SFTP Sync (EAB Notes)

James Mayr
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Overview

This feature allows institutions to connect their Mainstay data to a third-party platform, specifically, EAB. This enables an outbound notes sync, based on messages. This is similar to the Conversations export, but formatted specifically for EAB.

Partners using EAB to store student data can export message history from Mainstay to EAB as "Notes". This integration generates a CSV file with specific columns on a schedule, and sends this to the EAB SFTP server, where it is ingested and converted into Note entries attached to student records.

 

 

Setup

  1. Navigate to the Settings > SFTP Outbound page. (Note: this requires admin permissions.)
  2. Click + New Integration and select New EAB Notes Export.
  3. On the configuration screen, enter a Name and Description for your integration instance. This will appear in the list, but has no affect on the actual data sync. Note that you can enable or disable the integration at any time using the Enabled toggle.
  4. Next, enter your SFTP server credentials.
    1. Username, Host, and Port are required.
    2. You must enter either a Password or Private Key (and optionally a Passphrase). This information is determined by your external system.
    3. Your external system may also require files to come from specific IP addresses. If this is the case, add Mainstay's IP addresses to your Allow List: 34.197.84.241 and 3.233.244.171
    4. Click Test Connection to verify you have correctly input all credentials.
  5. In the next section, optionally add a Directory for where Mainstay should send the file. You can also customize the File Prefix. (Note that all file names will have a timestamp appended to this prefix.)
  6. The Schedule is divided into 3-hour blocks. We recommend exporting contacts once a day, during off-hours (such as 12am - 3am). (Note that all times are in EST.)
  7. In the Data Configuration section, you can filter which contact records and messages should sync to your external system.
    • Message Channel: select at least one communication channel
    • Message Type: select at least one kind of message
    • Message Direction: select at least one direction of messages (incoming = from the learner, outgoing = from the AI agent or Live Chat agent)
  8. Complete the EAB-specific field configuration.
    • GradesFirst Import Version: This number is determined by your EAB configuration.
    • Institution ID: This is the ID of your EAB institution.
    • Group ID: This may just be "group_id".
    • Deduplicate Contacts?: If this is checked, then each learner will only appear in the file once, vs. appearing for each message sent/received during the timeframe.
    • Is Private?: This controls whether the Note is private in EAB.
    • Is Student Viewable: This controls whether the Note is visible to learners in the EAB portal.
    • Show on Student Report: This controls whether the Note appears on EAB reports.
    • Created by: This will appear as the creator of the Note in EAB.
    • Note Reasons: This metadata will appear on the Note in EAB.
    • Note Body: This is the actual Note content in EAB. You can various placeholders, which will be converted into the actual content (such as {date} becoming the date of the message, or {url} becoming a link to the actual message in the Mainstay Conversations tool).
  9. Make sure to click Save at the top after configuring your integration.

 

 

Integrations List

  1. After creating an integration instance, you can see a list of all outbound SFTP syncs.
  2. Click the Enabled toggle to turn this sync on or off.
  3. Click the ... overflow menu to see available actions:
    • Edit: Return to the configuration screen to make changes.
    • Delete: Remove this integration.

 

 

Recent Runs

Each time an outbound SFTP sync runs, an entry will be added to the Recent Runs table. Note that the EAB Notes export will only include new messages since the last run.

 

You can filter this table by the specific Integration (name), the Started date and time, and the Status.

 

Each row includes the following information:

  • Integration: the custom name for this integration instance (see above)
  • Type: Contacts, Conversations, or EAB Notes
  • # Rows: the count of rows in the exported CSV file
  • Started: the date and time that the integration run began
  • Finished: the date and time that the integration run completed (or failed)
  • Status: Success | Running | Skipped | Fail
    • a Skipped run indicates that there were no rows to send
    • a Failed run will indicate an error reason on hover

 

 

File

The file generated by this process will include the following fields:

  • note: the value will always be "note"
  • add: the value will always be "add"
  • Primary User ID: the CRM ID of the contact (which must be the EAB ID)
  • Group ID: the "Group ID" from the configuration wizard
  • Is Private?: Y|N
  • Is Student Viewable: Y|N
  • Show on Student Report: Y|N
  • Created on: datestring
  • Created by: the "Created by" from the configuration wizard
  • Note Body: the computed "Note Body" from the configuration wizard
  • URL: a link to this particular message in the Mainstay Conversations page
  • Note Reasons: the "Note Reasons" from the configuration wizard

However, EAB is not expecting these columns to have headers, so they will be unlabeled, but always in this order. Instead, the first row will always be just two columns:

  • GradesFirst Import Version= followed by the value from the configuration wizard
  • Institution ID= followed by the value from the configuration wizard

 

 

Troubleshooting

Here are some tips for resolving common issues with the SFTP sync.

 

SFTP Access

The first thing to make sure is that Mainstay is able to access your external system via SFTP. Use the Test button in the SFTP Server section (Setup step 4.4). If your external system has an "Allow List" for IP addresses, make sure to add Mainstay's IP addresses (Setup step 4.3).

 

Filtering

If you're not seeing the messages you expect, double-check your Data Configuration (Setup step 7). Use the Conversations tool and/or the Conversations Report to verify that there are actually messages that meet your criteria. Note that the EAB Notes export will only include new messages since the last run.

 

Data / Field Mapping

The file Mainstay sends over will include the fields indicated above. However, EAB is very particular about the formatting of these fields, so make sure the "EAB Fields" section (Setup step 8) is completed correctly. If you're not seeing the data you expect, make sure you're correctly mapping it in your system and storing it where you intend.

 

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