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Step 2: Configure the custom channel tile in outbound marketing

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Note

Dynamics 365 Marketing and Dynamics 365 Customer Insights are now Customer Insights - Journeys and Customer Insights - Data. For more information, see Dynamics 365 Customer Insights FAQs

New Customer Insights - Journeys customers receive real-time journeys features only. For more information, see Default real-time journeys installation.

Important

This article only applies to outbound marketing, which will be removed from the product on June 30, 2025. To avoid interruptions, transition to real-time journeys before this date. More information: Transition overview

A custom channel is exposed as a “tile” in the customer journey designer. You can define the tile using an XML file.

Define the Tile XML file

Define tile properties of the custom Tile in an XML file. The XML file name should be in the following format: <SolutionPublisherPrefix>_<FileNamePrefix>CustomerJourneyDesignerTileConfig.xml.

For example, if you want to use SpecialTile as the name for your XML file then the file name will be the following assuming the solution publisher prefix in your Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Journeys instance is "sample": sample_SpecialTileCustomerJourneyDesignerTileConfig.xml

Sample Tile XML file

The following is a sample Tile XML file. Description of the elements in the XML file is available later in this topic:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- file name should only contain alpha-numeric characters and underscore -->
<!-- format: <fileNamePrefix>CustomerJourneyDesignerTileConfig.xml> -->
<LibraryTile>
  <!-- mandatory -->
  <ChannelProperties>
    <!-- mandatory -->
    <EntityType>sample_specialmessage</EntityType>
    <EntitySetName>sample_specialmessages</EntitySetName>
    <TitleFieldName>sample_name</TitleFieldName>
    <ComplianceField>donotphone</ComplianceField>
    <!-- mandatory -->
    <!-- Lookup view id for your entity-->
    <LookupViewId>4112769C-F12D-4F63-B8C3-9068FECBB4E9</LookupViewId>
    <!--Quick view form id for your entity -->
    <QuickViewFormId>404BA31B-2C12-4233-8711-804B78DE1267</QuickViewFormId>
  </ChannelProperties>
  <!-- optional -->
  <ResponseTypes>
    <ResponseType id="sent">
      <Labels>
        <!-- Labels should always have a Label for 1033 -->
        <Label locId="1033">Sent</Label>
        <Label locId="1031">[Sent]</Label>
      </Labels>
    </ResponseType>
    <ResponseType id="delivered">
      <Labels>
        <!-- Labels should always have a Label for 1033 -->
        <Label locId="1033">Delivered</Label>
        <Label locId="1031">[Delivered]</Label>
      </Labels>
    </ResponseType>
    <ResponseType id="keyword" custom="True">
      <!-- there should be only one response type with attribute custom=true -->
      <Labels>
        <!-- Labels should always have a Label for 1033 -->
        <Label locId="1033">Keyword match</Label>
        <Label locId="1031">[Keyword match]</Label>
      </Labels>
    </ResponseType>
  </ResponseTypes>
  <!-- mandatory -->
  <Labels>
    <!-- Labels should always have a Label for 1033 -->
    <Label locId="1033">Special</Label>
    <Label locId="1031">[Special]</Label>
  </Labels>
  <!-- mandatory -->
  <Tooltips>
    <!-- Tooltips should always have a tooltip for 1033 -->
    <!-- mandatory -->
    <Tooltip locId="1033">Custom Tile tool tip</Tooltip>
    <!-- optional -->
    <Tooltip locId="1031">[Custom Tile tool tip]</Tooltip>
  </Tooltips>
</LibraryTile>

Tile XML file elements

The XML file has the following elements:

  • ChannelProperties: Contains information about the custom entity that you created to store and manage data related to your custom channel.

    Element Description
    EntityType Logical name of the custom entity.
    EntitySetName Collection name (plural name) of the custom entity.
    ComplianceField Contains a boolean attribute of the Contact entity whose value determines whether an instance of the Custom Channel Activity (msdyncrm_customerjourneycustomchannelactivity) entity is created when the Contact record goes through a customer journey.

    For example, if you set the value of this element to donotphone:

    <ComplianceField>donotphone</ComplianceField>



    The value of this attribute will be checked for a Contact record while going through a customer journey and an instance of the Custom Channel Activity entity will be created only if the value of the donotphone attribute for the contact record is false.
    LookupViewId Lookup view ID for the custom entity.
    QuickViewFormId Quick view form ID for the custom entity.

  • ResponseTypes: Add information about the expected response types. The id property defines the name or the ID of a response type. The Labels element lets you specify localized labels for the response type. Use the locId property in the Label element to specify localized label names. For example:

    <ResponseTypes>
  <ResponseType id="sent">
    <Labels>
    <!-- Labels should always have a Label for 1033 -->
      <Label locId="1033">Sent</Label>
      <Label locId="1031">[Sent]</Label>
    </Labels>
  </ResponseType>
</ResponseTypes>

  • Tooltips: Provides tooltip for the tile; can also specify localized values using the locId property. For example:

    <Tooltips>
  <!-- Tooltips should always have a tooltip for 1033 -->
  <!-- mandatory -->
  <Tooltip locId="1033">Custom Tile tool tip</Tooltip>
  <!-- optional -->
  <Tooltip locId="1031">[Custom Tile tool tip]</Tooltip>
</Tooltips>

Step 3: Create a workflow or plug-in to implement your custom logic