Workflow

Introduction

Workflow is one of the most important features of WitCloud. The task is to start the previously configured modules automatically in the correct order. This ensures that both the inputs used for reporting and the report tables on the basis of which the visualizations are created are up-to-date.

Create a workflow

Workflow can be created in two ways automatically and manually.

Automatic workflow

When you create new collections, a workflow is created automatically. Their task is:
▪One-time collection of historical data.
▪Regularly run the update process for today's data.
▪Run a data alignment job once a day for the past few days depending on system requirements to collect potentially lost data.

When you finish configuring the automatic Workflow, you get the summary information, defined period of historical data and the frequency of data refreshing on a regular basis.

Created Workflows can be found in the workflow tab on the left side bar. Then select Auto-generated.

Creating a Workflow module "manually"

In some more advanced cases, you may need to create the workflow yourself. This situation may occur, for example, if we care about the sequence of operations, or we create a more advanced report based on indirectly calculated data such as attribution.

In order to define a new task, workflow is selected from the left-hand panel.

Click Add new Workflow.

First, in the Enter Workflow name field, we name the workflow data.

In the second step we add the modules. We can do this by clicking on the "➕" icon, or through the task/group task function. A Task is executed for a single module, while a Group Task combines modules to form a group. This is helpful when we have several modules, then we can set one parameter such as date range for the whole group.

At the beginning, using the button Select Resource we select the tasks that we want to perform (collect, process or report).

◾Using the calendar icon button, we have the ability to specify a date range for completing tasks. You can choose from the following options:
▪Last X Days - this option specifies dates dynamically, between the current date and x days back.
▪Dynamic Date Range - this option specifies dates dynamically. Allows you to set a time range in relation to the current date - for example, a range from 14 to 3 days back.
▪Static Date Range - allows you to statically specify a fixed date range.
◾By clicking on the settings icon, we can choose whether the task should be repeated in case of failure.
◾Button with trash icon gives us an opportunity to delete the added task.

At the end of the workflow creation, we set the schedule for its execution after enabling the Schedule Workflow option, it is necessary to select the time zone in which the tasks will be executed. It is possible to enable workflow at set intervals (every specified number, hours, days, weeks or months). After the configuration is complete, click Finish button.

Determine the order in which actions are executed in the workflow

Example of action

1. Every hour, we combine events that have passed through the Google Analytics Collector into sessions.
2. We collect advertising data from the Google Ads system.
3. We unify the campaign data available in Google Ads with Campaign IDs in Google Analytics (Campaign Mapping).
4. We collect advertising data from the Facebook Ads system.
5. We categorize the data from Facebook Ads into Campaign IDs in Google Analytics (Campaign Mapping).
6. We update the data in the reports in the Data Studio.

Worth Remembering!

Example:

◾In order to create a report, it is first necessary to download the data.
◾We cannot perform attribution if we do not have reprocessed sessions.

Additionally, it is recommended that you check Workflow statuses to spot any problems with your data. The process may stop working for reasons unrelated to WitCloud - for example, it may be caused by a loss of account access or an API error from an external system. In this case, you can try to start the process manually after some time to keep the data continuous. You can also set up one-time workflows to retrieve data from specific time periods.