Robots Cross Object Filtering
How to use Cross Object Filtering to get more Precise Robot Results
Cross object filtering is when multiple objects are used to qualify a record for a Robot. Cross object filtering refines your Robot filtering further than the conventional singular filtering criteria. Normally when a Robot runs, it requests records that meet the criteria from the CRM. Sometimes the data that is needed to qualify a record for a Robot does not exist on the record itself, but instead on a related record. In instances like this, you require a cross object filter to allow the Robot to recognize the related records in their queries.
For example, you may want to have contacts enrolled in a Play when the contact is related to an account that is up for renewal. You want to bring in contacts but use information on the account (the renewal status) to determine which contacts qualify. This is where cross object filtering makes it possible for a Robot to find this information.
Creating a Cross Object Filter
You can create a new Robot with a cross object filter or edit an existing Robot to have a cross object filter. All Robot filtering criteria and API usages should be considered while creating a Robot with cross object filtering.
Attention: Cross-object filtering causes Playbooks to use more API calls. Care should be taken when deciding if it is better to get data on the primary object or if cross object filtering is a suitable choice.
To Create a Cross Object Filter
- Open the Playbooks Manager Application.
- Click on the Robots tab.
- Click yellow plus button in the top right corner and follow the steps to create a Robot.
-OR-
Edit an existing Robot. - Add a cross object filter by selecting fields on related objects.
- Click TEST THIS ROBOT to examine and validate the number of records that currently qualify for the filter.
- If test results are what you expect, click SAVE.
API Usage for Cross Object Filtering
Playbooks completes three separate steps when querying cross object Robots which can all consume API calls. While these numbers can vary slightly, below is a general pattern you’ll find.
For this example, let’s say 500 secondary objects qualify for a Robot. When using a cross object filter, a Robot will:
- Query for all the secondary objects that qualify based on the Robot Criteria (1 API call).
- Query for the primary object of each qualifying secondary object. If there is one primary object for every secondary object, this step will consume 10 API calls (500/50 = 10 API calls).
- Query whether the primary objects qualify based on the Robot criteria. This will consume the 10 API calls from the previous set multiplied by the number of users included on the Robot. If there are 5 users included on this Robot, this query will consume 50 API calls per query (10 * 5 = 50 API calls).
Based on the example above, each query would use a total of 61 API calls per query (1+10+50 = 61 API calls).
Since Robots run every 10 minutes by default, they usually run 144 times each day. Assuming this many records will qualify every time the Robot runs over the entire day, this Robot will consume a minimum of 8784 API calls per day (61*144 = 8784 API calls). As more records have CRM data updated, it’s not likely that the API call numbers will stay consistent. As more records qualify for this cross-object filter, more API calls will be consumed.
Make sure you know which interval your organization is using when you calculate your API usage. If your Robots are set to run queries every 20 minutes, your API usage will be half of what it would be at 10 minutes. For more information on changing Robot query runtime, contact your CSM. If Robots are set to run queries every 20 minutes, your API usage will be half of what it would be at 10 minutes. For more information on changing Robot query runtime, contact your CSM.
