by Joey Novak | Feb 13, 2015 | CEO Corner
One of the things I love is to understand how systems work. From FedEx sorting, to gas station fuel pumps, to nuclear weapons (which are actually a lot simpler than you might think). One of the things I’ve learned is that systems can be divided into two classes: closed loop and open loop. An open loop system is a system with no feedback; it just happily runs along doing what it is told to do with no real indicator of success. It just assumes everything is hunky dory. While these systems are usually cheap to build and very reliable, they can cause problems. For example, I spent a small amount of time at a grape vineyard assisting with the grape juice processing during harvest season. There were 8 different machines the grapes went through before processing was finished. There was one machine whose job is to crack open the grapes by crushing them just a little. This was the first real step, and it was the main bottleneck in processing the grapes into grape juice. There was a large conveyor belt that fed this machine, and if the guys putting grapes on the conveyor belt were too fast, the hopper on the crusher would fill up and grapes would start raining down inside the building. It was a non-profit facility run by volunteer labor, so the quality of the labor was somewhat random. Sometimes you would get over-eager people that no matter what you told them would keep dumping grapes on the conveyor until finally, to their dismay, you just turned off the electricity to their equipment so they...
by Jacob Allred | Feb 10, 2015 | Tips
Have you ever noticed that Infusionsoft ID numbers behave a little strangely? Sometimes they are odd, and sometimes they are even. They almost always skip numbers. Why does this happen, and does it matter? Why does this happen? Infusionsoft uses multiple SQL databases to run your app. This is a standard practice that allows your app to keep working even if one of the SQL databases fails or needs to be taken offline for updates. The databases share any updates with each other so both hold a full copy of all your data. For example, you create a new contact. Infusionsoft creates the contact in database A. Database A shares the new contact with database B. Now both databases have the contact, but there is a short period of time between updates when the two servers may be slightly out of sync. For a short moment, database B doesn’t know anything about the new contact. To keep from accidentally using the same ID number for two records, each database follows its own numbering scheme. For example, database A only uses odd numbers, and database B only uses even numbers. While Infusionsoft is adding contacts to database A, all of your new contacts will have odd ID numbers. If it switches to database B, then you’ll start to get even ID numbers for your contacts. Does it matter? This probably isn’t a big issue for most people, but it can be helpful to be aware of some possible side effects of this numbering scheme. The first side effect is that the highest ID number doesn’t reflect the number of records in your app. In the...
by Jacob Allred | Feb 3, 2015 | Tips
Doing development work inside of your company’s live Infusionsoft app can be extremely dangerous. This is especially true if you are using the Infusionsoft API. In addition to getting a good backup solution for your app’s data, you can use a free sandbox app to keep your vital data safe. A sandbox app is a free tool provided by Infusionsoft to help you safely develop apps and integrations for Infusionsoft. It can also be used for testing changes to shopping cart and order form themes, new campaigns, and almost anything else you’d want to do. It looks and behaves exactly like your normal Infusionsoft app but with a few limitations: a maximum of 3 users per app, 250 contacts, and no ability to send email broadcasts. Getting a sandbox app is easy. Just place an order with Infusionsoft and they’ll send you the details you need to log in to get started. You can set up API access just like you would with your normal...
by Jacob Allred | Jan 27, 2015 | Tips
Have you ever wanted to collect an extra piece of information from your customers? For example, you may want to ask who referred them, or you may offer a choice of special gifts with their purchase. With a bit of HTML, you can easily add custom fields to your Infusionsoft order forms. Setup the custom field You’ll need to have a custom contact field. If you aren’t sure how to do this, follow these instructions provided by Infusionsoft. For this example, I named this field Referred by. Once your field is created, click the View the field database names (for the API) link to find the field’s database name. You’ll need this name in a later step. Add the HTML to your form You’ll need a snippet of HTML to get the field to show up on your form. In this example, my field’s database name is Referredby. You will want to replace both instances of Referredby with your own field name below. Copy and paste this snippet into an HTML area of your order form, for example the Product Information section: Were you referred by someone? <input id="Contact0_Referredby" name="Contact0_Referredby" type="text" /><br><br> This example is very simplistic. You’ll probably want to style it to match your form’s design. Test it out It is always a good idea to test your changes. If you entered the HTML correctly, then your field should show up on your order form. If you make a test order, then the custom field should get saved to the contact record. If it isn’t, check to make sure you used the correct field database name in the HTML and prefaced...
by Jacob Allred | Jan 20, 2015 | Tips
Infusionsoft doesn’t provide a “forward to a friend” feature for your emails, but with a bit of effort you can add this feature to your emails on your own. First you’ll need to pick the subject line and body of the message that the friend will receive. You can’t use HTML, and you can’t include line breaks. The URL for the hosted version of your email will be added to the end of the body. Fill out the form below with your subject line and body: [cf]javascript[/cf] Our site will convert your subject and message body into a format that will work in your Infusionsoft emails. Edit your email in Infusionsoft and add an email address link. Copy and paste the text from above into the email address link in your email. For example: Click the Insert/Update button to finish. When your reader gets the email and clicks the link, a new email will open in their mail client with the subject and body already filled out. They’ll still need to pick a recipient, and they’ll have the opportunity to change the subject/body if they...
