Inbound and outbound triggers

You can configure the Schedule process to be triggered by an event and to trigger events upon completion. Use Options > Stored Triggers to define triggers, then call the triggers by configuring the Schedule process in a flowchart.

Note: For performance advantages, use the Unica Scheduler to send triggers to Unica Campaign. To learn more about the Scheduler, see the Unica Platform Administrator's Guide.

Inbound triggers: Events that activate the Schedule process

An inbound trigger is an external event that sets a flowchart or campaign in motion. A trigger can be anything that you define. Examples include clicking a website link, receiving an email message, a telemarketer's response indicator, completion of a database upload, or any other defined event.

To specify inbound triggers that activate the Schedule process, configure the Schedule process and select Custom run from the Schedule to run list, then use the Run on trigger(s) option.

The Run on trigger(s) option uses unica_actrg (included with your Unica Campaign installation) to run. To understand how Run on trigger works behind the scenes, it is helpful to look at an example: Example: Run on Trigger.

Outbound triggers: Events activated by the Schedule process

An outbound trigger executes a command line, which can be a batch file or a script. Unica Campaign can run one or more triggers each time the Schedule process activates the trigger names in the Send trigger(s) after each run field. If you specify multiple trigger names, they must be separated by commas.

This function allows you to send an outbound trigger to an executable file. The full path and the name of the file must be defined in the Stored Trigger Definitions dialog. Each time that the Schedule process is activated, Unica Campaign runs the specified executable file.

Using triggers with other scheduling options

Triggers can be used with any other scheduling options or alone. Used in combination, you can, for example, set up a flowchart to run every Monday at 9:00 a.m. as well as every time someone clicks on an internet banner advertisement.

If, for example, you scheduled the flowchart to Run on trigger(s) based on hits on a website, and you also specify a Delay period before each run, the flowchart will not begin until both the event (the Web hit) occurs and the delay period expires.