Preprint Zones / Zone Configration
Zone Groups Setup
Zones give user the ability to build multiple distribution layers for Inserts/Preprints. Each layer contains smaller zones within the group. User can create this data within the Advertising system or import it using system provided templates. Zones allow user to store up to 5 dimensions of data. For example, in postal code 10012 there are XX subscribers, XY non-subscribers, YY dealers, and so forth. The Zone Groups hierarchy allows the order entry user to select a city and it could auto select all child zip codes. The Zone selection in Order Entry allows user to see and select from this hierarchy and even build a radius map.
Note that Zone Group must be setup for the Zones tab to appear in the campaign line entry screen. When you create zones, they must be assigned to a group.
Navigate to the menu Setup -> Product Setup -> Zone Groups. Select a product from the drop-down menu.
Click the button “Add a New Group”. Enter the information in the respective fields as needed.
The sort codes allow for the display of the group in alphabetical order.
Continue to build sub-groups as needed and click the save button after each group is created.
Alternatively, you can import the hierarchical group structure using the provided template. Click on the button “Import Data”.
Click the button “Download Empty Template” to fill out all the groups and sub-groups from scratch. Or if you have some groups in the system on which you’d like to build, click the button “Download Template with Current Groups”. This template downloads the sheet prefilled with existing information from the Advertising system.
The template consists of the following fields:
Group ID
SH2
Must match the group ID already existing in the advertising system
Mandatory
Group Name
First sub- group
Alphanumeric value for the group name for column one
Optional
Parent ID
SH1
Must match the parent group ID which already exists in the advertising system
Mandatory
Country Code
US
Country code value
Optional
Postal Code
10583
Alphanumeric value for the zip code
Optional
Latitude
44.0051
Numeric Latitude of the location
Optional
Longitude
73.7846
Numeric Longitude of the location
Optional
You can click the button on the import window to “Replace Current Groups” and this overwrites the current groups for this product. If left unchecked at the value “No”, then the groups originally in the system will remain and the imported ones will be added according to the layout in the template.
When finished, save the template to your desktop and upload it to the Advertising system using the button “Import Groups” on the import window. When finished, click the save button.
Zone Setup
The system allows for a more detailed setup for zones for the date-based products. Click the node “Zone Setup” on the tree.
The screen allows you to enter details for each zone using the group structure you created above. You can also enter distribution counts for the zone dimensions per day of week. The dimensions are an additional layer of details for the zones. Entering Zone counts here is optional. Many will choose instead to import Zone counts by date or date range and store it against the issue configuration. Counts here are generally used for a backup in the event that actual quantities are not yet available from the circulation system.
You must assign the zone to a group in order for the Zones tab to display on the line item entry screen.
Cluster Codes are free-format and are optional. They are used to group zones together into a truck where if one zone is selected, the other zone(s) are automatically selected. See Campaign Insert documentation for more info on how this behaves from an end-user perspective.
Note the Inactive flag available for each zone. Use this flag to indicate that a zone that was used in the past will no longer be available for use. For orders that have already been created while the zone was active, the order will not be modified. If you open the order, you will see that it is now inactive, and new orders will not have the option to select that Zone anymore.
Any FUTURE orders that were already booked using that zone will need to manually be edited to have the zone removed if the delivery will not be done to the zone anymore.
Zone Imports
Zone import and Zone Import by Date Range allow you to enter the zones and circulations for an issue and mass import them into the Ad system instead of manually entering them. The difference between them is that the Zone Import will be expecting a count for each issue date. The Zone import by date range will have a start and stop date and day of week. So you could them import a count for say Wednesdays between Jan 1 and March 31 of a given year, and a different number for Sundays in that same date range.
The Zone import is also imported per product. The Zone import by date range can be done for multiple products simultaneously.
Zone Import
Navigate to the menu Setup -> Product Setup -> Zone Import. Choose the product from the drop-down menu. Only issue based products display in the list.
Click the field “Create Missing Zones” to change its value to “Yes” if you would like the import to create the zones. If the zones are new, and do not exist in the system, this must be a “Yes”. If left as “No”, the template must have Zone IDs that match ones in the system for the issues.
Click the button “Download Template”. This opens a spreadsheet template with the following fields which you can fill out and save to your desktop.
Template
Field Name
Example
Data Source and Conditions
Mandatory/ Optional
Issue Date
2/28/2019
This is the date of the issue for the product and must match an existing issue date in the system.
Mandatory
Zone ID
19545
Free format alphanumeric. Must match system values if the field to create missing zones is set to No.
Mandatory
Zone Description
Philadelphia
Free format alphanumeric description of the zone ID.
Optional (but really should use one, even if the same as the ID)
Parent ID
CITY
Zone Group this Zone belongs to. (select the immediate parent here, not the grandparent.)
Mandatory
CirculationA
15000
Numeric free entry
Mandatory
Sort Code
1
Value by which the zone is sorted in the list as displayed on menus for users.
Optional
Country Code
US
This is the 2-digit ISO Country Code.
Optional
Postal Code
19456
5-digit zip code for the zone.
Optional
External Reference
ABC123
Alpha-numeric Field used in integration with 3rd party
Optional
External Group
ABC
Alpha-numeric Field used in integration with 3rd party
Optional
Cluster Code
Truck123
Concept which Groups Zones together with the purpose of ensuring if one is selected that they all are selected. (like a forced buy)
Optional
Is Inactive
FALSE
True or False to indicate that the zone is no longer in use
Optional
On the import page, click on the “select” button and upload the file from your desktop to the system. Click on the button “Test Import File”. The system alerts you to any errors on the sheet.
If there are any, click the x remove button by the template you uploaded to remove it from the system. Then correct all the errors in the sheet. Resave the file to your desktop and then re-upload it, using the select button on the import page.
Repeat this step to test the import file till all errors have been fixed and the system provides you a success message.
Click the button “Import File”. The system provides a success message.
If you navigate to the Issue Configuration node on the tree on the left side of the screen and click on “Zones” hyperlink per issue as per the import, the system displays the zones and circulation, which you imported, attached to the issues.
Zone Import by Date Range
You can import zones also by start and end date range for a product. Once the end date passes, these zones are no longer valid for the product and will no longer be visible in the line item entry screen.
To Import Zones for the first time, click the button "Download Template" to get a spreadsheet to use for importing. See table below for field descriptions in the template.
If Zones already exist and you are looking to import new counts for a new date range, it may be handy to export the existing data and simply update the date ranges and counts. Click the button Export Existing Data and a dialog will open asking which products and dates to export:
The export will produce a row for every date in the date range provided, for every zone - like so:
So if this is a daily product, you might want to export at least a week so that you get the current counts for every day of the week - but you can export any date range that makes sense for you.
Once the existing data is exported, user can update the date ranges and the counts and import in the new data.
To import in the new data:
Create Missing Zones: Select yes if the spreadsheet contains new Zones and you would like the import to create those new zones on import. Select no if there are no new zones or you do not want the import to create them. If there are unrecognized zones and this is set to no, the import will error and alert the user that there is an unknown Zone in the import
File to Import: Click select to navgate to your saved spreadsheet with the zones you wish to import
Click Test Import File - if there are any errors the system will tell the user what the errors are and they can fix them in the template. Remove the old file from the screen and re-select the corrected file. Repeat this step until there are no errors found on the import
Click Import File and the new zone counts will be imported into the system.
By Date Range Template
Field Name
Example
Data Source and Conditions
Mandatory/ Optional
Product ID
BE
The ID must match that of a product in the advertising system
Mandatory
Start Date
04/01/2019
MM/DD/YYYY date format and can be any start date.
Mandatory
End Date
04/01/2022
MM/DD/YYYY date format and can be any end date past the start date
Mandatory
Zone ID
NW
The Zone ID must match the zone ID in the advertising system if the field “Create Missing IDs” on the import screen is set to “No”.
Mandatory
Zone Description
Northwest territory
Text describing the zone
Optional (but really should use one, even if the same as the ID)
Parent ID
BG
The zone parent ID of the zone for the zone to be imported and must match the value in the advertising system
Mandatory
Day of Week
Monday
Monday through Sunday using the full word upper or lower case.
Mandatory
Circulation A
20000
Numeric value for the circulation.
Mandatory
Circulation B
20000
Numeric value for the circulation.
Mandatory if you are using additional dimensions in Setup.
Circulation C
20000
Numeric value for the circulation.
Mandatory if you are using additional dimensions in Setup.
Circulation D
20000
Numeric value for the circulation.
Mandatory if you are using additional dimensions in Setup.
Circulation E
20000
Numeric value for the circulation.
Mandatory if you are using additional dimensions in Setup.
Sort Code
1
Value by which the zone is sorted in the list as displayed on menus for users.
Optional
Country Code
US
This is the 2-digit ISO Country Code.
Optional
Postal Code
10591
5-digit zip code for the zone.
Optional
External Reference
ABC123
Alpha-numeric Field used in integration with 3rd party
Optional
External Group
ABC
Alpha-numeric Field used in integration with 3rd party
Optional
Cluster Code
Truck123
Concept which Groups Zones together with the purpose of ensuring if one is selected that they all are selected. (like a forced buy)
Optional
Is Inactive
FALSE
TRUE/FALSE field for whether or not the Zone is Inactive.
Optional
Zone Export/Import
Navigate to Setup -> Product Setup and select the Zone Export/Import node on the left side navigation tree. The important differences in this new import when compared to the other existing imports is that this import is only for configuration imports and updates. It is NOT for importing Zone counts for the issues as there are no quantities in this template...this is just importing for Zone Setup. Continue to use the existing Zone Import or Zone Import by Date Range for importing the distribution counts for issues.
If the desire is to create brand new Zones from scratch, user can start with the "Download Template" option to download a blank template to then fill in all the required and desired optional fields. If the desire is to update existing data, or do a combination of updating and new zones, then the user can start by Exporting existing data into excel, making modifications, and then importing back in.
Zone Export/Import Template
The following fields are available in this template:
Product ID
DEMO10
The ID must match that of a product in the advertising system
Yes
Zone ID
19456
The Zone ID must match the zone ID in the advertising system
Yes
Zone Description
Anycity
Text describing the zone
Yes - This is what the user selects in the UI - so while the import won't fail if it is empty, it won't be very useful if it's blank, so DO fill it in.
Parent ID
NE
The zone group / parent ID of the zone for the zone to be imported and must match the value in the advertising system
Optional, but it's a good idea for ease of use for the end users to have at least one Zone Group.
Sort Code
1
Value by which the zone is sorted in the list as displayed on menus for users.
Optional
Country Code
US
This is the 2-digit ISO Country Code.
Optional for the Import - will be required for Geocoding if intent is to allow users to select zones from a map in order entry
Postal Code
19456
5-digit zip code for the zone.
Optional for the Import - will be required for Geocoding if intent is to allow users to select zones from a map in order entry
External Reference
ABC123
Alpha-numeric Field used in integration with 3rd party
Optional - If updating existing records and this field is blank, it will be ignored. If it has data in it, it will overwrite what is existing.
External Group
ABC
Alpha-numeric Field used in integration with 3rd party
Optional - If updating existing records and this field is blank, it will be ignored. If it has data in it, it will overwrite what is existing.
Cluster Code
Truck123
Concept which Groups Zones together with the purpose of ensuring if one is selected that they all are selected. (like a forced buy)
Optional
Is Inactive
TRUE
TRUE/FALSE field for whether or not the Zone is Inactive.
Optional
This import has a new screen to visualize the data and confirm it prior to import. Once the template is filled in with all the desired details, navigate to that file location by clicking on the select button and selecting that file.
Then click the button Test Import File. Screen will appear with columns from the spreadsheet and results displayed if items are new, changed or unchanged. This gives the user a visual and a chance to go back to the spreadsheet and make modifications if this is different than expected. For example, If I thought I was creating 3 new Zones below, when I saw this and noticed that two of the Zones already existed and what I was importing was different than what was already there, I might want to look at those changed items and see what was there already and make sure I wasn't making a mistake.
If the above screen is displaying what I expected to see, then I can click the button at the bottom of the screen to go ahead and import that data. Click Cancel to go back to the previous screen. If there were errors that needed to be changed, click the X to remove the file, then open it in Excel to make desired changes and re-do the select and Test Import file process.
Issue Zone Configuration
For the most part, Zones and Zone counts will always be imported. It just isn't practical to manually enter in so many zones...ain't nobody got time for that!
That said, this page is helpful if you need to visualize what you just imported and ensure that what you intended has gone into the correct places, and/or to make a minor correction to something. This displays per issue date selected in the selection criteria at the top. (I will often peek in here to remind myself if I imported in next years zones or not.) Just find the desired dates and click Get Data. The popup display will show the counts for the zones in that issue.
If the user clicks the button "Import Zone Values" and then downloads the template with current values, the download will be limited to only the issues in the selected range.
If it isn't desired to limit the dates, the end date can be removed and all issues will be returned.
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