Journey Builder is not starting

Question

I am trying to set up Journey Builder that does action based on a data extension, for testing purposes I am creating a very simple set up.

I've followed their video tutorial and http://help.exacttarget.com/en/documentation/journey_builder/how_to_fire_an_event/

Here's what I've done

1. Data Extension

email, first_name, last_name, active

2. Contact Builder

Create new attribute using the Data Extension, create link to the Contact using "email" - "email"

3. Automation Studio

Create a "Fire Event" on the Data Extension (scheduled to run)

4. Journey Builder

Set a trigger: if (active is true)

Set an interaction: attach the trigger above to the interaction, create a goal, Day 0: Send Email

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That's all my setup, straight forward and simple just for testing purposes. I loaded 4 rows in the Data Extension, 3 of which with active = true, and 1 with active = false.

I've made sure the "Fire Event" executes in the Automation Studio (I tested both the "run once" and scheduled run, both of which execute completely.

But I don't see any Journey getting triggered.

What am I missing here?

Answer 1

Often times when there are issues like this it is being caused by your Contact Builder setup. I notice that you are using Email Address relating to Email Address. Instead try updating this to:

Contact Key to Email Address. Ensure this is a One to One relationship and once that is updated check the box for Use as Root.

At that point, clear the data from your data extension, re-add the rows and re-run your fire event. The reason for this need is the fire event evaluates data by the row number rather than the actual data in the DE. By clearing the data in the data extension and re-adding the data you actually create new rows of data which are then up for evaluation by the trigger.

The reason we need to update the relationship to Contact Key to Email Address is Contact Key is a required field for the Contact being created for the interaction to evaluate.

One other tip, if you want brand new subscribers to be injected into the interaction (by brand new I mean ones that don't exist on your all subscribers list) go to Contacts Configuration within Contact Builder and under the Channel Address Order click edit under the email box and then add address. Select your data extension linked in Contact Builder and save this. This tells the interaction if the subscriber doesn't exist in the account look in this data extension for it.

I hope that helps!

Answer 2

Question about this:

One other tip, if you want brand new subscribers to be injected into the interaction (by brand new I mean ones that don't exist on your all subscribers list) go to Contacts Configuration within Contact Builder and under the Channel Address Order click edit under the email box and then add address. Select your data extension linked in Contact Builder and save this. This tells the interaction if the subscriber doesn't exist in the account look in this data extension for it.

Will this add the Contacts to all subscribers?