Error: “Invalid JWT Token” when accessing Act! Marketing Automation

For Act! Marketing Automation to function correctly, there are a couple of prerequisites which are detailed below. Please follow the guidance provided in each of these sections to ensure you are setup to use Marketing Automation successfully.

• An active Act! subscription that is eligible for use with Marketing Automation is required.

Ensure your installation of Act! is correctly registered as per the below article:

How to Register or Activate Act! from v21.1 Onwards

Please Note: We strongly recommend you update your Act! software to V21 Update 5 as a minimum due to some known issues that were resolved in this version of the software.

Updates for Act! are available to download here.

• Your Act! API, either serviced by the Act! Web API or the Act! Connect Link, needs to be secure (accessed over https) ,externally accessible and configured for use with your Act! database(s).

For more information on ensuring your Act! API has been correctly set up, please see the following article: How do I set up the Act! API?

If you have registered Act! with a subscription serial number that is entitled to Marketing Automation and configured your API correctly, but you are still experiencing the same error, you may have an issue with the database itself being misconfigured.

Marketing Automation uses your secure API URL to allow communication between the Act! software, your Act! database and the Marketing Automation servers hosted by Act!. This  API URL needs to be applied to any database intending to use Marketing Automation. Depending on your Act! deployment, this preference is named ‘UPWARD_API_STREAMER’ (Act! /Access Via Web) or ‘APCAPIURL’ (Act! in the Cloud).

This setting should be automatically applied by Act! when the API is configured correctly, but in some cases this might fail and we need to take manual action to correct it.

This database preference is not exposed directly via the Act! software so it is necessary to use one of the batch files attached to this article on your database to both view and correct your API URL if we believe it may be incorrect.

Follow the instructions below for your Act! deployment type to verify the API URL that your database is currently using and to correct it where necessary. These steps need to be carried out on the server hosting your database and you need to be aware of your API URL before proceeding.

‘Act! Desktop software and Act! access via Web users’

1. Close Act! if it’s already open
2. Download the attached file ‘GetSetAPIURL.bat’
3. Right-click the file and select ‘Run as Administrator’ from the context menu
4. When prompted, type in the database name you wish to check and press Enter
5. If present, the API URL your database is currently configured to use will be displayed
6. If incorrect, type an upper-case ‘Y’ and press Enter
7. Type the correct API URL for your database and press Enter
8. Your database should now be configured correctly. Restart Act! and test the AMA feature

‘Act! in the Cloud users’

• I’m seeing this error when I log in via a web browser

The preference for Act! in the Cloud databases is applied and managed by Act!. If you are receiving this error when logging in to an Act! in the Cloud database via a web browser, please contact our support team who will be happy to assist.

https://www.act.com/contact-us

• I’m seeing this error when logging in to a remote database that synchronises with an Act! in the Cloud database.

If you are seeing this error in a remote database that synchronises with an Act! in the Cloud database, but you are not seeing the same error when logging in to your Act! in the Cloud database via a web browser, you can follow the instructions below to resolve the issue:

1. Close Act! if it already open
2. Download the attached file ‘GetSetCloudAPIURL.bat’
3. Right-click the file and select ‘Run as Administrator’ from the context menu
4. When prompted, type in the database name you wish to check and press Enter
5. If present, the API URL your database is currently configured to use will be displayed
6. If incorrect, type an upper-case ‘Y’ and press Enter
7. Type the correct API URL for your database and press Enter
8. Your database should now be configured correctly. Restart Act! and test the AMA feature

What is my Act! in the Cloud API URL?

The Act! in the Cloud API URL depends on how you access your Act! in the Cloud database. If you access it by going directly to its own URL (which will look similar to this: https://usp1-iis-99.hosted1.act.com/YourSiteName/), then the API endpoint takes the format of your Cloud URL suffixed with "-api/act.web.api".

For Example:

Cloud Login URL: https://usp1-iis-99.hosted1.act.com/YourSiteName/

API URL: https://usp1-iis-99.hosted1.act.com/YourSiteName-api/act.web.api

However, if you access your Act in the Cloud database by using https://my.act.com then you will need to use the regional API URL associated to your account. These are as follows:

US - https://apius.act.com/act.web.api
UK - https://apiuk.act.com/act.web.api
AUS/NZ - https://apiau.act.com/act.web.api
EU/International English - https://apieu.act.com/act.web.api

Please note: The following guidance is for experienced IT technicians or Act! certified consultants only and is not intended for general use.

We have a plugin available that exposes some configuration information for your Act! application and Act! database that may help in identifying issues with your Marketing Automation service. The plugin AmaDebug.dll can be downloaded from the link provided at the bottom of this article. Follow the instructions below to install and use this plugin.

NOTE: If using Act! v23 or below, the default locations will be in C:\Program Files (x86) rather than C:\Program Files as mentioned below.

• Download the plugin AmaDebug.dll from the link provided in this article
• Place this file in to the Act! Plugins directory. The default location for this folder is C:\Program Files\ACT\Act for Windows\Plugins
• Restart Act!
• Log in to your Act! database
• Select the newly available menu option AMA Debug

The AMA Debug window displays a small selection of configuration values that are pulled from both your local Act! application and the database you are connected to. Below is an explanation of some of these values.

Configuration

The 3 rows in this section are presented in order of importance. It is possible that all 3 rows could have a valid API URL, but the topmost value will be the one that is used by Act! when using the Marketing Automation service.

UPWARD_API_STREAMER (Config) – This value is taken from the local Act!.exe.config located at C:\Program Files\ACT\Act for Windows\Act!.exe.config. By default, there will be no key for UPWARD_API_STREAMER in this config file, but you can add this key yourself if you wish to manually override the UPWARD_API_STREAMER preference found in the database for testing purposes. Note: This will override the Marketing Automation API URL for all databases accessed via that installation of Act! until the value is removed again from the Act!.exe.config file.

Example UPWARD_API_STREAMER config value for the Act!.exe.config file:

<add key="UPWARD_API_STREAMER" value="https://testingAPI.com/act.web.api/" />

APCAPIURL – This database preference is present in TBL_PREFERENCE. It is used to define the Marketing Automation API URL for our Act! Cloud customers. You will find this value present in remote databases that have been created from an Act! Cloud database. This preference will also override any value found in the database preference UPWARD_API_STREAMER that is detailed below.

UPWARD_API_STREAMER – This value is automatically created within an Act! database either by logging in using the desktop software or via a browser for Act! access via Web customers. If there are no values found in UPWARD_API_STREAMER (Config) or APCAPIURL, then this API URL will be used by Act! when accessing the Marketing Automation feature in this database.

Information

Target – This denotes the regional Marketing Automation server that your Act! installation will attempt to communicate with when opening this feature. More information regarding this can be found here: How to change the regional server used for Act! Marketing Automation

Language – This is the language detected by your Act! installation

API – A confirmation of the API URL that Act! will be using when opening Marketing Automation for the database you are currently logged in to

Serial – The activation key being used by your Act! installation

Host – The computer name of the server your database is hosted on

Database – The name of the database you are currently logged in to

Username – The username of the Act! user you are currently logged in as