Aliasing is an IDSync feature that allows you to transfer data between an anonymous and a known profile when one of your users creates or logs into an account.
Aliasing is not accessible from the mParticle UI. To use aliasing to transfer data from an anonymous user profile to a known user profile, configure your app to call the correct method in the IDSync API when the applicable action is triggered by a user (such as when a user creates or logs into an account).
A user who opens your app and is tracked by mParticle is referred to as the current user. mParticle stores data from the current user’s session in a user profile. IDSync automatically searches for the best profile to use immediately after the current user begins a session. Depending on your identity strategy, if a profile cannot be found using the available user identifiers then mParticle creates a new profile.
All user profiles can be either known or anonymous.
Known profiles have at least one login ID, which is a unique identifier like a customer ID, email address, or phone number. Known user profiles can only be returned in response to an identity request if the request includes at least one matching login ID.
Anonymous profiles do not have any login IDs. Unless a new user supplies a login ID, they will always be given an anonymous profile.
When a user supplies a login ID, IDSync transitions their profile from being anonymous to known. The default behavior for how data collected with the anonymous profile is carried over to the new known profile and whether or not the same MPID is used for the new known profile depends on your identity strategy.
The default IDSync configuration uses the profile conversion strategy. If you have explicitly selected the conversion strategy or your account uses the default configuration, then the appearance of a new login ID adds the login ID to the existing anonymous profile. This means that the new profile is now considered known, but it keeps the same MPID.
Any historical data collected with the anonymous profile persists to the known profile.
If you are using the profile link strategy, the appearance of a new login ID results in the creation of a new profile with a new MPID.
While the profile link strategy does not carry data from the anonymous to the known profile by default, you can configure your app to execute an alias request which (if successful) will attribute data from the anonymous (or source) profile to the known (destination) profile.
The general process for making an alias request is the same regardless of the SDK you are using. To learn how to make an alias request with a specific SDK, refer to the SDK documentation for Web, Android, and iOS.
Remember that the mParticle SDKs always maintain a persistent “current user”, or the user actively engaging with your app. Data from the current user’s session is being associated to a profile, which is either known or anonymous.
An alias request includes:
If you do not specify the start and end time, then all data collected for the source profile will be aliased to the destination profile up to the point the user submits a login ID or your app otherwise submits an alias request.
Alias requests are most often made when a user creates or logs into an account, or whenever they provide an identifier configured as a login ID in your account’s IDSync settings. However, you can submit an alias request using the SDKs at any time.
Aliasing is only available to accounts configured to use either the default identity strategy, the profile link strategy, or the profile conversion strategy.
For an alias request to be successful:
The alias request contains four pieces of information:
If the alias request meets the validation requirements, it will be processed after a 24 hour delay. This delay allows for any late-arriving events from the source profile to be included.
A successful request will result in a 202 accepted response. Errors are only returned in the cases of failed authorization or exceeded rate limits.
The following information is not copied as a result of an alias request:
The mParticle SDKs provide a method for copying user attributes, identities and consent data any time the current user profile changes. For more information see the SDK docs for iOS, Android, and Web.
| Error Code | Description |
|---|---|
| 400 Bad Request | The IDSync HTTP call failed due to an invalid request body. Inspect the result.body string message for more information. Below are examples of possible causes of a 400 response. |
| 400 Bad Request | Given time range is invalid. |
| 400 Bad Request | Source MPID is the same as the target MPID. |
| 400 Bad Request | The request JSON is malformed or is missing required fields. |
| 400 Bad Request | The source MPID or target MPID does not exist. |
| 401 Bad Request | The IDSync HTTP call failed due to an authentication error. Verify that your API key is correct. |
| 403 Forbidden | Aliasing is not provisioned for your mParticle workspace. Contact your mParticle account representative to have aliasing provisioned. |
| 429 Too Many Requests | The IDSync HTTP call was throttled and should be retried. This may indicate a user “hotkey” or an incorrect implementation resulting in a higher than expected volume of IDSync requests. |
| 5xx | The IDSync HTTP call failed due to an mParticle server-side issue. Check the mParticle status page if this is occuring. |
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