Overview

The data stored within the Contact Activities Collection can be referenced and used within any message body.

Our example

For our example, we'll use hypothetical event data. In order to test in your system, you'll need to add your own event data via the API.

• Learn more about event data.

Using the tabs below, you can view the HTML and Smarty used in the message, the event data being referenced (in JSON format), and the rendered output that will display when a message is sent or previewed.

• {$browseditems=$utils->getEventRecords("browse")}
    <strong>Items You Browsed</strong><br><br>
  {foreach $browseditems as $item}
  {$item.properties.title|capitalize}<br>
  ${$item.properties.price} <br>
  {$item.properties.description|capitalize} <br>
  {$item.properties.url} <br><br>
  {/foreach}

• [
       {
        "cID": "58d2fc99ac0c8117814d4e78",
        "_id": "59014a9608ab4e356ec0706a",
        "properties": {
          "title": "khaki shirt"
          "url": "http://example.com/shirt",
          "price": 9.99,
          "description": "a really cool khaki shirt",
        },
        "action": "browse",
        "time": "2017-04-27T01:34:13+0000",
        "email": "fredgarvin@gmail.com"
      },
       {
        "cID": "58d2fc99ac0c8117814d4e78",
        "_id": "59014a9608ab4e356ec0706a",
        "properties": {
          "title": "khaki pants"
          "url": "http://example.com/pants",
          "price": 19.99,
          "description": "awesome khaki pants",
        },
        "action": "browse",
        "time": "2017-04-27T01:37:13+0000",
        "email": "fredgarvin@gmail.com"
      },
       {
        "cID": "58d2fc99ac0c8117814d4e78",
        "_id": "59014a9608ab4e356ec0706a",
        "properties": {
          "title": "suede shoes"
          "url": "http://example.com/shoes",
          "price": 29.99,
          "description": "sweet suede shoes",
        },
        "action": "browse",
        "time": "2017-04-27T01:40:13+0000",
        "email": "fredgarvin@gmail.com"
      }
    ]

• Items You Browsed
  
  Khaki Shirt
  $9.99
  A Really Cool Khaki Shirt
  http://example.com/shirts
  
  Khaki Pants
  $19.99
  Awesome Khaki Pants
  http://example.com/pants
  
  Suede Shoes
  $29.99
  Sweet Suede Shoes
  http://example.com/shoes

During message creation, it's useful to use a Smarty utility to view the available event records in JSON format. For example, you can view all the available "browse" events for a specified contact by using the following in a message:

{$browseditems=$utils->getEventRecords("browse")}
  {$utils->jsonPrettyPrint($browseditems)}

The getEventRecords method

In order to access event data within a message, use the getEventRecords method, which is a custom extension of Smarty provided by Cordial.

The getEventRecords method has 5 parameters: event name, newer than, properties, limit and sort. They must be written in this order and separated by commas. Event name is required, all others are optional.

The contact primary identifier key is implied when rendering event records in a message. Only event records associated with the contact will be available for rendering in a message.

getEventRecords($eventName, $newerThan, $properties, $limit, $sort)

Set the eventName

All event data is stored in the contactactivities collection and includes standard message events (sends, opens, clicks, etc.), custom events associated with website behavior (browse) and external events captured by IoT devices (opened door, triggered alarm, etc).

In order to make event data available to render in a message, you must specify the event, referenced by the "eventName". You can access event names:

• Via the UI by navigating to Analytics › Event Data Reports
• Via the API by using the GET <path>/contactactivities call. View the interactive API documentation.

Example:

{$browseditems=$utils->getEventRecords("browse")}

In the example above, a variable "browseditems" is assigned to the resulting data set returned from the contactactivities collection with the event name of "browse". The getEvents method will get the data from "browse" for each message that is rendered per contact.

The default limit is 25 even if set to null and the order is not guaranteed unless the sort parameter is supplied.

Set newerThan

Using the "newerThan" parameter, you can filter the results based on a date. Results will return all events after the date specified.

Return records filtered by a set date

Example:

{$browseditems=$utils->getEventRecords("browse","2018-08-19T21:36:13+0000")}

Return records newer than 1 day in the past

Example:

{$browseditems=$utils->getEventRecords("browse","-1 day"|date_format:"Y-m-d\TH:i:sO")}

Return records newer than the last send of an automation

Using the the Smarty utility, lastSendTimestamp, you can set a variable for the last send date of an automation and populate the newerThan parameter.

last send: {$last_sent_date = $utils->lastSendTimestamp('automation_key')}
  {$last_sent_date|date_format:"Y-m-d\TH:i:sO"}
  {$browseditems=$utils->getEventRecords("browse",$last_sent_date|date_format:"Y-m-d\TH:i:sO")}

Set properties

In some cases, you may want to get specific records from the event data collection. You can achieve this by adding property filters.

Return records filtered by a specified value

["key"=>"value"]

Example:

{$browseditems=$utils->getEventRecords("browse",null,["category"=>"shirts"])}

Empty parameters need a placeholder. For the newerThan parameter, use "null" or "false".

Return records filtered by multiple specified values

["key"=>"value", "key2"=>"value2"]

Example:

{$browseditems=$utils->getEventRecords("browse",null,["category"=>"shoes,"brand"=>"nike"])}

Set the limit

Use the limit filter to limit the amount of records returned.

{$browseditems=$utils->getEventRecords("browse",null,[],5)}

Empty parameters need a placeholder. For the properties array use empty brackets "[]" and for the newerThan parameter, use "null" or "false".

Sort the data

Sort results by timestamp in ascending order

{$browseditems=$utils->getEventRecords("browse",null,[],null,['column'=>'ats','direction'=>'ASC'])}

Sort results by timestamp in descending order

{$browseditems=$utils->getEventRecords("browse",null,[],null,['column'=>'ats','direction'=>'DESC'])}

Render the data in a message

After the data is available with the getEventRecords method, you can render the data in the message.

Loop through data with {foreach}

A {foreach} statement is the most common way to loop through the data array and render the results in a message.

Example:

{$browseditems=$utils->getEventRecords("browse")}
{foreach $browseditems as $item}
{$item.properties.title|capitalize}<br>
${$item.properties.price} <br>
{$item.properties.description|capitalize} <br>
{$item.properties.url} <br><br>
{/foreach}

• Learn more about using the {foreach} statement.

Display unique browse events (deduping)

A site visitor may view the same item on a website multiple times which will generate duplicate browse events. We can use Smarty to display only the unique events using the following code:

{$browseditems=$utils->getEventRecords("browse")}
  {foreach $browseditems as $item}
  {$unique_products[$item.properties.productID] = [
  'productID' => $item.properties.productID,
  'title' => $item.properties.title,
  'price' => $item.properties.price,
  'description' => $item.properties.description,
  'url' => $item.properties.url
  ]}
  {/foreach}
  {foreach $unique_products as $unique_product}
  Title: {$unique_product.title}<br>
  Price: {$unique_product.price}<br>
  Description: {$unique_product.description}<br>
  URL: {$unique_product.url}<br><br>
  {/foreach}

Reference an index of the array

You also have to option to target the "nth" item within an array using it's index. For example, if you only wanted to render the first item of the browse array you would write:

{$browseditems=$utils->getEventRecords("browse")}
{$browseditems[0].properties.title}<br>
${$browseditems[0].properties.price} <br>
{$browseditems[0].properties.category} <br>
{$browseditems[0].url} <br><br>

This example will look in the first item of the browse array and render the desired values. The first item of an array is referenced by "0", the second is "1", the third is "2", etc.

In the next article, you can learn about getting JSON feeds.