Category: MagicTools

When working with Believable Magic or co-workers, you may need to share an API Key or other sensitive content with another person. But API Keys are powerful information that you should keep secure.

The least secure way to share information is via email message. Messages can live for a long time on mail servers and in people’s mail archives, waiting to be seen by the wrong person.

A more secure way to share information is to place it in a temporary encrypted storage place and then share the key with a person who can only use it to view the content until it expires — using an expiration period controlled by the one who shares.

How to share sensitive content:

1. Go to this page: https://believablemagic.com/private.
2. Paste or type the content into the Editor area or click Attach a File.
3. Click Save.
4. On the next page you will see: “Your shareable pasted content link is” followed by a web address.
5. Share that web address one of three ways:
   1. Copy that web address and paste it into an email message for your intended recipient.
   2. Click the Email button to send it in a new email message.
   3. Click the QR Code button to embed the link in a QR code you can share with someone.

The recipient simply visits the web address and sees the content you shared.

After the expiration period, the web address won’t work any longer and the content is no longer accessible.

How it actually works:

The web page has JavaScript code that encrypts the content in the browser, then stores the encrypted content on the web server, but the key that unlocks the encrypted content is ONLY shown to the user in the web page — it is not stored anywhere else.

The encrypted content stored on the web server is useless without the key which is not stored on the server.

The Believable Magic service linked above relies upon this open-source project: https://privatebin.info

MagicTools – for PI gains access to your organization’s PI data by using an API (Application Programming Interface) Key.

Learn about generating a PI API Key.

An API Key is always generated in connection with a specific PI User account:

• The actions taken within MagicTools using an API Key are dependent on the permissions granted to the PI User who “owns” the API Key.
• All actions taken via MagicTools will be attributed to that PI User in the PI software.

Therefore, when deciding which PI User should own the API Key you’ll use with MagicTools, consider the following:

Current User vs. New User

1. It may be best to use your own existing PI User account to generate your API Key if you want all actions you take with MagicTools to be attributed to you. With this approach, the actions you take while logged in directly to PI and those taken through MagicTools cannot be distinguished from each other when viewed in the PI software.
2. It may be best to create a new PI User that you intend to use only with MagicTools so that you can tell the difference between actions taken while signed into the PI software directly and those taken via the PI API and MagicTools. You might put the term “API” or “MagicTools” into the name of the user you create for this purpose.

User Role

1. If the API Key belongs to an Account Owner or Account Admin user, MagicTools will have access to all person and assessment* data in your PI instance and to perform any actions on that data that are possible via the API.
2. If the API Key belongs to a Power User, User, or Read-Only user who has access to only some of the person and assessment* data, MagicTools will only be able to read or modify the permission-controlled set of person and assessment data available to that user.

*Note on Cognitive Data: Keep in mind that access to Cognitive Assessment Data requires separate access to be granted if you intend to allow a user this permission. Warning: If you use MagicTools Clean features on PI data that includes Cognitive data, but the user owning the API Key doesn’t have access to Cognitive data, MagicTools will NOT protect your Cognitive data from unwanted removal. MagicTools can only protect data it knows about. If you have Cognitive data, be sure your MagicTools API Key’s user has access to it.

Every time the MagicTools – for PI software is launched, it checks whether the Setup tab contains all the things needed to run. If it finds anything missing, the Setup tab will display first.

After you’ve provided the necessary items shown in the Setup tab, the next time you start MagicTools it will display the Clean or whatever tab you were using last time.

Profiles

As of version 1.4, MagicTools gained the ability to manage named Profiles, each containing a separate collection of settings, allowing you to switch between them as you work on the data belonging to different instances of PI. For example, multiple profiles are useful if you have both a production instance of PI and also a Sandbox instance for testing, or if your organization uses different PI instances for different business units or companies.

When you start MagicTools for the first time, a default instance named “New” is created into which your first collection of settings is saved.

At any time, you are free to take one of four actions affecting the currently selected profile:

• New – Create a new profile with blank settings and the default name “New”. This is most useful when you wish to create a new profile that has no settings in common with an existing profile. If your new profile has settings in common,  use Copy instead.
• Save – Save the current collection of settings with the currently defined Name. This is most useful when you have just changed the Name of a Profile.
• Copy – Create a new profile that is a copy of the currently chosen profile, adding the word Copy to the end of the original name. This is most useful when you have a new profile to set up but it shares the same MagicTools License Key as an existing profile.
• Delete – Remove (forget) the current profile completely. A message will pop up to confirm that you really want to delete the profile.

Switching: When you change the currently selected profile, the name will be displayed to the right of the Setup tab as a visual reminder.

Sort: The list of profiles shown in the profile chooser list are normally displayed in the order they were created. If you wish to sort them alphabetically, click the Sort button to the right of the profile chooser.

Auto-Save: Whenever you close MagicTools or switch between profiles, the settings that are current at the time will be saved in the currently selected profile. 

Auto-Name: If you wish to use the company name stored in the PI instance as the Name of the MagicTools profile:

1. Remove the text in the Name field or leave the name “New” in the field
2. Click the Test button next to an API Key you have entered
3. Upon a successful test result, the PI company name will be filled in to the Name field

MagicTools™ License Key

You will need to obtain a MagicTools™ License Key and store it in the provided setting box in order to use the MagicTools software. Your organization only needs one currently active License Key and it may be used by any authorized users to manage your organization’s PI data. (see End User License Agreement)

License Keys look like this: 1A3B-C3D5-3E5F-4A6B 

You should have received a License Key in the order confirmation email sent to you by Believable Magic after you paid for a software license. 

If your organization purchased a software license but can’t find your License Key:

1. The registered owner of the License Key must visit the My Account page and log in. You can recover your password if you forgot it (or you never knew you had a password).
2. Click on Orders or recent orders
3. Find your most recent order for MagicTools – for PI and click View
4. Your License Key will be displayed to you

Copy and paste your License Key into the Setup tab where it says MagicTools™ License Key and click Validate. This will make a call to the believablemagic.com site to verify that your License Key is currently active. The outcome will be displayed below the License Key along with the expiration date.

• If your License Key has expired, your organization will need to purchase a new License Key or work through your license administrator to extend the expiration date of your existing License Key. MagicTools will not function with an expired License Key.
• If for some reason the believablemagic.com site is unavailable to check whether your License Key is active, MagicTools will still work for you — assuming the problem is with the License checking process and not with your Internet connection.

Predictive Index™ Settings

API Key

You will need to obtain a Predictive Index API Key and put it into the provided setting box in order to use MagicTools to read any of your PI data and/or make any changes to it.

API Keys look like this: 20078DE4-562E-4CEC-B3C9-B314E15438DA

Follow the best practices for Using PI API Keys in MagicTools

Using Cognitive Assessments

If your organization is using the PI Cognitive Assessment, be sure this box is checked. When checked, MagicTools will try to respect any Cognitive Assessment data when deciding whether Person data can be archived as part of the Clean processes.

If your organization is not using the PI Cognitive Assessment, be sure to un-check this box. Doing so will simplify the logic used by MagicTools and shorten the amount of time it takes to perform Clean tasks.

Output File Settings

MagicTools generates output files whenever the Clean, Export, or Sync processes run. You can control their naming and location.

Output File Name Prefix

When MagicTools saves output files, a default name will be given to each file. Using this setting, you can control the beginning of the output file name.

• Output File Name Prefix: XYZCorp
• Output File Example: XYZCorp-ArchiveExpiredBAPersonsLog-Live-2022-09-23–16-46.csv

Location

Select a folder into which you want MagicTools to place output files generated by any process you might run. For example, you might choose a sub-folder within your Documents or your Downloads folder.

In the case of Clean and Sync actions, log files containing all the proposed actions or actual actions are stored in this folder.

In the case of Export actions, your exported files will be placed into this folder.

Open Output Location – this link will open your selected Output Location in a system file explorer window so you can easily find the files you have generated during processing.

User Settings Location

This display-only information tells you where MagicTools is storing the profile settings you enter or select. These settings are stored in a file named “user.config”. 

• If you remove or modify the user.config file, it will remove any saved settings of MagicTools.
• If you damage this file or it becomes unusable, you can safely delete it. 
• If you delete your user.config file, you will simply have to repeat the Setup steps to store your License Key and API Key. MagicTools will create a new user.config file if one doesn’t already exist.

Open Settings Location – this link will open the folder containing your user.config file in a system file explorer window in case you wish to view, edit, or remove your saved settings for some reason. 

Your organization can benefit from MagicTools – for PI if any of the following situations apply to you:

PI Data is not clean

• Expired assessments – some PI persons have only expired assessment invitations. Solution: Clean Expired BAs
• Duplicate persons – the same email address belongs to more than one PI person. Solution: Remove Duplicate Persons
• Duplicate assessments – a person has more than one completed Behavioral Assessment. Solution: Remove Duplicate BAs
• Invite by Link – you are using the Invite by Link feature which leads to duplication whenever a person goes through your process more than once. Solution: Remove Duplicate BAs
• Really old data – some PI person data is just too old and you would like to archive some or all of it based on age. Solution: Export then Sync with Archiving

PI Data is not current

The solution for data that isn’t current is to use MagicTools Sync, sometimes preceded by Export:

• Wrong Person Type – Some employees are still identified as persons of type Candidate or Unknown, or former employees are still identified as persons of type Employee. 
• Wrong Email – Employees have Candidate email addresses instead of employee email addresses.  
• Domain Change – Employees have email addresses belonging to the old domain name used by your company, but due to a merger or domain name change you need to update them all at one time. 
• Folder Changes – People are organized into PI Folders that no longer match your needs for organization or permission management
• Job Mess – People are assigned to PI Jobs that are no longer accurate or useful to you
• New Job Targets – You have started using the PI Job Target feature but many of your current employees have not been assigned to their correct PI Job
• Too Much Manual Update Work – You wish to make updates to many persons in your PI data at one time rather than manually editing one item at a time

PI data is not connectable

The solution for data that isn’t connectable is to use MagicTools Sync, sometimes preceded by Export:

• HRIS Connection broken because Employees have wrong External Person ID – Employees have a Candidate ID belonging to your current or past Applicant Tracking / Recruiting system and you wish to replace it with an Employee ID from your Human Capital / Human Resources software instead.
• PI Employee features unavailable because upload Org Structure causes duplication – You wish to upload Organizational Structure data into PI so you can use the features that rely on it, but many of your Employees who are already in PI do not have a correct Employee ID in their External Person ID field. This missing data causes the creation of duplicate persons upon Org Data upload. You need to first fix the existing Employee data before you can import the Org Structure.
• Integration connection fails because Email is wrong – People have the wrong email address so that it doesn’t match what is in an external system that relies on email match to find the right person (such as the PI Slack App).

PI data needed elsewhere

The solution for using data elsewhere is MagicTools Export:

• Export All your Person and Assessment Data – You wish to analyze patterns in your PI person and assessment data using an external tool
• Missing Data from PI Export – PI person and assessment data download feature doesn’t give you all of the fields you want