Calculated Attributes Seeding API

The Calculated Attributes (CA) Seeding API allows you to programmatically set calculated attribute seed values and user attributes for your users. Before using this API, we recommend that you read about the workflow of calculated attribute seeding here.

Authentication

The CA Seeding API is secured via basic authentication. Credentials are issued at the level of an mParticle Workspace. You can obtain credentials for your Workspace from the Workspace Settings screen.

To view workspace credentials:

  1. Click on the current workspace name in the upper left corner.
  2. Click Settings.
  3. Click on the name of a workspace to display the Edit Workspace settings page. Edit workspace settings

You can authenticate in 2 ways:

  1. Many HTTP clients support basic authentication out of the box. Use your API key for the “username” and your API secret for “password”.
  2. Manually set the authentication header by encoding your key and secret together:

    • Concatenate your application key and secret together with a colon (:) separating the two: example-api-key:example-api-secret
    • Base64 with UTF-8 encode the result: ZXhhbXBsZS1hcGkta2V5OmV4YW1wbGUtYXBpLXNlY3JldA==
    • Prefix the encoded string with the authorization method, including a space: Basic ZXhhbXBsZS1hcGkta2V5OmV4YW1wbGUtYXBpLXNlY3JldA==
    • Set resulting string as the Authorization header in your HTTP requests: Authorization: Basic ZXhhbXBsZS1hcGkta2V5OmV4YW1wbGUtYXBpLXNlY3JldA==

Endpoint

Our HTTP base URL is: https://s2s.mparticle.com. If you are using a non-US data center, look up your base URL here.

Paths

This API supports two paths: one for setting calculated attribute seeds for a single user and one for updating many users in bulk.

Single User Seeds

The path is: /v2/calculatedattributes.

This allows you to set seed values and user attributes for a single user at a time.

Overall Structure

{
  "environment": "development",
  "mpid": 7346244611012968789,
  "identities": {...},
  "calculated_attributes": {
    "workspace": [...]
  },
  "user_attributes": {...}
}

Properties

Property Name Data Type Required Description
environment string Required production or development
mpid Numeric Optional The MPID of the user being updated, if known.
identities object Optional The identities of the user to update.
calculated_attributes object Required The seed values of calculated attributes to set.
user_attributes object Optional The user attributes of the user to update.

Either mpid or identities are required to find the correct user profile. If mpid is set, then the identities will be ignored.

Identities Object

This object contains identities used to identify the user to which updates are made. The identities block is a key-value object of many identity or device types and their corresponding identity.

  • User identity types:

  • Device identity types:

    • android_id
    • google_advertising_id
    • ios_advertising_id
    • ios_vendor_id
    • roku_advertising_id
    • roku_publisher_id
    • fire_advertising_id
    • microsoft_advertising_id
    • microsoft_publisher_id

Example identities objects:

"identities": {
    "email": "example@sample.com",
    "other_id_4": "user_example4",
    "ios_advertising_id": "016a9968-abea-d0b1-b0d8-4d3e4ed0c57a"
  }
"identities": {
    "google_advertising_id": "33ef01aa-401f-0f4e-29ce-bd142e68233a",
    "customer_id": "1234"
  }

Calculated Attributes Object

This object contains the calculated attribute and seeding information. It is used only for seeding and cannot be used for any other action on a calculated attribute.

  "calculated_attributes": {
      "workspace": [
        {
          "attribute_name": "LTV",
          "calculation_type": "sum",
          "cutoff_date": "2019-12-01",
          "seed": {...}
        }
      ]
  }

The calculated attribute seed information is set under the workspace property. The structure of these objects depends on the calculation_type of the calculated attribute (also passed in the corresponding field).

Property Name Data Type Required Description
attribute_name string Required The name of the calculated attribute to seed.
calculation_type string Required The calculation type for this calculated attribute, see below for available calculation types.
cuttoff_date Date value in yyyy-MM-dd Required The cutoff date prior to which mParticle should ignore events in CA calculation.
seed object Required CA seed.
Seed Object

This object contains the seed values for a single calculated attribute. The fields depend on the calculation type as defined below.

{
  "seed": {
    "value": "100"
  }
}
Property Name Data Type Required Description
value string Optional The value to seed, used for single value.
key_value_pairs object Optional A map with keys and values of type string.
list array Optional An array of strings, used for list data.

One of the value, key_value_pairs, or list objects are required, depending on the below table:

Calculation Type Value format Description
count value Pass in the current count.
sum value Pass in the current sum.
minimum value Pass in the current minimum value.
maximum value Pass in the current maximum value.
average key_value_pairs Pass values for the keys sum and count in to calculate average. count must be a positive integer.
first_occurrence value Pass in the first value seen.
last_occurrence value Pass in the last value seen.
first_occurrence_timestamp value Pass in the first seen timestamp as UNIX epoch in milliseconds.
last_occurrence_timestamp value Pass in the last seen timestamp as UNIX epoch in milliseconds.
unique_list list Pass in the unique list.
unique_values_count list Pass in the unique list of values.
most_frequent key_value_pairs Pass in values and counts in pairs.

User Attributes

This object contains user attributes to update.

  "user_attributes": {
      "workspace": [
        {
          "attribute_name": "User Tier",
          "attribute_value": "Free"
        }
      ]
  }

Updates to user attributes are nested under the workspace property. Each user attribute will either be created or updated if exists.

Property Name Data Type Required Description
attribute_name string Required The name of the user attribute.
attribute_value string Required The value of the user attribute.

Bulk Seeds

The path is: /v2/bulkcalculatedattributes

This allows you to send an array of users, each user with its CA seeds and user attributes. The whole request will either succeed or fail, i.e., we don’t partially ingest data.

Overall Structure

[
  {
    "environment": "development",
    "mpid": 7346244611012968789,
    "identities": {...},
    "calculated_attributes": {
      "workspace": [...]
    },
    "user_attributes": {
      "workspace": [...]
    }
  },
  {
    "environment": "development",
    "mpid": 482309279432794321,
    "identities": {...},
    "calculated_attributes": {
      "workspace": [...]
    },
    "user_attributes": {
      "workspace": [...]
    }
  }
]

The structure of each object in the array is the same as defined above for single user requests: calculated attributes object.

Sample Requests

Single User Updates

POST https://s2s.mparticle.com/v2/calculatedattributes/
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Basic <your-token-here>

{
  "environment": "development",
  "identities": {
    "customer_id": "123xyz",
    "google_advertising_id": "82416a37-84d7-417f-84f3-a5b5c6a9c570"
  },
  "user_attributes": {
    "workspace": [
      {
        "attribute_name": "User Tier",
        "attribute_value": "Free",
      }
    ]
  },
  "calculated_attributes": {
    "workspace": [
      {
        "attribute_name": "LTV",
        "calculation_type": "sum",
        "cutoff_date": "2019-12-01",
        "seed": {
          "value": 100.5
        }
      },
      {
        "attribute_name": "Product Interests",
        "calculation_type": "unique_list",
        "cutoff_date": "2019-12-01",
        "seed": {
          "list": [
            "travel",
            "pets",
            "kitchen"
          ]
        }
      },
      {
        "attribute_name": "Unique product view count",
        "calculation_type": "unique_values_count",
        "cutoff_date": "2019-12-01",
        "seed": {
          "list": [
            "air jordan",
            "cup",
            "microwave"
          ]
        }
      },
      {
        "attribute_name": "Average Session Length",
        "calculation_type": "average",
        "cutoff_date": "2019-12-01",
        "seed": {
          "key_value_pairs": {
            "sum": 299.2,
            "count": 20
          }
        }
      },
      {
        "attribute_name": "Last seen value",
        "calculation_type": "last_occurrence",
        "cutoff_date": "2019-12-01",
        "seed": {
          "value": "some value"
        }
      },
      {
        "attribute_name": "First seen value",
        "calculation_type": "first_occurrence",
        "cutoff_date": "2019-12-01",
        "seed": {
          "value": "some value"
        }
      },
      {
        "attribute_name": "Last seen time",
        "calculation_type": "last_occurrence_timestamp",
        "cutoff_date": "2019-12-01",
        "seed": {
          "value": 1582589378000
        }
      },
      {
        "attribute_name": "First seen time",
        "calculation_type": "first_occurrence_timestamp",
        "cutoff_date": "2019-12-01",
        "seed": {
          "value": 1582589378000
        }
      },
      {
        "attribute_name": "Min value",
        "calculation_type": "min",
        "cutoff_date": "2019-12-01",
        "seed": {
          "value": 123
        }
      },
      {
        "attribute_name": "Max value",
        "calculation_type": "max",
        "cutoff_date": "2019-12-01",
        "seed": {
          "value": 123
        }
      },
      {
        "attribute_name": "Favorite Item",
        "calculation_type": "most_frequent",
        "cutoff_date": "2019-12-01",
        "seed": {
          "key_value_pairs": {
            "ice cream": 10,
            "vegen": 5,
            "steak": 2
          }
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Bulk Updates

POST https://s2s.mparticle.com/v2/bulkcalculatedattributes/
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Basic <your-token-here>

[
  {
    "environment": "development",
    "identities": {
      "customer_id": "123xyz",
      "google_advertising_id": "82416a37-84d7-417f-84f3-a5b5c6a9c570"
    },
    "user_attributes": {
      "workspace": [
        {
          "attribute_name": "User Tier",
          "attribute_value": "Free",
        }
      ]
    },
    "calculated_attributes": {
      "workspace": [
        {
          "attribute_name": "LTV",
          "calculation_type": "sum",
          "cutoff_date": "2019-12-01",
          "seed": {
            "value": 100.5
          }
        },
        {
          "attribute_name": "Average Session Length",
          "calculation_type": "average",
          "cutoff_date": "2019-12-01",
          "seed": {
            "key_value_pairs": {
              "sum": 299.2,
              "count": 20
            }
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  },
  {
    "environment": "development",
    "identities": {
      "customer_id": "abc234"
    },
    "calculated_attributes": {
      "workspace": [
        {
          "attribute_name": "LTV",
          "calculation_type": "sum",
          "cutoff_date": "2019-12-01",
          "seed": {
            "value": 80
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  }
]

Rate Limits

Requests sent to the Calculated Attributes Seeding API contribute to the request rate of the Events API.

For more information about default service limits related to event batches, see Default Service Limits.

Response

You should inspect the status code of the response to determine if the POST has been accepted or if an error occurred.

Status Code Notes
202 Accepted The POST was accepted.
400 Bad Request The request JSON was malformed JSON or had missing fields.
401 Unauthorized The authentication header is missing.
403 Forbidden The authentication header is present, but invalid.
429 Too Many Requests You have exceeded your provisioned limit. We recommend retrying your request in an exponential backoff pattern. Learn more about API throttling in Default Service Limits.
503 Service Unavailable We recommend retrying your request in an exponential backoff pattern
5xx Server Error A server-side error has occured, please try your request again.

The whole request either succeed or fail, i.e., we don’t partially accept the data.

Response Body

In some cases, the server can provide additional information the error that occurred in the response body.

The response body is optionally sent from the server and will not be included if additional details on the error are not known.

The format of the error message is CA name: error message.

{
    "errors" :
    [
        {
            "code": "BAD_REQUEST",
            "message": "test sum: No matching calculated attribute definition found"
        },
        {
            "code": "BAD_REQUEST",
            "message": "LTV: Seed value must be numeric"
        }
    ]
}

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