Webhook to create purposeful duplicates in Marketo is unreliable

[Dan_Stevens_]

As part of our purposeful duplicate process (when CRM contacts are created in MS Dynamics) a basic webhook is called to create a fresh new lead:

We're finding that this is working very inconsistently for us.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  What's odd is that we always receive a common error type "Duplicate Lead" Failed. Server Returned code 302" - even when the webhook runs successfully.  When I asked Support about this, they came back with the following:

Engineering confirmed that the HTTP 302 message is not an error. Instead, it is the response code for a page redirect.

HTTP 302:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_302

With that being said; I've asked if Engineering can modify the wording being written in the activity log, to prevent any future confusion. I also pointed out that you are not aware of why the redirect is taking place in the first place, and asked if they could explain that as well.

But this doesn't explain why the webhook is working so inconsistently.  I know Sanford Whiteman​ commented last year that the loopback post is broken on some instances (The 3 Coolest Webhooks I've seen (and or) Implemented ).  Could this be the issue?  Any others experience this inconsistent behavior?

[SanfordWhiteman]

If we use this alternate approach, would this open us up to any data privacy/security issues by using a proxy like this?

You're quite explicitly passing data out of Marketo via webhook and back in. It's an SSL connection in both directions, though I could be intercepting the data because the connection is terminated on the proxy (of course I'm not, but that may be a concern).

Anyway, you can try:

     https​://marketo-app-sj08.api.figureone.com/index.php/leadCapture/save

[Dan_Stevens_]

Sandy, what would we need to do to create/configure something like this on our own server?  Might be a good blog topic for http://blog.teknkl.com/.

[Dan_Stevens_]

Hi Sanford Whiteman - circling back on this, would this be complex to create/configure on our end?  If you can detail out the requirements, that would be great.

[SanfordWhiteman]

Do you currently use AWS? Or is that prohibited due to the MS connection?

[Dan_Stevens_]

We do not - just MS Azure.

[SanfordWhiteman]

I wouldn't have an applicable recipe for Azure -- just AWS CloudFront or IIS w/ARR + URLRewrite (in the latter case, anyone who knows ARR would already know how to do this).

[Trish_Keenan1]

Hi Dan - Kristen left Marketo last year, unfortunately. I agree that this just isn't a good enough answer. Can you ask that it be escalated further? (Thank you!)

[Dan_Stevens_]

Yeah, I know - she's now at BlueWolf.  But she's still active on the community and has an active profile.  She published a series of blog posts recently here.

[Paul_Wilson8]

Quick question for you Dan Stevens do you have duplicate detection rules active in DCRM?

[Dan_Stevens_]

Hi Paul.  We do.  Very basic setup (notification pops up if a duplicate - based on email address - is created per entity (lead/contact).  When dupes are created purposefully in Marketo, they are not synced back to CRM.

[Paul_Wilson8]

Good day Dan Stevens​ I wonder if there might be a "behind the scenes" issue at play here. A couple of weeks ago I learend the following from Marketo support:

"When Marketo attempts to pass either an insertion or an update into the CRM through the API, we adhere to the deduplication rules in both cases and this can cause the API request to fail. In Marketo we have the option to suppress deduplication configuration when we make the API request for inserts for Leads, updates on Leads or Contacts, or a combination. We adjusted the configuration in the Marketo instance to suppress deduplication configuration for updates on both the Lead and Contact entities."

So if you add a case comment on your open issue and mention that Praveen had pointed the above out on another case then this may help if the de-dupe rules may be affecting how the API calls are happening.

Hope this helps some!

PW

[Dan_Stevens_]

Thanks for the reply Paul.  We actually learned of this a while ago - as it contributed to several sync issues we were experiencing.  We have since suppressed the dupe detection from Marketo to CRM - just like you did - and that solved the issue.  For this issue, I think Sandy's nailed it - now we just need to figure out the best alternative approach to use that will provide reliable results.

[Trish_Keenan1]

Hi Dan. We have the same issue with a Marketo/Dynamics integration. I had a support ticket in months ago about it, and was reassured that everything was working fine... but it's not. We're finding inconsistencies (without any apparent reason) as to the sync working or not, and have the exact same issue with regard to the email address being blank in Dynamics after sync. We're also digging in deeper on this end to determine if there's any logic to what happens when. But you're not alone in this!! Let's stay in touch.