Bulk API and Imports

Outreach API supports bulk operations on several models. It also supports import of data from CSV files to bring data from external sources into Outreach.

Bulk actions through API

Making requests

Bulk requests are shaped as follow:

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POST https://api.outreach.io/api/v2/batches/actions/<bulkActionName>

You can also use actionParams to the query as you would for other actions. The action will always support the skipConfirmation parameter, we will talk more about this here. In the next section we will see how to apply filters with the filter parameter. Check the Batch definition the API-Reference in to see the actions with the action parameters supported.

If you are using an OAuth token, make sure to have batches.read, batches.write and the targeted resources write scopes, e.g: accounts.write, prospects.write...

Applying filters

As mentioned in the previous section, all bulk actions support the filter parameter. You can chain multiple filters and the syntax should respect the newFilterSyntax. Here is an example of a bulk action on accounts:

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POST https://api.outreach.io/api/v2/batches/actions/accountsBulkModify?actionParams[filter][id]=1&actionParams[filter][id]=2&actionParams[filter][id]=3&actionParams[filter][owner][id]=123

The bulk action will be triggered on the exact same records you would get with the corresponding collection GET request:

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GET https://api.outreach.io/api/v2/accounts?filter[id]=1&filter[id]=2&filter[id]=3&filter[owner]=123&newFilterSyntax=true

In the absence of any filter the action would trigger on ALL the records it applies to.

Building the request's body

Make sure to read about "classic" POST requests. The data passed to the bulk actions is given in the attributes. Here is an example of bulkModify on accounts:

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POST https://api.outreach.io/api/v2/batches/actions/accountsBulkModify?actionParams[filter][id]=1,2,3

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{
  "data": {
    "attributes": {
      "field": "custom1",
      "value": "edit from bulk"
    }
  }
}

Check the documentation of each action to see what they accept as attributes. You may notice some bulk actions, such as bulkDelete, that don't require attributes. Those do not require any payload to be passed.

Understanding the result

The result given is a batch. This is the model used to track the bulk requests. It will look like this:

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{
  "data": {
    "type": "batch",
    "id": 1156,
    "attributes": {
      "action": "bulk_modify",
      "canceledAt": null,
      "confirmCount": 2,
      "confirmedAt": null,
      "confirmedCountRequired": null,
      "contextId": 0,
      "contextType": "",
      "createdAt": "1701880061",
      "failures": 0,
      "finishedAt": null,
      "pending": 0,
      "startedAt": null,
      "state": "pending",
      "summary": null,
      "total": 0,
      "updatedAt": "1701880061"
    },
    "relationships": {
      "batchItems": {
        "links": {
          "related": "https://api.outreach.io/api/v2/batchItems?filter%5Bbatch%5D%5Bid%5D=1156"
        }
      },
    },
    "links": {
      "self": "https://api.outreach.io/api/v2/batches/1156"
    }
  }
}

At first, the result can have 2 states: either pending or confirming. We will talk about the latter in the next section.. When it is pending you can keep track of the progress by querying the /batches/<id> endpoint with the id of the returned batch, e.g:

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GET https://api.outreach.io/api/v2/batches/1156

The response will be the same as above but some fields might have been updated. Take a look at the batch definition in the API Reference for more details about the batch model. From pending state the batch can move to either finished, failed or canceled. In any case the summary might be updated with information relative to failures during the process (some failures are minor and won't trigger the whole batch to fail). If no failures happen, the summary stays null. Additionally, the detail of each item that got processed get be found through the batchItems endpoint. Ideally you will want to filter by the batch you are dealing with, e.g:

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GET https://api.outreach.io/api/v2/batchItems?filter[batch][id]=1156

If you are interested only in failures you can filter based on the state:

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GET https://api.outreach.io/api/v2/batchItems?filter[batch][id]=1156&filter[state]=error

Confirming bulk request

A bulk gets into confirming state when the confirmation hasn't been skipped (see skipping confirmation). This means that an additional action will be required to trigger the action to start.

When receiving a batch in confirming state, it will look like this:

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{
  "data": {
    "type": "batch",
    "id": 1156,
    "attributes": {
      // other attributes ...
      "confirmCount": 2,
      "confirmedCountRequired": true, // can also be null or false
      "state": "confirming",
    },
  }
  // relationships, links ...
}

In case confirmedCountRequired is true, you can call:

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POST https://api.outreach.io/api/v2/batches/1156/actions/confirm?actionParams[confirmedCount]=2

Otherwise there is no need to specify the confirmedCount (there is no harm in putting it though):

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POST https://api.outreach.io/api/v2/batches/1156/actions/confirm

Note that you can also use the /cancel action on the batch (without params). It will move the batch state to canceled and stop processing of items if it ever started.

Skipping confirmation

When using bulk actions in automation, you may want to avoid the confirmation step. For that, when starting a new bulk, you can pass the skipConfirmation action parameter with true value:

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POST https://api.outreach.io/api/v2/batches/actions/accountsBulkModify?filter[id]=1,2,3&actionParams[skipConfirmation]=true

Importing CSV through API

Our system has been designed to allow you to upload a CSV file to our S3 bucket and then use this file using its reference (so called storageKey). This replicates the feature you may have seen on Outreach Client. To use the import feature with an Oauth token you will need the imports.write and imports.read scope.

Uploading the file

First of all you will need to upload your CSV file to our S3 bucket. The first step is to generate the link, we use AWS Presigned URLs. Let's take a look at the API call:

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POST https://api.outreach.io/api/v2/imports/actions/generateUploadLink

The response body is slightly unconventional as the model doesn't have an id and it will look like this:

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{
  "data": {
    "type": "upload",
    "attributes": {
      // presigned AWS S3 URL
      "uploadUrl": "https://outreachimportsdata-us-east-2.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/bento/folder1/folder2/folder3/data.csv?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&otherParams...",
      "storageKey": "adfaaf30-4514-49ff-ac0f-0c5bafb918b2"
    }
  }
}

Carefully save the uploadUrl and the storageKey as you won't be able to get them again.

You can then upload the file to the uploadUrl using PUT method. Make sure to read the AWS documentation.

Validating the file

After the upload is done, the file is in our S3 bucket but is not yet ready to be used. You will need to validate the file to ensure that it isn't corrupted. This is done by calling the following action:

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POST https://api.outreach.io/api/v2/imports/actions/validateUpload?actionParams[storageKey]=adfaaf30-4514-49ff-ac0f-0c5bafb918b&actionParams[hash]=abcde...

The hash is the HMAC-SHA512 hash of the file you uploaded. The response will look like this:

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{
  "data": {
    "type":"validateUpload",
    "attributes": {
      "headerValue": [{
        "value":"object name",
        "header":"name",
      }],
      "recordCount": "123"
    }
  }
}

The header value is the a list with the headers of the CSV file and the values in the first row that Outreach API was able to extract. The recordCount is the amount of records Outreach API found in the CSV file. You will need this in the next step.

Starting the import

You will again need the storageKey here. This is how we will find which file to use. You will also need to send us the amount of records in the CSV file as recordCount. You can then call the import action on any supporting model (check theAPI Reference) with any attribute additional:

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POST https://api.outreach.io/api/v2/imports/actions/accountsImport

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{
  "data": {
    "attributes": {
      "storageKey": "adfaaf30-4514-49ff-ac0f-0c5bafb918b",
      "recordCount": "123",
      "dupeMethod": "skip",
      "mappings": {
        "companyName": "name"
      }
    }
  }
}

Your import CSV file may have duplicated records with what Outreach has. Those are identified by unique fields that are identical (e.g id, email...). The dupeMethod is used to treat those clashing records. It can either be:

skip (default) : we will skip duplicates and no data will be stored from that row
missing: we will update empty fields in the record by their imported value
overwrite: we will update all the fields with their imported value

All other non-duplicated records are created in DB.

The mappings are used to map the headers of your CSV file to the Outreach field names. To ensure consistency, provide mappings for all the fields. You may leverage the headerValue from the previous step.

The response you will receive looks like this:

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{
  "data": {
    "type": "import",
    "id": 639,
    "attributes": {
      "createdAt": "2024-03-07T13:21:47.000Z",
      "dupeMethod": "skip",
      "dupes": 0,
      "errorReason": null,
      "externalId": null,
      "externalName": null,
      "externalType": null,
      "failures": 0,
      "fileName": "account.csv",
      "fileSize": null,
      "frequency": "once",
      "loadFromPlugin": false,
      "mappings": {
        "Id": "id",
        "Title": "title"
      },
      "pluginId": null,
      "prospectOwnerId": null,
      "recurring": false,
      "reportInstanceId": null,
      "scheduledAt": null,
      "source": null,
      "stageId": null,
      "state": "progressing", // or finished or failed
      "stateChangedAt": "2024-03-07T13:21:49.000Z",
      "syncedUntil": null,
      "timeZone": null,
      "total": 1,
      "type": "ImportAccount::Csv", // special case: Import::Csv for prospects
      "updatedAt": "2024-03-07T13:21:49.000Z"
    }
  }
}

Similarly to batches you can track the state of the import using:

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GET  https://api.outreach.io/api/v2/imports/639

NOTE: behind the hood imports are running in batches. You can find the corresponding batches using the following:

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GET https://api.outreach.io/api/v2/batches?filter[contextType]=Import&filter[contextId]=639

Bulk rate limiting

Per request

For now bulk requests can be triggered on a maximum of 100 000 items. If it exceeds this amount it won't start and will be moved to failed state. Also, together with the Outreach Client, there is a limit of 5 Millions of record per day that can be processed through bulk actions.