Import block

So many ways to add contacts to your Flow campaign. File import is one of them. It's so easy.

• From the Flow block library, drag & drop the Import block to the Flow canvas.
• Hover over the block to see the settings and delete button.
• Click on the settings button.

The first thing you'll notice once you open the Import block settings would be the drop-down menu, from where you can choose two methods of importing contacts Import Excel or CSV file or Import using API call.

Import Excel or CSV file settings

• Paste the link of your file. (It can be for example Dropbox, One drive or Google drive file).
  Note: The URL setting is required.
• Type in the password or username if the link is password protected with a username, otherwise, leave them blank.
• You'll see a mapping missing note. Click Manage field mapping to start mapping.
• If the first row of the table in your file shows the 
correct names, select the first option, and 
click Next step.
• Map the fields from your file to the Loopify contact fields. If needed you can choose to Ignore a specific field. 
  • You can also +Add as a new campaign field. This means that this field will be created not as a contact field, but as a field-specific for this campaign. The campaign field is saved as either string, number, or array. 
    

    A string is made up of characters and can include words, letters, or phrases. An array can contain a group of values.

    When creating a campaign field, you need to specify the field's type because some of the fields can include more than one type. If you choose an existing contact field, that field already has a selected type, and you don't have to choose.

• Click OK to finish the mapping process.

Note: If you have made changes in your file click to 'Manage field mapping' again and select 'Reload file'. The file will be reloaded with the latest changes and you don't need to change the file URL.

• Connect the File import block with any communication block Email, SMS, or Print.

Note 1: For the Dropbox URL to work, you need to type 1 instead of 0 at the end of your URL. You just swap dl=0 with dl=1. You force the Dropbox link to download.

Note 2: The imported data must define valid Loopify contacts. A valid Loopify contact must include – at minimum – one of three unique identifiers. These identifiers are the contact fields External ID, Mobile, and Email.

Note 3: When importing contacts with international mobile numbers, we suggest numbers be written with a leading '+' instead of '00'. Starting the numbers with '+' would be the best practice, because then the country carriers will decide what to replace the '+' with, based on the country you're calling from.
For example, let's say you have a number from a customer starting with '00385' and try to call it from the US, the call will fail. But if the number starts with '+385' the call will succeed, because then the network will replace the '+' with '011' instead of hardcoded '00'.

After you map your fields, the next step is triggering the Import block so the campaign can start. The campaign can't start without triggering the Import block. Make sure your campaign is ready.

You'll see a toggle and two buttons. That means there are three ways to trigger the File import:

• Turning the toggle ON and then activating your flow.

or using the two buttons:

• Copy API URL - will copy the endpoint URL and with it, you can trigger the import at a moment of your choice.
• Run Import - will simply run the import after your Flow is live.

Note: Deactivating and then reactivating a flow campaign with the File import block will resend the communication to the same contacts.

Some more details:

Import file on Flow activation (toggle ON)

If the toggle is turned on (will become green), it means that the import will be triggered as soon as the flow goes live. This also includes all the repeat processes you might have scheduled. Every repeat will trigger the import.

If the toggle is turned off (grey), the import will not be triggered when going live. If you start your flow like this, you'll see that the Run Import button will become clickable.

Copy API URL

This button will copy the full URL to our API endpoint that triggers the import. You can use this URL whenever you see fit. As soon as this endpoint is hit, manually or with a script - the import will be triggered and the contacts will start receiving communication.

Note: You have to be authorized in our API in order to access the URL. Learn more about Loopify API methods.

Run Import

It does not get any simpler. Clicking this button while your Flow is live will simply trigger the import process and your contacts will receive the communication in line.

Note: If you deactivate or freeze the flow campaign you can't trigger the Import block. 

Read and learn more on how to automize a daily/weekly/monthly import.

Advanced segment synchronization 

If you wish to add your imported contacts to one of your segments, you can do that!

Enter the Import Block settings and click Advanced segment synchronization. When the new window pops up, select the wanted segment from the drop-down menu. All of your imported contacts will be added to the selected segment

If you want to clear the selected segment simply turn the toggle ON.

🚨Very important note🚨: If you turn the toggle ON, all of your other contacts form the selected segment will be removed but not deleted if they are not in the file. Please use with caution. 

If you wish to learn more about the importing and updating segments through the file import block, go ahead and read the Import and update segment values through the API and File Import block article. 

Add Alerts 

If you wish you can add alerts to notify you if the file is successfully imported or is not imported. 

• Click Add Alerts
• A new window will pop up and here toggle ON if you want Loopify to Send an email summary on successful file import or if there is no file to import. 
• Lastly, choose an account user to receive the alert. 

Reload file 

This is used in order to change an already-mapped file. You'll just reload it with any new changes which you can re-map again. If you need to make changes to the file or mapping that you have already imported in the Import Block, you can do that using the Reload file option.

To do that:

• open the file import block settings;
• click Manage field mapping;
• when the mapping window pops up at the bottom you'll find the Reload file option;

Any changes you make to your file will be reloaded in the mapping window. If you have your file hosted on your own server simply make the changes and click 'Reload file.'

If your flow is active, make sure you freeze the Flow first and make the changes.

Tip: If your flow is active you don't have to freeze it to preview the mapping. From the block settings, you can click View mapping and a new window will pop up and show you how your data is mapped with the Loopify fields! 

Tab reports

The summary of the tab reports can be previewed after activating the flow campaign. In an active flow, hover over the block, click the settings button and access the Import block reports through the reports tab. Here you can see the number of contacts that have been imported to your campaign through this block.

There is also a date picker where you can select a specific date range and see the data for the selected period. The pre-set date range is All time.

Note: You can still access the tab reports even after deactivating the flow.

That's all about Import, but there is still more to learn. Quench your thirst for knowledge by reading our other Flow articles. Like the ones about the Communication blocks or Timing & Split. Or both. Your choice.