Often, users will create a list in Journeys that is really the same list as they have in another third-party system, this is almost impossible to maintain manually.
Which is why we created the "Sync list" feature, so you can spend your time on other things and not worry about your lists being out of sync.
Examples of lists that are worthy of automatic sync
Departments - Sync with HR system to always maintain the correct department list when using it in Journeys
Slack Channels – Sync with Slack software to keep an updated list of channels so it is easy to use in journey building e.g. if you want to send a message to a specific Slack channel when something happens in a Journey
Supervisors - Sync with HR system for always having an updated list of available supervisors
Office Locations – Sync with your HR / Facilities management system if you want your office locations to always be up to date
Equipment Types – Sync with an asset management system so users can select equipment type (e.g., laptop, monitor) when requesting or tracking assets
Contract Types – Sync with a contract management system, allowing users to choose contract types in forms or workflows
Training Courses – Sync with a learning management system, letting users select a course from a dropdown for enrollment or assignment purposes
Incident Categories – Sync with a service desk or IT support system to categorize incidents when reporting or tracking issues
Product SKU List – Sync with an inventory or sales system, providing a dropdown for product selection in order or fulfillment workflows
How to set up a new synced list in Journeys 📖
In our example we are going to sync with a list of channels from your Slack workspace
Note: You can sync with any software that you like, this is just one way of doing it
Open the Lists section in Journeys
In the top right corner click on "Create list"
Select "Sync list * Integration"
This should take you to the setup wizard.
Step 1. Name your list
Step 2. Configure source
In this step you are asked to select what third-party system you want to receive your list from. In our case we are selecting "Slack".
Important: You can only select from Integrations that are already installed on your company in journeys -> https://journeys.50skills.app/settings/integrations. The reason for this is that we will use the authentication provided there when making calls to fetch the list.
Additionally, the integration will not appear unless it is in the list and marked as "Connected" as seen in the image here below.
Step 3. Add URL
In this step you will add the endpoint URL which will supply you with the list. The URL varies with what third-party software you are connecting to and in order to complete this step it is very likely that you have to refer to the API documentation that your third-party software has.
Step 4. Test
In the next step you are asked to make a test call to validate that the URL is correct and everything is in order. If you get an error here, please go back and validate that the URL provided in step 3 is correct.
Step 5. Map fields
If you made it here that means you are almost ready to go! In this last step you will select what goes in to the label and value option for your list in Journeys.
In our case we want the label to be the name of the Slack channel and the value will be the id of the channel.
Click continue and your list has been created!🎈
Note that it might take a few seconds for the list options to populate, depending on the number of list options it is receiving.
Common questions and tip
Once the list has been created and is live, here are a few key points
The sync will mirror the list it is synced with completely, so if you remove a list option from your third-party system, it will be removed from Journeys on the next sync - same logic applies if you add a new option.
The list is set to automatically sync every 24 hours at 00:00 (GMT)
You can always manually re-sync the list if you are feeling impatient or can't wait by clicking on the list and hitting the "Re-sync list" button at the bottom of the side-panel
You can change Synced lists to manual lists, but you can not change manual lists to synced lists
The list configuration and options can not be edited after it has been created
The order of the list options is as it comes from the API