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Send Canvas messages via API-triggered delivery

post

/canvas/trigger/send

Use this endpoint to send Canvas messages via 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 via 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 specifying a segment or Connected Audience 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, 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
  • A segment of any size created in the Braze dashboard, specified by its segment_id
  • An audience segment of any size, defined in the request as a Connected Audience object

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 identifier 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 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 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 See Canvas entry properties. Personalization key-value pairs that will apply to all users in this request. The Canvas entry properties object has a maximum size limit of 50 KB.
broadcast Optional Boolean You must set broadcast to true when sending a message to an entire segment that a campaign or Canvas targets. This parameter defaults to false (as of August 31, 2017).

If broadcast is set to true, a recipients list cannot be included. However, use caution when setting broadcast: true, as unintentionally setting this flag may cause you to send your message to a larger than expected audience.
audience Optional Connected audience object See Connected audience.
recipients Optional Array See Recipients object. If not provided and broadcast is set to true, the message will send to the entire segment targeted by the Canvas.

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—however this flag can’t be used with user aliases. 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 allowlist the appropriate API URL if they’re behind a firewall.

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": "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",
      "trigger_properties": "",
      "canvas_entry_properties": "",
      "send_to_existing_only": true,
      "attributes": {
          "first_name" : "Alex"
      }
    }
  ]
}'

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). Check out Dispatch ID behavior for more information.

Create send endpoint

Using the Attributes Object in Canvas

Braze has a Messaging Object called Attributes that allows you to add, create, or update attributes and values for a user before sending 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.

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