Connect to streaming destinations and activate data using the Flow Service API

This tutorial demonstrates how to use API calls to connect to your Adobe Experience Platform data, create a connection to a streaming cloud storage destination (Amazon Kinesis or Azure Event Hubs), create a dataflow to your new created destination, and activate data to your new created destination.

This tutorial uses the Amazon Kinesis destination in all examples, but the steps are identical for Azure Event Hubs.

If you prefer to use the user interface in Platform to connect to a destination and activate data, see the Connect a destination and Activate audience data to streaming audience export destinations tutorials.

Get started

This guide requires a working understanding of the following components of Adobe Experience Platform:

The following sections provide additional information that you will need to know in order to activate data to streaming destinations in Platform.

Gather required credentials

To complete the steps in this tutorial, you should have the following credentials ready, depending on the type of destinations that you are connecting and activating audiences to.

Reading sample API calls reading-sample-api-calls

This tutorial provides example API calls to demonstrate how to format your requests. These include paths, required headers, and properly formatted request payloads. Sample JSON returned in API responses is also provided. For information on the conventions used in documentation for sample API calls, see the section on how to read example API calls in the Experience Platform troubleshooting guide.

Gather values for required and optional headers gather-values

In order to make calls to Platform APIs, you must first complete the authentication tutorial. Completing the authentication tutorial provides the values for each of the required headers in all Experience Platform API calls, as shown below:

Resources in Experience Platform can be isolated to specific virtual sandboxes. In requests to Platform APIs, you can specify the name and ID of the sandbox that the operation will take place in. These are optional parameters.

All requests that contain a payload (POST, PUT, PATCH) require an additional media type header:

Swagger documentation swagger-docs

You can find accompanying reference documentation for all the API calls in this tutorial in Swagger. See the Flow Service API documentation on Adobe I/O. We recommend that you use this tutorial and the Swagger documentation page in parallel.

Get the list of available streaming destinations get-the-list-of-available-streaming-destinations

As a first step, you should decide which streaming destination to activate data to. To begin with, perform a call to request a list of available destinations that you can connect and activate audiences to. Perform the following GET request to the connectionSpecs endpoint to return a list of available destinations:

API format

GET /connectionSpecs

Request

curl --location --request GET 'https://platform.adobe.io/data/foundation/flowservice/connectionSpecs' \
--header 'accept: application/json' \
--header 'x-gw-ims-org-id: {ORG_ID}' \
--header 'x-api-key: {API_KEY}' \
--header 'x-sandbox-name: {SANDBOX_NAME}' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}'

Response

A successful response contains a list of available destinations and their unique identifiers (id). Store the value of the destination that you plan to use, as it will be required in further steps. For example, if you want to connect and deliver audiences to Amazon Kinesis or Azure Event Hubs, look for the following snippet in the response:

{
    "id": "86043421-563b-46ec-8e6c-e23184711bf6",
  "name": "Amazon Kinesis",
  ...
  ...
}

{
    "id": "bf9f5905-92b7-48bf-bf20-455bc6b60a4e",
  "name": "Azure Event Hubs",
  ...
  ...
}

Connect to your Experience Platform data connect-to-your-experience-platform-data

Next, you must connect to your Experience Platform data, so you can export profile data and activate it in your preferred destination. This consists of two substeps which are described below.

Authorize access to your data in Experience Platform

API format

POST /connections

Request

curl --location --request POST 'https://platform.adobe.io/data/foundation/flowservice/connections' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}' \
--header 'x-api-key: {API_KEY}' \
--header 'x-gw-ims-org-id: {ORG_ID}' \
--header 'x-sandbox-name: {SANDBOX_NAME}' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
            "name": "Base connection to Experience Platform",
            "description": "This call establishes the connection to Experience Platform data",
            "connectionSpec": {
                "id": "{CONNECTION_SPEC_ID}",
                "version": "1.0"
            }
}'

Response

A successful response contains the base connection’s unique identifier (id). Store this value as it is required in the next step to create the source connection.

{
    "id": "1ed86558-59b5-42f7-9865-5859b552f7f4"
}

Connect to your Experience Platform data connect-to-platform-data

API format

POST /sourceConnections

Request

curl --location --request POST 'https://platform.adobe.io/data/foundation/flowservice/sourceConnections' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}' \
--header 'x-api-key: {API_KEY}' \
--header 'x-gw-ims-org-id: {ORG_ID}' \
--header 'x-sandbox-name: {SANDBOX_NAME}' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
            "name": "Connecting to Profile Service",
            "description": "Optional",
            "connectionSpec": {
                "id": "{CONNECTION_SPEC_ID}",
                "version": "1.0"
            },
            "baseConnectionId": "{BASE_CONNECTION_ID}",
            "data": {
                "format": "json"
            },
            "params": {}
}'

Response

A successful response returns the unique identifier (id) for the newly created source connection to Profile Service. This confirms that you have successfully connected to your Experience Platform data. Store this value as it is required in a later step.

{
    "id": "ed48ae9b-c774-4b6e-88ae-9bc7748b6e97"
}

Connect to streaming destination connect-to-streaming-destination

In this step, you are setting up a connection to your desired streaming destination. This consists of two substeps which are described below.

Authorize access to the streaming destination

API format

POST /connections

Request

curl --location --request POST 'https://platform.adobe.io/data/foundation/flowservice/connections' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}' \
--header 'x-api-key: {API_KEY}' \
--header 'x-gw-ims-org-id: {ORG_ID}' \
--header 'x-sandbox-name: {SANDBOX_NAME}' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
    "name": "Connection for Amazon Kinesis/ Azure Event Hubs",
    "description": "summer advertising campaign",
    "connectionSpec": {
        "id": "{_CONNECTION_SPEC_ID}",
        "version": "1.0"
    },
    "auth": {
        "specName": "{AUTHENTICATION_CREDENTIALS}",
        "params": { // use these values for Amazon Kinesis connections
            "accessKeyId": "{ACCESS_ID}",
            "secretKey": "{SECRET_KEY}",
            "region": "{REGION}"
        },
        "params": { // use these values for Azure Event Hubs connections
            "sasKeyName": "{SAS_KEY_NAME}",
            "sasKey": "{SAS_KEY}",
            "namespace": "{EVENT_HUB_NAMESPACE}"
        }
    }
}'

Response

A successful response contains the base connection’s unique identifier (id). Store this value as it is required in the next step to create a target connection.

{
    "id": "1ed86558-59b5-42f7-9865-5859b552f7f4"
}

Specify storage location and data format

API format

POST /targetConnections

Request

curl --location --request POST 'https://platform.adobe.io/data/foundation/flowservice/targetConnections' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}' \
--header 'x-api-key: {API_KEY}' \
--header 'x-gw-ims-org-id: {ORG_ID}' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
    "name": "Amazon Kinesis/ Azure Event Hubs target connection",
    "description": "Connection to Amazon Kinesis/ Azure Event Hubs",
    "baseConnectionId": "{BASE_CONNECTION_ID}",
    "connectionSpec": {
        "id": "{CONNECTION_SPEC_ID}",
        "version": "1.0"
    },
    "data": {
        "format": "json"
    },
    "params": { // use these values for Amazon Kinesis connections
        "stream": "{NAME_OF_DATA_STREAM}",
        "region": "{REGION}"
    },
    "params": { // use these values for Azure Event Hubs connections
        "eventHubName": "{EVENT_HUB_NAME}"
    }
}'

Response

A successful response returns the unique identifier (id) for the newly created target connection to your streaming destination. Store this value as it is required in later steps.

{
    "id": "12ab90c7-519c-4291-bd20-d64186b62da8"
}

Create a data flow

Using the IDs you obtained in the previous steps, you can now create a dataflow between your Experience Platform data and the destination where you will activate data to. Think of this step as constructing the pipeline, through which data will later flow, between Experience Platform and your desired destination.

To create a dataflow, perform a POST request, as shown below, while providing the values mentioned below within the payload.

Perform the following POST request to create a dataflow.

API format

POST /flows

Request

curl -X POST \
'https://platform.adobe.io/data/foundation/flowservice/flows' \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}' \
-H 'x-api-key: {API_KEY}' \
-H 'x-gw-ims-org-id: {ORG_ID}' \
-H 'x-sandbox-name: {SANDBOX_NAME}' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d  '{
  "name": "Azure Event Hubs",
  "description": "Azure Event Hubs",
  "flowSpec": {
    "id": "{FLOW_SPEC_ID}",
    "version": "1.0"
  },
  "sourceConnectionIds": [
    "{SOURCE_CONNECTION_ID}"
  ],
  "targetConnectionIds": [
    "{TARGET_CONNECTION_ID}"
  ],
  "transformations": [
    {
      "name": "GeneralTransform",
      "params": {
        "profileSelectors": {
          "selectors": [

          ]
        },
        "segmentSelectors": {
          "selectors": [

          ]
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Response

A successful response returns the ID (id) of the newly created dataflow and an etag. Note down both values. as you will them in the next step, to activate audiences.

{
    "id": "8256cfb4-17e6-432c-a469-6aedafb16cd5",
    "etag": "8256cfb4-17e6-432c-a469-6aedafb16cd5"
}

Activate data to your new destination activate-data

Having created all the connections and the data flow, now you can activate your profile data to the streaming platform. In this step, you select which audiences and which profile attributes you are sending to the destination and you can schedule and send data to the destination.

To activate audiences to your new destination, you must perform a JSON PATCH operation, similar to the example below. You can activate mutiple audiences and profile attributes in one call. To learn more about JSON PATCH, see the RFC specification.

API format

PATCH /flows

Request

curl --location --request PATCH 'https://platform.adobe.io/data/foundation/flowservice/flows/{DATAFLOW_ID}' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}' \
--header 'x-api-key: {API_KEY}' \
--header 'x-gw-ims-org-id: {ORG_ID}' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'x-sandbox-name: {SANDBOX_NAME}' \
--header 'If-Match: "{ETAG}"' \
--data-raw '[
  {
    "op": "add",
    "path": "/transformations/0/params/segmentSelectors/selectors/-",
    "value": {
      "type": "PLATFORM_SEGMENT",
      "value": {
        "name": "Name of the audience that you are activating",
        "description": "Description of the audience that you are activating",
        "id": "{SEGMENT_ID}"
      }
    }
  },
  {
    "op": "add",
    "path": "/transformations/0/params/profileSelectors/selectors/-",
    "value": {
      "type": "JSON_PATH",
      "value": {
        "operator": "EXISTS",
        "path": "{PROFILE_ATTRIBUTE}"
      }
    }
  }
]

Response

Look for a 202 OK response. No response body is returned. To validate that the request was correct, see the next step, Validate the data flow.

Validate the data flow

As a final step in the tutorial, you should validate that the audiences and profile attributes have indeed been correctly mapped to the data flow.

To validate this, perform the following GET request:

API format

GET /flows

Request

curl --location --request PATCH 'https://platform.adobe.io/data/foundation/flowservice/flows/{DATAFLOW_ID}' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}' \
--header 'x-api-key: {API_KEY}' \
--header 'x-gw-ims-org-id: {ORG_ID}' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'x-sandbox-name: prod' \
--header 'If-Match: "{ETAG}"'

Response

The returned response should include in the transformations parameter the audiences and profile attributes that you submitted in the previous step. A sample transformations parameter in the response could look like below:

"transformations": [
    {
        "name": "GeneralTransform",
        "params": {
            "profileSelectors": {
                        "selectors": [
                            {
                                "type": "JSON_PATH",
                                "value": {
                                    "path": "personalEmail.address",
                                    "operator": "EXISTS"
                                }
                            },
                            {
                                "type": "JSON_PATH",
                                "value": {
                                    "path": "person.lastname",
                                    "operator": "EXISTS"
                                }
                            }
                        ]
                    },
            "segmentSelectors": {
                "selectors": [
                    {
                        "type": "PLATFORM_SEGMENT",
                        "value": {
                            "name": "Men over 50",
                            "description": "",
                            "id": "72ddd79b-6b0a-4e97-a8d2-112ccd81bd02"
                        }
                    }
                ]
            }
        }
    }
],

Exported Data

{
  "person": {
    "email": "yourstruly@adobe.com"
  },
  "segmentMembership": {
    "ups": {
      "72ddd79b-6b0a-4e97-a8d2-112ccd81bd02": {
        "lastQualificationTime": "2020-03-03T21:24:39Z",
        "status": "exited"
      },
      "7841ba61-23c1-4bb3-a495-00d695fe1e93": {
        "lastQualificationTime": "2020-03-04T23:37:33Z",
        "status": "realized"
      }
    }
  },
  "identityMap": {
    "ecid": [
      {
        "id": "14575006536349286404619648085736425115"
      },
      {
        "id": "66478888669296734530114754794777368480"
      }
    ],
    "email_lc_sha256": [
      {
        "id": "655332b5fa2aea4498bf7a290cff017cb4"
      },
      {
        "id": "66baf76ef9de8b42df8903f00e0e3dc0b7"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Using Postman collections to connect to streaming destinations collections

To connect to the streaming destinations described in this tutorial in a more streamlined way, you can use Postman.

Postman is a tool that you can use to make API calls and manage libraries of predefined calls and environments.

For this specific tutorial, the following Postman collections have been attached:

Click here to download the collections archive.

Each collection includes the necessary requests and environment variables, for AWS Kinesis, and Azure Event Hub, respectively.

How to use the Postman collections how-to-use-postman-collections

To successfully connect to the destinations using the attached Postman collections, follow these steps:

API error handling api-error-handling

The API endpoints in this tutorial follow the general Experience Platform API error message principles. Refer to API status codes and request header errors in the Platform troubleshooting guide for more information on interpreting error responses.

Next steps next-steps

By following this tutorial, you have successfully connected Platform to one of your preferred streaming destinations and set up a data flow to the respective destination. Outgoing data can now be used in the destination for customer analytics or any other data operations you may wish to perform. See the following pages for more details: