Introduction
This post addresses a requirement that some of our users face when managing campaign data via the API from their platform integration. Specifically, it details difficulties in creating a campaign dimension table when the API only returns current attributes of a campaign, and potential confusion due to campaign renaming.
Problem
When managing campaign data exports, many users struggle to handle potential confusions that arise from naming conflicts. In particular, a single campaign ID may be associated with different names over time (due to the campaign being renamed by users in the Customer.io account), leading to confusion and errors. The difficulty arises because the API only returns current attributes of a campaign and not the historical ones. Thus, users run the risk of misunderstanding the data when a name has changed or when attempting to retrieve older names.
Solution
The key to managing this issue is to capitalize on the 'Get a Campaign' Endpoint. This endpoint allows you to retrieve the current campaign name using the campaign ID via the App API. Although accessing historical names for a campaign is currently unavailable through the API, the campaign ID will remain consistent throughout. This means that even through name changes and other alterations, the ID is your source of truth. You can use this as the main identifier for all other data points, ignoring the campaign name while you interpret your campaign results.
It is also advisable that you maintain a record of every campaign name change and update your systems accordingly.