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How To Use Custom Delay Timer

Summary:

In the How to Use Custom Delay Timer video, 2014 Infusionsoft Partner of the Year, Kim Snider, provides the audience with a succinct and clear demonstration of how Custom Delay Timer can be used to delay a campaign from firing using seconds as the unit to determine the length of delay.

How to Use Custom Delay Timer:

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 00:07 – Video jumps right into the Campaign Builder demo
  • 00:16 – Infusionsoft users would use Custom Delay Timer if, for example, they wanted to build a delay into a sequence but required something shorter than what Campaign Builder naturally has built-in (which is a 15 minute delay)
  • 00:57 – Custom Delay Timer is an HTTP Post plug-in and it gets installed on YOUR server
  • 01:39 – There are two parameters to Custom Delay
    • 01:40 – How many seconds does the delay need to be (delayFor)?
    • 01:45 – A unique call name (callName)
  • 02:00 – Following every delay  there needs to be an API Goal
    • 02:17 – Looking at the Goal you can see the App Name (which is also in the URL) and the callName
    • 03:15 – Think of an API Goal as having a the same function as a tag; the only difference is that with a tag goal you must access the contact record to apply the tag
  • 03:38 – Kim demonstrates how this works in practice
  • 05:32 – The API Goal is particularly useful if you make a number of calls to external 3rd party integration
  • 06:07 – Checking to see if Custom Delay Timer worked properly

Universal Delay Timer – Quickstart Guide

Installing the Plug-In

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.

Configuring the HTTP Post Snippet

Configuring the HTTP POST Snippet

scheduleCall

WarningNOTE: 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.

URL for the POST action

http://theapiguys.com/scheduleCall    or    http://theapiguys.com/scheduleDelay

Take Note: this particular plug-in is not like our others, we host it. Since we manage the automated system which is continuously in-taking and processing calls, you should not specify your domain in this POST URL as you might in our other plug-ins.

Required Name Value/Pairs

appName

  • The application name that will be queried when invoking the API Goal
  • Your application name can be found in the URL used to access your Infusionsoft account. e.g. http://APPNAME.infusionsoft.com

callName

  • The “Call Name” of the API Goal as specified within Campaign Builder
    Note: The “Integration Name” of the API Goal should always be your application name (as used for the appName field)

date

  • This field should contain one of the following:

1. A date or date & time which is structurally valid along common standards, such as “January 1, 2014 1:04 PM” or
“01/01/2014 01:04:33 PM” or “January 1st, 2014” or “01/01/2014” etc
2. The text “today” or “now” which will result in using the current date
3. A custom field that is holding a date or date/time value

Note: Only the date will be extracted from date/time values. Also, if you include a supported timezone code in your date value, please make sure it is using all capital letters (unless it’s an identifier), and that it appears as the last item in the date field. This will be overridden by any timezone values in the time or timezone parameters, if supplied. If no timezones are designated, assume that all dates are in Eastern Time as is the standard with Infusionsoft.

Optional Name Value Pairs

time

  • This field should contain one of the following:

1. A time or date & time which is structurally valid along common standards, such as “January 1, 2014 1:04 PM” or “01/01/2014 01:04:33 PM”
2. The text “now” which will result in using the current time
3. A custom field that is holding a date or date/time value such as Anniversary, Birthday, or _MyCustomDate

Note: Only the time will be extracted from date/time values. Also, if you include a supported timezone code in your time value, please make sure it is using all capital letters (unless it’s an identifier), and that it appears as the last item in the time field. This will be overridden by any timezone values in the timezone parameter, if supplied. If no timezones are designated, assume that all times are in Eastern Time as is the standard with Infusionsoft.

adjustment

  • The “adjustment” field should provide a relative date/time format string that complies with the following documentation: http://www.php.net//manual/en/datetime.formats.relative.php
  • Some valid examples of this value are “+5 weeks” or “second month” or “last day of next month” or “yesterday noon” or “+2 hours” etc

timezone

  • When the date & time fields are not based on Eastern Time, the user may designate the appropriate originating timezone with any of the supported timezone codes/identifiers specified in the “Supported Timezone Codes” section.
  • Timezone abbreviations should always be in all capital letters, unless using identifiers. If no timezone is supplied, it is assumed to be Eastern

convertToTZ

  • In the event that the user would prefer to have a time automatically adjusted to some other timezone, they may supply a timezone code/identifier within this parameter following the same rules that apply to the timezone parameter above.
  • Adjustments made to the date/time with the “adjustment” parameter are made after the timezone conversion is completed.

saveKeyTo

  • Scheduled delay calls can be deleted at a future date by making reference to a specific “key” or ID that is assigned to each call. To allow for such an event, the user may specify a field in which to store the scheduled call’s “key” for future usage (see: Deleting a Scheduled Call)
  • The “saveKeyTo” parameter should contain this storage field name, which can be any standard Infusionsoft field or custom field, in any valid table, and as usual does support our Advanced Merge Field Notation.

groupName

  • Also related to the management and deletion of scheduled calls is the “groupName” parameter. By specifying a particular group name, the end-user of our plug-in can delete multiple scheduled calls within one request to our deletion service URL (see: Deleting a Scheduled Call).
  • The “groupName” parameter will be stored along with each scheduled call within our system.
  • Be mindful of the fact that grouping of scheduled calls should be handled with care to avoid the unintended deletion of some scheduled calls by overzealous grouping.

override

  • Any contact ID to be used in override scenarios. Overriding creates an accessor to another contact’s data, other than the data associated with the current contact.
  • To utilize override data, use Override.Field or ~Override.Field~ notation in place of the traditional Contact.Field or ~Contact.Field~ notation
Deleting a Scheduled Call

Deleting a Scheduled Call

The deletion of a scheduled call is similar to the addition, or scheduling, of the initial call. Configuring the HTTP POST action is relatively more straight forward, but does require you read the scheduling instructions. If you haven’t read those yet, please see “Configuring the HTTP Post Snippet.”

The URL to specify within your POST action “POST URL” parameter is:

http://theapiguys.com/deleteCall         or         http://theapiguys.com/deleteDelay

There are two approaches to referencing the call or calls you’d like to delete.

  • The first approach is to reference one individual scheduled call by its “key.” This key should already be stored somewhere within your Infusionsoft application, likely within a particular contact’s record who has already went through the scheduling process and supplied a standard or custom contact field to the “saveKeyTo” parameter.

deleteByKey

  • The second approach involves making reference to a particular “groupName” that you’ve defined during the scheduling process. Any call that was scheduled with a “groupName” will be deleted if so requested.

deleteByGroupName

  • A combination of both key and groupName can be supplied to the deletion service, and all relevant scheduled calls will be deleted

deleteByKeyAndGroupName

Supported Timezone Codes

Supported Timezone Codes

In the event you can’t find a timezone for your region within the list below, you may also use any of the timezone identifiers supplied at this PHP documentation page; some examples of these identifiers are America/New_York, Canada/Atlantic, etc.

United States
Code Timezone, State, or Region Notes
ETUS Eastern Time No exclusions
CTUS Central Time No exclusions
MTUS Mountain Time Excluding Arizona
AZUS Arizona (No DST) No exclusions
PTUS Pacific Time No exclusions
ATUS Alaska Time No exclusions
HTUS Hawaii/Aleutian Time Excluding Honolulu
HONOUS Honolulu No exclusions
Australia
Code Timezone, State, or Region Notes
WTAU Western Australia Time; Western Australia Excluding Eucla
EUAU Eucla, Australia Time; Western Australia No exclusions
NCTAU North Central Australia Time; Northern Territory No exclusions
SCTAU South Central Australia Time; South Australia No exclusions
NETAU North Eastern Australia Time; Queensland No exclusions
SETAU South Eastern Australia Time;
New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania		 No exclusions
New Zealand
Code Timezone, State, or Region Notes
NZ New Zealand Time No exclusions
Europe
Code Timezone, State, or Region Notes
WTEU Western European Time Excluding Iceland
CTEU Central European Time No exclusions
ETEU Eastern European Time No exclusions
ICEEU Iceland (No DST) No exclusions
Canada
Code Timezone, State, or Region Notes
PTCA Pacific Time; Yukon and British Columbia No exclusions
MTCA Mountain Time;
part of Nunavut Northwest Territories,
Alberta, Saskatchewan		 No exclusions
CTCA Central Time;
part of Nunavut, Manitoba, some of Ontario		 No exclusions
ETCA Eastern Time;
most of Ontario, Quebec, Baffin Island		 No exclusions
ATCA Atlantic Time; Nova Scotia, New Brunswisk No exclusions
NTCA Newfoundland Time No exclusions
Demo Video

Demo Video

Advanced Merge Field Notation

Advanced Merge Field Notation

This Pocket Developer plug-in can use our Advanced Merge Field Notation anywhere a merge field is allowed. Advanced Merge Field Notation allows you to use merge fields from any table, e.g. Opportunity, Invoice, Company, Referral, Appointment, etc. It also allows you to Filter, Count, Max, Min, Compare, filter by IsEmpty and other advanced functionality.

For example, you may want to delay based on the date an an opportunity is expected to close or an appointment date and time. You can do this using Advanced Merge Field Notation.

See the Advanced Merge Field Notation documentation for more details.

Pre-Fetch

Pre-Fetch

This Pocket Developer plug-in can build advanced data sets using our pre-fetch functionality. Pre-fetch allows you to find one piece of information, such as an ID, and pass it along to get to the exact piece of information you need.

For example, you may pre-fetch the Id of an opportunity owner before using it to get the date of the next appointment with the opportunity owner from the ContactAction table, to send a reminder email. This reduces the number of post snippets in a campaign and eliminates having to store a value in a field for the next step.

See the Pre-Fetch documentation for more details.

Contact Override

Contact Override

This Pocket Developer plug-in can merge information related to a contact other than the one going through the campaign, using our contact override functionality.

Imagine you do marriage counseling, for example. You may want to delay a reminder email, to a spouse, based on the appointment date in the record of the other spouse. You can do this, using Contact Override, with our Advanced Merge Field Notation.

See the Contact Override documentation for more details.

Pro Tips

Pro Tips

  1. Universal Delay Timer should always be used in an HTTP POST snippet, from Campaign Builder, and should always be the last snippet in a sequence. To avoid unintended consequences, always give the API Goal triggered by Universal Delay Timer a unique callName.
  2. You can configure the Universal Delay Timer so contacts are not “in” the campaign, during the delays, by not connecting the timer goal to the sequence before it. This can be useful with long campaigns that email someone multiple times or campaigns that loop.
Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Can’t I do the same thing with an Infusionsoft field timer?

A. Field timer only gives you access to date fields in the Infusionsoft contact record. Universal Delay Timer allows you to use any field, in any table (e.g. Opportunity, Invoice, Company, Referral, Appointment, etc.) that represents a valid date.

Infusionsoft’s field timer requires the date to be contained in a date field. Universal Delay Timer can take a date in any format, including text (e.g next Thursday or September 13)

Infusionsoft’s field timer also does not allow the time to be set dynamically from a field. It is a drop-down in the timer. With Universal Delay Timer, the time field can also be any field, in any table, representing a time.

Custom Delay Timer – Quickstart Guide

Installing the Plug-In

Installing the Plug-In

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

Configuring the HTTP Post Snippet

Configuring the HTTP Post Snippet

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

sequence

2. Open the HTTP Post snippet and configure as follows:

name_value_pairs

WarningNOTE: 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.

 

  • URL: http://yoursite.com/scripts/PocketDeveloper/Blocks/CustomDelay/customdelay.php
  • contactId => ~contact.Id~ (do not change)
  • callName => add a name that is unique to this Delay Snippet e.g., PDWakeUp23521
  • delayFor => number of seconds you want to delay

NOTES: Remember, Name/Value pairs are case-sensitive. If you put the same callName in multiple places, even in multiple campaigns, you could get unintended consequences!

3. Copy the name you created for callName and close the HTTP Post snippet. Custom Delay Timer POST snippets should always be the last thing in that sequence

Configuring the The API Goal

Configuring the API Goal

4. Drag out any Goal from the Toolbox. Give it a name, like Wake Up or Resume Sequence.

5. 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)

api_call

6. Configure the Goal as follows:

  • Integration => your Infusionsoft app name
  • Call Name => name you used and copied from the HTTP POST Snippet, e.g. PDWakeUp23521

config_api

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

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

connection

Demo Video

Demo Video

How To Solve 101 Everyday Infusionsoft Challenges – Pocket Developer

How to download and install the free Custom Delay Timer block is in the video beginning about 19:00.

Here is a link to how to set that up in Campaign Builder (also covered in video):
http://theapiguys.com/blog-post/infusionsoft-delay-timer-less-than-15-minutes/

And don’t forget about the one year of Zapier I am giving away … that is explained at about 11 minutes in.

One of the things I have realized is that Pocket Developer can do so many things … almost anything, really. And that is what makes it so difficult to explain.

So, I came up with this idea:


Do you have something you want to do in Infusionsoft but don’t know how to do it? Anything… anything at all??

Schedule 30 minutes with me. I will tell you how you can do it with Pocket Developer.

Here is the link to schedule a call with me. No strings attached. Worst case scenario you will learn something …

 

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

Custom Delay Timer Building Block for InfusionsoftCHALLENGE:

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.

sequence

2. Configure the HTTP POST snippet as follows:

name_value_pairs

cautionNOTE: 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.

hazardANOTHER 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)

api_call

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.

config_api

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.

connection

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