You can include data from external sources as a part of your Boomtrain Messenger campaigns. Boomtrain Marketing Engine (BME) currently accepts data from external sources in the formats JSON and HTML.
Lets say, for example, that you want to add a logo from Facebook in an in-app message, email or any other campaign.
Here’s what you’d do if you had to add the Boomtrain logo to your campaign:
The external URL you add could be something as simple as a graph search URL. Facebook makes this data available through their graph API and accessible through URL. So you go to your browser and enter:
http://graph.facebook.com/boomtrain/picture?redirect=false
the URL returns:
{
“data”: {
“is_silhouette”: false,
“url”: “https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-1/p50x50/12112514_1134841646568512_6141203789110748398_n.png?oh=39fa4eabc4f76cb565f90532863f96e7&oe=59C8281A”
}
}
Now, if you want to use the content from this response as part of a campaign, the first thing you need do is to register the URL as a data source in BME.
Login as Super User and navigate to Settings -> External Sources -> Add Data Source
Source Reference Key: ext_fb_boomtrain
Source Type: JSON
URL: http://graph.facebook.com/boomtrain/picture?redirect=false
Authentication: None
Now, since the response generated from this URL is a JSON, the path for the Boomtrain logo URL in this response is: data.url
As you have already defined the Source Reference Key as ext_fb_boomtrain, you can now access this data in any Boomtrain Messenger campaigns by typing the following:
{{ext_fb_boomtrain.data.url}}
In this case, the reference will render the Boomtrain logo URL from Facebook.
Similarly, you can use a source that produces content in HTML format (eg. recommendations) directly in a Boomtrain campaign.