Interaction workflow behaviors related to configuration and copy/paste activities

Overview

This page documents the behavior of interaction workflows related to configuration options as well as copy/paste and how that impacts configured metadata and inputs to downstream objects. The goal is to outline some of the expected behavior when performing these activities in interaction workflows. This information will allow you to understand the expected behavior and determine if something you are experiencing in your environment is what is expected or not. If not, it may be grounds for greater clarification or validation on the process that was taken to determine if there is a bug or enhancement that may be need to be filed.

This is not going to be a completely exhaustive list of potential workflow configurations and changes, but it will be a reasonable subset.

List of scenarios

This table lists scenarios and the expected behavior for quick reference.

One assumption of this list is that copying objects across different interactions vs. in the same interaction will generate the same results.
This table doesn’t include behavior of changes for running interactions, only for those that were copy/pasted.
Below, in the next section, is separate table that lists the high-level behaviors of modifications to audiences being used by active interactions when recuring triggers are used and the selection of the single vs. new workflow instance.

Scenario	Test Subjects	Results	Notes
Does metadata configured in the batch activity stay set when the batch is copied and pasted?	Batch activities	Yes
Do selected inputs on upstream activities remain configured when the activities are all copied and pasted?	All activities that support imports	Yes	Workflow Controls do not get copied, so if they are configured with inputs, they will be lost and need to be reconfigured. If the object that is the source of the inputs is not copied, then the inputs will be lost.
Do offers maintain content when copied and pasted?	Offer activities	Yes
Does metadata configured in batch or overridden values stay configured for a batch when a different audience is selected in the batch?	Batch/Interactive Activity	No	If you change the audience in a batch/interactive activity, then the metadata is set to what is configured in the new audience. Nothing is maintained in the batch activity when the audience is updated.
If you change the audience definition of an audience configured in a batch or interactive activity and make no changes to segmentation, does this cause an error in the interaction workflow?	Batch/Interactive Activity	No Error In Workflow	There will be no error in the workflow if the audience definition is changed; however, note the following about what will happen to metadata in the audience if the definition is changed. The metadata will stay configured if there is a corresponding metadata field in the new audience definition both at the audience and segment level. If you change to an audience definition that doesn’t contain the metadata you have configured previously, and then you realize you made a mistake and you switch back to the old audience definition before you save, then the values configured for the original metadata fields will restore. If you save between selecting the new and then old audience definition, then the metadata will be reset.
If specific inputs are selected from a batch, and the audience is changed for the batch, do downstream inputs stay configured?	Batch/Interactive Activity	No	If you change the audience in a batch/interactive activity that has the segments selected as inputs to downstream activities from the original audience, the input selection will be lost, and the downstream inputs will default to all segments.
If you change the audience definition of an audience configured in a batch or interactive activity and make no changes to segmentation, does this cause any changes with downstream inputs being selected?	Batch/Interactive Activity	No	If you change the audience definition of an audience that is configured in an interaction workflow, and the segments are selected as inputs to downstream activities, there will be no changes to the downstream activities and inputs if the audience has its audience definition changed but segmentation stays the same.
If you set metadata in an offer, will it be maintained if the upstream audience has been changed? This includes segmentation or audience definitions.	Offer	Yes	If the audience is changed or its definition is changed, as long as the metadata field that is configured in the offer is present in the updated audience definition, then the value will be preserved in the offer. If the audience or audience definition is changed to one that doesn’t have a metadata field that matches the one configured in the offer, then the configured value will go away. If you change the audience back to one that has a definition that included the metadata field that was previously configured in the offer, the field will reappear in the offer and be configured with the last value that was entered. This occurs whether the interaction is saved in between configuration changes or not.

Recurring workflow control behaviors

When a recurring interaction workflow is executing in production mode, there are two primary configuration options: single workflow instance and new workflow instance.

Single workflow instance: when a single workflow instance is run…
- The metadata is captured at the time of first execution of the campaign.
- After the first campaign execution, changing the metadata in the audience will not cause any new records or updated records to be written to offer history metadata (OHM) table.
New workflow instance: when the workflow control is configured as a new workflow instance…
- A set of offer history meta records (for each segment/output) is written to the database for every execution of the workflow.
- Each time a workflow executes, the latest version of the audience is loaded by the batch activity and used to generate segments and assign metadata.
- If any activity in the workflow overrides the metadata values, then that is what will be committed to the offer history metadata (OHM) table.
- The latest version of the metadata in the audience or the workflow will be written to OHM each execution.

The table below reflects information related to changes to a workflow with a recurring workflow control that is executing and the underlying audience is changed in one of the listed ways.

Recurring control config	Audience: Add/Remove a segment	Audience: Rename a segment selected for input	Audience: Change audience definition (No failure for metadata changes)
Single workflow instance	Workflow failure	Workflow failure	No workflow failure
New workflow instance each time a trigger fires	No workflow failure	No workflow failure	No workflow failure