We have a requirement to integrate Salesforce Marketing cloud with an Third Party System (like AOP) and fetch bulk data from there and store it in a Data Extension.
Can you please help me with answer to the below queries :
1) API Approach – if we will be using the soap API to fetch the bulk data from the third party system into SFMC
i) Can we use Server Side Java script Activity in Automation studio to schedule the API to run hourly ? and can the SOAP API be fetch the data be written in the Server Side Java script ?
Can you also please suggest any other approach other than FTP transfer to implement this requirement in SFMC.
Best Answer
Normally, the approach is for the 3rd party to utilise the API of Marketing Cloud, and upsert data directly to the relevant Data Extensions. Here you can bulk update hundreds of record with each API call, using either the synchronous or asynchronous REST API. REST API is recommended for SFMC, especially for data upsert operations.
And yes - you could write SSJS in Automation Studio, to schedule e.g. hourly data retrieval from 3rd party. There is a number of examples here, how to do this with SOAP API. Some of them are referencing SFMC's own API, but that is a similar approach as to calling external API:
Server-Side Javascript calling SOAP API
Is it possible to call external SOAP/REST API in ExactTarget?
Making SOAP Calls via SSJS
But personally - I really like the FTP approach for bulk updates. Especially since you can use the File Drop trigger in Automation Studio to initiate a number of data processing and validation steps.