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Required File Format for Simple Onboard Files

Simple Onboard is a quick and easy way to upload your PII-based data for Activation with LiveRamp. See “Activating Data with Simple Onboard” for more information.

To enable LiveRamp to process your data quickly, Simple Onboard has specific file formatting requirements that must be met:

Warning

Files that do not meet these requirements will be automatically rejected when uploaded. See “Troubleshooting Simple Onboard File Upload Errors” for more information.

  • Files must be 500MB or smaller

  • Files must not contain any fields other than the allowed PII identifier fields listed below, and the file must be named with the name of the segment to be created (file-wide fields only)

  • Files must be column-based and comma-delimited (.csv)

  • Files must contain a header row, with only the allowed header labels listed below

  • If files are compressed (compressing is optional), they must be compressed with gzip (.gz)

  • Files must not be encrypted, as this would not allow us to immediately ingest the file and create a new segment for distribution

  • Unless otherwise superseded by stricter requirements above, files must follow standard LiveRamp file formatting requirements, including the guidelines listed in "Naming Files for Uploading."

Once you’ve made sure that your file is formatted correctly, follow the workflow steps in “Activating Data with Simple Onboard”.

Allowed PII Identifier Types for Simple Onboard Files

Any combination of the following types of PII identifiers can be included in the file, up to the allowed quantity indicated:

Identifier Type

Format(s) Accepted

Allowed Quantity

Name and postal addresses (NAP)

Plaintext

1

Email addresses

Plaintext

Up to 3

MD5 hash

Up to 3

SHA-1 hash

Up to 3

SHA-256 hash

Up to 3

Phone numbers

Plaintext

Up to 3

SHA-1 hash

Up to 3

Allowed Header Labels

The header labels listed below are the only allowed header labels that can be included in the file, with the following guidelines:

  • Match the casing and capitalization of these header labels

  • Do not include headers for unused/empty fields

These sample files can be used as a reference:

Field Type

Allowed Headers

Name and postal address

FIRSTNAME

LASTNAME

ADDRESS1

ADDRESS2 (optional)

CITY

STATE

ZIP

ZIP4 (optional)

Plaintext email address

EMAIL1

EMAIL2

EMAIL3

MD5 hashed email address

MD5EMAIL1

MD5EMAIL2

MD5EMAIL3

SHA-1 hashed email address

SHA1EMAIL1

SHA1EMAIL2

SHA1EMAIL3

SHA-256 hashed email address

SHA256EMAIL1

SHA256EMAIL2

SHA256EMAIL3

Plaintext phone number

PHONE1

PHONE2

PHONE3

SHA-1 hashed phone number

SHA1PHONE1

SHA1PHONE2

SHA1PHONE3

In this section:

Personally identifiable information (such as name and postal, phone number, or email address) which, on its own or when combined with some other data, can be used to identify an individual.

A set of segment data that holds a specific category of values, such as "Car_Owned."

A group of your records that are defined by a specific attribute (a field/value pairing, such as "Gender=female"). For example, a field for "Gender" might contain segments for "Gender=Female" and for "Gender=Male."

A way to send data where all the records in the file are members of one particular segment. The name of the file indicates the segment name for the file-wide field.

A type of file where every row has the same number of fields and the field names are contained in a header row, as opposed to a key/value file.

A character (such as a comma or pipe) that acts as a separator between two values in a data file.

The first row of a column-based file, where the entries of that row indicate the field name for each column.

A field name entry for a particular column of data in a column-based file.