HTTP Request

This page describes how to setup and start using your own HTTP Request source to power Census syncs.

Background

For certain usecases, the HTTP Request source is the easiest way of getting data to Census for activation. If you have a web application that is generating events or are tracking web events via a service like Segment or Jitsu, you can easily forward them via a webhook to Census and then route them to any supported destination. We will store these events for 7 days.

Initial Setup

Setting up the HTTP Request source is super simple:

• Open Census and navigate to the Sources page.

• Click New Source and select HTTP Request from the list.

• On the next screen hit Connect to confirm.

• That's it! Now you'll just need to create a Topic to start syncing data. See Next Steps.

Next Steps

Creating a Topic

Instead of being organized in schemas and tables like a traditional Census source, the HTTP Request source allows you to create Topics to keep your unique categories of data separate when pushing data to Census. A Topic could be something like web-events, user-updates,

1. Navigate to the Datasets page

2. Select New Dataset in the upper right of the page.

3. Select Streaming Dataset and click Next

4. Select the HTTP Request source you just created from the Data Source drop down

5. Give your Topic a Name and paste in a sample event that you'll be sending to Census on this Topic. We'll use this sample event to determine the schema of events. This is important so that we know what properties are available when creating syncs.

6. Hit Create Dataset.

Select the Streaming Dataset option

An example of a Web Event topic configured with a sample message.

Note that for programmatic usecases HTTP Topics can also be managed via the Census Management API.

Pushing Data

With the Census API, you can now POST data to the specified Topic via your HTTP Request source. This sample curl command demonstrates the basic use of our API. Remember to replace the placeholder values with your actual HTTP Request Source ID, topic name, workspace API token, and event payload. Depending on your event source, you might need to set up a webhook through a web interface or modify your application code to make the request.

curl --request POST \
  --url https://app.getcensus.com/api/v1/sources/{source_id}/topics/{topic_name}/events \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <token>' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{json_event_data}'

Need help using our HTTP Request Source?

Contact us via [e-mail] or start a conversation with us via the in-app chat.