Blog – Page 19

Aug 21 2014

Delay Campaign Builder Less Than 15 Minutes With Pocket Developer Custom Delay Timer

CHALLENGE:

Sometimes, you want to delay an Infusionsoft Campaign Builder sequence just a minute to give something time to complete. This is most often the case when you have an email that contains merge fields populated by an HTTP POST.

But the shortest interval in a Delay Timer is 15 minutes. You only need a minute – maybe even just a few seconds – to let the post run before resuming the campaign.

SOLUTION:

We will use the Pocket Developer Custom Delay Timer to pause the campaign for less than 15 minutes.

SUMMARY:

Put an HTTP POST snippet that calls Pocket Developer Custom Delay Timer at the end of a sequence where you want the pause. Hook that sequence to an API Goal that will be triggered after the delay to resume the sequence.

HOW – TO:

1. In the campaign sequence, add an HTTP Post snippet at the end of a sequence, where you want the delay to occur.

2. Configure the HTTP POST snippet as follows:

NOTE: Everything in an HTTP POST is case sensitive. That includes the URL, the parameters on the left and the field names on the right. If caPitaLizaTion is wrong, your post will not work.

ANOTHER NOTE: If you put the same callName in multiple places, even in multiple campaigns, you could get unintended consequences! It is a best practice to use a unique callName that would not be easy to accidentally duplicate for each custom delay timer.

1. Assuming you did an automated Pocket Developer installation of the Delay Timer, the URL would be something like http://yoursite.com/scripts/PocketDeveloper/Blocks/CustomDelay/customdelay.php. Again, be careful to match capitalization.

2. Leave the contactId parameter and value set to the default.

3. in the next Name/Value pair, add callName in the left-hand Name field and in Value field, add a name that is unique to this Delay Snippet e.g., WakeWebinar3f788734.

4. In the next Name/Value pair, add delayFor in the Name field and the number of seconds you want to delay in the Value. (This could also be in a merge field)

5. Copy the name you created for callName and close the HTTP Post snippet

6. Close the sequence. Custom Delay Timer POST snippets should always be the last thing in that sequence

7. Drag out a Goal from Toolbox. Any Goal will work, although I often use Other for this. Give it a name, like Resume Sequence.

8. Double click the meta icon in the lower left corner of the goal. Change the Goal type to API Call Made (last one in the drop-down)

9. Double-click on the goal to open it. For Integration, put your Infusionsoft app name. In Call Name, put the name you used and copied from the HTTP POST Snippet. In this case, in Step 3, we used WakeWebinar1. Click Save.

10. Connect the Sequence containing the Delay Snippet (the one with the HTTP POST calling /customdelay.php) to the API Goal you just created.

11. Then connect the API Goal to a sequence containing whatever you want to happen after the delay. Continue your Campaign as normal.

Aug 12 2014

How To Find Your FTP Credentials

For Pocket Developer to install a Pocket Developer Building Block on your server, it will need your FTP credentials.

What is FTP?

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is the quickest and easiest way to transfer files, images, video and documents to and from your web server. (Get more info)

Your web server is set up much like your computer. There is a system of folders (called directories on a server) and files within those folders.

To upload or download files between your computer and your web server, you use an FTP Client. An FTP Client is like Windows Explorer or Mac’s Finder, but for your server.

Why Do You Need My FTP Credentials?

In this case, you won’t be transferring files to your server, we will. Pocket Developer installs the Infusionsoft iSDK and all necessary files for your purchased Building Block to work. But we need access to your server to transfer and install them.

How Do I Find My FTP Credentials?

Here is a list of Knowledge Base articles from many of the most common web hosting services. If you host with someone else, you can just search “FTP Credentials” in their support documents. You should also have them in the email they sent you when you first set up the your account. If all else fails, call your web host’s Support and they can help you.

1&1 (1and1.com)
BlueHost (bluehost.com)
DreamHost (dreamhost.com)
GoDaddy (godaddy.com)
HostGator (hostgator.com)
LiquidWeb (liquidweb.com)
Media Temple (mediatemple.net)
Site5 (site5.com)
SiteGround (siteground.com)
WPEngine (wpengine.com)

Jul 29 2014

Any Text Anywhere – Quick Start Guide

Installing the Plug-In

You should have installed your Infusionsoft Pocket Developer plug-in using the instructions provided when you purchased the plug-in.

If, for any reason, you have not installed your Pocket Developer plug-in, follow these simple instructions, to learn how.

The Any Text Anywhere Plug-in gives you the following Infusionsoft superpowers:

→ Create emails containing order or opportunity data in Campaign Builder, create totally custom invoice templates, build custom reports, save custom fields and more

→ by updating or copying any text field

→ from, to within Contacts, Companies, Referral, Partners, Opportunities and Orders.

Two Ways to Use an API Guys Infusionsoft Plug-in

1. In Campaign Builder, add an HTTP Post Snippet to a Sequence within a Campaign. Using this method allows the Any Text Plug-in script to be run on each contact in the Campaign individually, as the Contact moves through the Campaign. 2. Outside of Campaign Builder, save an Action Set using the Building Block’s POST URL. Using this method allows the Any Text Building Block script to be run on lists of Contacts.

This method also allows you to run the Building Block, as a Saved Action Set, on any individual Contact Record, from within the record, by using the “Select an action → Apply Actions → Run Another Action Set command.

Configuring the HTTP Post Snippet

1. Open an HTTP Post Snippet in a Sequence within your Campaign. 2. In the POST URL field, type : http://yourdomain.com/scripts/PocketDeveloper/Blocks/AnyText/anytext.php 3. Leave the default Name/Value Pair as contactID and ~Contact.Id~ 4. Hover over the end of the first Name/Value Pair field to make the Add and Delete Field symbols appear 5. Click the + to add a field 6. In the new fields, type textToSave in the Name field and type either:

The text you want to put in a field, (e.g “New Client”)
“to set the field to empty
The name of a merge field. In this case Any Text Anywhere will copy the value it finds in that field to the field being updated.

The easiest way to get the field names is to use the Merge button, to the right of the Post URL, and select the field name from the drop downs.

You can use any field in the Merge Fields dropdown that contains a number, including Contact, Company, Owner and Referral Partner fields. Merge Field Rules

You must put a tilde (~) before and after the field name
You must precede the field name with the table name and a period
You must precede a custom field name with a _
Custom field example for Company: ~Company._myCustomField~
Constants can text or ” ” for blank
When a merge field is a field name, the script will use the value it finds, in that field, for that contact

8. Add another Name/Value Pair field. In the Name field, type saveTo. In the Value field, add the merge field where you would like the results of your math calculation to be stored.

NOTE: Everything in an HTTP POST is case sensitive. That includes the URL, the parameters on the left and the field names on the right. If caPitaLizaTion is wrong, your post will not work.

ANOTHER NOTE: The merge field in the saveTo parameter should never have tildes around it (~). If you use the merge button to add a field, make sure to remove them for this parameter. We are saving to, not merging from.

URL:

The URL, on your server, where the Pocket Developer script is stored. For example:
http://yourdomain.com/scripts/PocketDeveloper/Blocks/TagsFly/tagsfly.php

In the example above, assume the following values in these fields for a contact, Herb Jones:

Contact._Phone3 = 214-509-7000

214-509-7000 will be copied to Phone 1, in Herb’s contact record, when this post runs.

How To Configure Any Text Anywhere in A Saved Action Set

To create a Saved Action Set to run in an individual record or on a list: 1. Go to Infusionsoft Main Menu → CRM → Settings → Action Sets 2. Click the green “Add An Action Set” button 3. In the window that opens, give your Action Set a descriptive name, for example, “Field Math – Add One to Counter Field”, and select “Send An HTTP Post To Another Server”. 4. Put the Any Text Anywhere Building Block URL in the Post URL field, when it appears.

Notice that there are no field pairs to define in this dialog box. The only way to include instructions on what you want done with the Any Text Block script is to add them (using the proper format) to the Post URL itself as a query string.
A query string starts with “?” after the URL and includes the same key value pairs you created in the http post snippet.
Eachkey value pairis separated from the next one in the query string by & and there is an “=” between each key and value.
See next section for an example of how to construct the complete URL for the action set

5. Save the Action Set

Example URLs for Saved Action Sets

Example URLs

How To Construct A Post URL With Query String For A Saved Action Set

To send run Any text Anywhere from an Action Set, exactly as we did from the HTTP Post Snippet in Campaign Builder, we would construct the query stringstring as follows:

http://yourdomain.com/scripts/PocketDeveloper/Blocks/AnyText/anytext.php?textToSave=Contact.Phone3&saveTo=Contact.Phone1

Look at this url. We know it looks long and scary but don’t let that intimidate you. query strings are pretty easy to decode, once you know what you are looking at, and very useful. The query string is color coded, to make easier to pick out the component parts:

The post url (black) is

http://yourdomain.com/scripts/PocketDeveloper/Blocks/AnyText/anytext.php

The URL is followed by a ? , which tells the server what follows are parameters to be processed by the script at this URL
The text to be copied comes from textToSave=Contact.Phone3

(Note that field names do not have tildes around them, when you are constructing query strings for Action Sets. Also, there is no need to include Contact ID. Tht is sent automatically)

The saveTo field is saveTo=Contact._Contact.Phone1
Each of these are called Key Value Pairs and they are separated by a &

Just as with our HTTP Post Snippet in the Campaign Builder, if this URL was run against Herb Jones’ record, using an Action Set, it would write 214-509-7000 to Phone 1. Here are some additional example URLs:

http://yourdomain.com/scripts/PocketDeveloper/Blocks/AnyText/anytext.php?textToSave=Fixed%20Value&saveTo=_MyCustomField

Result: “Fixed Value” saved to _MyCustomField
Notice, in a query string, when setting a fixed value, you must use ‘%20’ to denote a space. (e.g New%20Client). In the HTTP POST Snippet, Infusionsoft takes care of the URL encoding automatically.

http://yourdomain.com/scripts/PocketDeveloper/Blocks/AnyText/anytext.php?textToSave=_SomeCustomField&saveTo=_SomeOtherCustomField

Where: _SomeCustomField = My Field Value
Result: “My Field Value” saved to _SomeOtherCustomField

Pro Tips

Pro Tip #1: Use Field Math As A Counter

Do you stash data in custom fields or tags, instead of using custom fields in Opportunities, Companies or Orders, because the data wasn’t accessible as a merge field?

You can use Any Text Anywhere to temporarily copy text, from fields in Opportunities, Companies, Orders, and Referral Partners, to fields in the Contact. Merge it into an email template or http post. Then, use Any Text Anywhere to set those stash fields in the contact record back to blank

Pro Tip #2: Copy Sequences From One Campaign To Another

Don’t forget that you can copy Sequences from one Campaign to another.

If you create this as a standalone Sequence in your Campaign, meaning the only thing in the Sequence is your Any Text Anywhere HTTP Post Snippet, you can easily copy this, when needed, to a different Campaign, or elsewhere within the same Campaign and just change the field names as necessary.

Pro Tip #3: Use Advanced Merge Field Notation

Up until now, it has not been possible to merge information from fields in Opportunities, Tasks, Appointments, Orders and Invoices. That is because these are what as known“one-to-many”. For any one contact, there could be multiple opportunities, tasks, etc.

To solve this problem, we have created an Advanced Merge Field Notation. This allows Pocket Developer Building Blocks to pluck information from a specific field in a specific one-to-many record and use it as a Building Block Parameter.

For more information on Advanced Merge Field Notation, please see the online documentation at http://theapiguys.com/blog-post/advanced-merge-field-notation-infusionsoft-documentation/

Pro Tip #4: Chaining Pocket Developer Building BlocksTM

Once you begin using Pocket Developer Building Blocks, you will realize they become even more powerful when you chain Building Blocks together.

That is, once your first Building Block is done, the result is passed to another block and used instead of a merge field or constant.

For example. imagine you want to send a text message to one of your employees about an Opportunity. You want to include the name of the Opportunity in your text.

You could do this as three different HTTP Posts. The first would use Any Text Anywhere to put the name of the Opportunity in a temporary custom field. The second would use a Send Text Building Block and merge the value of the temporary field. The third would use Any Text Anywhere again to set the temporary field back to blank.

Or you could save all those steps and chain Any Text Anywhere with Send Text and do it all in one step …

How To Chain Pocket Developer Building Blocks

To chain Building Blocks, you will add an optional Key Value pair.

The Key is called request and the value is a URL with query string for a different block.
Example request URL:

http://yourdomain.com/scripts/PocketDeveloper/Blocks/AnyText/anytext.php?textToSave=Opportunity.OpportunityTitle.last&request=http://yourdomain.com/scripts/PocketDeveloper/Blocks/TwilioText/twiliotext.php?message=Reminder%3A%20{result}%20is%20due%20today&sendTo=214-509-8500&apiKey=12345ABCD98765

Where: Opportunity.OpportunityTitle.last = “Best Opportunity Ever”
Result: “Reminder: Best Opportunity Ever is due today” is sent to http://yourdomain.com/scripts/PocketDeveloper/Blocks/TwilioText/twiliotext.php and merged into the message
When chaining two Pocket Developer Building Blocks together, the saveTo pair is optional for the first block. You may choose to pass the result of the first block to the second block without saving it in an Infusionsoft record.
Notice the : and spaces in message=Reminder%3A%20{result}%20is%20due%20today are represented by the symbols %3A and %20. This is called URL Encoding. All spaces and symbols must be URL encoded in a query string. It is not necessary in a HTTP Post snippet because Infusionsoft takes care of that for you. You can find a complete list of punctuation, symbols and their corresponding URL codes at http://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_urlencode.asp

Troubleshooting

To confirm Any Text Anywhere is working properly in your application, set up a new Campaign in Infusionsoft. Add one Tag Goal with a new tag, such as Run Post. Add one Sequence with an HTTP Post Snippet. Create a simple function like textToSave = myText, saveTo = Contact.Title (remember no tildes). Save and Publish the Campaign. Set up a test user, like Mickey Mouse. Save and Apply the Run Post tag. Wait a minute. When you refresh, if everything is set up properly, MyText should be in the Title field.
If a result is not being saved to the record in Infusionsoft:
- Make sure you are including all required Key Value Pairs.
- Make sure you have removed the tildes (~) in the saveTo Value field.
- Make sure the HTTP POST snippet ran by going to the Contact Record and looking under Campaigns, about halfway down the page. (You can also see Campaigns in Interactive View.) You should see the HTTP Post at the top of Recent Campaign History.
- Make sure the URL in the HTTP Post Snippet is pointing to /scripts/PocketDeveloper/Blocks/AnyText/anytext.php on your server.

Get More Pocket Developer Building Blocks^TM

The more Pocket Developer Building Blocks you have, the more cool things you can do in Campaign Builder. The following blocks have been released or will be soon.

Any Date, Any Format, Anywhere – give the block any date, in any format (e.g. next Monday). It will convert to any valid date/time format and store in a date or date/time field (coming soon)

Any Text Anywhere – copy and store text from another field, set a field to a specified text string, or set the value to blank
Any Opportunity to Any Stage – finds Opportunities for a Contact based on criteria you specify and changes the Opportunity Stage (coming soon)
Basic Math – add, subtract, multiply and divide Infusionsoft field values (coming soon)

Combine Fields – combine the value of two fields (concatenate) and store the result (coming soon)

Counter – increment or decrement a field by a specified number when run (coming soon)

Field Math – do math using up to 52 fields and constants and store the result in a field

GoToWebinar Integration – retrieve webinars, register contact, save webinar information in the contact record, and check and tag attendance ld (coming soon)

Multiple File Uploads – Upload one or more files to the contact’s filebox

Send A Text (TelAPI) – send a SMS message using TelAPI (coming soon)

Send A Text (Twilio) – send a SMS message using Twilio (coming soon)

Total Purchases – calculate the total purchases for a contact. You specify whether to pull only paid invoices or all (coming soon)

Don’t see a Building Block you need? Find out how you can sponsor a Building Block for the good of all Infusiondom.

Dunne, Foryoo & Phast Implementations^TM

We also have a number of Dunne, Foryoo & Phast implementations for projects that are just a little too “squishy” for Pocket Developer. Implementations can generally be completed in 24 hours or less. Browse the list for currently available Implementations.

Glossary of Terms

Action Set: a series of actions that are used together. Generally call from an Action Dropdown menu

Chaining : using results of one block in another block. The result of the initial Building Block is passed the a second block by using the Requestparameter.

contactID: This is the contact Id for the contact record where fields will be retrieved (if any) and where the result of the formula evaluation will be stored.

Infusionsoft: a powerful small business automation tool

Key/Value Pair: a parameter name and value passed to the server by a HTTP Post or URL query string

Name/Value Pair: a parameter name and value passed to the server by a HTTP Post or URL query string

One-To-Many: a relationship between records in a database where one record in one table could relate to more than one records in another table. For example, the relationship between Contacts and Opportunity is one-to-many because a single Contact could have multiple Opportunities.

Query String: the part of a URL that contains data to be sent to the location identified in the url. A post url contains location information followed by a “?” and what comes after that is the query string.

Request: This is the chained Building Block.. The merge field {result} can be placed anywhere within the URL to include the result of the first Building Block. This allows you to pass the value to another script/block.

saveTo: This is the merge field where the result of the formula will be stored, such as _ArenaHandicap or _CustomField1. (Optional if using ‘request’)

“&”: goes between each key value pair in a url (concatentation)

“?”: goes between the domain and the query string in a URL

Demo Video

Frequently Asked Questions

Jul 29 2014

Field Math – Quick Start Guide

Installing the Plug-In

You should have installed your Infusionsoft Pocket Developer plug-in using the instructions provided when you purchased the plug-in.

If, for any reason, you have not installed your Pocket Developer plug-in, follow these simple instructions, to learn how.

How Does the Plug-in Work?

Pocket Developer
Field Math Plug-in ^TM
QuickStart Guide

How does this Building Block work?
The Field Math Plug-in gives you the following Infusionsoft superpowers:

→ Create counters, serial numbers, totals, avaerages, build custom reports, dashboards and more

→ Add, subtract, multiply or divide up to 52 fields or constants

→ Use any combination you like (e.g. (total Purchases/numPurchases)*10)
→ Place the result in the output field you specify

Two Ways to Use an API Guys Plug-in^TM

1. In Campaign Builder, add an HTTP Post Snippet to a Sequence within a Campaign.

Doing this allows the Field Math Building Block script to run on each contact in the Campaign individually, as the contact moves through the Campaign.

2. Outside of Campaign Builder, save an Action Set using the Building Block’s POST URL.

This method allows the Field Math Building Block script to be run on lists of contacts.

This method also allows you to run the Building
Block, as a Saved Action Set, on any individual
Contact Record, from within the record, by using the “Select an action → Apply Actions → Run Another Action Set command.

Configuring the HTTP Post Snippet

1. Open an HTTP Post Snippet in a Sequence within your Campaign.
2. In the POST URL field, type :
http://yourdomain.com/scripts/PocketDeveloper/Blocks/FieldMath/fieldmath.php
3. Leave the default Name/Value Pair as contactID and ~Contact.Id~
4. Hover over the end of the first Name/Value Pair field to make the Add (+) and Delete (-) field symbols appear
5. Click the + to add a field
6. In the new fields, type formula in the Name field and type the formula you want the Field Math Building Block to perform in the Value field

For Your Reference:

A formula can be simple or complex
A formula can contain up to 52 different variables (a – z and A – Z)
A formula can add (+), subtract (-), multiply (*) and divide (/) any of the variables
By grouping variables within parentheses, formulas will follow the basic mathematical order of operations, also known as PEMDAS
The variables will be assigned to Merge Fields or constants in the next step
A formula CANNOT contain any spaces
If your formula is complex, you may want to work it out on paper first

NOTE: Everything in an HTTP POST is case sensitive. That includes the URL, the parameters on the left and the field names on the right. If caPitaLizaTion is wrong, your post will not work.

7. For each variable in your formula, you will add either a Merge Field or a constant

Obtain the field names by using the Merge button located on the right of the Post URL. Select the field name the drop down.

You can use any field in the Merge Field drop down that contains a number, including contact, company, owner and referral partner.

Merge Field Rules

You must put a tilde (~) before and after the field name
You must precede the field name with the table name and a period (.)
You must precede a custom field name with an underscore ( _ )
Custom field example for Company: ~Company._myCustomField~
Constants can be any number, including whole numbers or decimals

When a Merge Field is a field name, the script will use the value it finds in that field for that contact

8. Add another Name/Value Pair field. In the Name field, type saveTo. In the Value field, add the merge field where you would like the results of your formula to be stored.

$field-math-http-post$

How To Configure Field Math In A Saved Action Set

To create a Saved Action Set to run in an individual record or on a list:
1. Go to the Infusionsoft Main Menu → CRM → Settings → Action Sets
2. Click the green “Add An Action Set” button
3. In the window that opens, give your Action Set a descriptive name, for example, “Field Math – Add One to Counter Field”, and select Send An HTTP Post To Another Server
4. Put the Field Math Building Block URL in the Post URL field, when it appears

Notice that there are no field pairs to define in this dialog box. The only way to include instructions on what you want done is with the Field Math Block script
Add the instructions (using the proper format) directly to the Post URL as a query string.
A query string starts with “?” after the URL and includes the same key value pairs you created in the HTTP Post Snippet
Each key value pair is separated from the next one in the query string by ( & ) and there is an ( = ) between each key and value

5. Save the Action Set

How to Construct a Post URL with Query Strings For A Saved Action Set

How To Construct A Post URL With Query String For A Saved Action Set

To send run Field Math, from an Action Set, exactly as we did from the HTTP Post Snippet in Campaign Builder, we would construct the query string as follows:

http://yourdomain.com/scripts/PocketDeveloper/Blocks/FieldMath/fieldmath.php?formula=((a+b)/c)*x&a=Contact._ArenaHandicap&b=Contact._ActivityLevel&c=Contact._HighestHandicapAchieved&saveTo=Contact._UmpireRating

This URL looks long and scary but don’t let that intimidate you. Query strings are pretty easy to decode once you know what you are looking at, and they are very useful.

This query string is color coded to make easier to pick out the component parts:

The post url (black) is

http://yourdomain.com/scripts/PocketDeveloper/Blocks/FieldMath/fieldmath.php

The formula is formula=((a+b)/c)*x
The variables are

a=Contact._ArenaHandicap
b=Contact._ActivityLevel
c=Contact._HighestHandicapAchieved
x=10

(Note that field names do not have tildes around them, when you are constructing query strings for Action Sets)

The saveTo field is saveTo=Contact._UmpireRating
Each of these are called Key Value Pairs and they are separated by a &

Just as with our HTTP Post Snippet in the Campaign Builder, if this URL was run against Herb Jones’ record, using an Action Set, it would write the value 57.5 to Umpire Rating.

Demo Video

Use Field Math As A Counter