The Ingestion Automation Process for File Uploads
To be able to automatically ingest files that you upload for processing (so that LiveRamp does not have to manually intervene each time you upload a new file), we have to create an automation configuration for that particular audience (you might hear us refer to this as an "auto import configuration" or "AIC"). This speeds up and streamlines the ingestion process for your files.
When we set up your audience to receive the first file upload, we configure the following types of aspects:
Whether the files will be column-based files or key-value files
The delimiter the files will use
The field(s) in the file that will be used as the audience key
Whether any fields in the file will be multi-value fields
The identifier data fields that will be included
The input directory and path to pull files from
For input directories that will hold files going to different audiences, the file name regex (the regular expression) tells us which audience to upload the file to. For example, if an audience has been set up with a file name regex of "Acme_Halloween_Campaign_*", any files where the file name starts with "Acme_Halloween_Campaign_" will be ingested into that audience.
Often we will use a file from another of your audiences, or the first file you upload to your new audience, as a "seed" or "template" to create this configuration.
This automation configuration is used during the file inspection step of the ingestion processing stage.
Once this configuration has been enabled, it's very important that subsequent files that are uploaded for that audience stay consistent with the "seed" or "template" configuration. If you upload a file that is not consistent (such as a file with different headers or a different audience key), the file will be paused in the ingestion process until the file is manually mapped to the audience.
If you need to upload a file that does not match the initial automation configuration, create a support case so we can make sure the file is ingested correctly.
Set Up Ingestion Automation for a New Audience
To initiate the creation of this configuration for a new audience, use one of the two available quick cases for "Set Up Audience for First File Upload" (depending on the audience type) to create a support case:
For Activation workflow audiences, use the Activation: Set Up Audience for First File Upload quick case
For Measurement Enablement workflow audiences, use the Measurement Enablement: Set Up Audience for First File Upload quick case
For more information on the information to include in the support case, as well as information on whether to create the case before or after uploading the first file, see "Considerations When Uploading the First File to an Audience".