# Presets

> Reusable rules that decide which destinations see which leads.
> Source: https://www.eventsiq.io/docs/presets


A preset is a reusable rule: _state is one of TX, FL, AZ_, or _consent is true and it is a weekday
between 9am and 6pm_. Presets do not do anything on their own. They become useful when a routing
setup pairs one with a list of destinations, which is how a lead from Texas reaches different
destinations than a lead from Ohio.

:::tip{title="You may not need any"}
If every lead should go to the same destinations in the same order, skip presets entirely and put
your destinations in the routing setup's **default** waterfall. Presets are for when leads need to
diverge.
:::

## Where they live

The **Presets** tab on the **Routing** page is the library: every preset you have, each with its
rules written out in words, where it is used and when it last matched. It is also under
**Settings → Lead data → Presets**. **Needs attention** picks out presets with no rules, or that
have not matched anything in seven days.

![The presets library](https://www.eventsiq.io/docs-media/presets/presets-library.png "Routing, Presets tab, with several presets listed and their rules in words. Names blurred.")

You can also create a preset from inside the routing builder, in which case it belongs to that one
routing setup and is marked **Only in** that setup. **Who can use it**, on the preset, widens it to
**Every routing setup (shared)** if you later want to reuse it.

The distinction is only about reuse. A local preset and a shared one behave identically at run time.

## Building one

![The preset editor](https://www.eventsiq.io/docs-media/presets/presets-editor.png "The Edit preset sheet open on a shared preset, with several rules and Match any picked. Names blurred.")

Click **New preset**, or **Edit** on a preset. A preset is a name, an optional description, a list
of rules, and whether **all** of them must be true (**Match all**) or **any** of them (**Match
any**). Click **Add rule** for each one.

Rules come in these kinds, named the way the library writes them:

**Answer** tests one of your fields against a value. This is what you will use nearly all of the
time.

**URL parameter** and **Click data** test what was captured with the lead rather than answered by
the visitor: which page they were on, where they came from, campaign parameters.

**Location** tests where the lead came from, for example the state or region from their IP address.

**Time** tests against a window in a named time zone. Windows may wrap past midnight, so `22:00` to
`06:00` works as you would expect.

**Day** tests which days are allowed, listed Monday first.

The last two exist because most destinations only want leads while their call centre is staffed.

### Saving a shared preset

The save buttons say how far a change reaches. **Save for all 3 routing setups** changes the shared
preset everywhere it is used, from the next lead. Opened from a routing branch, **Save for** that
setup **only** gives that routing its own copy. **Save as a new preset** leaves the original alone.

### Operators

| Operator                | Notes                                                                         |
| ----------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| equals, not equals      | Booleans compare sensibly against the words `true` and `false`                |
| contains, not contains  | Substring                                                                     |
| starts with, ends with  | Substring, anchored                                                           |
| greater than, less than | And the "or equal" variants; compares numerically when both sides are numbers |
| in, not in              | Against a list of values, the one you want for a list of states              |
| is empty, is not empty  | The only operators that treat a missing field as a legitimate answer          |

## How they are evaluated

This is the part worth reading twice, because two of the rules are deliberate and surprising.

**Branches are tried in priority order, and the first match wins.** In the routing builder's
**List** view, priority _is_ position: the top branch is tried first, numbered **1**. On the
**Map**, branches are tried left to right. Nothing after a matching branch is considered.

![Branch order on the routing map](https://www.eventsiq.io/docs-media/presets/presets-priority.png "A routing setup's Map with two preset branches side by side and the default branch, tried left to right.")

**No match sends the lead to the default branch.** If nothing matches and there is no default
waterfall configured, the lead is stored and marked unsold, and the logs records why.

**A preset with no rules never matches.** It would be reasonable to assume an empty preset
matches everything; it does the opposite, on purpose. A half-configured branch sitting at the top of
the list would otherwise swallow every lead in the account before anything else was tried.

**A missing field makes a rule false, never an error.** If a preset tests `state` and a lead
arrives without one, the rule is false and EventsIQ records a warning against the lead. Nothing
throws and nothing matches by accident, but a preset testing a field that never arrives will
quietly never fire, which is why the builder flags presets whose fields no attached source supplies.


## Attaching destinations to a preset

A preset on its own routes nothing. In the routing builder, a **branch** pairs one preset with an
ordered list of destinations, and that list is the waterfall the lead is offered to if the preset
matches.

![A branch in the routing builder](https://www.eventsiq.io/docs-media/presets/presets-branch.png "A routing setup's Map with one preset branch leading to its destinations, and the default branch beside it.")

In the **List** view, drag branches up and down to change which is tried first, and drag the
destinations under **Offer to, in order** to change who gets first refusal.

:::note{title="Deleting a preset does not delete the branch"}
A branch whose preset has been deleted is marked broken in the builder and is skipped at run time.
It is left visible rather than silently removed so that you can see what happened and either repoint
it or delete it deliberately.
:::

## A worked example

Say you sell solar leads, your best destination only covers the southwest, and everybody else takes
national volume.

1. Create a global preset **Southwest** with one rule: `state` **in** `TX, AZ, NV, NM`.
2. In your routing setup, add a branch for it and put your premium destination first, then a backup.
3. Leave the default waterfall as your national destinations.

A Texas lead is offered to the premium destination; if they decline it falls to the backup, and if
that declines too, nothing further happens: the default is only used when _no preset matched_, not
as a fallback for a matched branch that came up empty.

That last point catches people out. If you want a matched branch to fall through to your national
destinations, add those destinations to the end of that branch's waterfall too.

## What to read next

-   [Routing](https://www.eventsiq.io/docs/routing): where presets are paired with destinations and put in order.
-   [Destinations](https://www.eventsiq.io/docs/destinations): the lists presets point at.
-   [Fields](https://www.eventsiq.io/docs/fields): the values presets test.