Create your first sync

Running your first sync is satisfying—you can see your source data appear in the tools and apps your organization lives in. To get there, you need to set a few things up first.

It's best to follow this setup sequence when creating your first sync:

1. Connect a source
2. Set up a model
3. Connect a destination
4. Configure a sync

You can learn the specifics of each step by clicking on the section link. Or check out the core concepts to review Hightouch's fundamentals.

Take an interactive tour of Hightouch

This interactive tour guides you through creating a Snowflake source, Salesforce destination, and a sync to upsert contacts and leads to Salesforce. It assumes you've already configured a model.

Start exploring

Connect a source

A source is where your organization's business data lives. To add a new source to your Hightouch workspace, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Sources overview page and click the Add source button.
2. Select the source you want to add.

3. Enter the relevant credentials. These differ depending on the source. Refer to the relevant source documentation for further details.
4. Click Continue. Before continuing, Hightouch validates that you have the necessary access and permissions. If the test fails, you need to confirm and re-enter your credentials.
5. Give your source a Source name. This name is how your source appears in the Hightouch workspace. It helps to include details about the sources' environment, data contents, and owners, particularly if you plan on connecting multiple instances of the same source, for example, a development and prod version.
6. Click Finish.

Once you've finished, your source appears on the Sources overview page and you can use it set up models.

Set up a model

Models define what data to pull from your source. To set up a new model, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Models overview page and click Add model.
2. Select a source you've already connected.
3. Choose a modeling method: SQL editor, table selector, dbt model, or Looker Look selector. If you're using one of the Sample dataset sources, the SQL editor comes with pre-populated SQL queries. You can also use the table selector with the Sample datasets.
4. Before continuing, you must Preview your model to ensure it's querying the data you're interested in. By default, the preview displays the first 100 records. Once you've validated your data, click Continue.
5. Give your model a Model name. It's best to include details about the model's contents and business purpose so you can easily identify it. Including more information is beneficial if you plan on using your model for multiple syncs or having many team members in your workspace.
6. Select a Primary key. A primary key should be a column with unique identifiers. A column with unique values is essential for Hightouch to sync data efficiently. Click Finish.

Once you've finished, your model appears on the Models overview page and you can use it to set up syncs.

To set up a sync, you need to connect a destination.

Connect a destination

Destinations are the tools and services you want to receive data from your source. You need to connect your destination to Hightouch before you can set up the sync configuration to the destination.

To set up a new destination, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Destinations overview page and click the Add destination button.
2. Select the destination you want to add and click Continue.

3. Authorize connecting to your destination or enter the relevant credentials and inputs. These differ depending on the destination. Refer to the relevant destination documentation for further details.
4. Click Continue. Before continuing, Hightouch validates that you have the necessary access and permissions. If the test fails, you need to confirm and re-enter your credentials.
5. Give your destination a Destination name. This name is how your destination appears in the Hightouch workspace. It helps to include details about the destination's business purposes and owners, particularly if you plan on connecting multiple instances of the destination, for example, a development and prod version.
6. Click Finish.

Once you've finished, your destination appears on the Destinations overview page and you can use it configure syncs.

Configure a sync

Syncs declare how your source data should appear in your destination. To configure one, you need to have set up a source, model, and destination first.

1. Go to the Syncs overview page and click the Add sync button.
2. Select the relevant model connected to the source from which you want to pull data. If you need help determining which model to choose, you can select View query to see the model's definition.
3. Select the destination you want to send data to.
4. Configure how you want to sync data to your destination. Configuration inputs differ depending on the destination. Refer to the relevant destination documentation for further details. Click Continue.
5. Set a schedule for the sync. You can learn more about scheduling options in the sync overview docs.
6. Click Finish.

Once you've finished configuring a sync, you land on that sync's overview page. This page shows previous sync runs and lets you edit its Configuration, Schedule, and set up Alerts. It's also home to the live debugger which helps understand previous runs down to the API request and response level. To learn more about the sync overview page, check out the sync documentation.

To run the sync manually, click Run. Check in your destination to see the fruits of your labor.