AppsFlyer Destination

Send your event data from RudderStack to AppsFlyer.

AppsFlyer is a mobile attribution and marketing analytics platform. It offers intuitive dashboards, real-time data reports, and a unique deep linking technology to understand your customers better.

Find the open source code for this destination in the GitHub repository.

Getting started

RudderStack supports sending events to AppsFlyer via the following connection modes:

Connection ModeWebMobileServer
Device mode-Supported-
Cloud modeSupportedSupportedSupported
info

It is highly recommended to use cloud mode to send events to AppsFlyer in the following scenarios:

  • If you want to use RudderStack’s Transformations feature.
  • If you want to send server-side events.

Once you have confirmed that the source platform supports sending events to AppsFlyer, follow these steps:

  1. From your RudderStack dashboard, add a source. Then, from the list of destinations, select AppsFlyer.
  2. Assign a name to the destination and click Continue.

Connection settings

The following connection settings are required to configure AppsFlyer as a destination in RudderStack:

  • AppsFlyer Dev Key: Refer to the FAQ section below for more information on obtaining your AppsFlyer dev key.
  • App ID: Enter your Apple or Android app ID.
    • Android App ID: This the application ID used in your app/build.gradle file.
    • Apple App ID: This is the iTunes Application ID and it is mandatory for the iOS applications.
info
To connect a source other than Android or Apple (iOS, watchOS, iPadOS, tvOS), you need to add a user transformation that adds the OS information required in the events. Refer to the Connecting AppsFlyer to non-Android/iOS sources section below for more information.
  • Use Rich Event Names: Enable this setting to include your app’s screen or page name in the screen or page event names.

  • Add properties at root in eventValue: Enable this setting to include the custom properties at the root level of eventValue field. Otherwise, RudderStack sends them in the properties field inside eventValue.

  • Sharing Filter: By default, the value for this setting is set to all. You can use this setting to meet any regulatory requirements like GDPR and CCPA, complying with user opt-out mechanisms, and for any other business use-case. For more information, refer to the AppsFlyer Help Center.

  • Client-side Event Filtering: This setting is applicable only if you are sending events to AppsFlyer via device mode. It lets you specify which events should be blocked or allowed to flow through to AppsFlyer. Refer to the Client-side Event Filtering guide for more information on this setting.

  • Status Callback URLs: Specify the callback URLs to be used for user deletion requests. You can provide multiple callback URLs by separating them by a comma.

  • API Token: Enter your AppsFlyer API token. For more information on obtaining your API token, refer to this AppsFlyer guide.

warning
For user deletion, you must specify both Status Callback URLs and API Token.
  • Use device-mode to send events: Enable this setting to send events from the Android/iOS SDK to Appsflyer via device mode.
info
Starting from version 2.3.0 of AppsFlyer Android and iOS device mode, RudderStack supports sending all the custom properties of track events, along with the standard properties.

Adding device mode integration

Once you add AppsFlyer as a destination in the RudderStack dashboard, follow these steps to add it to your project depending on your integration platform:

Connecting AppsFlyer to non-Android/iOS sources

AppsFlyer supports all RudderStack sources in addition to Android and iOS. However, you need to add a transformation to the destination as shown:

export function transformEvent(event, metadata) {
  event.context.os = {
    name: "android",
    version: "8.1.0"
  };
  return event;
}

Save the transformation and connect it to your AppsFlyer destination in the RudderStack dashboard.

Sending events via RudderStack cloud mode

warning

It is highly recommended to send events to AppsFlyer via cloud mode only in the following scenarios:

  • To use RudderStack’s Transformations feature to transform your events
  • To send server-side events

To send events to AppsFlyer via cloud mode, you need the AppsFlyer ID generated by the Appsflyer SDK that is integrated with your app. See Obtaining the AppsFlyer ID for reference.

Once you obtain the AppsFlyer ID, you can send events to AppsFlyer via cloud mode by including the externalId key within your events’ context. The format of externalId is as shown:

"externalId": [
  {
    "id": "AppsFlyer_ID",
    "type": "appsflyerExternalId"
  }
]

The following table lists the externalId fields:

FieldDescription
idYour AppsFlyer ID.
typeThe type of externalId. This must always be set to appsFlyerExternalId.

Obtaining the AppsFlyer ID

As mentioned above, the AppsFlyer ID is generated by the Appsflyer SDK integrated with your app.

  • If the AppsFlyer SDK is directly loaded on your app, refer to this AppsFlyer documentation to obtain the AppsFlyer ID.
  • If your AppsFlyer SDK is loaded through RudderStack (device mode integration), then you can obtain the AppsFlyer ID by including the code snippet in your app, depending on your platform of integration:

Identify

The identify call sets userId through the setCustomerUserId method of AppsFlyerLib.

info
RudderStack supports the identify calls only in the device mode.

RudderStack sets email from the event traits to AppsFlyer using the native SDK’s setUserEmails method:

[[RSClient sharedInstance] identify:@"developer_user_id"
                                 traits:@{@"email": @"bar@foo.com"}];

Deleting a user

warning
To delete a user in AppsFlyer, you must configure the Status Callback URLs and API Token settings in the RudderStack dashboard.

You can delete a user in AppsFlyer using the Suppression with Delete regulation of the RudderStack User Suppression API.

info

To delete a user, you must specify their userId in the event. Additionally, you can specify any of the following in the event:

A sample regulation request body for deleting a user in AppsFlyer is shown below:

Track

RudderStack’s track call is mapped to the standard AppsFlyer events wherever possible.

The following table lists the event mapping from RudderStack to AppsFlyer:

RudderStack eventAppsFlyer event
Products Searchedaf_search
Product Viewedaf_content_view
Product List Viewedaf_list_view
Product Added to Wishlistaf_add_to_wishlist
Product Addedaf_add_to_cart
Checkout Startedaf_initiated_checkout
Order Completedaf_purchase
Product Removedremove_from_cart
first_purchasefirst_purchase
Promotion Viewedaf_ad_view
Promotion Clickedaf_ad_click
Payment Info Enteredaf_add_payment_info
Product Sharedaf_share
Cart Sharedaf_share
Product Reviewedaf_rate

For any event not present in the above table, RudderStack makes the following changes to the event name before sending it to AppsFlyer via the native SDK:

  • Converting the entire event name to lower case
  • Replacing any space with an underscore

Along with the above event mapping, RudderStack also maps the event properties to the corresponding AppsFlyer event properties, as shown below:

RudderStack propertyAppsFlyer property
queryaf_search_string
priceaf_price
product_idaf_content_id
categoryaf_content_type
currencyeventCurrency
productsRudderStack formulates this list as per the List View specification and passes it to the property af_content_list.
quantityaf_quantity
order_idaf_receipt_id
revenueaf_revenue

A sample track call for an iOS app is shown below:

[[RSClient sharedInstance] track:@"Accepted Terms of Service"
                          properties:@{
                                  @"foo": @"bar",
                              @"foo_int": @134
}];

Screen

For all screen calls sent from the SDK, RudderStack calls AppsFlyer’s trackEvent method with screen as the event name. All the event properties are passed to AppsFlyer without any modification.

For the automatically recorded screen calls, RudderStack obtains a Boolean property called automatic.

Advertising ID

RudderStack utilizes the advertising ID for the AppsFlyer destination if it is set as per the following specifications:

You can find the advertising ID in your event’s context.device.advertisementId.

ATTrackingManager

If the ATTrackingManager.trackingAuthorizationStatus is passed according to ATTrackingManager authorization consent, RudderStack will utilize it for the AppsFlyer destination.

You can find trackingAuthorizationStatus in your event’s context.device.attTrackingStatus.

Error messages

This section covers some of the possible error messages you may encounter while using this integration.

Invalid platform / required androidAppId / appleAppId missing

This error occurs when either the OS Name or your respective App ID is not set.

You can set the App ID in your settings.

The SDK automatically sets the OS Name and it can be found in context.os.name.

Appsflyer ID is not set. Rejecting the event.

This error occurs when the appsflyerExternalId is not set. Refer to the Sending events via the RudderStack cloud mode section for more information on setting the appsflyerExternalId.

Debugging

RudderStack sets the logLevel in AppsFlyer based on the logLevel set for the RudderClient. If it is set to DEBUG or more, RudderStack sets the logLevel to VERBOSE for AppsFlyer.

For anything below that, RudderStack sets the logLevel to NONE for AppsFlyer.

FAQ

Where do I get the AppsFlyer dev key?

You can find the AppsFlyer Dev Key by logging into your AppsFlyer account and navigating to the Apps Settings page in your dashboard. For more information, refer to this AppsFlyer Help Center page.

I get an error saying “Build input file cannot be found” for iOS device mode. What should I do?

The latest AppsFlyer SDK requires XCode 12. Make sure you meet this requirement. You may have to downgrade your AppsFlyer SDK to build with a lower version of XCode.

You can declare the pod version in your Podfile as shown:

pod 'Rudder-Appsflyer',' 1.0.0'

How do I get the AppsFlyer ID to send events from my mobile sources via the RudderStack cloud mode?

To send events to AppsFlyer via cloud mode, you first need to obtain the AppsFlyer ID generated by the Appsflyer SDK.

You can get this ID by either directly loading the native AppsFlyer SDK on your app, or loading it via RudderStack (device mode integration).

In case of a device mode integration, include the following code snippet (depending on your platform of integration) in your app to get the AppsFlyer ID:

you obtain the AppsFlyer ID, you can send events via cloud mode by by including the externalId key within your events’ context. For more information, refer to the Sending events via the RudderStack cloud mode section above.



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