API identifier types
This reference guide touches on the different types of API identifiers that can be found within the Braze dashboard, their purpose, where you can find them, and how they are typically used. For information on REST API keys or workspace API keys, refer to the API overview.
The following identifiers can be used to access your template, Canvas, campaign, segment, send or card from the Braze external API. All messages should follow UTF-8 encoding.
App identifier
The app identifier or app_id is a parameter associating activity with a specific app in your workspace. It designates which app within the workspace you are interacting with. For example, you will find that you will have an app_id for your iOS app, an app_id for your Android app, and an app_id for your web integration. At Braze, you might find that you have multiple apps for the same platform across the various platform types that Braze supports.
Where can I find it?
There are two ways to locate your app_id:
Go to Settings > APIs and Identifiers > App Identifiers. Your API key for each app is listed under the Identifier column.
If you’re using the older navigation, App Identifiers is located at Developer Console > API Settings.
Go to Settings > App Settings. Your API key is listed next to the API Key field in the settings section.
If you’re using the older navigation, App Settings located at Manage Settings > Settings.
What can it be used for?
App identifiers at Braze are used when integrating the SDK and are also used to reference a specific app in REST API calls. With the app_id you can do many things like pull data for a custom event that occurred for a particular app, retrieve uninstall stats, new user stats, DAU stats, and session start stats for a particular app.
Sometimes, you may find you are prompted for an app_id but you are not working with an app, because it is a legacy field specific to a specific platform, you can omit this field by including any string of characters as a placeholder for this required parameter.
Multiple app identifiers
During SDK set up, the most common use case for multiple app identifiers is separating those identifiers for debug and release build variants.
To easily switch between multiple app identifier in your builds, we recommend creating a separate braze.xml file for each relevant build variant. A build variant is a combination of build type and product flavor. By default, a new Android project is configured with debug and release build types and no product flavors.
For each relevant build variant, create a new braze.xml for it in src/<build variant name>/res/values/:
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<string name="com_braze_api_key">{YOUR_BUILD_VARIANT_API_KEY}</string>
</resources>
When the build variant is compiled, it will use the new identifier.
Template identifier
A template identifier or template ID is a random key generated by Braze for a given template within the dashboard. Template IDs are unique for each template and can be used to reference templates through the API.
Templates are great for if your company contracts out your HTML designs for campaigns. After the templates have been built, you now have a template that is not specific to a campaign but can be applied to a series of campaigns like a newsletter.
Where can I find it?
You can find your template ID one of two ways:
Go to Templates, select a template page, then select a pre-existing template. If the template you want does not exist yet, create one and save it. At the bottom of the individual template page, you will be able to find your template identifier.
Go to Settings > APIs and Identifiers. Here, Braze offers an Additional API Identifiers search where you can look up specific identifiers.
If you’re using the older navigation, you can find API identifiers from Developer Console > API Settings.
What can it be used for?
- Update templates over API
- Grab information on a specific template
Canvas identifier
A Canvas identifier or Canvas ID is random key generated by Braze for a given Canvas within the dashboard. Canvas IDs are unique to each Canvas and can be used to reference Canvases through the API.
Keep in mind, if you have a Canvas that has variants, there exists an overall Canvas ID as well as individual variant Canvas IDs nested under the main Canvas.
Where can I find it?
You can find your Canvas ID in the dashboard. Go to Messaging > Canvas and select a pre-existing Canvas. If the Canvas you want does not exist yet, create one and save it. At the bottom of an individual Canvas page, click Analyze Variants. A window appears with the Canvas API identifier located at the bottom.
If you’re using the older navigation, Canvas is located under Engagement.
What can it be used for?
- Track analytics on a specific message
- Grab high-level aggregate stats on Canvas performance
- Grab details on a specific Canvas
- With Currents to bring in user-level data for a “bigger picture” approach to Canvases
- With API trigger delivery in order to collect statistics for transactional messages
Campaign identifier
A campaign identifier or campaign ID is random key generated by Braze for a given campaign within the dashboard. Campaign IDs are unique to each campaign and can be used to reference campaigns through the API.
Keep in mind, if you have a campaign that has variants, there is both an overall campaign ID as well as individual variant campaign IDs nested under the main campaign.
Where can I find it?
You can find your campaign ID one of two ways:
Go to Messaging > Campaigns and select a pre-existing campaign. If the campaign you want does not exist yet, create one and save it. At the bottom of the individual campaign page, you will be able to find your Campaign API Identifier.
If you’re using the older navigation, Campaigns is under Engagement.
Go to Settings > APIs and Identifiers. Here, Braze offers an Additional API Identifiers search where you can look up specific identifiers.
If you’re using the older navigation, API Keys is located at Developer Console > API Settings.
What can it be used for?
- Track analytics on a specific message
- Grab high-level aggregate stats on campaign performance
- Grab details on a specific campaign
- With Currents to bring in user-level data for a “bigger picture” approach to campaigns
- With API-triggered delivery in order to collect statistics for transactional messages
- To search for a specific campaign on the Campaigns page using the filter
api_id:YOUR_API_ID
Segment identifier
A segment identifier or segment ID is random key generated by Braze for a given segment within the dashboard. Segment IDs are unique to each segment and can be used to reference segments through the API.
Where can I find it?
You can find your segment ID one of two ways:
Go to Audience > Segments and select a pre-existing segment. If the segment you want does not exist yet, create one and save it. At the bottom of the individual segment page, you will be able to find your segment identifier.
If you’re using the older navigation, Segments is under Engagement.
Go to Settings > **APIs and Identifiers. Here, Braze offers an Additional API Identifiers search where you can look up specific identifiers.
If you’re using the older navigation, API Keys is located at Developer Console > API Settings.
What can it be used for?
- Get details on a specific segment
- Retrieve analytics of a specific segment
- Pull how many times a custom event was recorded for a particular segment
- Specify and send a campaign to a members of a segment from within the API
Card identifier
A card identifier or card ID is random key generated by Braze for a given News Feed card within the dashboard. Card IDs are unique to each News Feed card and can be used to reference cards through the API.
News Feed is being deprecated. We recommend migrating to our Content Cards messaging channel instead—it’s more flexible, customizable, and reliable. To get started, check out Migrating from News Feed.
Where can I find it?
You can find your card ID one of two ways:
Go to Messaging > News Feed and select a pre-existing News Feed. If the News Feed you want does not exist yet, create one and save it. At the bottom of the individual News Feed page, you will be able to find your unique card identifier.
If you’re using the older navigation, News Feed is under Engagement.
Go to Settings > APIs and Identifiers. Here, Braze offers an Additional API Identifiers search where you can look up specific identifiers.
If you’re using the older navigation, API Keys is located at Developer Console > API Settings.
What can it be used for?
- Retrieve relevant information on a card
- Track events related to Content Cards and engagement
Send identifier
A send identifier, or send ID, is a key either generated by Braze or created by you for a given message send under which the analytics should be tracked. The send identifier allows you to pull back analytics for a specific instance of a campaign send through the /sends/data_series endpoint.
Where can I find it?
API and API triggered campaigns that are sent as a broadcast will automatically generate a send identifier if a send identifier is not provided. If you want to specify your own send identifier, you will have to first create one through the /sends/id/create endpoint. The identifier must be all ASCII characters and at most 64 characters long. You can reuse a send identifier across multiple sends of the same campaign if you want to group analytics of those sends together.
What can it be used for?
Send and track message performance programmatically, without campaign creation for each send.
Subscription group identifier
A subscription group identifier, or subscription group ID, is a key generated by Braze for a given subscription group. IDs are unique to each subscription group and can be used to reference subscription groups through the API.
Where can I find it?
Go to Audience > Subscriptions and copy the ID next to the respective subscription group.
What can it be used for?
- List a user’s subscription groups
- Grab a user’s subscription group status
- Update a user’s subscription group status
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