If you have new data that you'd like to get into Horizon quite often (e.g. details of new customer bookings or purchases), you can use our Dropbox integration to make the process quick and easy.
Most line-of-business systems have the capability to run automated and/or ad-hoc data extracts that produce data in Microsoft Excel or comma-separated (CSV) format. The Horizon platform has a capability to automatically import CSV or MS Excel files that have been saved to a predefined Dropbox folder on your PC or file server.
In your business system
- Generate an example file in CSV or MS Excel format with helpful column headings and a few rows containing the type of data that you want to import.
In Horizon
- Create any required "custom fields" to store your data.
- Import your example file and create a “field mapping” between the data columns in your example report and the matching data fields in Horizon.
- Authorise Horizon to access your Dropbox account.
- Create a new Dropbox folder and link the field mapping with that folder.
And that's it! Any new files that are saved to the Dropbox folder will automatically be imported into Horizon using the defined field mapping.
Create any required "custom fields" to store your data
Horizon stores each person's name, address and contact details (e.g. email address and mobile number) by default. Other data needs to be stored in sets of Horizon "custom fields". The process is very similar whether you are creating custom fields that will store a single value for each person (e.g. their gender) or whether you are creating custom fields that will store many values for each customer (e.g. a customer's previous purchase history).
For more details see Setting up Custom Fields to store non-standard data.
Import an example file
Before setting up an automated Dropbox import process, you need to import your data manually and and save the import "field mapping". This tells Horizon what it should do with similar files in future.
For more details see Importing contacts from a CSV or Excel file.
Authorise Horizon to access your Dropbox account
If you don't already have a Dropbox account, sign up for a free account at www.dropbox.com, then log into your Dropbox account.
To automate the data integration between your line-of-business system/s and Horizon, you then need to setup an API (Application Programming Interface) connection between Dropbox and Horizon. This can be setup very quickly within Horizon and the end result is a new folder in your Dropbox account. When files are saved in this folder, they will be automatically seen and imported by Horizon.
1. Make sure that your Dropbox integration is enabled within Horizon. To verify this click | Settings | at the top right of the screen, then select | Account Settings | on the left of the screen. This will display a list of settings in a tree structure. Expand the "General" folder and select ‘Dropbox Integration’. There are two options associated with Dropbox Integration: "Dropbox Auth Token" and "Enable Dropbox Automatic Import":
If Dropbox has already been enabled, the "Enable Dropbox Automatic Import" value will be set to "1". If this value is not already set to "1", set it or contact us and we will enable Dropbox integration for you.
2. Click | Contacts | at the top of the screen then | Administration | on the left to go to the data import administration screen.
3. Click the green | Authorise Horizon to use my Dropbox Account | button. 
4. Enter in the username and password for your Dropbox account, then click | Allow | to give Horizon permission to access specific folders in your Dropbox. Note: Horizon only ever stores a secure access "token"; we do not store your Dropbox username or password.
You will receive an email notification from Dropbox, advising you that the "Horizon Import" app has been successfully connected to your Dropbox account.
Create a new Dropbox folder and link the field mapping with that folder
1. In Horizon, Click | Contacts | at the top of the screen and then | Administration | on the left.
2. Click the green | New folder | button:
3. Give your new folder a helpful name (Note: The name should not include any spaces) so that you can easily recognize it in Dropbox.
4. Enter an "import order", telling Horizon whether to import files from this folder before or after it looks in other folders. Bear in mind that you need to import "person" data before you can import "transaction" data relating to that person.
5. Select the import settings (or "field mapping") that you saved earlier.
That's it! Your new folder will be created in Dropbox under Apps\Horizon Import\<YourDropboxFolderName. When Horizon sees a new file in this Dropbox folder it will automatically import it using the "Import Settings" to map the data from the file columns into your Horizon custom fields.
You can set up as many Dropbox folders as you need, in order to bring all of your customer data into Horizon.
An additional note on importing
You may find that some fields on a contact aren't being updated. There are various fields that cannot be updated through an import and have to be done manually. They are:
- Channels: This includes all channels (e.g. email, SMS, etc)
- Opt-in categories
This is to ensure your contacts don't lose important data, such as the opt-in category, which would stop them from receiving content.
Another point to note is you cannot delete contacts through an import. To delete a contact, you would need to do this manually, by finding the contact and clicking the Delete button.