Adding new user data sources to Unica Campaign

Organizations can use their own databases and flat files as data sources in Unica Campaign flowcharts. For example, an organization might store customer names and addresses in DB2® and customer purchase history in SQL Server. Other organizations might have a distributed big data system, along with some flat files.

About this task

The person who performs the Unica Campaign installation typically prepares the existing data sources for use with Unica Campaign. Over time, other data sources may become available. This topic explains how to make these additional user data sources available to Unica Campaign. This topic does not pertain to system tables.

Perform the tasks below to make new user data sources available in Unica Campaign. When these tasks are complete, Unica Campaign users can build flowcharts that access data from all configured data sources, including big data such as Apache Hadoop Hive or Amazon Redshift.

Important: This topic provides general information. It does not explain how to prepare individual data sources. For detailed instructions for individual database types, including big data, see the Unica Campaign Installation Guide.

A. Create an ODBC or native connection to each database that will provide user data to Unica Campaign.

The Unica Campaign listener server must have an ODBC or native connection to each database or schema that contains customer user tables.

For instructions, see the Unica Campaign Installation Guide.

For details about supported user database sources, see the Unica Recommended Software Environments and Minimum System Requirements.

B. Import the provided XML template into Unica Campaign.

Unica Campaign provides XML templates to use as the basis for each data source that you create in Unica Campaign.

During installation, at least one XML template was imported (SQL, DB2®, or Oracle) for use by the Unica Campaign system tables. If the user database that you plan to use is of the same type, you do not need to import the XML template again. However, if the template that you need does not exist in Unica Campaign, you must import it. You only have to do this once for each template type that you will use. For example, if you have several Teradata databases that will provide information to Unica Campaign, import the Teradata XML template once. Then, in a later step, you will create two data sources based on that template.

To import a template into Unica Campaign, use the configTool utility:

  • configTool is in <Marketing_Platform_Home>/tools/bin. For more information, Unica Platform Administrator's Guide.
  • XML templates are in <Campaign_Home>/conf. Each template file is named in such a way that you can recognize its purpose (OracleTemplate.xml, SQLServerTemplate.xml, NetezzaTemplate.xml, and so on).
The following example imports OracleTemplate.xml into the default Unica Campaign partition, partition1.
Note: configTool has an extension of .bat for Windows™ and .sh for Unix.

./configTool -i -p "Affinium|Campaign|partitions|partition1|dataSources" –f <Campaign_Home>/conf/OracleTemplate.xml

C. Create and configure a data source in Unica Campaign based on the XML template that you imported.

In this task, you create a new data source based on an XML template, then configure the new data source by filling in the template

Perform this task once for each data source that will provide information to Unica Campaign. For example, if you have two Teradata databases (one that contains contact information and another one that contains purchase history), create two separate datasources based on the Teradata XML template.

  1. In Unica Campaign, choose Settings > Configuration.
  2. Go to Campaign | partitions | partition[n] | dataSources.
  3. Select the desired template.
  4. In the New field, provide a category name that will help you remember which data source this is, such as TD_Customers or DB2_Customers.
  5. Adjust the field values to set the configuration properties for the new user data source.

    The template provides appropriate default values for most of the properties. However, some of the properties do not have default values, such as: ASMUserForDBCredentials, DSN, SystemTableSchema, OwnerForTableDisplay, CustomMacroSchema. You must provide values for your database instance. Additionally, you might need to adjust other properties for your specific database. For details, see Campaign | partitions | partition[n] | dataSources.

  6. Save your changes.
  7. Restart the Unica Campaign listener to make the changes take effect.
Note: If you need to adjust the properties later, choose Settings > Configuration. Each data source that you added in Unica Campaign is listed as <data-source-name> under Campaign | partitions | partition [n] | dataSources.

D. Perform table mapping in Unica Campaign for the new data source.

You must map user tables to make the data accessible in Unica Campaign flowcharts.

Prerequisites:

To map user tables:

  1. Choose Settings > Campaign settings > Manage table mappings. (Or open a flowchart for editing and choose Admin > Tables.)
  2. In the Table Mappings dialog, click Show user tables.
  3. Click New table. The New table definition dialog opens.
  4. Click Next.
  5. Select Map to existing table in selected database.
  6. Select the datasource that you created previously, then click Next.
  7. You are prompted to log in to the database.
  8. Follow the prompts to map the table. For complete instructions, see Mapping and unmapping user tables.

Optionally, store the table mapping in a catalog (.cat) so it is available to all flowcharts. By using a catalog, you avoid mapping the same table again and again across flowcharts. Users can open a flowchart for editing, select Stored table catalogs from the Options menu, and load a stored catalog. They can use any of the user tables in that catalog as flowchart input (for example, as input to a Select process).