Send push notifications to segments of your users.

Payload field

Updating notifications

You can update a notification (including its payload) by specifying a collapse_key in the notification payload. This key acts as a unique identifier, so that you can reference the same notification in subsequent Notifications API requests.

Platform specific data

Some payload values are treated specially by iOS or Android. Below we describe some specific keys that can cause different behavior depending on the platform.

iOS

content_available

Must be true or false.

Setting this value to true will cause an inactive app to be awoken. APNs does not guarantee that it will be delivered and it can depend on different factors like battery level, app not in memory, etc.
This field will be used as part of the APNs payload for the key content-available.

mutable_content

Must be true or false.

If set to true the notification content can be modified before it is displayed.

This field will be used as part of the APNs payload for the key mutable-content. iOS 10+ devices only. More information can be found here.

category

APNs Notification identifier. Example: survey

The identifier must be registered by the app using UNNotificationCategory.

This field will be used as part of the APNs payload for the key category. More information can be found here.

interruption_level

Must be passive, active, time-sensitive or critical.

This value is used to determine the interruption-level for the notification on iOS 15+. If absent the default behavior is active. More information about interruption levels can be found here.

relevance_score

Must be a numerical value between 0 and 1 inclusive. Maximum accuracy is to two decimal places.

This value is used to determine the relevance-score for the notification on iOS 15+. If absent the default score is 0.

Android

_channel_id

The notification's channel id (new in Android Oreo, SDK 26). Example: news

The channel must be created by the application prior to receiving the push with such identifier.

More information about Android Channels can be found here.

category

Firebase Action identifier. Example: survey

The identifier must be registered using NotificationConfig

More information can be found here.

Other Keys

Some keys are reserved by the APNs or Firebase and they must not be used:

  • available
  • from
  • gcm
  • Any value prefixed by google

Sailthru Mobile define some internal keys that should not be set:

Other keys and values will be assumed to be custom keys, and will be included in the push payload.

To Field

There are three options for target devices:

  • "*": will target everyone
  • { "audience": "AUDIENCE_ID" }: an object with key audience and the value being the Audience ID. Will target all users in the specified audience. You can retrieve an ID via Audiences API or as a result of creating an on-the-fly audience (see below).
  • [{ "name": "CRITERIA_TYPE", "criteria": [CRITERIA_1, CRITERIA_2, …]}, {…}]: an array of one or more filters for creating an on-the-fly audience (see Filters below). Will target devices that match the specified criteria.

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Sending to All

Be extremely careful with this endpoint during testing, especially when using "to": "*" . We recommend setting up a different app on Sailthru Mobile from your production app to avoid accidental communication with your users.

Targeting test devices

You can send notification to your testers by flagging your test devices as 'development' within the Sailthru Mobile dashboard (see Testing Developer Push Notifications). When you do so, you can send a push notification to your devices by creating this audience:
[{"name": "development", "criteria": [true]}]

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Testing notifications on iOS

By default, Xcode builds your app against the Debug scheme, which maps to your Development provisioning profile which in turn can only talk to the Sandbox APNS.

If your Xcode scheme is Debug, make sure to target your Device ID using an on-the-fly audience, and make sure your device is in development mode. You can set this up here: Testing Developer Push Notifications.

Filters

A filter is an object composed of three attributes: name, criteria and not_filter.

Filter attributeDetails
nameString. Device attribute on which the criteria will be applied.

Example: { "name": "locale", criteria: ["en_US"] } will match devices with en_US locale. See the list of valid names/attributes below.
criteriaArray with values to match.

Provide at least one element of type string, integer, float, boolean or a range object (see below how to define a range object).
not_filterBoolean. When true, it will match devices that don't match the criteria. Default is false.

Valid names/attributes for a filter

Name/AttributeDescription
localeLocale used on the device, specified as a combination of ISO 639-1 and ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 e.g. en_NZ, fr_FR.
time_zoneTime zone used on the device. Possible values can be found here.
created_atDate of device registration
registered_atDate of last device update
badgeCurrent badge count
os_nameDevice OS name
os_versionDevice OS version
app_versionApp version
sdk_versionCarnival SDK version
device_idCarnival generated Device ID
countryCountry based on user location (can be inaccurate, since sometimes the user don't enable GPS tracking and this value be defined using the user IP). Refer to Known Countries for a list of valid values.
marketing_nameDevice model.

Examples: iPhone 5, iPhone 6, Samsung Galaxy S5
user_idThe ID assigned to the user.
user_emailThe email address of the user of a given device
developmentWhether or not to target development devices. Boolean.
locationLast available location of the user (being GeoIP or GPS location).
sdk_locationLast available GPS location of the user.
notifications_allowedWhether or not a device has push notifications enabled.

Possible values are Enabled, Disabled and Unknown.

You can see valid values for these keys by querying Audience Builder in the dashboard.

Filtering by custom attributes

The filter name should be composed as follows: custom. + type of attribute (string, integer, float, date or boolean). + attribute_name.

Examples:

Data typePrefixExample
Stringcustom.string.custom.string.favorite_color
Datecustom.date.custom.date.last_purchased
Integercustom.integer.custom.integer.tier_points
Floatcustom.float.custom.float.lifetime_value
Booleancustom.boolean.custom.boolean.is_paid_user

Filtering by custom events

The filter name should be composed as follows: events. + source + event name. Events collected by the SDK do not have a source.

Examples:

SourcePrefixExample
SDKevents.events.checkout_completed
Events collected via Devices / Events or Users / Eventsevents.Public Api.events.Public Api.instore_purchase_completed
Auto Analytics: Google Analyticsevents.Google Analytics.events.Google Analytics.message_stream_user
Auto Analytics: Adobe Analyticsevents.Adobe Analytics.events.Adobe Analytics.checkout_started
Auto Analytics: Mixpanelevents.Mixpanel.events.Mixpanel.tutorial_started
Auto Analytics: Localyticsevents.Localytics.events.Localytics.tutorial_completed
Auto Analytics: Flurryevents.Flurry Analytics.events.Flurry Analytics.shared_post_on_twitter
Auto Analytics: Amplitudeevents.Amplitude.events.Amplitude.video_played
Specifying criteria ranges

A range is an object with at least of the following keys: gt, lt, gte and lte.

Examples of valid ranges:

  • { "gt": 0 } returns values greater than 0
  • { "gt": 0, "lt": 10 } returns values greater than zero and less than 10 (non-inclusive)
  • { "gte": 0 } returns values greater than or equal to 0
  • { "gt": "now-1d" } return devices where this event have hapenned after yesterday
Range keyDescription
gtGreater than value
ltLess than value
gteGreater than or equal to value
lteLess than or equal to value
Using Math Date for event last happened at

You can filter devices by the last time that an event happened. You do it using the same criteria range method but with a special math date syntax.

Example of valid math date ranges:

  • { "gt": "now-1d" } return devices where this event happened after yesterday
  • { "gt": "now-2M" } return devices where this event happened after 2 months ago
  • { "gt": "now-2w" } return devices where this event happened after 2 weeks ago
  • { "lt": "now-1y" } return devices where this event happened before 1 year ago
  • { "gt": "now-1y", "lt": "now-1d" } return devices where this event happened between 1 year ago and yesterday

The supported units are:

LetterUnit
yyears
Mmonths
wweeks
ddays
h or Hhours
mminutes
sseconds

More examples of supported Math Date expressions:

  • now+1h: The current time plus one hour, with ms resolution.
  • now+1h+1m: The current time plus one hour plus one minute, with ms resolution.
  • now+1h/d: The current time plus one hour, rounded down to the nearest day.
  • 2015-01-01||+1M/d: 2015-01-01 plus one month, rounded down to the nearest day.

Filtering by distance

location and sdk_location are the only fields that can be filtered by distance.

The filter criteria must have the following keys:

KeyDescriptionExample
pointA latitude and longitude object{ "latitude" : -41.28664, "longitude" : 174.77557 }
distanceA number10.5
unitThe unit of distance used. It can be one of the following: in, inch, yd, yards, ft, feet, km, kilometers, nauticalmiles, mi, miles m, meters"kilometers"

Example:

{ 
  "name": "sdk_location", 
  "criteria": [{ "point" : { "latitude" : -41.1339, "longitude": 174.8406 }, 
                    "distance" : 4, "unit" : "kilometers" }] }

Filtering by a polygon

location and sdk_location are the only fields that can be filtered by a polygon.

The filter criteria must have the key polygon with at least 3 points with latitude and longitude. Example:

{ 
  "name": "location",
  "criteria": [{ "polygon" :
    [{ "latitude" :-41.31243, "longitude" : 174.75154 }, 
     { "latitude" :-41.30341, "longitude" : 174.96063 }, 
     { "latitude" :-41.19293, "longitude" : 174.91806 }, 
     { "latitude" :-41.20029, "longitude" : 174.76511 }]
   }] 
}

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Polygon & Distance combined

Polygon and distance filters can be mixed in a single criteria. For example:

{ 
  "name": "location",
  "criteria": [
    { "point" : { "latitude" : -41.1339, "longitude": 174.8406 }, 
                      "distance" : 4, "unit" : "kilometers" },
    { "polygon" :
      [{ "latitude" :-41.31243, "longitude" : 174.75154 }, 
       { "latitude" :-41.30341, "longitude" : 174.96063 }, 
       { "latitude" :-41.19293, "longitude" : 174.91806 }, 
       { "latitude" :-41.20029, "longitude" : 174.76511 }]  }
  ] 
}

On-the-fly audiences

On-the-fly audiences are persisted in your list of Audiences. When you send a notification, we return an audience ID in the response. You can use the Audience ID in the to.id to retrieve your Audience ] for example when you want to check the targeted device count, or to get a list of devices in this audience.

You will be given one Audience ID for each on-the-fly audience. If you use the same on-the-fly spec more than once you will be given the same Audience ID.

This example shows you how to create an on-the-fly audience, retrieve its ID and device count, and reuse it to send a push notification at a later stage.

// First, create an on-the-fly audience when sending a push notification
curl -X POST -u :WRITE_API_KEY -H "Content-type: application/json" -H 'Accept: application/json' https://api.carnivalmobile.com/v6/notifications -d '{
  "notification": {
    "to": [{ "name": "events.video_plays", "criteria": [{ "gt": 10 }]}, { "name": "custom.string.mykey", "criteria": ["tag2"]}],
    "payload": { /* Your push payload goes here */ }
  }
}'

// The response will be similar to this:
{
  "created_at": "2017-03-09T13:23:37.488Z",
  "state": "scheduled",
  "id": "58c157595c50nz000e347f79",
  "to": {
    "id": "589b54e38b1ny0000876e528",
    "type": "Audience"
  },
  "notification": { /* Notification payload */ }
}

// Next, use the `to.id` value to check the targeted device count.
// Make sure your API Key has Read permissions.
curl -X GET -u :READ_API_KEY https://api.carnivalmobile.com/v6/audiences/589b54e38b1ny0000876e528

// Response
{
    "audience": {
        "name": "api_audience_571a2cb135c4f3008028728_f9b10204a59727a528a4d33d262591f33de7f9fad977e4e1fb70aa4d533b162",
        "created_at": "2017-03-21T19:39:25.324Z",
        "updated_at": "2017-03-21T19:39:25.324Z",
        "id": "589b54e38b1ny0000876e528",
        "device_count": 42
    }
}

// You can reuse this on-the-fly audience for another push by specifying its ID
curl -X POST -u :WRITE_API_KEY -H "Content-type: application/json" -H 'Accept: application/json' https://api.carnivalmobile.com/v6/notifications -d '{
  "notification": {
    "to": { "audience": "589b54e38b1ny0000876e528" },
    "payload": { /* Your push payload goes here */ }
  }
}'
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