Overview

MoEngage allows customers to import users and events through tables stored inside your Snowflake databases.

Types of Imports

MoEngage can import the following from your Snowflake data warehouse:

Registered Users: These are users who are already registered on MoEngage.
Anonymous Users: These are users who are not yet registered on MoEngage.
Events (Standard and User Defined): MoEngage can import standard events like Campaign Interaction Events as well as your own user-defined events.

Preparing the Data

MoEngage does not need any particular table schema to be prepared for imports. All the columns in your table can be either skipped or mapped separately on the MoEngage Dashboard. However, there are a few things to be taken care of before setting up the imports.

User Imports
Event Imports

When you set up periodic User Imports on MoEngage, we will only sync the data that has changed since the last sync was run. MoEngage uses a timestamp (date + time) column called updated_at to identify which row has changed since the previous sync. You are free to name this column as you like provided it contains the timestamp of the instant when the row’s data was last changed. If you’re calling this column by a different name in your table, you can always configure this mapping separately on the MoEngage Dashboard.

Importing Datetype attributes

Importing Datetype attributes requires additional steps. You learn more about this in our dedicated guide.

Required Access Permissions

MoEngage will require READ access to your database so that we can pull data into MoEngage. You can either grant these permissions to an existing database user or choose to create a new dedicated database user for MoEngage:

-- Grant SELECT permission on all tables in the schema
GRANT SELECT ON SCHEMA `catalog_name`.`schema_name` TO `[email protected]`;
-- Grant USE SCHEMA permission to access the schema
GRANT USE SCHEMA ON SCHEMA `catalog_name`.`schema_name` TO `[email protected]`;
-- Grant USE CATALOG permission (recommended for complete access)
GRANT USE CATALOG ON CATALOG `catalog_name` TO `[email protected]`;

Remember to change the following values:

<YOUR_WAREHOUSE_NAME> - The name of the warehouse you want MoEngage to use while executing queries.
<YOUR_DATABASE_NAME> - The name of the database you want to import data from.
<YOUR_PASSWORD> - Give a strong password to the newly created database user.

Set Up Imports from Snowflake

Prerequisites

Ensure you have an existing Snowflake connection setup in the App Marketplace with relevant permissions.
If your security policies require you to whitelist our IPs, you can refer to this article.

To set up Snowflake imports, perform the following steps:

On the sidebar menu in MoEngage, hover over the Data menu item . The Data menu appears.
Click Data imports.
On the Data imports page, click + Import and select Users or Events to create a new import.
Click Snowflake to create a new import for either Users (Registered/Anonymous can be picked in the next step) or Events.

Step 1: Select Your Snowflake Connection and Table Source

Import Name

Enter a name for this import to easily identify it on the Imports Dashboard. Based on the type of import selected, your next steps might vary:

User Imports

You will now have the option to select whether you want to import Registered users or Anonymous users. You can also choose to import both together:

Event Imports

For Event imports, you will now have the option to select which event it is that you want to import:

You can either select an existing event or create a new one. If you have multiple events stored in a single table, MoEngage will look at the “Event Name” column to determine matching rows to import. The value of the “Event Name” column will be determined by the event you pick. Some of these events might have different Display Names and Event Names. You can always go to the Data Management page and view the Event Information. For example, the event “App/Site Opened” should have the value of the “Event Name” column as MOE_APP_OPENED:

You can also create a new event by clicking on the ”+ Create event” option at the end of the dropdown:

Give your event a name that is unique. By default, your Display Name will be the same as the Event Name. You can go to the Data Management page to view or edit this event and also your other MoEngage events. Do note that any new events you create now will only be available in your app after the first successful import.

Import Source

In this first step, “Source and format”, you will need to tell MoEngage which Snowflake connection to use and the table to import from.

To get started, select a Snowflake connection to use for this Import. If you have not already created a Snowflake connection, you can click on the ”+ Add connection” option at the end of the dropdown and you will be taken to the App Marketplace to set it up. You can learn more about how to connect your Snowflake warehouse to MoEngage here. Once you have selected your Snowflake connection, you will be required to select the schema and table to import from. If there is an error loading your schemas, ensure you have given MoEngage sufficient permissions as mentioned above.

Event Imports

In addition to the above steps, MoEngage provides additional support for tables containing multiple events. If your table contains multiple events, you need to first “Preview” the table and then select the “Table contains multiple events” option:

MoEngage will use the values of the “Event name” column to filter out rows that need to be imported. We will import only those rows that match the selected event name. You can mark an existing column of your table as the column containing the event name. When you select this column and Preview again, we will show you the filtered rows for you to confirm before proceeding:

After you preview your table, you can move on to the next step.

Step 2: Map Your Columns to MoEngage Attributes

In this step, you need to map the columns of your table to the attributes present in MoEngage. All your columns will be shown one below the other:

Column name - This is the column name to be mapped. Below the column name, we also show a sample value (picked from the first row of the fetched table in the previous step) for your reference.
Map attribute - Here you need to pick which MoEngage attribute you want to map the table column to. You can also choose to create a new attribute. Some attributes support ingestion from multiple data types, so you need to pick the data type of the column as well. For the “DateTime” columns, you also need to pick the format.
More actions - You can optionally choose to skip the column. The skipped column will not be imported.

Depending on the type of import, there are a few mandatory mappings required:

User Imports

Registered Users
Anonymous Users
All Users

Mapping	Description
User ID	Your table should mandatorily have a column that contains a unique user identifier (that identifies a user’s account in your system).
Updated at	MoEngage will use this column to determine which rows have been added/updated since the last sync. You need to ensure that this timestamp (date + time) is in UTC Timezone. The column type for this should be `TIMESTAMP_NTZ`. For the full list of supported datetime formats, refer to this section.

Mapping	Description
Anonymous ID	You need to mark a column from your table (email, mobile number, etc.) as an identifier of these users.
Updated at	MoEngage will use this column to determine which rows have been added/updated since the last sync. You need to ensure that this timestamp (date + time) is in UTC Timezone. The column type for this should be `TIMESTAMP_NTZ`. For the full list of supported datetime formats, refer to this section.

Mapping	Description
User ID	Your table should mandatorily have a column that contains a unique user identifier (that identifies a user’s account in your system). Any user that has an empty user ID will automatically be imported as an Anonymous user.
Anonymous ID	You need to mark a column from your table (email, mobile number, etc.) as an identifier of these users.
Updated at	MoEngage will use this column to determine which rows have been added/updated since the last sync. You need to ensure that this timestamp (date + time) is in UTC Timezone. The column type for this should be `TIMESTAMP_NTZ`. For the full list of supported datetime formats, refer to this section.

Event Imports

Mapping	Description
User ID	This column matches MoEngage user IDs to your events.
Event time	Map the column that contains the timestamp (date + time) of when the event occurred. MoEngage uses this column to sync new events. Ensure that this timestamp (date + time) is in the UTC time zone. The column type must be `TIMESTAMP`. The Event Time of the imported event will be converted to the timezone chosen in your MoEngage dashboard settings. For a complete list of supported datetime formats, refer to this section.
Updated on	MoEngage uses this column to determine which rows were added or updated since the last sync. Use this column to import backdated events or manage delays in upstream pipelines. Ensure that this timestamp (date and time) uses the UTC time zone. If you do not have this column, select Use same as Event time. The column type must be `TIMESTAMP`.

Once a mandatory mapping is marked, it will reflect against the column name in the mapping table and you will no longer be able to mark the column as skippable. Just like new events, you can also create a new attribute from the dropdown by clicking on ”+ Create attribute”:

Give your attribute a name and select its Data type. You can edit this as well as existing attributes from the Data Management page. Do note that any new attributes you create now will only be available in your app after the first successful import.

Manifest Files

Optionally, you can choose to auto-map these columns by uploading a manifest file. To upload a manifest file, click the “Upload mapping file” option on the top-right of the mapping table:

Manifest File Functionality

Add Manifest (File Selection): For every import, you can download a sample manifest file from the MoEngage UI to use as a reference template and to view the expected conventions. Select the file you want to upload as a manifest file.
Automatic Configuration: Once uploaded, MoEngage auto-configures the mapping based on the file contents.
Attribute Creation Modal: If your manifest file includes attributes that do not yet exist in MoEngage, a modal automatically opens. This allows you to create these new attributes directly from the interface during the import process.

Mapping Discrepancy Rules

Any columns mapped to a non-existent MoEngage attribute (which you choose not to create via the modal) will be left blank for manual mapping.
Any additional columns present in your Manifest file but not found in your source table or view will be ignored.
If a column exists in the table but the mapping is missing from the manifest file, MoEngage keeps the mapping blank for you to configure manually.

Support for Object Data Type

Support for Object Data Type needs to be enabled for your account.

The Object data type is supported in Snowflake as well.

Store Compatible JSON Data in Snowflake

To store valid JSON inside Snowflake, you must change the data type of the column to VARIANT type. For more information, refer here. The JSON stored inside Snowflake should be a valid JSON; otherwise, the values will not be written as JSON. Here is an example JSON column: JavaScript

{ "Designation": "SSE", "Palace": "Banglore", "age": 30, "name": "Shasha" }

Import JSON Data via Snowflake

Existing attributes in MoEngage that have been marked as an Object type and are available to map to columns in Snowflake:

You can always create new Object attributes from the mapping step as well, as shown below:

MoEngage does not support mapping with nested attributes. Only top-level attributes are available to map.

Save as a Segment

If you’re importing users, you can also add them to a custom segment inside MoEngage. Each time the sync is run, the imported users will continue to be added to this custom segment. We will not delete any users from this segment. You can then send targeted campaigns to this segment. To save your imported users in a custom segment, enable the “Save as a custom segment” option:

Give your Segment a name and select the Identifier column in your table.

Import Behaviour

In the case of User Imports, you can also choose to update existing users only. This is helpful when you want to bulk update users’ attributes in MoEngage without creating any new users. To enable this, check the “Update existing users only” option under Import Behaviour:

Sending Import Notifications

You can, optionally, choose to get notified about your imports’ statuses via email. Select up to 10 emails to send the status emails to. You will receive an email about the following events:

An import was created
An import was successful
An import failed

When you are satisfied with all mappings, click Next. If there are any errors, correct them to move forward.

Step 3: Select the Import Frequency

In this step, you need to define when to sync with your tables. We support the following types of imports:

One-Time imports: You can either choose to run the import as soon as possible or at a later date and time (scheduled). All existing rows that match the import criteria will be imported.
Periodic: You can choose to run your imports every hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly, or with intervals and advanced configurations.

Optionally, you can specify whether the import should end after a specified set of occurrences, or at a particular date. Click Done when ready.

Please note that the first time the import runs, we will import all the matching rows from your table. On every subsequent import, we will pull in only the changed rows.

Duplicate Imports

You can only configure one unique import at a time. An import is considered a duplicated import when all of these are the same:

Import Type - Users / Events
Import Sub-Type - Event Name / Registered / Anonymous / All users - If the event name is the same, or there already exists a registered/anonymous/all users import with the same Snowflake connection
Snowflake connection
Import schema & table

As long as any one of the above is different, the import is considered unique.

Import Failure Policy

In the event of a connection failure, a recurring Snowflake import will retry up to 10 times. If all retries fail, the import is marked FAILED. The following table outlines the behavior and required action when a recurring Snowflake import fails due to connection issues (for example, credentials, network, or warehouse unavailability).

Policy	Description	Action
Automatic Retry	MoEngage automatically attempts to restore the connection and retries the import up to 10 times in the event of a connection failure.	None (MoEngage handles automatically)
Import Failure	If all 10 retries fail, MoEngage marks the import as FAILED and stops all further automatic attempts and future imports. After it has failed, you must create a new import by either duplicating the failed import or creating a fresh one.	Mandatory Investigation and Restart

Restart a Failed Import

Any import that has FAILED requires your manual intervention:

You must investigate and resolve the underlying issue on your Snowflake side (for example, update credentials, check permissions, or ensure warehouse availability).
After resolving the issue, you must manually duplicate the import from the MoEngage UI to restart it.

The first successful execution of any new recurring import is always a historical import (it fetches all the data from the configured table/view).
Duplicating a failed import initiates a new historical import. If the original import previously succeeded, this duplication may result in redundant data. To control data flow effectively, MoEngage recommends using views.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I import from data across tables?

No. Currently, writing manual queries (to perform joins, etc) is not supported. Creating a dedicated table or view with all the columns you want to import in MoEngage is recommended.

Do you support importing Views from Snowflake?

Yes! We also support importing data from your Snowflake Views. If you grant MoEngage access to read Views, they will be automatically listed under the Table/View selection dropdown.

Can I do a historical import?

Yes. Creating a one-time import is essentially the same as importing historical data since we pull in all the rows on the first sync.

Getting Started

Guide

Snowflake Imports

Overview

Types of Imports

Preparing the Data

Importing Datetype attributes

Required Access Permissions

Set Up Imports from Snowflake