Seeing errors on campaigns integrated with VAN? This article covers how to troubleshoot for some common scenarios.

Error when selecting a key

Examples

If you see a red error banner after selecting a key, and an error message such as “received status 401” or “received status 403”, this indicates an invalid key. The key may have been entered incorrectly into Spoke, may not be an API key for Scale to Win, or may have expired. 

Examples of error messages shown when selecting an invalid key.

Troubleshooting steps

Click edit on the key to view its details 

To troubleshoot, go to the “Manage API Keys” section in “Settings”, and click “Edit” on the key that is causing issues. 

Check the details of your key by accessing the edit key screen.

Confirm the key was put in the right place

Confirm that the one-time API key, which is a long string of numbers and letters and dashes, has been entered into the “Key Value” field, not the “Key Name” field. By the same token, confirm that the “Key Name” field is something like “DNC.0005.scaletowin”, not a long string of numbers and letters and dashes. 

Check for typos

The one-time API key may have a typo in it if you entered it manually. Try adding the key value in again if you’re not sure. If you don’t have access to the key anymore, you’ll need to request a new key.

Check that the key is for Scale to Win

If your key name and value match what VAN provided, you should also double check that you entered a Scale to Win texting key. It’s not uncommon for customers to enter some other key (a key for a different texting or dialer tool, etc). You can check this by looking at the “Key Name” field - the name you received from VAN should end with “scaletowin”.

Make sure your My Voters key was set for My Voters, and vice versa

Most VAN administrators allow you to use the same key for My Campaign and My Voters, but sometimes you need separate keys for each. If you have different keys for My Voters and My Campaign, make sure the key you intended for My Voters and was actually set as a My Voters key, rather than a My Campaign or Everyaction key (or visa versa). Note that even if VAN allows for one key value to be used for both My Voters or My Campaign / Everyaction, you need to enter the key twice inside the “Manage API Keys” section, once as a My Voters key, and once as a My Campaign / Everyaction key, if you plan to use both My Voters and My Campaign.

Request a new key from VAN

If fixing the data entered into Spoke doesn’t solve the problem, the key is either expired or invalid, and you will need to request a new API Key from VAN. Here is a quick guide. If your keys have expired more than once, you’ll want to raise this issue with your dedicated VAN administrator. 

Additional Support

If you've attempted to troubleshoot and still haven't been able to resolve your issue, feel free to reach out to us. 

Lists not appearing from VAN

In order to sync a list over from VAN, you must first share a folder in VAN with Scale to Win. Here is a guide to each step you’ll need to take in VAN.

Initial troubleshooting

If you have taken these steps and are not seeing your list, please:

• Make sure to select the correct VAN API key in the "Integrations" section of the campaign, i.e. if you would like to pull a list from My Voters, make sure the API key is for My Voters.

• Make sure your list is saved as a “list”. A saved “search” cannot be imported.

• Make sure the "API User, Scale to Win" has shared access to the folder in VAN where you saved the list.

• Make sure the list does not contain more than 250k contacts, otherwise it will be too large to be imported.

• Make sure to search for the list in the search bar - you'll need to enter words for names to populate.

Create a new folder

If lists still fail to appear in Spoke after you have taken these steps, you can try creating a new folder in your VAN instance and sharing that folder with Scale to Win. Then, save your lists in that folder.

Additional Support

If you've attempted to troubleshoot and still haven't been able to resolve your issue, feel free to reach out to us. 

Error when selecting a list

If you see an error message when selecting “NGP VAN” as the contact upload method and trying to search for a list, here are some common causes.

“Selected API Key doesn’t have access to list”

This specific error message (“The selected API key does not have access to this list”) means that we sent the request over to VAN to get the saved list. VAN sent back a response that indicated that they exported the list successfully for us, but they didn’t give us a download URL to actually get the list for you. Unfortunately, VAN didn't give us any details about why that happened.

Usually, this indicates a permissions error from VAN. Another reason that this message could show up is if the list has no contacts that are “valid” according to VAN. This could indicate that the numbers are landlines or not textable. 

We can't be sure on our end, so the best next step would be to file a ticket with VAN to learn more about what's happening with the specific list.

Only 2500 lists appearing

If you see a yellow banner stating that only 2500 lists are being displayed in the dropdown, this is because too many lists on your VAN instance have been shared with the Scale to Win API key. 

A warning message is shown when too many lists are shared with Spoke.

 You can resolve this by going to the folder(s) where lists are shared with the key. Click “Edit”, then remove the “API User, Scale to Win” from the list of users who have access to the folder. You can then share a new folder with the API user containing fewer lists.

Timeout error

If you attempt to upload a list from VAN into Spoke and receive a “timeout error”, please reach out to VAN directly to file a ticket, as this is an issue on the VAN side. To text in the meantime, you can export your list from VAN and upload the CSV file into Spoke.

Error when mapping an action handler

Once you have connected a campaign with a VAN key (instructions here), Spoke allows you to map your scripted answers and tags to survey questions, canvass responses, activist codes, and RSVP statuses. Here’s a quick guide on how to set up these mappings.

Too many surveyQuestions, activistCodes or canvass/resultCodes

If your VAN instance contains a large number of survey questions, activist codes, or canvass responses, Spoke may display an error message to let you know there is too much data coming over from VAN (more than 5 MB of data, to be specific). This error is a safeguard to prevent Spoke from crashing from a data overload.

Examples of the warning message shown when too many statuses are shared with Spoke.

If you see this error message, you’ll need to reduce the amount of data being shared with Scale to Win in the form of activist codes, canvass responses, or survey questions.

Only 2500 RSVP statuses appearing

If you are using our VAN event sync, and your VAN event contains more than 2500 RSVP statuses (from the combination of available statuses, roles, shifts, and locations), Spoke will only be able to display the first 2500, and show you a warning message to explain that this is happening. This warning is a safeguard to prevent Spoke from crashing from a data overload.

Examples of the warning message shown when too many RSVP statuses are shared with Spoke.

If this prevents you from accessing shift statuses you want to add to the campaign, you’ll need to reduce the number of statuses in the event, for example by reducing the number of locations or shifts, and creating a separate event to cover those options. Alternatively, you can save event statuses using scripted answers or tags, as opposed to directly mapping them back to the VAN event using an action handler, then bulk upload the campaign results to VAN.