Send Canvas messages using API-triggered delivery

Use this endpoint to send Canvas messages with API-triggered delivery.

API-triggered delivery allows you to store message content in the Braze dashboard while dictating when a message is sent, and to whom using your API.

Before you can send messages with this endpoint, you must have a Canvas ID (which is created when you build a Canvas).

Prerequisites

To use this endpoint, you’ll need to generate an API key with the canvas.trigger.send permission.

Rate limit

When using Connected Audience filters in your request, we apply a rate limit of 250 requests per minute to this endpoint. Otherwise, if specifying an external_id, this endpoint has a default rate limit of 250,000 requests per hour shared between /messages/send, /campaigns/trigger/send, and /canvas/trigger/send, as documented in API rate limits.

Braze endpoints support batching API requests. A single request to the messaging endpoints can reach any of the following:

• Up to 50 specific external_ids, each with individual message parameters
• An audience segment of any size, defined in the request as a Connected Audience object

Braze endpoints support batching API requests. A single request to the messaging endpoints can reach any of the following:

• Up to 50 specific external_ids, each with individual message parameters
• An audience segment of any size, defined in the request as a connected audience object

Request body

1
2
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer YOUR-REST-API-KEY

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
{
  "canvas_id": (required, string) see Canvas identifier,
  "canvas_entry_properties": (optional, object) personalization key-value pairs that apply to all users in this request,
  "broadcast": (optional, boolean) see Broadcast -- defaults to false on 8/31/17, must be set to true if `recipients` is omitted,
  "audience": (optional, connected audience object) see connected audience,
  // Including 'audience' will only send to users in the audience
  "recipients": (optional, array; if not provided and broadcast is not set to 'false', message will send to the entire segment targeted by the Canvas)
    [{
      // Either "external_user_id" or "user_alias" or "email" is required. Requests must specify only one.
      "user_alias": (optional, user alias object) user alias of user to receive message,
      "external_user_id": (optional, string) external identifier of user to receive message,
      "email": (optional, string) email address of user to receive message,
      "prioritization": (optional, array) prioritization array; required when using email,
      "canvas_entry_properties": (optional, object) personalization key-value pairs that apply to this user (these key-value pairs override any keys that conflict with the parent `canvas_entry_properties`)
      "send_to_existing_only": (optional, boolean) defaults to true, can't be used with user aliases
      "attributes": (optional, object) fields in the attributes object create or update an attribute of that name with the given value on the specified user profile before the message is sent and existing values are overwritten
    }],
    ...
}

Request parameters

Example request

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
curl --location --request POST 'https://rest.iad-01.braze.com/canvas/trigger/send' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR-REST-API-KEY' \
--data-raw '{
  "canvas_id": "canvas_identifier",
  "canvas_entry_properties": {"product_name" : "shoes", "product_price" : 79.99},
  "broadcast": false,
  "audience": {
    "AND": [
      {
        "custom_attribute": {
          "custom_attribute_name": "eye_color",
          "comparison": "equals",
          "value": "blue"
        }
      },
      {
        "custom_attribute": {
          "custom_attribute_name": "favorite_foods",
          "comparison": "includes_value",
          "value": "pizza"
        }
      },
      {
        "OR": [
          {
            "custom_attribute": {
              "custom_attribute_name": "last_purchase_time",
              "comparison": "less_than_x_days_ago",
              "value": 2
            }
          },
          {
            "push_subscription_status": {
              "comparison": "is",
              "value": "opted_in"
            }
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "email_subscription_status": {
          "comparison": "is_not",
          "value": "subscribed"
        }
      },
      {
        "last_used_app": {
          "comparison": "after",
          "value": "2019-07-22T13:17:55+0000"
        }
      }
    ]
  },
  "recipients": [
    {
      "user_alias": {
        "alias_name" : "example_name",
        "alias_label" : "example_label"
      },
      "external_user_id": "user_identifier",
      "send_to_existing_only": true,
      "attributes": {
          "first_name" : "Alex"
      }
    }
  ]
}'

Response details

Message-sending endpoint responses include the message’s dispatch_id for reference back to the dispatch of the message. The dispatch_id is the ID of the message dispatch (unique ID for each “transmission” sent from the Braze platform). Check out Dispatch ID behavior for more information.

Example success response

The status code 201 could return the following response body. If the Canvas is archived, stopped, or paused, the Canvas is not sent through this endpoint.

1
2
3
4
5
{
  "notice": "The Canvas is paused. Resume the Canvas to ensure trigger requests will take effect.",
  "dispatch_id": "example_dispatch_id",
  "message": "success"
}

If your Canvas is archived, you see this notice message: “The Canvas is archived. Unarchive the Canvas to ensure trigger requests will take effect.” If your Canvas is not active, you see this notice message: “The Canvas is paused. Resume the Canvas to ensure trigger requests will take effect.”

If your request encounters a fatal error, refer to Errors and responses for the error code and description.

Considerations

Consider the following when making API calls to send Canvas messages using API-triggered delivery:

• Sending to existing users: When send_to_existing_only is set to true (the default), the message is sent only to existing users in Braze.
• Creating new users: When send_to_existing_only is set to false, you must include an attributes object. If a user with the specified ID does not exist, Braze creates a user with that ID and attributes before sending the message.
• User alias limitation: The send_to_existing_only flag cannot be used with user aliases. To send to an alias-only user, the user must already exist in Braze.
• Segment targeting: The segment_id parameter is not supported for this endpoint. To target a segment, configure the segment in the Canvas’s target audience settings in the Braze dashboard and use broadcast: true, or use the audience parameter with Connected Audience filters.
• Combined targeting: When you include both the recipients parameter and configure a target segment in the dashboard, the message is sent only to user profiles that are specified in the API call and also match the segment’s filters.
• Server-to-server calls: If you’re making server-to-server calls, you may need to allowlist the appropriate API URL if you’re behind a firewall.

Attributes object for Canvas

Use the messaging object attributes to add, create, or update attributes and values for a user before sending them an API-triggered Canvas using the canvas/trigger/send endpoint. This API call processes the user attributes object before it processes and sends the Canvas. This helps minimize the risk of issues caused by race conditions. However, by default, subscription groups cannot be updated this way.