Custom Channels

How to setup custom channels so that you can use them to deliver messages to your customers

We allow the configuration and use of Custom Channels to allow you add integrations to other systems to send messages whether existing 3rd party systems such as email providers or your own bespoke systems, ensuring you can communicate with your users using the channels you need!

You need to setup a Custom Channel following the instructions in this guide, prior to referencing them in sends via the Enterprise Communications API. See our Enterprise Communications API documentation for more details on using Custom Channels to send messages.

Setting up a custom channel

To setup or modify a Custom Channel go to the Portal and open the Channels page. New custom channels can be created by clicking on the Add new channel button in the Custom Channel section (highlighted in green) and existing configured custom channel are listed with their custom channel name and the Custom Channel logo (highlighted in yellow) and shown below:

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To edit an existing custom channel simply click the Edit button in the appropriate custom channel box, or to remove it click Remove.

Adding the new channel

  • Click the Add new custom channel button in the Custom Channel* section of the Channels** page and a wizard pop-up will be displayed as shown below:
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  • Fill out the Name field with the name of your custom channel
  • The URL field is the URL of the external web service you want to call
  • HTTP Verb drop down is the HTTP action you need to invoke on the URL, most commonly a POST
  • Content Type - Pick or type the content type for the body to be sent e.g. application/json
  • User property name - The profile property to be used to identify the recipient for the message; this will be mapped to the userId merge field for the body template e.g. email
  • Now click Next to setup the authentication options
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  • Select the authentication method your target web service uses:
Authentication TypeDescription
BasicBasic HTTP authentication, also enter a username and password when prompted
BearerToken based authentication, also enter your token when prompted
NoneNo authentication or custom HTTP headers used
  • Now click Next to setup the HTTP headers
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  • Add any custom HTTP header you might require, the left field is the header and the right is the value. Hit + to add more headers.
  • Now click Next to setup the request body (if required)
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  • You now need to define the web services request message body. Create a template for the web services request using the Body template editor, you can add the following merge fields into the message in order to target and add content to the message:
Merge FieldDescription
{{userId}}The field used to uniquely identify a user from the profile data as identified by the User Id field name property above
{{title}}The title field from the "One" API request message
{{body}}The body field from the "One" API request message
{{conversationId}}The unique identifier used to group messages together for a conversation, this should be used if the custom channel supports the notion of individual conversations, and can be optionally passed in calls to the "One" API
{{messageId}}The unique identifier for the message, as returned to the caller when submitting to the "One" API
  • Now click Save

  • To use the custom channel in the Enterprise Communications API you will need to note down the channel id for the custom channel which is shown when you click the id button on the custom channels section on the Channels screen. It will start custom_ e.g. custom_myChannel. Use the channel id in the rules section of your Enterprise Communications API call to target this channel.

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Finding your custom channels Id

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All done

You are now ready to do a test send via the "One" API, find out more here