You just received your Syncari login credentials. Congratulations! We are excited to have you as a customer. We know you are anxious to get started and uncover the power of Syncari. Before you embark on your journey, take a few minutes to read this guide to ensure you have a safe and productive journey.
Here are the resources you can access as a Syncari customer.
- Access: Login to Syncari at app.syncari.com.
- Education: Go to Syncari Academy to learn about the core functionality of Syncari.
- Support: Support is accessible from 8am-5pm PST by using the in-app chat, or you can send an email to support@syncari.com.
- Services: Contact your AE to discuss the services available.
Syncari Overview
Syncari provides a stateful sync between designated objects and fields across any connected system and retains a copy of the complete data set within the Syncari data store. The full data set provides a central repository to run accurate BI reporting, central data governance/authority, central enrichment, and data automation that can go beyond pushing data from one system to another.
Watch Syncari in 2 minutes for a quick look at Syncari.
Syncari has several key areas explained below. They're ordered by how you would generally work in Syncari. We'll get deeper into these areas further into this article.
- Synapse Studio to connect your systems.
- Schema Studio to review the schema of Syncari and your connected synapses.
- Sync Studio to build pipelines and manage entity and field mappings.
- Data Studio to review data across connected systems.
- Data Quality Studio to review data improvements over time.
- Insights Studio to visualize your data in dashboards.
- Logs to review errors/issues with data management.
- Settings can be accessed to add users and connect enrichment providers.
Step 1: Connect your Synapses in Synapse Studio
The first step in your journey is to go to Synapse Studio to connect your business systems (synapses). A Synapse establishes an API connection with an endpoint. This requires you to enter your credentials in order to enable Syncari to access your endpoint. Each endpoint has various authentication requirements. You can follow the instructions for connecting to your desired endpoint in the knowledge base under Synapses.
You can safely connect, save and authenticate a Synapse without affecting the schema or data of your endpoint.
Tip: Click the kebab (3 dots) on the synapse to view the help documentation for that synapse connection. It will provide all steps necessary to connect to that system.
Activating Synapses
The next step in your journey is activating a Synapse. When you activate a Synapse, two powerful processes are automatically executed: (1) Syncari will replicate the schema of your endpoint within Syncari and (2) optionally Syncari will automatically map the standard entities and fields of your endpoint with the Syncari unified data model.
Start with activating one Synapse; review the results of activating your first Synapse in Schema Studio and Sync Studio. You can easily come back later to activate additional Synapses.
Step 2: Review Schema for all Connected Synapses in Schema Studio
Schema Studio enables you to explore and manage the schema of your activated Synapses and customize the schema of the Syncari unified data model by creating your own entities and fields. You can interact with each entity and their corresponding fields, and depending on the endpoint API capabilities, you can centrally manage each endpoint's schema.
Use Schema Studio to explore the entities and fields of any authenticated or activated Synapse.
You can learn more about Schema Studio here: Getting Started with Schema Studio
Step 3: Map your Entities and Fields in Sync Studio
Sync Studio enables you to interact with the Syncari unified data model by mapping the entities and fields in your activated Synapses to the Syncari unified data model. This mapping is called a "pipeline" and it consists of a Source node, a Sync node and a Destination node. By defining these pipelines you can control read and/or write access for your activated Synapses, take advantage of prebuilt best practice data policy templates and you can build your own simple and/or complex pipelines to establish data policies and data workflows between your Sources and Destinations.
Use Sync Studio to map the entities and fields between your activated Synapses and the Syncari unified data model. Build test pipelines and what-if scenarios by setting up Source node pipelines. This will enable you to Sync data safely from your activated Synapse and review the data in Data Studio without affecting the data in your activated endpoint. Syncari will read and/or write data when you Publish a pipeline.
You can learn more about Sync Studio here: Getting Started with Sync Studio
Step 4: Review your Syncari Data in Data Studio
Data Studio enables you to view the data stored in Syncari after you Publish a pipeline and the Sync cycle has completed. Each Published pipeline is exposed in Data Studio and the associated data for each mapped field is visible so you can view the data that is stored in Syncari.
Use Data Studio to explore the data in Syncari using powerful filtering capabilities to uncover opportunities for building automated data policies in Sync Studio.
Navigate to Data Studio and familiarize yourself with the relevant features:
- Click this menu to access "Data Studio"
- This menu provides a list of Published Entities
- This feature enables you to Filter Data in Data Studio
- This provides you with the Data Fitness Index and Record Count for the selected Entity
- These buttons enable you to "Download" the current Dataset and configure "Field Visibility"
- Hover over the ID Mapping icon to display the IDs of the records that are unified in this Entity
- You can select a Record within the Dataset in Data Studio
- Click this button to "Edit" the selected Record
- Use this page navigation to view more records and move forward or back within the Dataset
You can learn more about Data Studio here: Getting Started with Data Studio
Step 5: Build Data Automations and Pipelines in Sync Studio
When you Build pipelines in Sync Studio, you will leverage a variety of capabilities that enable you to create data policies and data workflows. Using basic and advanced Functions and Actions, you can create powerful data automations that can normalize, standardize and transform data between your source Synapses and Syncari, and Syncari to your destinations. You can get started quickly and achieve early successes by building simple data policies, testing your pipelines, reviewing the results and publishing your pipelines.
You can learn more about Building Pipelines here: Getting Started with Sync Studio
Testing Pipelines
Prior to Publishing a pipeline, you should Test your pipeline and view the results in Syncari Transactions. Syncari provides Test capabilities to ensure the results of your pipeline are aligned with your expectations of a Published pipeline. You can get started quickly and achieve early successes by building simple data policies, testing your pipelines and reviewing the results.
Always Test an entity pipeline and review the results of the Test in Transactions and the results in your activated Synapse prior to Publishing the entity pipeline.
You can learn more about Testing Pipelines here: Testing Pipelines
Publishing Pipelines
Publishing a pipeline will automatically start the Sync cycle. By default, the Sync cycle runs every minute and will process as many records as possible based on the constraints defined by the vendor API. Once you have Published a pipeline, you can manage the Sync cycle using the Pause and Resume capabilities in Sync Studio. These capabilities enable you to control the Sync cycle of your Published pipelines.
By default, when you Publish a pipeline, the Sync cycle will process all the records within the pipeline that are created or updated from the time of Publish. If you want to execute a Published pipeline on historical records, you can use the Resync capability. Keep in mind, Resync may have a significant affect the number of available API calls.
It is of the utmost important that you Test an entity pipeline and review the results of the Test in Transactions and the results in your activated Synapse prior to Publishing the entity pipeline.
You can learn more about Publishing Pipelines here: Publishing Pipelines
Step 6: Review Data Transactions and Reports in Logs
Transactions and Reports provide you with the operational insight you need to understand the results of your Published pipelines and the records that are processed during the Sync cycle. Transactions will expose each record, operation and Synapse that is processed during the Sync cycle for a Published entity and Reports will provide you with operational insight into Sync Performance and Errors.
Use Transactions, Reports and Data Studio to understand how Syncari is performing and view the results of the Sync cycle for your Published pipelines.
You can learn more about Transactions here: Using Transactions
You can learn more about Reports here: Using Reports
What's Next?
As a best practice you should consider using your sandbox environments when getting started with Syncari. We can provide you with a sandbox subscription of Syncari which is useful for risk mitigation and testing. With that said, Syncari provides the capability to safely connect your production systems to Syncari and begin your journey without affecting the downstream data in your production systems.
Successful customers invest time in defining business objectives and the tactical use cases that enable them to achieve valuable results. There is so much you can do with Syncari! Remember to think big and start small. Engage with your Syncari Onboarding and Success Team to help you achieve results and maximize your investment in Syncari.
Thank you for being a Syncari customer. We are very excited about the opportunity to work with you and achieve success together.