Evaluate events in near real-time with streaming segmentation

Streaming segmentation on Adobe Experience Platform allows customers to do segmentation in near real-time while focusing on data richness. With streaming segmentation, segment qualification now happens as streaming data lands into Platform, alleviating the need to schedule and run segmentation jobs. With this capability, most segment rules can now be evaluated as the data is passed into Platform, meaning segment membership will be kept up-to-date without running scheduled segmentation jobs.

Getting started

This developer guide requires a working understanding of the various Adobe Experience Platform services involved with streaming segmentation. Before beginning this tutorial, please review the documentation for the following services:

The following sections provide additional information that you will need to know in order to successfully make calls to Platform APIs.

Reading sample API calls

This developer guide 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 headers

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:

All resources in Experience Platform are isolated to specific virtual sandboxes. All requests to Platform APIs require a header that specifies the name of the sandbox the operation will take place in:

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

Additional headers may be required to complete specific requests. The correct headers are shown in each of the examples within this document. Please pay special attention to the sample requests in order to ensure that all required headers are included.

Streaming segmentation enabled query types query-types

In order for a segment definition to be evaluated using streaming segmentation, the query must conform to the following guidelines.

A segment definition will not be enabled for streaming segmentation in the following scenarios:

Please note the following guidelines apply when doing streaming segmentation:

If a segment definition is modified so it no longer meets the criteria for streaming segmentation, the segment definition will automatically switch from “Streaming” to “Batch”.

Additionally, segment unqualification, similarly to segment qualification, happens in real-time. As a result, if a profile no longer qualifies for a segment definition, it will be immediately unqualified. For example, if the segment definition asks for “All users who bought red shoes in the last three hours”, after three hours, all the profiles that initially qualified for the segment definition will be unqualified.

Retrieve all segment definitions enabled for streaming segmentation

You can retrieve a list of all your segment definitions that are enabled for streaming segmentation within your organization by making a GET request to the /segment/definitions endpoint.

API format

To retrieve streaming-enabled segment definitions, you must include the query parameter evaluationInfo.continuous.enabled=true in the request path.

GET /segment/definitions?evaluationInfo.continuous.enabled=true

Request

curl -X GET \
  'https://platform.adobe.io/data/core/ups/segment/definitions?evaluationInfo.continuous.enabled=true' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'x-api-key: {API_KEY}' \
  -H 'x-gw-ims-org-id: {ORG_ID}' \
  -H 'x-sandbox-name: {SANDBOX_NAME}'

Response

A successful response returns an array of segment definitions in your organization that are enabled for streaming segmentation.

{
    "segments": [
        {
            "id": "15063cb-2da8-4851-a2e2-bf59ddd2f004",
            "schema": {
                "name": "_xdm.context.profile"
            },
            "ttlInDays": 30,
            "imsOrgId": "{ORG_ID}",
            "sandbox": {
                "sandboxId": "",
                "sandboxName": "",
                "type": "production",
                "default": true
            },
            "name": " People who are NOT on their homepage ",
            "expression": {
                "type": "PQL",
                "format": "pql/text",
                "value": "select var1 from xEvent where var1._experience.analytics.endUser.firstWeb.webPageDetails.isHomePage = false"
            },
            "evaluationInfo": {
                "batch": {
                    "enabled": false
                },
                "continuous": {
                    "enabled": true
                },
                "synchronous": {
                    "enabled": false
                }
            },
            "creationTime": 1572029711000,
            "updateEpoch": 1572029712000,
            "updateTime": 1572029712000
        },
        {
            "id": "f15063cb-2da8-4851-a2e2-bf59ddd2f004",
            "schema": {
                "name": "_xdm.context.profile"
            },
            "ttlInDays": 30,
            "imsOrgId": "{ORG_ID}",
            "sandbox": {
                "sandboxId": "",
                "sandboxName": "",
                "type": "production",
                "default": true
            },
            "name": "Homepage_continuous",
            "description": "People who are on their homepage - continuous",
            "expression": {
                "type": "PQL",
                "format": "pql/text",
                "value": "select var1 from xEvent where var1._experience.analytics.endUser.firstWeb.webPageDetails.isHomePage = true"
            },
            "evaluationInfo": {
                "batch": {
                    "enabled": true
                },
                "continuous": {
                    "enabled": true
                },
                "synchronous": {
                    "enabled": false
                }
            },
            "creationTime": 1572021085000,
            "updateEpoch": 1572021086000,
            "updateTime": 1572021086000
        }
    ],
    "page": {
        "totalCount": 2,
        "totalPages": 1,
        "sortField": "creationTime",
        "sort": "desc",
        "pageSize": 2,
        "limit": 100
    },
    "link": {}
}

Create a streaming-enabled segment definition

A segment definition will automatically be streaming-enabled if it matches one of the streaming segmentation types listed above.

API format

POST /segment/definitions

Request

curl -X POST \
  https://platform.adobe.io/data/core/ups/segment/definitions \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}'  \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'x-api-key: {API_KEY}' \
  -H 'x-gw-ims-org-id: {ORG_ID}' \
  -H 'x-sandbox-name: {SANDBOX_NAME}' \
  -d '{
    "schema": {
        "name": "_xdm.context.profile"
    },
    "ttlInDays": 30,
    "name": "Homepage_continuous",
    "description": "People who are on their homepage - continuous",
    "expression": {
        "type": "PQL",
        "format": "pql/text",
        "value": "select var1 from xEvent where var1._experience.analytics.endUser.firstWeb.webPageDetails.isHomePage = true"
    },
    "evaluationInfo": {
        "batch": {
            "enabled": false
        },
        "continuous": {
            "enabled": true
        },
        "synchronous": {
            "enabled": false
        }
    }
}'

Response

A successful response returns the details of the newly created streaming-enabled segment definition.

{
    "id": "f15063cb-2da8-4851-a2e2-bf59ddd2f004",
    "schema": {
        "name": "_xdm.context.profile"
    },
    "ttlInDays": 30,
    "imsOrgId": "{ORG_ID}",
    "sandbox": {
        "sandboxId": "{SANDBOX_ID}",
        "sandboxName": "{SANDBOX_NAME}",
        "type": "production",
        "default": true
    },
    "name": "Homepage_continuous",
    "description": "People who are on their homepage - continuous",
    "expression": {
        "type": "PQL",
        "format": "pql/text",
        "value": "select var1 from xEvent where var1._experience.analytics.endUser.firstWeb.webPageDetails.isHomePage = true"
    },
    "evaluationInfo": {
        "batch": {
            "enabled": false
        },
        "continuous": {
            "enabled": true,
                   },
        "synchronous": {
            "enabled": false
        }
    },
    "creationTime": 1572021085000,
    "updateEpoch": 1572021086000,
    "updateTime": 1572021086000
}

Enable scheduled evaluation enable-scheduled-segmentation

Once streaming evaluation has been enabled, a baseline must be created (after which the segment definition will always be up-to-date). Scheduled evaluation (also known as scheduled segmentation) must first be enabled in order for the system to automatically perform baselining. With scheduled segmentation, your organization can adhere to a recurring schedule to automatically run export jobs to evaluate segment definitions.

Create a schedule

By making a POST request to the /config/schedules endpoint, you can create a schedule and include the specific time when the schedule should be triggered.

API format

POST /config/schedules

Request

The following request creates a new schedule based on the specifications provided in the payload.

curl -X POST \
  https://platform.adobe.io/data/core/ups/config/schedules \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -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}' \
  -d '{
        "name": "{SCHEDULE_NAME}",
        "type": "batch_segmentation",
        "properties": {
            "segments": ["*"]
        },
        "schedule": "0 0 1 * * ?",
        "state": "inactive"
        }'

Response

A successful response returns the details of the newly created schedule.

{
    "id": "cd585edf-962d-420d-94ad-3be03e619ac2",
    "imsOrgId": "{ORG_ID}",
    "sandbox": {
        "sandboxId": "e7e17720-c5bb-11e9-aafb-87c71c35cac8",
        "sandboxName": "prod",
        "type": "production",
        "default": true
    },
    "name": "{SCHEDULE_NAME}",
    "state": "inactive",
    "type": "batch_segmentation",
    "schedule": "0 0 1 * * ?",
    "properties": {
        "segments": [
            "*"
        ]
    },
    "createEpoch": 1568267948,
    "updateEpoch": 1568267948
}

Enable a schedule

By default, a schedule is inactive when created unless the state property is set to active in the create (POST) request body. You can enable a schedule (set the state to active) by making a PATCH request to the /config/schedules endpoint and including the ID of the schedule in the path.

API format

POST /config/schedules/{SCHEDULE_ID}

Request

The following request uses JSON Patch formatting in order to update the state of the schedule to active.

curl -X POST \
  https://platform.adobe.io/data/core/ups/config/schedules/cd585edf-962d-420d-94ad-3be03e619ac2 \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -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}' \
  -d '[
        {
          "op": "add",
          "path": "/state",
          "value": "active"
        }
      ]'

Response

A successful update returns an empty response body and HTTP Status 204 (No Content).

The same operation can be used to disable a schedule by replacing the “value” in the previous request with “inactive”.

Next steps

Now that you have enabled both new and existing segment definitions for streaming segmentation, and enabled scheduled segmentation to develop a baseline and perform recurring evaluations, you can begin to create streaming-enabled segment definitions for your organization.

To learn how to perform similar actions and work with segment definitions using the Adobe Experience Platform user interface, please visit the Segment Builder user guide.

Appendix

The following section lists frequently asked questions regarding streaming segmentation:

Does streaming segmentation “unqualification” also happen in real time?

For most instances, streaming segmentation unqualification happens in real-time. However, streaming segment definitions that use segments of segments do not unqualify in real-time, instead unqualifying after 24 hours.

What data does streaming segmentation work on?

Streaming segmentation works on all data that was ingested using a streaming source. Segments ingested using a batch-based source will be evaluated nightly, even if it qualifies for streaming segmentation. Events streamed into the system with a timestamp older than 24 hours will be processed in the subsequent batch job.

How are segment definitions defined as batch or streaming segmentation?

A segment definition is defined as either batch or streaming segmentation based on a combination of query type and event history duration. A list of which segment definitions will be evaluated as a streaming segment can be found in the streaming segmentation query types section.

Please note that if a segment contains both an inSegment expression and a direct single-event chain, it cannot qualify for streaming segmentation. If you want to have this segment definition qualify for streaming segmentation, you should make the direct single-event chain its own segment definition.

Why does the number of “total qualified” segment definitions keep increasing while the number under “Last X days” remains at zero within the segment definition details section?

The number of total qualified segment definitions is drawn from the daily segmentation job, which includes audiences that qualify for both batch and streaming segment definitions. This value is shown for both batch and streaming segment definitions.

The number under the “Last X days” only includes audiences that are qualified in streaming segmentation, and only increases if you have streamed data into the system and it counts toward that streaming definition. This value is only shown for streaming segment definitions. As a result, this value may display as 0 for batch segment definitions.

As a result, if you see that the number under “Last X days” is zero, and the line graph is also reporting zero, you have not streamed any profiles into the system that would qualify for that segment definition.

How long does it take for a segment definition to be available?

It takes up to one hour for a segment definition to be available.

Are there any limitations to the data being streamed in?

In order for streamed data to be used in streaming segmentation, there must be spacing between the events streamed in. If too many events are streamed in within the same second, Platform will treat these events as bot-generated data, and they will be discarded. As best practice, you should have at least five seconds between event data in order to ensure the data is properly used.