XM Campaign Product Properties

Custom URL is a global property that is mandatory for XM Campaign products only, when a web touchpoint is included in the campaign. This property cannot be deleted, but its basic parameters can be edited.

The Custom URL property is the Circle instance ID of the order, represented in a friendly form. It is displayed only if a web touchpoint is included in the Circle template. The instance ID is visible to the Storefront customer in the website's URL. Its' name can be edited.

What is an instance ID?

The XM Campaign product that is sold in uStore is built in Circle as a template. Every order placed in the Storefront creates in Circle an individual instance based on that template. This instance has a unique ID, which is the identifier of the order. The instance ID is made up of a random set of characters generated by Circle.

Even though each order has a unique instance ID, the website of the template (if one exists in the campaign) is shared amongst the instances. To differentiate between the URLs of each instance/order, the instance ID is inserted into the URL.

A corporate named ABC sells an XM Campaign product to all its branches, using a template for a summer sale campaign.

When an order is made by ABC's New York branch, the default URL of John Smith (one of its recipients) will include the instance ID in the form of a random set of characters, and will look as follows: www.ABC.com/DY56Gt30/John.Smith

Instead of being a random set of characters, ABC's New York branch may define the instance ID to be NewYork, making the URL much friendlier: www.ABC.com/NewYork/John.Smith

2. In the Display Name field, you may replace the property's label - Custom URL - with a different label. The value provided by the Storefront user for this property will be incorporated in the URL.

3. In the Description field appears a description of the property that will be visible to the Storefront user next to the property name in the form of a What's this? tooltip. You may edit or remove it.

– The system validates that the value entered by the customer is indeed unique. The customer will not be able to continue otherwise.

– In the Storefront's Finalize step, the unique value chosen by the customer for the Custom URL property is saved for 20 minutes. You can change the number of minutes in the Global Configurations table.

Date and Time Variables

Custom date and Custom time are product properties that are brought into uStore from Circle. Circle expects a value for each of them.

Date and time in Circle are used for automation of production. The buyer of the campaign should provide these values according to his campaign's timeline.

In a wedding campaign, for example, which includes an invitation, an RSVP website and a thank you for attending email, custom date and custom time can reflect the following:

If a default value was set in Circle for these properties, it will remain as the default value in uStore. You can change this value in the Back office. You may wish to allow the Storefront customer to change it, or define it as non-visible to the customer, in which case the user will not be able to change its' value.

These properties are mandatory, they cannot be removed and a value must be defined for them.

The date and time values will be sent to Circle together with the Storefront user's time zone. This time zone will be set as the instance's time zone.

The date and time variable properties are of the Date Time Picker input control. For more information, see Date Time Picker.

One of Circle's main strengths when it comes to production of touchpoints is the ability to schedule their automatic production. This is done using the Scheduling functionality. For automatic production to take place, the touchpoint's date and time values must be defined.

The date and time can be defined locally for each touchpoint in the template itself, or can be defined as project parameters, in which case they can be used in multiple touchpoints. These parameters are placed in Circle in the Project Parameters area.

The default name of the date and time project parameters is Custom date and Custom time. This name can be changed.

When defining scheduling for a template, it is possible to use these project parameters. Parameters that are used in the scheduling of touchpoints automatically become properties in uStore. It is therefore possible to provide them a value, either in the Storefront by the customer, or in the Back office by the administrator.

In the above example (wedding campaign), the date on which invitations are sent (both print and email) can be defined as a project parameter in Circle. This date can be used in the invitation's print and email touchpoints, thus making it a property in uStore. In this way each customer of the campaign can enter the required date.