DocumentationJourney OptimizerJourney Optimizer Guide

Work with Integrations external-sources

Last update: May 8, 2026

CREATED FOR:

  • Beginner
  • User

Overview

The Integrations feature links Adobe Journey Optimizer to third-party systems whose data and composable content you already manage elsewhere. You can surface that material during authoring and at send time, which supports more responsive, personalized experiences across the channels you use in Journey Optimizer.

You can use this feature to access external data and pull content from third-party tools such as:

  • Rewards Points from loyalty systems.
  • Price Information for products.
  • Product Recommendations from recommendation engines.
  • Logistics Updates like delivery status.

To start using Integrations, users need to be granted the Manage AJO integration configuration and View AJO integration configuration permissions. Learn more on permissions

Learn how to assign Integrations related permissions

  1. In the Permissions product, go to the Roles tab and select the desired Role.

  2. Click Edit to modify the permissions.

  3. Add the AJO Integration Configuration resource, then select the appropriate Integrations permissions from the drop-down menu.

  4. Click Save to apply changes.

    Any users already assigned to this role will have their permissions automatically updated.

  5. To assign this role to new users, navigate to the Users tab within the Roles dashboard and click Add User.

  6. Enter the user’s name, email address, or choose from the list, then click Save.

If the user was not previously created, refer to this documentation.

Configure your Integration configure

AVAILABILITY
This integration feature is restricted to outbound channels (Email, SMS, and Push) and supports pulling JSON or HTML.

As an administrator, you can set up external integrations by following these steps:

  1. Navigate to the Configurations section in the left menu and click Manage from the Integrations card.

    Then, click Create Integration to start a new configuration.

  2. Optionally, paste a cURL command to auto-fill the URL, HTTP method, headers, and query parameters.

  3. Provide a Name and Description for your integration.

    note
    NOTE
    Name field cannot contain spaces.

  4. Enter the API endpoint URL.

    For path variables, wrap a label in double curly braces in the URL, for example, https://api.example.com/v1/products/{{productId}}, then set each placeholder in Path Template.

  5. Configure the Path Template with Name and Default value for every placeholder you added in the URL.

    Note that the Name is a marketer-facing label in the editor only, it is not sent on the API request.

  6. Select the HTTP Method between GET and POST.

  7. Click Add Header and/or Add Query Parameters as needed for your integration. For each parameter, provide the following details:

    • Parameter: The actual header or query parameter name as expected by the API.

    • Name: A marketer-friendly label for this parameter, authors select it when mapping values in campaigns.

    • Type: Choose Constant for a fixed value or Variable for dynamic input.

    • Value: Enter the value directly for constants, or select a variable mapping.

    • Mandatory: Specify whether this parameter is required. For mandatory Variable parameters, if no value is resolved at runtime and no default is provided, request generation fails with an error and the outbound API call is not made.

  8. Choose an Authentication Type:

    • No Authentication: For open APIs that do not require any credentials.

    • API key: Authenticate requests using a static API key. Enter your API Key Name ​, API Key Value ​ and specify your Location.

    • Basic Auth: Use standard HTTP Basic Authentication. Enter Username and Password.

    • OAuth 2.0: Authenticate using the OAuth 2.0 protocol. Click the edit icon to configure or update the Payload.

  9. Set Policy configuration such as Timeout period for API requests and choose to enable throttling, cache and/or retry.

    note
    NOTE
    With throttling enabled, supported rates are 50 to 5000 TPS. Limits apply to the integration, not each API endpoint.
    With retry enabled, other failures retry three times by default, with 200 ms, 400 ms, and 800 ms between attempts.

  10. With the Response payload field, you can decide which fields of the sample output needs to be used for message personalization.

    Click the edit icon and paste a sample JSON response payload to automatically detect data types.

  11. Choose the fields to expose for personalization and specify their corresponding data types.

    note
    NOTE
    The Response payload configuration defines the expected response for authoring including any schema applied in that step. Marketers may reference only exposed fields, tokens for other paths fail validation in the editor.

  12. Use Send test connection to validate the integration. Learn more on how to test your connection

    Once validated, click Activate.

  13. Access your newly created Integration to:

    • Update: Change Authentication details and Policy configuration only. Updates apply to live journeys and campaigns. Before you save changes, use the Explore references menu to confirm where the integration is used.
    • Archive: Archive an Integration configuration.

After activation, click the advanced menu icon to access the Explore references menu and to review usage for this configuration, including journeys and campaigns that depend on it.

Send-time limits and behavior configure-send-time

At send time, responses from the external API may be up to 4 MB by default. Anything larger is treated as an integration error, and retries are not attempted when the failure is caused by response size.

Calls honor the throttling rate you configured: Journey Optimizer schedules attempts up to that limit even when the external system is down or returning errors. If cache is enabled, only successful responses are stored and reused until the cache TTL you defined expires; failed responses are never cached.

Each queued message also carries a validity window (TTL). If processing falls behind and a message sits past that window, the system discards it and emits a MessageValidityExclusion event so stale work clears from the queue and resources stay available.

Testing your connection connection

Send test connection validates the endpoint URL, authentication, and request structure against the target API prior to activation, which reduces the risk of runtime failures during message processing.

  1. When the URL, HTTP method, headers, and query parameters are defined, click Send test connection to run a connectivity test and confirm the configuration.

  2. In the Send test connection dialog, enter default values for any Variable placeholders in the URL path, headers, and query parameters.

    Those values are included in the test request. Journey Optimizer invokes the endpoint and reports whether the connection succeeded or failed.

  3. If the test returns a successful response, select Use as response payload to copy the response body into the Response payload field, see step 10 under Configure your Integration, where data types can be detected and fields can be selected for personalization.

  4. If the test does not succeed, expand the Error drop-down to review the failure details, update the integration configuration as needed, and run Send test connection again.

After the test succeeds, select Activate in the integration configuration. See Configure your Integration.

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