The Continu SFTP Integration allows teams to seamlessly integrate their HRIS and manage user provisioning in one data feed. Teams can customize the HRIS data to fit their learning initiatives, set their desired update cadence, and manage user onboarding and offboarding.  

Utilizing Continu’s Global Template mapping and managing user data is a simple implementation process. To learn more about the template and the applicable user data fields, please find more information below:  

How To Set Up The SFTP Connection

1. Reach out to Continu for your SFTP credentials. Once requested, credentials may take up to 72 hours (business days) to generate.

2. Once you have been provided the credentials, enter them into your HRIS or upload your file via an SFTP application (Filezilla, Cyberduck, etc). Note that some HRIS providers may need to set this up for you. Reach out to your HRIS provider if you're unsure how to set up the transfer protocol. 

3. Set up a test file using the template design below.

4. Run your test file and ensure it transfers properly to the Continu Success Folder

5. Once the transfer is confirmed, let your contact at Continu know you are ready to begin ingesting data into your tenant.

Transfer Fields

Userid: Employee ID number, if applicable. This data field can be utilized as the unique identifier *Required only if used as a unique identifier, otherwise optional. 

first_name: First name of the user *REQUIRED* 

last_name: Last name of the user *REQUIRED* 

Email: Can be utilized as the unique identifier *REQUIRED* 

Role (Permissions): The role relates to the user's permission level on Continu and is a required field, which needs to be allocated to each user record. These are the acceptable roles: 

User: Able to view, share, and like content and learning tracks 

Admin: Can add content, learning tracks, workshops,assessments, and manage users and settings Creator: Can add content, workshops, assessments,and learning tracks. 

External (optional): Can only view content, workshops,learning tracks, assessments, and Explore categories that have been specifically segmented to them. 

job_title: title of the user 

Department_1 (2, 3): Departments can be separated into three levels. (Main Department, Sub Department & Sub-Sub Department) *This is built as a cascading hierarchy, department 1 must be populated if department 2 is, and dept 2 must be populated if department 3 is. 

Location_1 (2, 3): Locations can be separated into three levels. (For eg. Country, State, City) *This is similar in structure to departments with a cascading hierarchy. A sub-location can not be populated by itself, it's higher (location(s)) must be populated in tandem. 

Teams: Users can be assigned to one team or multiple teams within the organization. To set up a user under multiple teams, a pipe delimiter( | ) will need to be utilized to create these separate teams. 

Level: Users can be assigned according to their level within the organization. Alternatively, this field can be utilized as an additional segmentation option. (This can be a word or numerical value) 

Grade: Users can be assigned according to their grade within the organization. Alternatively, this field can be utilized as an additional segmentation option. (This can be a word or numerical value) 

Groups: Users can be assigned to one group or multiple groups within the organization. To set up a user under multiple groups, a pipe delimiter (|) will need to be utilized to create these separate groups. 

Managing Groups: Users can be assigned as a manager of a group or manager of multiple groups within the organization. To set up a group manager of multiple groups, a pipe delimiter (|) will need to be utilized to create these separate groups.

Hired: Include Hired Dates for all users if possible. This will allow the ability to filter users based on if they are a new hire and assign content accordingly. *REQUIRED* 

Is_Collaborator: Provides the ability for a user to be added as a Collaborator in the system Buddy Email: Email address of user's buddy (this can be utilized as secondary contact other than users manager) 

Manager_email: The email address of the user's manager (This will ensure all direct reports are listed in the Reports section for a manager) 

is_manager: This is a true or false value if the user is a manager. (This will ensure My Reports is viewable for the user and allow them to see users directly on their team (driven by manager_email value). 

Provisioning_Status: This will determine how a user is added or updated in Continu *REQUIRED* Provisioning Status Options 

inviting: A user will receive an invite email to Continu. A password will be set up at registration.

provisioning: For companies utilizing Single Sign On to manage users a provisioning email will be sent. This email will direct them to their relevant identity manager. 

inviting-muted: A user is added to Continu without an invite email triggered. This allows an Admin to add users and manually send invites at a later stage. 

provisioning-muted: A user is added to Continu without a provisioning email sent When a user enters Continu for the first time all preloaded information will be added to their profile. 

reinviting: Remind pending users in bulk. All pending users on the list will receive a reminder invite email. resetting: Reset passwords of users in bulk. All users on the list will have their passwords reset. suspending: A user can be suspended from Continu at any time. This can be useful for contractors, external or casual user types. 

unsuspending: If a user is currently suspended in Continu and needs to be reactivated you can un-suspend them at any time. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Should we pass the 'Role' value through file feed? 

We have seen a lot of customers not pass the role value. The reason for this is that whatever is in your HRIS system will pass over through the SFTP file and that will overwrite anyone you have manually updated to a creator/admin/manager. We suggest letting the value default to user and updating users manually unless you are very on top of this field for users in your HRIS. 

How do I pass the provisioning_status field? 

A lot of customers map this from the 'Status' field in their HRIS. Active would equal inviting/provisioning or inviting-muted/provisioning-muted and terminated would equal suspending. 

If an employee is terminated, can I leave them on the file? 

Yes, as long as they are passing with a value of 'suspending' in the provisioning_status field. If they are dropping off the file before passing a value of suspending, they will remain active in the instance. They will also remain active if they are not passing suspending value on the file, even if you manually suspend them in the platform. This is because the file sent over through sftp will overwrite any field manually updated, including the provisioning_status field. 

Is the sftp connection secure? 

Our SFTP endpoint is SOC 2 compliant and we can provide this documentation if required. The only touch access outside of the customer will be our Engineering team which requires access to the service for maintenance and development purposes. The act of ingesting the data we are receiving is completely programmatic from an application perspective and is encrypted both at rest and when processed. Security Note: The requirement for a public key will not be required as Continu will be providing customers with a dedicated SFTP site. 

What if I have a field value that has a comma or commas in it? 

If you want it to pass as one value then you would put the entire field value within quotation marks. (i.e: "Finance, Accounting". 

Should my headers match the headers from the template? 

Yes, please note the underscore '_' between words/characters in certain fields like first_name and location_1 

Can somebody be in multiple departments/locations/groups... etc? 

They can only be in one department or location, which is why there is a cascading sub department/location 3 levels deep. 

Users can however be in multiple Teams or Groups, this is accomplished on the file by separating each group with a Pipe Delimiter "|". 

Are there any custom fields we can add?  

There aren't custom fields that you can create your own header for but there are fields that are not in the main template (due to minimal use). If you have a certain field request please let us know what it is or if you'd like to learn about the other available fields to potentially utilize please reach out to support@continu.com 

My upload isn't working properly.

See the SFTP Troubleshooting Guide for assistance troubleshooting upload issues.