasets, since there are no applicable timestamps. However, if your connection includes any profile or lookup datasets (besides one or more event datasets), that data is retained for the same time period. The main benefit is that you store or report only on data that is applicable and useful and delete older data that is no longer useful. It helps you stay under your contract limits and reduces the risk of overage cost. If you leave the default (unchecked), the Adobe Experience Platform data retention setting supersedes the retention period. If you have 25 months’ worth of data in Experience Platform, Customer Journey Analytics gets 25 months of data through backfill. If you deleted 10 of those months in Platform, Customer Journey Analytics would retain the remaining 15 months.
   Add datasets (see below)	Add datasets if no datasets appear in your dataset listing.
   Dataset name	Select one or more datasets that you want to pull into Customer Journey Analytics and select Add. (If you have many datasets to choose from, you can search for the right one(s) using the Search datasets search bar above the list of datasets.)
   Last updated	For event datasets only, this setting is automatically set to the default timestamp field from event-based schemas in Experience Platform. “N/A” means that this dataset contains no data.
   Number of records	The total records in the previous month for the dataset in Experience Platform.
   Schema	The schema based on which the dataset was created in Adobe Experience Platform.
   Dataset type	For each dataset that you added to this connection, Customer Journey Analytics automatically sets the dataset type based on the data coming in. There are 3 different dataset types: Event data, Profile data, and Lookup data. See the table below for an explanation of dataset types.
   Granularity	The granularity of the data in the dataset; only applicable for summary datasets.
   Data source type	The data source type of the dataset. Not applicable for summary datasets.
   Person ID	Select a Person ID from the drop-down list of available identities. These identities were defined in the dataset schema in the Experience Platform. See below for information on how to use Identity Map as a Person ID. IMPORTANT: If there are no Person IDs to choose from, that means one or more Person IDs have not been defined in the schema. View this video on how to define an identity in Experience Platform.
   Key	For lookup datasets only (such as _id).
   Matching Key	For lookup datasets only (such as _id).
   Import new data	Set to On or Off.
   Backfill data	You can request to backfill the data in a dataset. For example, you can request to backfill the last 7 days worth of data. Configure the dataset correctly and test your connection. If everything looks good, you can backfill all the remaining data with ease. In addition, you can enable the import of new data by dataset.
   Backfill status	This status indicates whether any backfill data is processing.

Add and configure datasets

You can add an Experience Platform dataset when you create a connection.

1. In the Connection settings dialog, select Add datasets.

2. In the Select datasets step, you see a list of the Experience Platform datasets.

   

   For each dataset, the list shows:

   Column	Description
   Dataset	Name of the dataset. Select the name to direct you to the dataset in Experience Platform. Select to display a popup with more details for the dataset. You can select Edit in Platform to edit the dataset directly in Experience Platform.
   Dataset type	The type of dataset: Event, Profile, Lookup, or Summary.
   Number of records	The total records in the previous month for the dataset in Experience Platform.
   Schema	The schema for the dataset. Select the name to direct you to the schema in Experience Platform.
   Last batch	The state of the last batch ingested in Experience Platform. See Batch states more information.
   Dataset ID	The id of the dataset.
   Last updated	The last updated timestamp of the dataset.

3. Select one or more datasets and select Next. At least one event dataset must be part of the connection.

   • To change the columns displayed for the list of datasets, select and select the columns to be displayed in the Customize table dialog.
   • To search for a specific dataset, use the search field.
   • To toggle between showing or hiding the selected datasets, select Hide selected or Show selected.
   • To remove a dataset from the list of selected datasets, use . To remove all selected datasets, select Clear all.

4. Now, configure the datasets one by one.

   

   Setting	Description
   Person ID	Only available for event and profile datasets. Select a Person ID from the drop-down list of available identities. These identities were defined in the dataset schema in the Experience Platform. See below for information on how to use Identity Map as a Person ID. If there are no Person IDs to choose from, that means one or more Person IDs have not been defined in the schema. See Define identity fields in the UI for more information. The value for the selected Person ID is considered to be case sensitive. For example, abc123 and ABC123 are two different values.
   Timestamp	For event and summary datasets only, this setting is automatically set to the default timestamp field from event-based schemas in Experience Platform.
   Key	Only available for lookup datasets. The key to use for a Lookup dataset.
   Matching key	Only available for lookup datasets. The matching key to join on in one of the event datasets. If this list is empty, you probably haven’t added or configured an event dataset.
   Timezone	Only available for summary data. Select the appropriate timezone for the time-series summary data.
   Data source type	Select a type of data source. Types of data sources include: Web data Mobile App data POS data CRM data Survey data Call Center data Product data Accounts data Transaction data Customer Feedback data Other This field is used to survey the types of data sources in use.
   Import new data	Enable this option if you want to establish an ongoing connection. With an ongoing connection new data batches that are added to the datasets are available automatically in Workspace.
   Dataset backfill	Enable Backfill all existing data to ensure that all existing data is backfilled. Select Request backfill to backfill historical data for a specific period. You can define up to 10 dataset backfill periods. Define the period by entering start and end data or selecting dates using . Select Queue backfill to add the backfill to the list, or Cancel to cancel. For each entry, select to edit the period, or select to delete the entry. On backfills: You can backfill each dataset individually. You prioritize new data added to a dataset in the connection, so this new data has the lowest latency. Any backfill (historical) data is imported at a slower rate. The amount of historical data influences the latency. The Analytics source connector imports up to 13 months of data (irrespective of size) for production sandboxes. The backfill in non-production sandboxes is limited to 3 months.
   Transform dataset	For specific B2B lookup datasets, you can enable the transformation of a dataset for proper B2B person-based reporting scenarios.
   Backfill status	Possible status indicators are: Success X backfill(s) processing Off
   Dataset ID	This ID is automatically generated.
   Description	The description given to this dataset when it was created.
   Dataset size	The dataset’s size.
   Schema	The schema based on which the dataset was created in Adobe Experience Platform.
   Dataset	The name of the dataset.
   Preview: dataset name	Previews the dataset with date, my ID, and Identifier columns.
   Remove	You can delete or remove the dataset and change the Person ID without deleting the whole connection. Deleting or removing reduces the costs involved in data ingestion and the cumbersome process of recreating the whole connection and associated data views.

5. Continue following the recommended upgrade steps or the dynamically generated upgrade steps in the Customer Journey Analytics Upgrade Guide. To access the guide from Customer Journey Analytics, select the Workspace tab, then select Upgrade to Customer Journey Analytics in the left panel. Follow the on-screen instructions.