Setting Custom Attributes

Braze provides methods for assigning attributes to users. You’ll be able to filter and segment your users according to these attributes on the dashboard.

Before implementation, be sure to review examples of the segmentation options afforded by Custom Events vs. Custom Attributes vs Purchase Events in our Best Practices section.

User attributes can be assigned to the current IAppboyUser. To obtain a reference to the current IAppboyUser, call Appboy.SharedInstance.AppboyUser

The following attributes should be defined as properties of the IAppboyUser:

• FirstName
• LastName
• Email
• Gender
• DateOfBirth
• Country
• HomeCity
• PhoneNumber
• FacebookData
• TwitterData

It’s still valuable to set email addresses even if you’re not sending emails through Braze. Email makes it easier to search for individual user profiles and troubleshoot issues as they arise.

Example Implementation

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Appboy.SharedInstance.AppboyUser.FirstName = "User's First Name"

Assigning Custom User Attributes

Beyond the attributes above, Braze also allows you to define Custom Attributes using a number of different data types: For more information regarding the segmentation options, and how each of these attributes will affect you, see our “Best Practices” documentation within this section.

Custom Attribute with a Boolean Value

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bool SetCustomAttribute(STRING_KEY, BOOL_VALUE);

Custom Attribute with an Integer Value

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bool SetCustomAttribute(STRING_KEY, INT_VALUE);

Custom Attribute with a Double Value

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bool SetCustomAttribute(STRING_KEY, DOUBLE_VALUE);

Braze treats FLOAT and DOUBLE values exactly the same within our database.

Custom Attribute with a String Value

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bool SetCustomAttribute(STRING_KEY, "STRING_VALUE");

Custom Attribute with a Long Value

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bool SetCustomAttribute(STRING_KEY, LONG_VALUE);

Custom Attribute with a Date Value

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bool SetCustomAttribute(STRING_KEY, "DATE_VALUE");

Dates passed to Braze must either be in the ISO 8601 format, e.g 2013-07-16T19:20:30+01:00 or in the yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss:SSSZ format e.g 2016-12-14T13:32:31.601-0800

Setting a Custom Attribute with an Array Value

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// Setting a custom attribute with an array value
Appboy.SharedInstance.EventLogger.SetCustomAttributeArray("custom_attribute_array_test", testSetArray);
// Adding to a custom attribute with an array value
Appboy.SharedInstance.EventLogger.AddToCustomAttributeArray("custom_attribute_array_test", testAddString);
// Removing a value from an array type custom attribute
Appboy.SharedInstance.EventLogger.RemoveFromCustomAttributeArray("custom_attribute_array_test", testRemString);

Incrementing/Decrementing Custom Attributes

This code is an example of an incrementing custom attribute. You may increment the value of a custom attribute by any positive or negative integer value.

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bool IncrementCustomAttribute(STRING_KEY, INCREMENT_INTEGER_VALUE);

Unsetting a Custom Attribute

Custom Attributes can also be unset using the following method:

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bool UnsetCustomAttribute(STRING_KEY);

Setting a Custom Attribute via the REST API

You can also use our REST API to set user attributes. To do so refer to the user API documentation.

Custom Attribute Value Limits

Custom attribute values have a maximum length of 255 characters; longer values will be truncated.

Managing Notification Subscription Statuses

To set up a subscription for your users (either email or push), you can set the subscription statuses below as properties of the IAppboyUser. Subscription statuses in Braze have three different states for both Email and Push:

• EmailNotificationSubscriptionType
  • Users will be set to Subscribed automatically upon receipt of a valid email address, however, we suggest that you establish an explicit opt-in process and set this value to OptedIn upon receipt of explicit consent from your user. See Braze Academy for details.
• PushNotificationSubscriptionType
  • Users will be set to Subscribed automatically upon valid push registration, however, we suggest that you establish an explicit opt-in process and set this value to OptedIn upon receipt of explicit consent from your user. See Braze Academy for details.

These types fall under AppboyPlatform.PCL.Models.NotificationSubscriptionType