Integrate connectors with Captivate Prime

Learn on how to integrate Salesforce with Captivate Prime using connectors, how to integrate FTP with Captivate Prime and upload CSV automatically using FTP connector.

Enterprises have other applications and systems which may need to be integrated with Captivate Prime. Connectors are utilities that help in performing data-based integrations such as importing data into Captivate Prime from external systems, or exporting data to external systems from Captivate Prime. In the July 2016 release, the connectors have only the capability of bulk importing users for Captivate Prime from external systems.

Captivate Prime provides Salesforce and FTP connectors. Using Salesforce connector, integration Administrators of an organization can integrate their Salesforce application with Captivate Prime. As an integrator, you can also use FTP connector to auto import a set of users into your enterprise application.

Captivate Prime also provides the Lynda, getAbstract, and the Harvard Management System connectors which enable learners to access and consume courses from Lynda.com, getAbstract, and Harvard ManageMentor.

Read on to know how to configure and use each of these connectors in Captivate Prime.

Integration Admin Homepage - Connectors

Salesforce connector connects Captivate Prime and Salesforce accounts to automate data synchronization. Salesforce connector capabilities are as follows:

Map attributes

Integration Administrator can choose Salesforce columns and map them to corresponding Captivate Prime's group-able attributes. This is a one time effort. Once the mapping is completed, the same mapping is used in subsequent user imports. It can be reconfigured if Administrator wants to have a different mapping for importing users.

Automated user import

User import process allows Captivate Prime Administrator to fetch employee details from Salesforce and import them into Captivate Prime automatically. This automation avoids the manual effort involved in creating CSV and uploading into Prime.

Auto Schedule

Using auto scheduling feature along with automated user import feature can be effective. Captivate Prime Administrator can set up schedule according to organization's needs. Users in the Captivate Prime application can be up-to-date according to the schedule. Sync can be performed on daily basis in Captivate Prime application.

Filtering users

Captivate Prime Administrator can apply filtering on the users before importing them. For example, Captivate Prime Administrator can choose to import all users in the hierarchy under one or more specific Managers.

Learn the process to integrate Captivate Prime with Salesforce.

Ensure that you have your Salesforce organization URL with you. For example, if your organization name is myorg, the Salesforce URL could be https://myorg.salesforce.com. It is the only input which is required to connect Salesforce account with Captivate Prime.

Also make sure that you have the appropriate credentials to log in to the account.

In Captivate Prime home page, hover mouse over the Salesforce card/thumbnail. A menu appears. Click Connect item in the menu.

Connect option

A dialog appears prompting you to enter the org-url. Click Connect after providing the URL.

Upon successful connection, the overwiew page appears.

Once connection is successfully established, you can map Salesforce columns to the corresponding attributes of Captivate Prime. This step is mandatory.

In the mapping page, on left side you can see Captivate Prime’s columns and on right side you can see the Salesforce columns. Select the appropriate column name that maps to the Captivate Prime’s column name.

Map attributes

Note:

Captivate Prime's column data shown on the left side are fetched from the active fields. The manager field must necessarily be mapped to a field of type email address. Mapping all the columns is mandatory before the connector can be used.

Click Save after completing the mapping.

The connector is now ready for use. The account that has been configured now, appears as a data source within the Administrator app, for the administrator to schedule the import or for on-demand sync.

Salesforce connector connects to Salesforce.com to fetch the users as configured and add them to Captivate Prime.

Using the FTP connector, you can integrate Captivate Prime with arbitrary external systems to automate data synchronization. It is expected that external systems can export data in a CSV format and place it in the appropriate folder of the Captivate Prime FTP account. FTP connector capabilities are as follows:

You can also use the Box connector for data migration, user import and data export. For more information, see Box connector.

User import process allows Captivate Prime Administrator to fetch employee details from the Captivate Prime FTP service and import them into Captivate Prime automatically. Using this feature, you can integrate multiple systems by placing the CSV generated by those systems in the appropriate folders of the FTP accounts. Captivate Prime picks up the CSV files, merges them, and imports the data according to the schedule. Refer to Scheduling feature for more information.

Map attributes

Integration Administrator can choose the columns of CSV and map them to Captivate Prime's group-able attributes. This mapping is one time effort. Once the mapping is done, the same mapping is used in subsequent User imports.The mapping can be reconfigured if the Administrator wants to have a different mapping for importing users.

The Data Export allows users to export user skills and learner transcripts to an FTP location to integrate with any third party system.

Administrator can set up scheduling tasks as per organization's requirements and users in the Captivate Prime application are up-to-date according to the schedule. Similarly, Integration Admin can schedule skill export on a timely basis to be integrated with an external system. Sync can be performed on daily basis in Captivate Prime application.

Learn the process to integrate Captivate Prime with FTP connector.

In Captivate Prime home page, hover mouse over the FTP card/thumbnail. A menu appears. Click Connect item in the menu.

Connect option

A dialog appears prompting you to enter the email id. Provide the email id of the person responsible for managing the Captivate Prime FTP account for the organization. Click Connect after providing the email id.

Captivate Prime sends you an email prompting the user to reset the password before accessing the FTP for the first time. The user must reset the password and use this for accessing the Captivate Prime FTP account.

Note:

Only one Captivate Prime FTP account can be created for a given Captivate Prime account.

In the overview page, you can specify the Connection Name for your integration. Choose what action you want to take from the following options:

Import Internal Users
Export User Skills - Configure a Schedule
Export User Skills - OnDemand
Export Learner Transcripts - Configure a Schedule
Export Learner Transcripts - OnDemand

Export options

Import

Internal User

The import internal user option allows you to schedule the generation of user import report automatically. The generated reports are sent to you as .CSV files.

Map Attributes

Once connection is successfully established, you can map the columns of CSV files that will be placed in the FTP folder to the corresponding attributes of Captivate Prime. This step is mandatory.

In the Map Attributes page, on left side you can see Captivate Prime’s expected columns and on right side you can see the CSV column names. Initially, on the right side, you can see an empty select box. Import any template CSV by clicking Choose File.

The above step populates the right side select drop-down list with all the CSV column names. Select the appropriate column name that maps to the Captivate Prime’s column name.

Note:

The Manager field must necessarily be mapped to a field of type email address. Mapping all the columns is mandatory before the connector can be used.

Click Save after completing the mapping.

The connector is now ready for use. The just configured account will now appear as a data source within the Administrator app for the Administrator to schedule the import or for on-demand sync.

Using the Captivate Prime FTP connector

1. The CSV files from external systems should be placed at the following path:

$OPERATION$/$OBJECT_TYPE$/$SUB_OBJECT_TYPE$/data.csv

Note: In the July 2016 Release, only import of users is allowed. Therefore to use the FTP connector, you must ensure that the CSV files are placed in the following folder:
Home/import/user/internal/*.csv

2. The FTP connector takes all rows from CSV files, so it is important that the row corresponding to a user in one CSV does not appear in any other CSVs.

3. All CSVs should contain the columns specified in the mapping.

4. All the required CSVs should be present in the folder before the process begins.

Note:

While importing users into Captivate Prime, Administrator also need to know how users are managed in Captivate Prime. Refer to User Management Help to know more information.

Export

Skills

There are two options to export User skill reports.

User Skills - On Demand: You can specify the start date and export the report using the option .The report will be extracted from the date enterd till present.

On demand export option

User Skills - Configure: This option let's you schedule the extraction of the report. Select the Enable Schedule checkbox and specify the start date and time. You can also specify the interval at which you want the report to be generated and sent.

Configure export of report

To open the Export folder where the exported files will be placed in your FTP location, open the link to FTP Folder provided in the User Skills page as shown below.

FTP folder to view files

The auto-exported files will be present in the location Home/export/*FTP_location*

The auto-exported files will be available with the title, skill_achievements_*date from*_to_*date to*.csv

Exported .csv file

Learner Transcript

There are two options to export Learner Transcript reports.

On Demand: You can specify the start date and export the report using the option .The report will be extracted from the date enterd till present.

Generate on demand report

Configure: This option let's you schedule the extraction of the report. Select the Enable Schedule checkbox and specify the start date and time. You can also specify the interval at which you want the report to be generated and sent.

Configure a report

To open the Export folder where the exported files will be placed in your FTP location, open the link to FTP Folder provided on the Learner Transcript page as shown below

The auto-exported files will be present in the location Home/export/*FTP_location*

The auto-exported files will be available with the title, learner_transcript_*date from*_to_*date to*.csv

Exported .csv file

The Lynda connector can be used by enterprise customers of Lynda.com who would like their learners to discover and consume Lynda courses from within Captivate Prime. The connector can be configured to fetch courses from Lynda.com periodically with your API key. Once a course is created within Prime, users can search for them and consume them. Learner progress can then be tracked within Captivate Prime.

From the Integrated Admin dashboard, click Lynda.

You will see the tile with three options: Getting Started, Connect, and Manage Connections.

If you are configuring the Lynda connector for the first time, click Connect.

Note:

You must configure the Exavault FTP account before you configure this connector.

From the connection page, specify a name for your connector. Enter the Appkey and the Secret key for your connection.

Note:

You must contact your vendor to get the Appkey and the Secret key.

Click Save.

The configuration is saved and the Lynda connection for your account is added. You can now click Manage Connections from the Home page, and edit your configuration anytime.

If you already have a connection established, click Manage Connections view all your connections.

Note:

Migration feature must be enabled for your account before you configure this connector.

Click the connection that you want to edit.

From the left pane, click Configure. Do one of the following:

View or edit the details of your account, and the synchronization schedule from this window. You must select the Enable Connection checkbox if you want to enable this account.
Click Edit and edit your credentials. Click Reset to undo your updates to this field.
Click Enable Schedule to schedule your synchronization. You can enter the start time and date, and then enter the frequency of your synchronization schedule in days. For example, enabling synchronization every 3 days.

Click Save to save your changes.

Configure the Lynda connector for Captivate Prime

From the left pane, click On Demand Execution. This option allows you to import user feeds and other relevant data from Lynda. Enter the Start Date for the on demand execution, and click Execute to execute the synchronization. All the data from the start date till present is imported.

You can click Disable access to Captivate Prime during execution where the application will have a downtime during the synchronization.
If you click Enable access to Captivate Prime during execution, there is no disruption in service during synchronization.

Perform on-demand execution for Lynda connector

You can also click Execution Status from the left pane anytime to view the summary of all the runs for this connector, in a chronological order. You can view the start date and duration of the synchronization, the type of synchronization (whether it is on-demand synchronization) and status of the synchronization (whether the synchronization is in progress or is complete).

Note:

When you delete and recreate a connection, the previous runs for the connector come up again. You can view all the runs before you deleted the connection.

You can perform a rerun only for the latest synchronization.

Click Execution Status to view the summary of all runs

The getAbstract connector can be used by enterprise customers of getAbstract.com, who would like their learners to discover and consume getAbstract summaries. The connector can be configured to fetch usage data periodically, based on which learner completion records are created within Captivate Prime. Read on to know how to configure this connector in Captivate Prime.

From the Integrated Admin dashboard, click getAbstract.

From the tile, you will see three options: Getting Started, Connect, and Manage Connections.

If you are configuring the getAbstract connector for the first time, click Connect.

Note:

You must configure the Exavault FTP account before you configure this connector.

Ensure that you share this FTP credentials with your content provider to access the feeds.

Enter a name for your connection in the Connection Name field.

Enter the appropriate keys in the Client Id and Client Secret fields. You may have to contact your vendor to get the appropriate keys for this connector.

The keys are required to get the course metadata for the courses consumed by the client.

If you already have a connection established, from the Home page, click getAbstract > Manage Connections to view and edit your existing configuration.

Note:

Migration feature must be enabled for your account before you configure this connector.

Click the connection whose configuration you want to view or edit.

Configure the getAbstract connector for Captivate Prime

From the left pane, click Configure. Do one of the following:

View or edit the details of your account, and the synchronization schedule from this window. You must select the Enable Connection checkbox if you want to enable this account.
Click Edit and edit your credentials. Click Reset to undo your updates to this field.
Click Enable Schedule to schedule your synchronization. You can enter the start time and date, and then enter the frequency of your synchronization schedule in days. For example, enabling synchronization every 3 days.

Click Save.

The configuration is saved and the getAbstract connection for your account is added.

From the left pane, click On Demand Execution. This option allows you to import user feeds and other relevant data from getAbstract. Enter the Start Date for the on demand execution, and click Execute to execute the synchronization. All the data from the start date till present is imported.

You can click Disable access to Captivate Prime during execution where the application will have a downtime during the synchronization.
If you click Enable access to Captivate Prime during execution, there is no disruption in service during synchronization.

Note:

When you delete and recreate a connection, the previous runs for the connector come up again. You can view all the runs before you deleted the connection.

You can perform a rerun only for the latest synchronization.

For any type of synchronization to work, you must ensure that the user feed is present in the getAbstract FTP folder for the dates specified in the synchronization.

See the following excel sheet, which is a sample user feed file from getAbstract. The file name should follow the format: report_export_yyyy_MM_dd_HHmmss.xlsx or report_export_yyyy_MM_dd.xlsx.

Download

Get file

getAbstract user feed sample excel sheet

The Harvard ManageMentor connector can be used by enterprise customers of Harvard ManageMentor, who would like their learners to discover and consume Harvard ManageMentor courses. The connector helps create courses within Prime, and can be configured to fetch learner progress data periodically. To configure this connector, perform the following procedure:

From the Integrated Admin dashboard, click Harvard ManageMentor.

From the tile, you will see three options: Getting Started, Connect, and Manage Connections.

If you are configuring the Harvard ManageMentor connector for the first time, click Connect.

Note:

You must also configure the Exavault FTP account before you configure this connector.

Ensure that you share this FTP credentials with your content provider to access the feeds.

In the Connection Name field, enter a name for your connection. Click Connect to save this connection.

If you already have a connection established, from the Home page, click Harvard ManageMentor > Manage Connections. Click the connection that you want to edit to edit your existing configuration.

Note:

Migration feature must be enabled for your account before you configure this connector.

Configure the HarvardManage Mentor connector for Captivate Prime

From the left pane, click Configure. Do one of the following:

View or edit the details of your account, and the synchronization schedule from this window. You must select the Enable Connection checkbox if you want to enable this account.
Click Enable Schedule to schedule your synchronization. You can enter the start time and date, and then enter the frequency of your synchronization schedule in days. For example, enabling synchronization every 3 days.

From the left pane, click On Demand Execution. This option allows you to import user feeds and other relevant data from Harvard ManageMentor. Enter the Start Date for the on demand execution, and click Execute to execute the synchronization. All the data from the start date till present is imported for this connection.

You can click Disable access to Captivate Prime during execution where the application will have a downtime during the synchronization.
If you click Enable access to Captivate Prime during execution, there is no disruption in service during synchronization.

If you want to automate the synchronization every few days, specify the number of days in the Repeat No of Days field. Synchronization ensures that your account is updated with the latest version of the abstracts and summaries from Harvard ManageMentor.

Note:

When you delete and recreate a connection, the previous runs for the connector come up again. You can view all the runs before you deleted the connection.

You can perform a rerun only for the latest synchronization.

For the synchronization to be successful, you must ensure that at least one of the following files are present in the Harvard ManageMentor FTP folder:

hmm12_metadata.xlsx: This file gives the course metadata for the Harvard ManageMentor connector. Ensure that you follow the naming convention when you upload the file.

client_hmm12_20150125.xlsx: This is the user feed for the Harvard ManageMentor connector. The file naming convention that you must follow is client_hmm12_yyyyMMdd.xlsx.

See the following two sample user feed and course feed files for this connector:

Download

Get file

Course metadata file for the Harvard ManageMentor connector

Get file

User feed for the Harvard ManageMentor connector

Using the Workday connector, you can integrate Captivate Prime with Workday tenant to automate data synchronization.