Send Canvas messages using API-triggered delivery

Use this endpoint to send Canvas messages with API-triggered delivery.

API-triggered delivery allows you to store message content in the Braze dashboard while dictating when a message is sent, and to whom using your API.

Before you can send messages with this endpoint, you must have a Canvas ID (which is created when you build a Canvas).

Prerequisites

To use this endpoint, you’ll need to generate an API key with the canvas.trigger.send permission.

Rate limit

When specifying a segment or Connected Audience in your request, we apply a rate limit of 250 requests per minute to this endpoint. Otherwise, if specifying an external_id, this endpoint has a default rate limit of 250,000 requests per hour shared between /messages/send, /campaigns/trigger/send, and /canvas/trigger/send, as documented in API rate limits.

Braze endpoints support batching API requests. A single request to the messaging endpoints can reach any of the following:

• Up to 50 specific external_ids, each with individual message parameters
• A segment of any size created in the Braze dashboard, specified by its segment_id
• An audience segment of any size, defined in the request as a connected audience object

Request body

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Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer YOUR-REST-API-KEY

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{
  "canvas_id": (required, string) see Canvas identifier,
  "canvas_entry_properties": (optional, object) personalization key-value pairs that will apply to all users in this request,
  "broadcast": (optional, boolean) see Broadcast -- defaults to false on 8/31/17, must be set to true if `recipients` is omitted,
  "audience": (optional, connected audience object) see connected audience,
  // Including 'audience' will only send to users in the audience
  "recipients": (optional, array; if not provided and broadcast is not set to 'false', message will send to the entire segment targeted by the Canvas)
    [{
      // Either "external_user_id" or "user_alias" or "email" is required. Requests must specify only one.
      "user_alias": (optional, user alias object) user alias of user to receive message,
      "external_user_id": (optional, string) external identifier of user to receive message,
      "email": (optional, string) email address of user to receive message,
      "prioritization": (optional, array) prioritization array; required when using email,
      "canvas_entry_properties": (optional, object) personalization key-value pairs that will apply to this user (these key-value pairs will override any keys that conflict with the parent `canvas_entry_properties`)
      "send_to_existing_only": (optional, boolean) defaults to true, can't be used with user aliases
      "attributes": (optional, object) fields in the attributes object will create or update an attribute of that name with the given value on the specified user profile before the message is sent and existing values will be overwritten
    }],
    ...
}

Request parameters

Customers using the API for server-to-server calls may need to allowlist the appropriate API URL if they’re behind a firewall.

Example request

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curl --location --request POST 'https://rest.iad-01.braze.com/canvas/trigger/send' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR-REST-API-KEY' \
--data-raw '{
  "canvas_id": "canvas_identifier",
  "canvas_entry_properties": {"product_name" : "shoes", "product_price" : 79.99},
  "broadcast": false,
  "audience": {
    "AND": [
      {
        "custom_attribute": {
          "custom_attribute_name": "eye_color",
          "comparison": "equals",
          "value": "blue"
        }
      },
      {
        "custom_attribute": {
          "custom_attribute_name": "favorite_foods",
          "comparison": "includes_value",
          "value": "pizza"
        }
      },
      {
        "OR": [
          {
            "custom_attribute": {
              "custom_attribute_name": "last_purchase_time",
              "comparison": "less_than_x_days_ago",
              "value": 2
            }
          },
          {
            "push_subscription_status": {
              "comparison": "is",
              "value": "opted_in"
            }
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "email_subscription_status": {
          "comparison": "is_not",
          "value": "subscribed"
        }
      },
      {
        "last_used_app": {
          "comparison": "after",
          "value": "2019-07-22T13:17:55+0000"
        }
      }
    ]
  },
  "recipients": [
    {
      "user_alias": {
        "alias_name" : "example_name",
        "alias_label" : "example_label"
      },
      "external_user_id": "user_identifier",
      "send_to_existing_only": true,
      "attributes": {
          "first_name" : "Alex"
      }
    }
  ]
}'

Response details

Message-sending endpoint responses will include the message’s dispatch_id for reference back to the dispatch of the message. The dispatch_id is the ID of the message dispatch (unique ID for each “transmission” sent from the Braze platform). Check out Dispatch ID behavior for more information.

Example success response

The status code 201 could return the following response body. If the Canvas is archived, stopped, or paused, the Canvas will not be sent through this endpoint.

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{
  "notice": "The Canvas is paused. Resume the Canvas to ensure trigger requests will take effect.",
  "dispatch_id": "example_dispatch_id",
  "message": "success"
}

If your Canvas is archived, you’ll see this notice message: “The Canvas is archived. Unarchive the Canvas to ensure trigger requests will take effect.” If your Canvas is not active, you’ll see this notice message: “The Canvas is paused. Resume the Canvas to ensure trigger requests will take effect.”

If your request encounters a fatal error, refer to Errors and responses for the error code and description.

Attributes object for Canvas

Use the messaging object attributes to add, create, or update attributes and values for a user before sending them an API-triggered Canvas using the canvas/trigger/send endpoint. This API call processes the user attributes object before it processes and sends the Canvas. This helps minimize the risk of issues caused by race conditions. However, by default, subscription groups cannot be updated this way.