Supplemental Data vs Hosted and External Data

Overview

Supplemental Data (formerly called Context Data) and Hosted/External Data (formerly Real-time Context Data and Context API) have similar uses. Both options access auxiliary data, but do so using different methods. This article compares their differences and describes common use examples.

Table of Contents

Comparing Supplemental Data and Hosted/External Data

Supplemental Data

Hosted/External Data

Differences

Common Uses

Supplemental Data

Hosted/External Data

Comparing Supplemental Data, Hosted/External Data

Supplemental Data

Supplemental Data is an extremely versatile option within Accelerator. Supplemental Data allows access to additional data source information within Templates and Campaigns. Supplemental Data is often used to access non-customer information (store information, product information, coupon deals).

This data can come from any data source. It does not have to exist within the same data source as the customer information.

Supplemental Data gathers information through a query to the external data source in the same way that an Audience processes data.

Hosted/External Data

Hosted Data and External Data serve a similar purpose to Supplemental Data. They also allow a Template to access additional data source information. These options are commonly used with both customer information and non-customer information.

Hosted data can come from any data source. It does not have to exist within the same data source as other customer information.

External Data gathers information through API calls to access a data source. This, paired with open-time rendering, ensures up-to-date information whenever the customer opens an email.

Differences

There are two major differences between Hosted/External Data and Supplemental Data.

1. Supplemental Data has a limit on how much data can be processed. It is recommended that the information processed by Supplemental Data be limited to 5MB of data.
   While there is a limit of data with Supplemental Data, it is rare for that limit to be a problem.

   Hosted/External Data does not have a limit for the amount of data they can process.

2. Similar to Recipient Data, Supplemental Data is processed and used when an email is sent out. Hosted/External Data is commonly used with MessageGears partner MoveableInk for open-time rendering.
   For more information on open-time rendering, read this article.

Common Uses

Supplemental Data

Supplemental Data is often used when accessing information that is not customer specific. Commonly, the information that Supplemental Data accesses is fairly static. Below are two common uses of Supplemental Data in email contacts:

1. City & Glory is a retail establishment with hundreds of stores across the nation. Within the City & Glory Audience data, each customer has a field called “preferred_StoreID”. Supplemental Data is used to access another table within the City & Glory data source populated with store information. Each store is identified by a “StoreID”. Using a customer’s preferred store, any data about the customer’s preferred location can be included in the email contact to the customer. This separation of customer data and store data helps keep information organized. Creating a setup such as this requires knowledge of FreeMarker.

   For more information on using FreeMarker, refer to the official FreeMarker documentation.

2. The Weekly Sprout is a grocery store that specializes in healthy eating. A weekly newsletter goes out to customers with coupons. In the Audience data, The Weekly Sprout stores each customer’s loyalty level and days_since_last_visit. Another table, accessed by Supplemental Data, stores the coupon codes, images displayed within the email, and text that appears next to the coupon in the email. Use FreeMarker, the loyalty level and days_since_last_visit are used to determine which coupons to display in each email.

For more detailed examples of Supplemental Data, follow the step-by-step User Guide of configuring Supplemental Data.

Hosted/External Data

Hosted and External Data are often used when needing to display up-to-date information with open-time rendering or when a lot of information must be processed. Below are two common uses of Hosted and External Data:

1. Chicken Hut is a fast food restaurant that rewards customers with points for each dollar spent. The Audience data accessed by the Campaign processes basic customer information like name, address, and account number. The rewards points are not stored and processed by the Audience data. When a customer opens an email, External Data makes an API call to receive the number of rewards points that a customer has and displays it in the email. By using External Data, any purchases made by the customer between the email being sent and the email being opened are reflected accurately because the information was processed at the time of the email being opened.
2. TableForTwo is a company that helps people get restaurant reservations. The Audience data holds basic personal information including fields for the customer’s top 10 most visited restaurants. Normally, to access store information, Supplemental Data would be used. In this case, TableForTwo has such a large amount of records for restaurants that it exceeds the 5mb limit for Supplemental Data. Hosted data is used instead of Supplemental Data to handle the larger amount of data.