An exciting new capability within Eloqua that you may have heard mention of a couple of times is the Cloud Connector concept. Essentially, Cloud Connectors allow anyone in the Eloqua community to build their own steps within Program Builder. If you're interested, the instructions for building Cloud Connectors are here, but for now, we'll focus on installing one that's already built.
Here's a step by step guide to getting your first Cloud Connector installed and ready to go.
1) Enable Account
First you need to have your account set up correctly. Please ensure that your company is enabled for API usage and that the user account you plan on using is enabled as an API user. To confirm your company has the API enabled please contact an Eloqua Product Specialist at 1 866 327 8764. If you are a customer administrator for Eloqua you can go to the user management tab and ensure that the user has the API User role enabled as well as one of Advanced User - Marketing or Basic User - Marketing User Role. Please feel free to contact an Eloqua Product Specialist if you require assistance setting up an account.
2) Find A Connector
With an API-enabled, account, you're now ready to set up a connector. If you have built one already, or have a third party you're working with, great. For this example, we'll use one of the connector prototypes that Eloqua has built, available at cloudconnectors.eloqua.com, but the same sequence of steps is used for whatever connector you're looking to install.
Each connector is identified by a unique code, and a URL. These should either be displayed in the connector's setup screen, or provided to you by your Cloud Connector provider. You will need to copy the Unique Code and Configuration URL into Eloqua.
3) Install Connector In Eloqua
To install this Cloud Connector in Eloqua go to System Management and you will see the Cloud Connector Manager on the left side. (Setup -> Management -> System Management -> Cloud Connector Manager)
Name your Cloud Connector in the service name field, copy the Configuration URL from cloudconnectors.eloqua.com into the service URL field and copy the Unique Code from the provider into the Unique ID field. Click add - you have now created a Cloud Connector!
4) Implement Connector
With this Cloud Connector installed, it will now be an available option within a step in Program Builder. You can use it once, twice, or as many times as you like, as you would a normal Program Builder step. To implement the connector go to the Program Builder module in Eloqua. In a program you need only create a new step and set the default action to Cloud Connector. Then use the drop down menu to select the Cloud Connector you have created.
5) Configure Connector
While editing the default action of your cloud connector step you will need to configure the external program that the Cloud Connector connects to. Simply click on the configure button, login and a window will open that connects you to the login for the Cloud Connector's configuration screen.
You have now installed and configured your first Cloud Connector!
6 comments:
How long can we use this prototype? We are interested in using the form submit call and have it working perfectly with blackstarfish.com. We're not sure if we would have to re-create this somewhere?
Pratik,
we're supporting the functionality, no problem. Go ahead and use it, it'll be there.
Best,
Steve
Hi Steve,
Im not seeing anything under the 'Configuration' or 'Field Mapping' tabs at present.
Ive set up the cloud connector as the first step in a dummy program Im testing, would that be causing any issues?
Cheers
Chris
Chris,
as mentioned off-line, this issue should be resolved (just clarifying here for anyone reading the comments...)
Hi Steve,
Do you have a list of limitations for the form cloud connector?
How does it deal with limitations if they are hit, how often does it run, etc.?
Thanks,
Ben
Ben,
it goes through the API, so typical limits. The connectors do throttle and recover from situations where they hit rate limits (queries per second, etc).
Steve
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