Connecting to HTTP Request as an External Data Source

Read this article in Ukrainian ⮕

Like other external data sources, HTTP request allows you to automate the creation of message content. This request uploads and sends contact data from eSputnik to other systems, and vice versa, transfers data from third-party systems to eSputnik. With its help, you can refer to your API, which will process the request and return personalization data to the message, for example, a personal promo code. The Velocity language is used to transfer data.

Creating Data Source

In your account settings, open the Data Sources tab, click on the New data source button and select External data source.

In the pop-up window, select HTTP request.

Setting Up Connection

Give an arbitrary name to the data source.

🚧
Important

The name may contain only Latin letters (A–Z, a–z), digits (0–9), and the underscore _.

The name cannot start with a digit.

The use of spaces, Cyrillic letters, or special characters is not allowed.

Add a description if necessary.
Select the type of request: GET or POST.
Enter the URL to be requested (HTTPS only). You can refer to contact fields and event parameters.

If your application reads parameters from headers, activate the corresponding switcher. Then specify the required parameters and their values.

To configure authentication, activate the corresponding switcher. There are four types of authentication available:

Basic,
Bearer token,
API key (in headers or the query string),
OAuth 2.0.

Specify the connector name. Select the authentication type. Enter your credentials (login and password/token/key). Click on the Done button.

If your application reads parameters from the request body, activate the corresponding switcher, enter the request body in the text area and specify the format: JSON, XML or text.

📘
Note
The external HTTP source uses a 1000 ms connection timeout and waits up to 10000 ms for a response. If the request fails, it is retried up to 3 times, at 180-second intervals.

Testing Connection

Before saving the data source, click Send test to check the request.

Select an event from history or manually paste the event body for the test run. Test requests use the same Velocity context as production requests, so the system resolves dynamic values before sending the request.

You can test:

contact fields using $firstName or ${firstName};
the contact's email address;
additional contact fields;
event parameters and keys.

Check the test request to make sure these values were resolved correctly. This helps you find invalid Velocity expressions or missing personalization data before using the HTTP data source in production.

For example, the following test event uses Velocity variables for the contact's email address and first name:

{
  "eventTypeKey": "productViewed",
  "keyValue": "9d0c163d-cc3b-4f9e-bb03-2f5d1111ef91",
  "params": {
    "customerId": "9d0c163d-cc3b-4f9e-bb03-2f5d4f1def91",
    "email": "${email}",
    "name": "${firstName}",
    "product": [
      {
        "isInStock": 1,
        "name": "Dasmal Decoria, 60x100 cm",
        "price": 9.9,
        "productId": "11111",
        "quantity": 1
      },
      {
        "isInStock": 1,
        "name": "Dasmal Decoria, 60x100 cm",
        "price": 9.9,
        "productId": "139902",
        "quantity": 1
      }
    ],
    "currencyCode": "USD"
  }
}