You can find all the necessary pieces of information about the different program statuses and actions on this page. You can check the program’s status on the Automation menu > Automation Programs page or in the top right corner of the workspace, where you can also change it.
The available options depend on the program’s current status.
Program statuses and actions
For a quick overview and comparison of the different program statuses, see Changing your program’s status.
The following program statuses and actions are available in Automation:
- In Design - The program is In Design as it is being worked on and it has not yet been activated. This means that contacts and events cannot enter it. You can edit the program entirely.
- Test - The program is currently being tested and its status changes to In Testing. Contacts and events can enter the program and they can progress along it based on the test configuration. You can edit the program entirely. For more information, see Testing programs.
- Freeze Testing - Testing has been suspended temporarily, the program’s status changes to In Testing (Frozen). 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. For more information, see Freezing the test.
- 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.
- Schedule - You can schedule the program to run at a future date. Once the schedule is set and the program is activated from the status selector, the program’s status will change to Scheduled. Contacts and events cannot enter the program. You can set the program’s schedule by clicking Schedule in the bottom left corner.
Notes:
- In Automation Center: The participation settings cannot be amended once the program is Active or Scheduled.
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In Interactions: Contacts already in the program can finish their journey. Scheduled programs may contain contacts in the following cases:
- If your program’s 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.
- Find out more about Scheduled Interactions programs
- Activate - The program is complete, has passed all validation checks and is now live (the program’s status changes to Active). Contacts and events can enter the program, progress along it as defined, and actions and responses are tracked for reporting.
- Pause - The program has been Paused, contacts and events are queued at the entry node and within the program. Messages will be triggered for those who have already arrived at message nodes when you have Paused the program, and they will be queued at the next node. You can reactivate, freeze or finish Paused programs. For more information, see Pausing a program.
Notes:
- If you pause an Active recurring program, every future recurrence will be canceled while the program is Paused. After resuming the program, it will start running again according to the defined schedule.
- Pausing an Automation Center program will not stop Send Time Optimization (STO) emails that are already scheduled for launch. If it is still critical to abort the STO launch, contact Emarsys Support to abort your emails.
Important:
- When a program is Paused for a number of days, queues can build up quickly at the entry and Wait nodes. After resuming the program, all events and contacts will try to proceed at the same time which might slow down the program. The Emarsys Interactions SLA does not apply to queued events processed after resuming Paused Interactions programs.
- As a general rule, we don’t recommend pausing programs for more than 120 minutes. If you want to suspend the program’s activity for longer, you should freeze the program instead.
- Programs Paused for longer than 72 hours will be automatically Frozen.
- Freeze - The program has been Frozen, contacts and events cannot enter it and the ones already in the program will exit immediately. You can also freeze Finished programs if you do not want contacts who have already entered it to complete their journey. For more information, see Freezing a program.
Important:
- Freezing an Automation Center program will not stop Send Time Optimization (STO) emails that are already scheduled for launch. If it is still critical to abort the STO launch, contact Emarsys Support to abort your emails.
- Automation Center programs starting with the Target segment entry point cannot be reactivated once Frozen or Finished. These programs can run only once, when such a program is Frozen, all contacts will exit it and no contacts will remain in the program when you reactivate it. If you would like to run the program again in the future, we recommend pausing it instead. We do not recommend reactivating Finished programs starting with this entry point.
- Please note that when you freeze Interactions programs, contacts at Wait nodes will exit the program and appear on the Program Reporting page only after the wait period has expired. These contacts will exit the program after their wait period has expired even if you reactivate the program in the meantime. For example, when you freeze a program containing a Wait node that is set to wait for 2 days, then those contacts who arrived at this node when you froze the program will exit it and appear on the Program Reporting page after 2 days (contacts who had already arrived at this node before freezing the program will exit it when their wait period has expired).
- Reactivate - This puts a Paused or Frozen program to the state Active. Paused, Frozen or Finished programs can be reactivated.
Automation Center programs starting with the Target segment entry point cannot be reactivated once Frozen.
- Fail-safe - Programs might be put into Fail-safe status due to resource or performance-related issues. When the program is in Fail-safe, contacts and events are queued at the entry node and within the program. For more information, see Programs in Fail-safe.
Important:
- If an Interactions program is not recovered within 72 hours, the program’s status will automatically change to Fail-safe (Frozen).
- If an Automation Center program is not recovered within 30 days, the program’s status will automatically change to Fail-safe (Frozen).
- Finish - The program has ended, its status changes to Finished. 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. For more information, see Finishing a program.
Notes:
- You can reactivate Finished programs, except for Automation Center programs that:
- reached the Finished status before July 20, 2022 (such programs cannot be Frozen either)
- use unavailable assets.
- If you reactivate 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 its status will change to Scheduled.
- Please note that you cannot reactivate Frozen or Finished programs starting with the Target segment entry point.
- Deleting programs - You can delete any programs regardless of their status. You cannot delete a program that is connected to another one and starts with the Entry from program entry point if the source program is Active. In this case, a dialog appears showing you the dependencies:
