'Trigger' Starting Source in new automation

Break down the steps

Create 'Trigger' Starting Source in new automation

Automation Studio -> click 'Overview' tab -> Click 'New Automation' button. -> select drag and drop 'Trigger' on the canvas, then click on 'Trigger' again. -> Click 'Configure'. -> Create a file name pattern: a. Select an operator, and provide text for the file name pattern. b. You can include the file extension, but it isn’t required unless you use the ‘Equals’ operator or the ‘Ends With’ operator. -> Enter a sample file name, including its file extension, that you expect to trigger the automation. Unlike a file name pattern, the sample file name requires the file extension. If the file name pattern doesn’t match the sample file name, a warning appears when you try to save the automation. -> If you want Automation Studio to ignore new requests that occur when an automation is running, disable queuing. -> Click 'Done'. -> Drag an activity onto the canvas. -> To view all activities of the selected type, click 'Choose'. - Search by ‘keyword’, ‘name’, or ‘external key’. - Sort by columns. - To see a summary, click an activity. -> Select an activity or create one. -> Add and configure more activities as needed. Activities in the same step can’t share a destination or target data extension. -> Save and activate the automation. -> To receive notifications about automation success or failure, on the Activity tab, select 'Notification Settings' and enter an email address. -> At the external file location, configure an application to listen for file upload events and fire a trigger API request with the file’s details. When a trigger API request matches an automation’s criteria, the automation starts. -> Note Marketing Cloud can’t operate with folders containing more than 10,000 files. Set up a file retention policy to keep the number of files below this limit. -> You can check the status of the trigger API request using the check trigger status API. -> If you later edit the automation or the activities in it, any active runs are stopped. Future runs of the automation are paused until all activities are defined and saved.

Adding 'Trigger' starting source

Automation Studio -> click 'Overview' tab -> Click 'New Automation' button. -> select drag and drop 'Trigger' on the canvas, then click on 'Trigger' again. -> Click 'Configure'.

File name pattern

a. Select an operator, and provide text for the file name pattern.

Sample file name

b. You can include the file extension, but it isn’t required unless you use the ‘Equals’ operator or the ‘Ends With’ operator. Enter a [ ] file name, including its file extension, that you expect to trigger the automation. Unlike a file name pattern, the sample file name requires the file extension. If the file name pattern doesn’t match the sample file name, a warning appears when you try to save the automation.

Disable queuing

If you want Automation Studio to ignore new requests that occur when an automation is running.

'Notification Settings'

To receive notifications about automation success or failure, on the Activity tab, select 'Notification Settings' and enter an email address.

Yes. ‘API to start an automation (developers API not Automation Studio)’ use highest network bandwidth ranked 1st place. This requires an external system to make an API call to SFMC (/automation/v1/automations/{id}/start) every single time a file lands. This creates external network traffic. Your vendor or middleware has to authenticate, send an API request, and manage error handling. It consumes your SFMC API tenant limits for a task that can be handled natively. ‘Schedule’ starting source is 2nd place. ‘File Drop’ starting source is 3rd place and than Trigger API/Triggered Automation is 4th place.

Does ‘API to start an automation (developers API not Automation Studio)’ use highest network bandwidth? More than ‘File Drop’ starting source or less than ‘Schedule’ starting source or Trigger API/Triggered Automation starting source?

Trigger API Starting Source

[ fill in ] (or Triggered Automation) Starts the automation when an external system drops a file onto an external file location (like AWS or Azure) and sends a specific REST API payload to Marketing Cloud to kick off the processing.

This is a specific UI option inside Automation Studio. It is designed explicitly for External Cloud Storage (like Amazon S3, Azure, or Google Cloud).

How it works: When a file lands in AWS, AWS calls Marketing Cloud's API (POST /automation/v1/automations/trigger) to tell Marketing Cloud, "Hey, the file is ready, go grab it."