End-user guides:: Interactions - Program status and actions – Emarsys

Here you can find information about the different program statuses and actions that you can perform on a program. You can find the program status or action button on the Automation menu > Automation Programs page or in the top left corner of the workspace.

Program status

For more information on what you can change in programs in different statuses, see Changing the program status.

A program can be in one of the following statuses:

In Design – The program is currently being worked on and has not yet been activated. The program is fully editable.
In Testing - The program is currently being tested. Contacts and events can enter the program and they can progress along it based on the test configuration. For more information, see Testing Automation programs.
In Testing (Frozen) - Testing has been suspended temporarily. Contacts and events cannot enter the program and events that would otherwise trigger the program will not be queued. Contacts already in the program will exit immediately. Contacts at Wait nodes will continue their journey based on the nodes' settings if the wait period has not expired when you reactivate the program.
Scheduled - The program is Scheduled to run and it has not yet started. Contacts and events cannot enter the program.

Contacts who have already entered the program can finish their journey in the following cases:

If your program schedule is Recurring. In this case, after the specified end date the program’s status will revert to Scheduled.
If you set the start date of an Active program to a date in the future. In this case, your program’s status will change to Scheduled.

Active - The program is complete, has passed all validation checks and now it is live. Contacts and events can enter the program, progress along it as defined, and actions and responses are tracked for reporting.

If you would like to change the structure of an Active program, you have to copy it and you can modify the copied one.
You cannot delete an Active program, to do so, first you have to freeze it.

Frozen - The program has been Frozen, contacts and events cannot enter it and the ones already in the program will exit immediately.

If your program's status is Frozen, In Testing (Frozen) or Fail-safe, then contacts already in the program will exit immediately except for the ones who have already arrived at a Wait node. In this case, the following two scenarios are possible:

If the program's status is still Frozen or Fail-safe when the time period specified in the Wait node has elapsed, then the contacts who arrived at this node will exit the program.
If the program is activated before the time period specified in the Wait node elapses, then the contacts who arrived at this node will proceed along your program.

Fail-safe - Interactions programs might be put into Fail-safe mode because resources in the program are not active, have issues or no longer exist. If your program has been put into Fail-safe mode, then you can see the following message on the top of the Automation menu > Automation Programs page or in the Notification Center: “One or more programs are in Fail-safe mode and are therefore currently not processing any contacts.”

Finished - The program has ended. Contacts and events cannot enter the program but those who have already entered it can finish their journey.

You can activate Finished programs. If you activate a Finished program, then it’s status will change as follows:

If the program’s start date is in the past or it is not scheduled, then the program’s status will change to Active.
If the program’s start date is in the future, then it’s status will change to Scheduled.

Program actions

For more information on what you can change in programs in different statuses, see Changing the program status.

You can perform the following actions on a program:

Test - This puts the program to the state In Testing. Contacts and events can enter the program and proceed along it based on the test configurations.
Freeze Testing - This puts the program to the state In Testing (Frozen). Contacts and events already in the program will exit immediately. Contacts at Wait nodes will continue their journey based on the nodes' settings if the wait period has not expired when you reactivate the program.
Resume Testing - This puts the program to the state In Testing. Contacts and events can enter the program and progress along it based on the test configurations.
Activate - This puts the program to the state Active. The Activate button is available only if the program has passed all validation checks.

You can only activate programs the status of which is either In Design, Scheduled, Frozen or Finished.

Freeze - This freezes a running program and closes it for incoming contacts and events. You can also freeze Finished programs if you do not want contacts who have already entered it to complete their journey.

You can freeze Active or Finished programs.

Finish - The program will be ended. Contacts and events cannot enter the program but those who have already entered it can finish their journey. If you do not want contacts who have already entered your program to complete their journey, then you can freeze the program.

Changing your program's status

To change the program status, click the Program Status button in the top right corner.

The available options depend on your program’s current status.

You can see how programs in different statuses behave in the following table:

Status	Contacts can enter the program	Contacts can finish their journey	You can make small adjustments to the program	You can change the structure of the program
In Design	No	No	Yes	Yes
In Testing	Yes* *It depends on the test configuration.	Yes	Yes	Yes
In Testing (Frozen)	No	No* *Contacts already in the program will exit immediately.	Yes	Yes
Scheduled	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Active	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Finished	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Frozen	No	No	Yes	Yes
Fail-safe	No	No	Yes	Yes

Making small adjustments to your program

You can make the following small adjustments to programs regardless of their statuses:

Changing the program’s name,
Replacing the campaigns (email, push, SMS, In-app, CRM Ads or Web Channel),
Replacing the segment selected in the Decision node,
Replacing the trigger event,
Modifying the conditions within the Decision nodes (Trigger attributes, Event happened, Event did not happen, Messages not sent templates),
Modifying the program’s schedule,
Modifying the settings of other nodes (e.g. Participation check, A/B test, Update contact list, Set value),
Modifying the settings of the Wait node,
Disabling or enabling a channel node.

Please consider the following:

Your changes will only take effect after clicking the Save & Apply button.
After making a small adjustment to Active, Scheduled or Finished programs, the changes will take effect immediately after clicking Save & Apply. It means that, for example, the Decision node will evaluate the next contact based on the modified conditions and settings.

Changing your program's structure

The limitations mentioned in this section apply to all program statuses except for In Design. You can modify programs the status of which is In Design without any restrictions.

You can change the structure of your program regardless of its status as follows:

You can add new nodes to your program.

You can insert a new node between two others by dropping it on the arrow connecting the two nodes. You can delete newly added nodes by clicking the Undo icon (before saving your program) or by discarding your changes.

You can delete a single or multiple nodes or even a whole branch from your program.
You can connect nodes with other nodes and delete connections.
You can create new paths and add new branches to A/B test nodes.

Notes:

Nodes that are not connected to other nodes cannot be left on the canvas.
After saving the changes, the most recent version of your program will be displayed on the Program Summary page regardless of the selected interval. If you set the timeframe to a time period before you modified the program, then 0 will be displayed above the newly added nodes.

Deleting nodes

You can delete a single or multiple nodes or even a whole branch from your program. It’s more efficient to delete nodes instead of copying the program because you will not lose its reporting data and you don’t need to bother with renaming the program, finishing the old program and activating the new one. Deleting nodes comes in handy in the following cases:

When you wish to delete A/B test branches after finding the winning strategy.
When you would like to fine-tune your channel strategy based on your contacts’ engagement level.

Important: Deleting nodes affect contacts as follows:

Contacts currently at the node will exit the program immediately after clicking Save & Apply.
When you delete a whole branch, all contacts on that branch will exit the program.
When you delete channel nodes, contacts who have already arrived at the node will receive the message but they won’t continue their journey.
When you delete a Wait or Wait for event node, contacts waiting at that node will exit the program.
Reporting reflects the program’s current status regardless of the selected timeframe. As a result, deleted nodes can cause discrepancies on the Program Summary page. For example, deleting a Decision node may result in seemingly unexplainable differences between the number of contacts who continued their journey from the previous node (i.e. the figure displayed next to Out) and the number of contacts who arrived at the next node (i.e. the figure displayed next to In).