Address Book

Overview

The Address Book enables the creation of contacts with specific distribution settings and custom parameters. Contacts can be created, edited, or removed directly in the ReportWORQ Address Book User Interface. Address Book contacts can be reused for multiple jobs saving time in the configuration of distribution targets. Contacts are also an optional component of Burst Sets, where a specific contact can be assigned to a portion of the parameter iterations of a job. In addition, all contact details, such as Name, Distribution values, and Custom Fields can be used as Variable Values in the Distribution section of the Job Editor. Each contact must have a unique name. Each contact will automatically display fields for any configured distributors (e.g. Email Address, Slack Channel, SharePoint Site). Custom fields can be added to contacts to store additional metadata which can then be used in the Job Distribution screen. For example, A Manager Custom field could be added to store the email address of the recipient’s manager, which can then be used in the CC section of an email. Adding or deleting a custom field applies to all contacts.

Creating a Contact

Contacts can be created by clicking the '+' button at the bottom left of the Address Book view. At a minimum, a name needs to be provided when creating a new contact. Each contact must have a unique name.

Distribution

Each contact can be assigned a target distribution location for any configured distributor. Distribution values can be used in Burst Sets and are available through the Contact Variable on the Job Editor's Distribution step. If a distributor is not visible, it needs to be configured on the Integrations tab before it can be used in the Address Book. Distribution values are free-form text. However, they need to be valid for the associated distributor to avoid errors during a job run.

Custom Fields

Custom Fields enable the addition of contact-specific information to be used during distribution. This could be a manager's email address, preferred greeting, or additional distribution targets for the user. For example, the job author might require that a contact's manager is emailed a sales report when a job is distributed to a specific contact. A custom field containing the contact's manager can be used as a Contact Variable on the distribution screen to email the contact and the manager. Custom Fields can be deleted by pressing the 'Delete Custom Field' button located on the right-hand side of the Custom Fields section. Deleting a Custom Field will remove it for all contacts.

Contact Mapping

The Contact Mapping feature can be used to dynamically lookup any information tied to a contact. With this feature a wide range of information can be looked up and incorporated into ReportWORQ Jobs based on a user’s data. For example, a user can look up a named range of contacts in their Excel workbook and choose to send reports to any and all contacts associated with a Job. While this is not required, users may find this useful if more information than a standard email address is needed when running jobs. The Address book allows different custom fields to be used for any contact.  They can then be assigned directly to report outputs in the burst sets feature. However, if a user is dynamically creating the number of files that should be generated, the contact mapping feature can be used to select which contact should be chosen for the output based on a custom field. To use the Contact Mapping feature simply select the “Associate Contact with mapping” setting in the distribution options and use a variable such as value to determine which contacts will receive the ReportWORQ output.

Importing and Exporting a contact list

ReportWORQ has a feature for importing and exporting a contact list. ‘Import’ and ‘Export’ are visible at the top of the Address Book screen. Contacts can be added or edited in bulk by exporting and importing via an Excel files.

Contacts will only be modified or created during the import, they will never be deleted. To create a template file, make sure you have at least one contact and export to Excel. Columns can be deleted and moved in the template file, however the Id and Name columns are required. If the Id column is blank or fails to match an existing contact then a new contact will be created. Column headings that begin with the prefix D_ are built in distribution fields such as Email, Slack Channel and SharePoint Site. Column headings that begin with the prefix P_ are custom fields. It is permitted to create a new custom field in the import file by adding a column with this format.