index.md

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Event

Braze is a comprehensive customer engagement platform that powers relevant experiences between consumers and brands they love. Braze helps brands foster human connection through interactive conversations across channels.

Braze offers a broad range of functionality via their solution and it is critically important that you work directly with your Braze representative to ensure that you are correctly planning and implementing their features. mParticle does not recommend enabling forwarding to Braze until you have completed the Braze planning process with your Braze team.

• Braze Documentation

mParticle Braze Implementation Scenarios

The mParticle SDK allows you to include the Braze kit which allows Braze interface components (images, layout files, etc.) and as a result supports the entire Braze feature set, which includes:

• App Analytics
• User Segmentation
• Push Notifications
• Email
• News Feed
• In-App Messaging
• Feedback
• Geolocation

No features are supported by the standard mParticle SDK, alone. You must install mParticle's Appboy Kit to be able to forward data from your app to Braze.

The mParticle S2S API allows you to send data server side (API reference). The S2S API supports iOS, Android and Web data. In this scenario, mParticle forwards data via Braze's REST API which supports a limited set of features.

For server-side data to be forwarded to Braze, it must include your selected External Identity Type.

The following event types can be forwarded to Braze via S2S:

• Commerce Event
• Custom Event
• Opt Out
• Push Message
• Push Message Registration
• Screen View
• Session Start / End

Kit Integration

The Braze solution offers features that involve Braze-proprietary user interaction components including Newsfeed, In-App Messaging, and Feedback. In order to properly incorporate Braze with the mParticle SDK, please review the Kits section of the mParticle SDK Guide. To enable Newsfeed, In-App Messaging, and Feedback features you will need to call the Appboy embedded kit directly.

Push Notifications

Push notifications work a bit differently for web and for mobile.

Web

mParticle integrates with Braze to allow web push notifications to further engage your visitors. We integrated Braze's Soft Push Prompts, which allows you to ask your user if they'd like to stay in touch before the browser alerts them to allow notifications. This is done since the browser throttles how often you can prompt the user for push notifications, and if the user denies permission, you can never ask them again. See below for directions on how to implement push notifications, which customizes Braze's implementation instructions to work with mParticle.

1. Configure your site

   • Create a service-worker.js file to your root directory. Inside your service-worker.js file, include

   self.importScripts('https://static.mparticle.com/sdk/js/braze/service-worker.js');

   mParticle hosts Braze's service worker in order to prevent unpredictable versioning issues. Do not use Braze's service-worker.js CDN.

2. Configure Safari Push

   • Generate a Safari Push Certificate following these "Registering with Apple" Instructions
   • In the Braze dashboard, on the app settings page (where your API keys are located), select your Web app. Click “Configure Safari Push” and follow the instructions, uploading the push certificate you just generated.
   • In your mParticle dashboard, open your Braze connection settings. Under Safari Website Push ID, type in your Website Push ID you used when generating your Safari Push Certificate (beginning with web) and click Save.

3. Create a “Prime for Push” in-app messaging Campaign on the Braze dashboard. Note that this is an In-App Messaging Campaign, and not a Push Notification messaging campaign.

   • Make it a “Modal” In-App Message. Give it whatever text and styling you wish to present to the user (“Can we stay in touch?”).

   • Give the in-app message a Button 1 Text value of “OK” (or whatever affirmative text you wish), and set the On-Click Behavior to “Close Message.”

   • Under the gear composer section, add a key-value pair. Give it a key of msg-id and a value of push-primer.

   • You can create a prime-for-push custom event (or name it whatever you'd like) from the Braze dashboard. While still in the Braze dashboard, create a trigger action of whatever your custom event is (ie, prime-for-push). In the mParticle Braze connection settings, fill in the "Soft Push" Custom Event Name with your custom event name (ie. prime-for-push). When this field is filled, users will be sent the Soft Push Prompt on session load.

   • Optionally, you can change the name and location of service-worker.js. The following example will clarify the steps:

     • Let's say that you want to rename your service-worker.js file to braze-push-worker.js and store it in inside a directory in your root folder called thirdParty/.
     • In your mParticle dashboard, open your Braze connection settings. Under Push Notification Service Worker File Location, type in /thirdParty/braze-push-worker.js and click Save.
     • Warning - Setting a value here limits the scope of push notifications on your site. For instance, in the above example, because the service worker file is located within the /thirdParty/ directory, asking for push notifications MAY ONLY BE CALLED from web pages that start with http://your-site-name.com/thirdParty/.

Web Troubleshooting Tips

• Firefox - starting with version 72, Firefox requires user interaction before showing a full push permission dialogue box. See here for more details.
• Ensure that your OS-wide notifications for the browser you are testing are not disabled.
• If you have previously allowed or rejected push requests while testing, you will need to clear local storage/cookies as well as the browser's notification preference for your development URL for optimal testing.

Mobile

As long as the Appboy Kit is included in your app, mParticle will pass any Push Notifications from Braze to the kit for display. However, you will need to provide credentials in the Braze dashboard.

See the main iOS and Android Push Notification documentation for more detail.

Location Tracking

The Braze kits for iOS and Android support Braze's automatic location tracking features, provided that the appropriate app-level permissions are granted by the user.

Android

For Android push notifications you will need to provide your Server Key in your app settings page under Push Notification Settings.

iOS

For iOS push notifications you will need to upload your APNs Push SSL certificate to Braze. See the Braze documentation for more.

Special Considerations for mParticle A/B Testing With Braze and the mParticle SDK

mParticle supports the ability to conduct A/B testing with different integrations by sending a sample of users and their data to one integration and a different sample of users and their data to a different integration. If you are using the mParticle SDK for Braze deployment and calling Braze methods directly, when instrumenting with the mParticle SDK you must ensure that the Appboy kit is active in the App before calling an Appboy method. This is very important and ensures that you are not inadvertently calling Braze methods for apps/users that are not part of an Braze A/B sample.

Roku

mParticle supports the ability to forward server-side events for the Roku platform. Note that only data that includes your selected External Identity Type can be forwarded to Braze.

Data Processing Notes

mParticle will always forward events if sent via the mParticle SDK, provided you have included the Braze kit, but will only forward events sent via the mParticle S2S API if the following conditions apply:

1. The App Group REST API Key setting is specified.
2. Either your set External Identity Type, or a push token is specified.
3. Braze has limits on the number of characters in a property key - they must be less than or equal to 255 characters, with no leading dollar signs. mParticle will remove the dollar sign ($) when forwarding property keys for user attributes, custom and e-commerce events.

Braze Instance

Braze maintains several instances. As part of the Configuration Settings, you need to specify which one your data should be forwarded to. You can tell your Braze Instance from the URL of your Braze Dashboard.

Instance	Dashboard URL
US 01 Cluster	https://dashboard-01.braze.com
US 02 Cluster	https://dashboard-02.braze.com
US 03 Cluster	https://dashboard-03.braze.com
US 04 Cluster	https://dashboard-04.braze.com
US 06 Cluster	https://dashboard-06.braze.com
US 08 Cluster	https://dashboard-08.braze.com
EU 01 Cluster	https://dashboard.braze.eu

Check with your Braze account manager if you are unsure which Braze instance you are using.

There is also the ability to specify a Custom instance, which allows you to specify separate endpoints for REST, SDK and Javascript.

Important: Your Custom Endpoint settings should be your URL's Authority. For example: sdk.iad-01.braze.com, not https://sdk.iad-01.braze.com.

Using https:// or a trailing / in your endpoint address will cause errors.

Prerequisites

In order to activate the Braze integration, you will need your Braze App Identifier API key and your "App Group REST API Key" if using the S2S API.

1. Sign into your Braze Account.
2. Click on Developer Console in the left navigation, then API Settings, Identification, and choose the Identifier for the platform you're building to.
3. If you are sending data to mParticle via the S2S API, your "App Group REST API Key" value is required. Click on the Developer Console in the left navigation to get this value.

Event Data Mapping

Commerce Events

All commerce events are expanded based on the number of products. In other words, a single incoming event with 2 unique products would result in at least 2 outgoing Braze events.

Purchase Events

A purchase event is expanded and mapped to Braze purchase event(s). For each product, a single outgoing Braze event is generated.

In addition to the Common Commerce Fields, the following information is also captured, if defined:

Commerce Event Field	Braze Purchase Event Field	Data Type	Required	Description	Example
CurrencyCode	currency	string	No	Currency Code. If not specified, this will default to "USD".	USD
ProductAction.Products[].Id	product_id	string	No	The ID associated with the given product.	"123456"
ProductAction.Products[].Price	price	double	No	The price associated with 1 unit of the given product.	1.99
ProductAction.Products[].Quantity	quantity	int	No	The quantity associated with the given product.	2
ProductAction.TotalAmount	properties["Total Amount"]	string	No	The total amount associated with the given transaction.	25.00
ProductAction.ShippingAmount	properties["Shipping Amount"]	string	No	The shipping amount associated with the given transaction.	2.99
ProductAction.TaxAmount	properties["Tax Amount"]	string	No	The tax amount associated with the given transaction.	1.37

Other Commerce Events

All other e-commerce event types are expanded and mapped to Braze custom events. Note:

• Each product results in the generation of a single Braze event.
• If a refund, an additional event representing the total is also generated.

As such, all relevant product and transaction information is conveyed via the properties field.

In addition to the Common Commerce Fields, the following information is also captured, if defined:

Commerce Event Field	Braze Custom Event Field	Data Type	Required	Description	Example
ProductAction.Products[].Id	properties["Id"]	string	No	The ID associated with the given product.	"123456"
ProductAction.Products[].Price	properties["Price"]	double	No	The price associated with 1 unit of the given product.	1.99
ProductAction.Products[].Quantity	properties["Quantity"]	int	No	The quantity associated with the given product.	2

Common Commerce Fields

All commerce events, regardless of type, capture these common fields in the properties dictionary in the following way:

Commerce Event Field	Braze Event Field	Data Type	Required	Description	Example
ProductAction.TransactionId	properties["Transaction Id"]	string	No	The ID associated with the given transaction.	"123456"
ProductAction.Products[].Name	properties["Name"]	string	No	The name associated with the given product.	"MyProduct"
ProductAction.Products[].Category	properties["Category"]	string	No	The category associated with the given product.	"Clothing"
ProductAction.Products[].Brand	properties["Brand"]	string	No	The brand associated with the given product.	"MyBrand"
ProductAction.Products[].TotalProductAmount	properties["Total Product Amount"]	string	No	The total amount associated with the given product for the given transaction.	"MyBrand"
ProductAction.Products[].Attributes["myProductAttribute"]	properties["myProductAttribute"]	string	No	A custom attribute associated with the given product.	"myProductAttribute"

Screen Views

Your screen view events will be passed to Braze using the screen name that you passed to our logScreen SDK method, as the event name.

If you are using automatic screen tracking in our Android SDK, the automatically-generated screen view events will be forwarded to Braze using the name of the associated Activity class.

Session Start / End

To send session start and end events S2S to Braze, enable the Forward Session Events connection setting. Once enabled, session start and end events will be forwarded to Braze as custom events with the names Session Start and Session End. When available, session IDs will also be sent in the session_id property on all session start/end, screen view, and custom events.

When creating segmentation filters within Braze, make sure to use the custom event filters for session data rather than the session filters.

Custom Events

All custom events will be forwarded to Braze using the event name that you passed to your logEvent SDK method. All event attributes will be forwarded to Braze as Braze custom event properties using the attribute names you passed to your logEvent SDK method as well.

User Attributes

The table below describes how the mParticle integration maps user attributes to Braze's profile attributes.

mParticle Field	Braze Profile Attribute	Description
User Identity of type CustomerId	external_id
User Attribute $FirstName	first_name
User Attribute $LastName	last_name
User Identity of type Email	email
Derived from User Attribute $Age)	dob	mParticle estimates the user's date of birth by subtracting $Age from the current year, and using January 1st as the month and day. For example, if $Age is 10 and the current year is 2014, we'll forward the user's date of birth as 2004-01-01. If an exact birth date is desired, set a user attribute called dob with user's birth date. When both $Age and dob user attributes are sent, one value may override the other when mParticle forwards data to Braze. So it is recommended that one of them is toggled Off in mParticle's data filter for Braze.
User Attribute $Country	country
User Attribute $City	home_city
User Attribute $Gender	gender
User Attribute $Mobile	phone
Derived from SDK opt-out status	email_subscribe	This is based on calling the OptOut (setOptOut in Android) SDK method. It will be set to opted_in when called with a value of true and will be set to unsubscribed when called with a value of false. Email subscription statuses can also be updated server side by setting the user attribute email_subscribe with a value of subscribed, unsubscribed, or opted_in, which correspond to the Global Subscription States in Braze.
push_tokens	Because Braze can only accept a single push token for each app/user pair, we will forward the most recently-registered push token to Braze per user and per app.
User Identity of type Facebook	facebook
User Identity of type Twitter	twitter

Enriched Attributes

By default, mParticle forwards all available user attributes to Braze, including attributes added during profile enrichment. You can disable this behavior in the Connection Settings. Only data which is sent to Braze Server to Server can be enriched.

Configuration Settings

Setting Name	Data Type	Default Value	Description
App Identifier API Key	string		Your app's App Identifier API Key can be found in your Braze dashboard in Developer Console > API Settings > Identification > Identifier. This value is used for certain API calls to Braze (e.g. Push Token) and also used to intialize the Braze SDK via the client side kit
External Identity Type	enum	Customer ID	The mParticle User Identity Type to forward as an External ID to Braze.
Email Identity Type	enum	Email	The mParticle User Identity Type to forward as the Email to Braze.
Braze Instance	enum	US 03 Cluster	Specify which cluster your Braze data will be forwarded to. Please ensure you are contractually authorized to use the EU cluster if you select that option. If you choose 'Custom', you will need to provide separate endpoints for your SDK, Server, and Web data.
Enable Event Stream Forwarding	bool	False	If enabled, all events will be forwarded in real time. If not, all events will be forwarded in bulk. Real time forwarding has lower latency, but requires higher rate limits within Braze. Please reach out to your Braze customer success manager for more information about increasing your rate-limits.

Connection Settings

Setting Name	Data Type	Default Value	Platform	Description
App Group REST API Key	string		All	The App Group REST API Key can be found in the developer console section of the Braze dashboard. This field is optional when sending in data via the SDK, but is required for using the S2S API.
Braze SDK Session Timeout	string		All	Braze SDK time interval for session time out in seconds.
Push Enabled	bool	True	iOS, tvOS, Android	Forward GCM registration IDs to the Braze SDK and enable Braze push notifications.
Event Attributes that add to array	Custom Field		iOS, tvOS, Android, Roku	Select your mParticle event names and event attributes and enter the corresponding Braze custom attribute array name you want the event attribute ADDED to.
Event Attributes that remove from array	Custom Field		iOS, tvOS, Android, Roku	Select your mParticle event names and event attributes and enter the corresponding Braze custom attribute array name you want the event attribute REMOVED from.
Event Attributes that set to custom attribute value	Custom Field		iOS, tvOS, Android, Roku	Select your mParticle event names and event attributes and enter the corresponding Braze custom attribute you want the event attribute to map to. Note each time this event attribute is present, it will get sent to Braze and overwrite any previously sent value.
Braze SDK Flush Interval	string		iOS, tvOS	Braze SDK data flush internal in seconds (iOS only). Refer to Braze sdk doc for "ABKFlushIntervalOptionKey".
Braze SDK Request Policy	string		iOS, tvOS	Braze SDK request policy at app start time (iOS only). Refer to Braze sdk doc for "ABKRequestProcessingPolicyOptionKey".
Braze SDK Minimum Time Interval Between Triggers	string		iOS, tvOS	Braze SDK minimum time interval in seconds between triggers (iOS only). Refer to Braze sdk doc for "ABKMinimumTriggerTimeIntervalKey".
User Tags Value	enum	"true"	All but Web	Select the value to be sent to Braze for user tags. The possible values are null or "true". When "true", it will be affected by the parameter Enable type detection.
Braze SDK Collect IDFA?	bool	False	iOS, tvOS	Informs the Braze Kit whether to collect IDFA.
Braze SDK Disable Automatic Location Tracking	bool	False	iOS, tvOS	Informs the Braze Kit whether to disable automatic location tracking at app startup time
Include Enriched User Attributes	bool	True	All	If enabled, mParticle will forward enriched user attributes from the existing user profile. Only data which is sent to Braze Server to Server can be enriched.
Send User Attribute Lists as Arrays	bool	False	All	If checked, mParticle will send each user attribute list server-side as an array, rather than a comma-separated string
Forward Screen View Messages	bool	False	All	If enabled, all screen view messages will be forwarded to Braze as separate events. Not supported for S2S requests.
Forward Session Events	bool	False	All	If enabled, all session start and end events will be forwarded to Braze as separate events. Session IDs will also be sent with events when populated.
Soft Push Custom Event Name	string		Web	The custom event name that shows up in your Braze dashboard when priming your user for push notifications. Braze recommends "prime-for-push". When filled in, users will be sent a Braze In-App message on session load
Push Notification Service Worker File Location	string		Web	Optional - If the "service worker.js" file is not located in your root directory, then this field is the relative path, starting with "/" and including the filename.js. Please view integration docs for more information
Safari Website Push ID	string		Web	The unique identifier for your Website Push ID, starting with the string "web", from the Apple Developer website
Automatically display new in-app messages	bool	True	Web	Automatically display new in-app messages when they come in from the server.
Forward Page Name as Braze Event Name	bool	False	Web	If enabled, the Page Name that is sent to Braze is the first argument in mParticle.logPageView("PageName"). Otherwise the path will be used. For S2S requests, enabling this setting will send the event name as-is. Otherwise Viewed will be added to the event name.
Replace SKU as Braze Product Name	bool	False	Web	If enabled, the SKU replaces Product Name when sent to Braze. By default, Web sends Product Name to Braze. New customers should check this to be consistent with iOS/Android which sends SKU by default.
Enable HTML within in-app messages	bool	False	Web	Enable HTML within in-app messages. This correlates to the enableHtmlInAppMessages setting of the Braze SDK.
Do not Load FontAwesome	bool	False	Web	Disable loading of FontAwesome from the FontAwesome CDN. Note that if you do this, you are responsible for ensuring that FontAwesome is loaded - otherwise in-app messages may not render correctly.
Enable API Custom Attribute Type Detection	enum	None	S2S API	Send custom attributes with parsed data types for User Attributes, Event Attributes, both, or neither.
Enable Kit Custom Attribute Type Detection	bool	False	All kits but Web	By default, all kits (except for web) send custom attributes as strings unless they are special Braze reserved attributes. Checking this will force custom attributes to be sent as parsed data types where possible. Please note that Braze refers to these as Custom Attributes or Propeties in case of Events and Purchases.