Externally triggerable campaigns
An externally triggerable campaign is a simple way to integrate transactional messages, originating from external applications, with Contactsend. Either you or an external program add or update the subscriber data in the subscriber source, before a request is made to the Contactsend API for a triggerable message to be sent. In this way, a triggerable campaign works like a template that is used to send one message at a time. They can only be sent by using API calls.
Unlike other campaigns, Contactsend does not launch a triggerable campaign itself. Instead, a triggerable campaign resides on our system, waiting for your external application to trigger it when a message needs to be sent. The Contactsend API then sends the message, typically using configuration settings that have been created specifically for this purpose, for example:
- Dedicated and perhaps whitelisted or certified IP address(es)
- Personalized headers, templates and similar
Using externally triggerable campaigns
Externally triggerable campaigns do not scale very well because of their inherent processing overhead. If you expect to send more than a few thousand messages per day using a triggerable campaign, you should consider the alternatives, such as:
These have been specifically designed to overcome the scalability limitations of triggerable campaigns.
Externally triggerable campaigns should be applied consistently to avoid misusing Contactsend:
- Clearly define the purpose of your campaignFor example, to send a subscription confirmation.
- Create different triggerable campaigns for different streams A stream is a set of messages that have the same scope, purpose, template, or other elements.
- Do not create a triggerable campaign for individual recipients if you can use a normal campaign instead.
An error is raised when using an externally triggerable campaign if the subscriber does not exist, or the campaign is not triggerable.
Available elements
Click the appropriate link for more details about the relevant element:
- triggerDeliveryById Sends an existing triggerable campaign, selected by its unique identifier, to a single subscriber.
- triggerDeliveryByAlias Sends an existing triggerable campaign, selected by an alias, to a single subscriber.