Sending Canvas Messages via API Triggered Delivery

post

/canvas/trigger/send

API Triggered Delivery allows you to house message content inside of the Braze dashboard while dictating when a message is sent, and to whom via your API.

This endpoint allows you to send Canvas messages via API Triggered delivery, allowing you to decide what action should trigger the message to be sent. Please note that to send messages with this endpoint, you must have a Canvas ID, created when you build a Canvas.

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Request Body

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Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_REST_API_KEY

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{
  "canvas_id": (required, string) see Canvas Identifier,
  "canvas_entry_properties": (optional, object) personalization key-value pairs that will 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" 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 Id of user to receive message,
      "canvas_entry_properties": (optional, object) personalization key-value pairs that will apply to this user (these key-value pairs will override any keys that conflict with canvas_entry_properties above)
      "send_to_existing_only": (optional, boolean) defaults to true,
      "attributes": (optional, object) fields in the attributes object will 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 will be overwritten
    },
    ...
  ]
}

Request Parameters

Parameter Required Data Type Description
canvas_id Required String See Canvas Identifier
canvas_entry_properties Optional Object Personalization key-value pairs that will 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
recipients Optional Array If not provided and broadcast is not set to ‘false’, message will send to the entire segment targeted by the Canvas

Request Components

  • Canvas Identifier
  • Broadcast
  • Connected Audience
  • Recipients
  • Canvas Entry Properties
  • User Alias Object
  • User Attributes Object
  • API Parameters

    The recipients array may contain up to 50 objects, with each object containing a single external_user_id string and canvas_entry_properties object.

    Either external_user_id or user_alias is required for this call. Requests must specify only one.

    When send_to_existing_only is true, Braze will only send the message to existing users. When send_to_existing_only is false and a user with the given id does not exist, Braze will create a user with that id and attributes before sending the message.

    Customers using the API for server-to-server calls may need to whitelist the appropriate API URL if they’re behind a firewall.

    If you include both specific users in your API call and a target segment in the dashboard, the message will send to specifically the user profiles that are in the API call and qualify for the segment filters.

Example Request

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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": "",
  "canva_entry_properties": "",
  "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" : "",
      "alias_label" : ""
    },
    "external_user_id": "",
    "trigger_properties": {},
    "canvas_entry_properties": {},
    "send_to_existing_only": true,
    "attributes": {}
  }]
}'

Response Details

Message sending endpoint responses will 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). For more information on dispatch_id checkout out our documentation.

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Using the Attributes Object in Canvas

Braze has a Messaging Object called Attributes that will allow you to add, create, or update attribute and values for a user before you send them an API Triggered Canvas using the canvas/trigger/send endpoint as this API call will process the User Attributes object before it processes and sends the Canvas. This helps minimize the risk of there being issues caused by race conditions.

Click to read about the Benefits of using the Attributes Object with this Endpoint

When user information is sent to Braze via the users/track endpoint, it may occasionally take a few seconds for the user to be created in Braze’s system or for the data to propagate to the user’s profile.

When requests are made to the users/track and messaging endpoints at around the same time, Braze cannot guarantee that the request to the users/track endpoint will be processed before the request to the messaging endpoint. This can result in race conditions that can impact messaging: for example, a user may not yet have been created in Braze’s system when a request to the canvas/trigger/send endpoint is processed, resulting in the user not receiving an API-triggered push Canvas.

This is especially useful when you want to guarantee that a user has been created or that new data has populated to a user’s profile before a message is sent to a user.

  • For example, you might want to send an order confirmation to a customer that just registered. Because the user’s email information is not yet in Braze, you’ll want to make sure that Braze processes the user’s email address before the order confirmation Canvas is sent to them.
  • Another example is ensuring that user attributes needed for Canvas segmentation are processed before the Canvas is sent. You might have a segment on your API triggered Canvas that references an attribute value like gender, which is provided by the user during the registration process. If the attribute isn’t updated on the user’s profile before the Canvas segmentation is evaluated, the user will not get the Canvas.

Use the Attributes Object in this endpoint to guarantee that:

  • Users are created before a request to the canvas/trigger/send endpoint is processed.
  • User attributes are updated before a request to the canvas/trigger/send endpoint is processed.

Attributes that are included in this object will be processed before Braze begins to send the Canvas. If the send_to_existing_only flag is set to false, and an external_user_id does not exist in Braze’s database, Braze will create a user profile for the external_user_id and process the associated attributes to the user profile before Braze begins to send the Canvas.


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