Create an Input

The purpose of this guide is to walk you through the basic steps of setting up mParticle in your app, unlocking core functionality, and troubleshooting common issues.

This is not a complete guide to all of mParticle’s features and capabilities. If you already know your way around mParticle, and you’re looking for in-depth docs, head to our Developers or Guides sections.

The tutorials in this guide follow the process of setting up mParticle in the Higg’s Shop sample ecommerce app.

In later steps, you’ll learn how to send data from mParticle to some of our many integrations. The tutorial uses integrations with a free account tier that are simple to set up and verify, so you can follow along as you read. However, the steps and concepts described will apply to any integration.

Inputs and Outputs

One of the key functions of mParticle is to receive your data from wherever it originates, and send it wherever it needs to go. The sources of your data are called inputs and the service or app where it is forwarded are outputs. A connection is a combination of an input and output.

Inputs include:

• Platform inputs, which are apps or services using one of the mParticle SDKs, such as iOS, Android, or Web. You can view the full list of supported platform inputs by navigating to Data Platform > Setup > Inputs using the left nav and browsing through the options displayed on the Platforms tab.
• Data feeds, such as Partner, Custom CSV, Data Warehouse, feeds. You can browse the available feed inputs by navigating to Data Platform > Setup > Inputs and selecting the Feeds tab.

Outputs may be configured for event data, audiences, cookie syncs, or data subject requests. You can browse through the list of supported outputs by navigating to Data Platform > Setup > Directory.

Outputs include:

• Advertising partners such as Facebook
• In-app messaging partners such as Braze
• Data Warehouse partners, such as Amazon Redshift, Google BigQuery, or Snowflake

1. Create Access Credentials

Before you can create you input, you need a set of access credentials that will allow a client-side SDK or a server-side application to forward data to mParticle.

1. Log in to your mParticle account. If you’re just getting started, your first workspace is created for you.
2. Navigate to Data Platform > Setup > Inputs using the left hand nav. In this example, we’ll set up an Android input by clicking Android.

3. Click Issue Keys.
4. Copy and save the values under Key and Secret.

About access credentials

Unlike API keys and secrets, you can safely embed your mParticle platform input keys and secrets directly in your app without incurring a security risk.

• The client-side key and secret can’t read data from the system.
• You can block bad data to stop any traffic that doesn’t match the data you expect as defined in your schema.

Most anonymous client-server architectures, including Adobe, Braze, Firebase, Google Analytics, and Segment don’t use per-session or per-instance credentials, nor does mParticle.

2. Install and initialize the mParticle SDK

You may need a developer to help you install and initialize the mParticle SDK in your app. See the Developer Getting Started guides for the iOS, Android or Web SDKs for instructions on how to install and initialize the mParticle SDK.

3. Verify your input

To verify that your input is collecting and forwarding data to mParticle:

1. Go to Data Platform > Live Stream in the left hand navigation. Live Stream provides a real-time view of all data being ingested into your development environments. When you first open Live Stream, it will be empty because we haven’t started sending any data from our app.

2. Start up a development build of your app (get a developer to help you if necessary). The mParticle SDKs automatically collect and forward data about app installations and user sessions, so just by opening a development build of your app, you should start to see data in the Live Stream.

4. Advanced platform configuration settings

For the iOS, Android, tvOS, and Web platforms, some advanced configuration settings are available. To change these settings, navigate to Data Platform > Setup > Inputs in the left nav and select either iOS, Android, tvOS, or Web from the list of platforms.

Expand the Advanced Settings by clicking the + icon.

Restrict Device ID by Limit Ad Tracking

iOS, Android, and tvOS (Apple TV) devices allow users to limit the collection of advertising IDs. Advertising IDs are unique identifiers you may use to associate event and user data with a specific device. For both iOS and Android devices, if a user has not provided explicit consent to share their device’s advertising ID, then the value of that ID is set to an all-zero value.

By checking Restrict Device ID by Limit Ad Tracking, mParticle will not collect advertising IDs from users who have enabled the Limit Ad Tracking setting on their device.

Remember, mParticle will collect advertising IDs for both iOS and Android devices, regardless of whether a user has enabled the Limit Ad Tracking setting on their device. However, the IDs collected from users who have opted out will be all-zero values.

Following are descriptions of Apple and Google’s policies for device advertising IDs:

iOS Advertising IDs

After the release of iOS 14.5, Apple introduced the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework, which requires app developers to request users’ explicit consent to share their advertising IDs. If a user of your app has not provided this consent, Apple’s advertising ID (IDFA) will be set to all an all-zero value: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000. Read more about Apple advertising identifiers in their documentation.

For more information about the ATT framework, visit the iOS 14 Guide.

Android Advertising IDs

Google allows Android users to opt out from sharing their devices’ advertising IDs. Similar to Apple’s policy, Google will set a user’s advertising ID (GAID or AAID) to an all-zero value if that user has opted out from sharing their ID. Read more about Google’s advertising identifiers in their documentation.

Collect Integration-Specific Identifiers

The Web SDK can collect integration-specific identifiers to enrich the user data forwarded to your connected outputs.

When Collect Integration-Specific Identifiers is checked, these integration-specific identifiers are collected and used to enrich your user data to help optimize the match rate of your audiences in downstream tools. Currently, these identifiers include Facebook’s fbc and fbp fields.

Supported Integrations

Vendor	Identifier	Collection Method	Maps to
Facebook Click ID	fbclid	url query parameter	Facebook.ClickId
Facebook Click ID	fbc	browser cookie	Facebook.ClickId
Facebook Browser ID	fbp	browser cookie	Facebook.BrowserId
Google GCLID	gclid	url query parameter	GoogleEnhancedConversions.Gclid
Google GWBRAID	gwbraid	url query parameter	GoogleEnhancedConversions.Gbraid
Google WBRAID	wbraid	url query parameter	GoogleEnhancedConversions.Wbraid

Troubleshoot

If you don’t see data appearing in the Live Stream within the first few minutes after opening a development build:

• Check that you have copied your Key and Secret correctly.
• Check that you have properly installed and initialized the mParticle SDK in your app. The necessary steps will differ depending on the platform. Check our iOS, Android and Web docs for more.

Next Steps

Congratulations, you have created a working data input! Now it’s time to start capturing some data.