Nodes

Nodes enable you to add, divide and store data in different containers. This is particularly useful when you want to separate data that is related to, for example, different countries, individual brands, or sales channels and similar, but still access all the relevant information in the same workspace.

There are three types of node:

• Entry nodes.
  Separate nodes where customer and event data is written to individual customer profiles. For example, you could have one entry node for online purchases and another for in-store activity. See Managing entry nodes and Creating, viewing and editing an entry node for more details.
  Note:
  At least one entry node is needed for Contacthub to work.
• View nodes.
  Containers that you cannot write to directly. Instead, view nodes are populated with demographic information from entry nodes, according to the Tree hierarchy configuration. No event data is stored in view nodes, and they cannot be used as a source for marketing activities, or synchronized with Plan, Flow, Send or other environments. See Managing view nodes, Viewing, editing and creating a view node and Configuring trees for more details.
  Note:
  View nodes are now deprecated. As a result, existing ones can still be seen and used, but new view nodes cannot be created.
• Aggregate nodes.
  Nodes that create new customer profiles, by combining the demographic and events data contained in two or more entry nodes in the same workspace. For example, the data in separate online and in-store nodes can be combined to create comprehensive customer purchases profiles. The resulting profiles can readily be used for marketing activities and synchronized with Plan, Flow and Send, or other environments. See Understanding aggregate nodes, Managing aggregate nodes and Creating, viewing and editing an aggregate node for more details.
  Note:
  Because of the demands that aggregate nodes could potentially make on resources, currently they can only be created and edited by Contactlab staff.

Managing nodes

Contacthub enables you to view all node types and create or edit Entry nodes. Aggregate nodes can only be created or edited by Contactlab staff. Entry and aggregate nodes cannot be deleted. See Managing entry nodes, Managing view nodes and Managing aggregate nodes for more details.

Unique customer policies and matching properties

Unique customer policies are defined on entry node pages. They enable you to select the property fields that should be used to determine whether data apparently belonging to two customers, actually relates to same one. See Managing entry nodes for more details.

The defined policy is applied in combination with the Customer uniqueness setting for the relevant workspace. See Configuring workspaces for more details.

Aggregate nodes include Matching properties, which are configured by Contactlab staff when a node is created or edited.  They define the field/s that are used to determine whether profiles should be aggregated.

Trees

A Tree defines the data hierarchy and, as a result, the priorities that are applied when aggregating and merging data in view nodes. See Configuring trees for more details.

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