Get Ready – Migrating from Responsys Classic Campaign to Workbook

March 28, 2021 Stan

Late in 2020, Oracle Responsys announced the depreciation of Responsys’ Classic Campaign Workbook. Along with this announcement, they provided an End of Life for the platform’s feature at the end of December, 2021. This means that all legacy users of Oracle Responsys will need to update any existing automated, triggered, or templated messages to use Campaign Workbook by the end of the year. So, what does that look like to your team?

Many of the changes from Classic to Workbook will be largely cosmetic, and simply require an adjustment period to find all of the same features you’re used to seeing in a new user experience. There are, however, two fundamental changes to functionality that users should start learning as soon as possible.

Responsys Personalization Language (RPL)

Responsys Personalization Language (or RPL) is a new templatization language designed to replace the somewhat more cumbersome Built in Functions (BiFs) used by Classic. Taking its core usable features from the open-source templatization language Freemarker, and adding in several of its own unique twists, RPL is considerably more accessible and readable than its predecessor.

Where BiFs required a series of, let’s be honest, convoluted, nested parenthetical logic statements, RPL can be read either in-line or formatted neatly. Take this simple IFTTT statement:

<#if x=”true”>

“Hello World!”

</#if>

Much easier to read, right?

RPL will be used in conjunction with the Dynamic Content widgets you’re used to to insert personalization, create and manipulate dynamic content, perform logic operations within your HTML, perform calculations and data manipulation on the fly, and much more. Considerable amounts of documentation and tutorials are provided by Oracle on the Oracle Responsys Help Center.

Data Sources

Campaign Workbook swaps out the legacy Defaults and Variables (D&V) page for a new Data Sources interface. All of the functionality of D&V still exists on this interface, but Workbook adds considerable functionality. You will no longer be limited to Defaults on this page, nor will you need to click out to add data tables for personalization. All of that functionality exists on a single interface. Data Sources also allows the user to specify which tables to attach, which columns from said tables need to be referenced, which columns should be used as lookup keys, etc., as well as allowing the user to not only define defaults, but also insert dynamic RPL code into a default to do everything from force a skip to dynamically calculate a new value for personalization on the fly!

The change from Classic to Workbook can seem daunting, especially in a world where your marketing team is already fully utilized producing your regular marketing communications. Just remember, the fundamental core-engine of Responsys is still there, along with all of the features you’re used to along with many new, improved features. Take the time now to prepare for this necessary change and set your team up for success. As always, Relationship One is here to help with any training, consulting, production, or other needs you may have!

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