Swrve Migration Guide

Easily plan your migration from Swrve to OpenBack for push & in-app messaging without interruption.

Before migrating, we recommend updating your app to include the OpenBack SDK, then users won’t be lost between app updates. The base setup steps for adding OpenBack are:

• Create your OpenBack app on our dashboard.
• (Recommended) Add your APNs certificate/Firebase Cloud Messaging Key to your OpenBack app.
• Complete the basic SDK integration for Native Android/iOS or Plugin.

Integrating OpenBack will not interfere with any other services you may have - as such, you can run services alongside each other during migration.

For help with migrating to OpenBack from Swrve, feel free to contact the onboarding team onboarding@openback.com and we can help guide you through the process including setting up a simple plan.

1 - Feature Explanations across Platforms

Swrve ->	OpenBack
Custom user properties ->	Custom Segments & Attributes
Segment users based on custom in-app information. Send notifications to users within these segments. User properties can be used to personalize the content of a notification.	Segment users based on custom in-app information and send notifications to these users. Attributes are used to store clientside information about users that is then used to personalize the content of a notification.
Custom Events ->	Custom Events
Swrve uses events to segment users.	Send notifications to users based on in-app actions.
KPIs	Goals
Swrve uses Virtual Economy/Custom Events and In-App Purchases to segment users and track KPI performance.	OpenBack Goals can be used to track user actions or changes to user data. The Goal completion is recorded device-side and provides metrics for goal value, currency, goal completion time and if the goal was completed immediately after clicking a notification or within a conversion window.
Custom Payloads	Payloads
Swrve uses Custom Payloads to send extra information and perform an action when a push notification is received.	OpenBack uses Payloads to send extra information and perform an action when a push notification is received.
Metrics
OpenBack requires no custom setup or migration - out of the box you will get a full set of metrics on messaging.
Allow/Block - Opt-Out Status
As this is handled on the device side, OpenBack automatically picks up the user's current status without any work required to or migrate or transfer user preferences. Users will NOT be shown the OS permission dialogue again.
Deep Links & Deep Linking
As these are defined by you at an app level, there is no work to migrate across. To make things easier for sending messages, you may want to setup shortcuts in the OpenBack Dashboard under App Settings -more details here

2 - Attributes & Custom Segments

For help with deciding whether your user information should be stored as an Attribute or a Custom Segment, contact onboarding@openback.com anytime.

Attributes

OpenBack uses Attributes to personalize the content of a notification with user information that is stored on the device, such as a user’s first name. When migrating from Swrve, any Swrve Custom user properties that would have been used to personalize the notification content should be setup as OpenBack Attributes in your mobile app.

To learn more about OpenBack Attributes go here for Android and here for iOS.

Here are examples of your existing Android code for Swrve, and also the updated Android code for OpenBack Attributes:

• Android
• iOS

// Swrve example code

Map<String, String> attributes = new HashMap<String, String>();

attributes.put("name", "Bob");

attributes.put("email", "bob@example.com");

attributes.put("balance", "999");

SwrveSDK.userUpdate(attributes);

//OpenBack example code

OpenBack.setAttribute("name", "Bob");

OpenBack.setAttribute("email", "bob@example.com");

OpenBack.setAttribute("balance", 999);

Custom Segments

OpenBack uses Custom Segments to store user information in OpenBack on the user’s device which can then be used to target specific segments of users as well as personalizing the content of the messages.

When migrating, any Swrve Custom user properties that would have been used to segment your users can be converted to OpenBack Custom Segments.

To learn more about OpenBack Custom Segments go here for Android and here for iOS.

note

The Swrve Android SDK only supports string values. The OpenBack Android SDK supports string, int, float and time values.

Here are examples of your existing code for Swrve, and also the updated code for OpenBack Custom Segments:

• Android
• iOS

// Swrve example

Map<String, String> attributes = new HashMap<String, String>();

attributes.put("premium", "true");

attributes.put("level", "12");

attributes.put("balance", "999");

SwrveSDK.userUpdate(attributes);

// OpenBack example

// Custom Segment 1 for Subscription Status

OpenBack.setCustomSegment(OpenBack.CUSTOM_SEGMENT_1, "premium");

// Custom Segment 2 for level

OpenBack.setCustomSegment(OpenBack.CUSTOM_SEGMENT_2, 12);

// Custom Segment 3 for balance

OpenBack.setCustomSegment(OpenBack.CUSTOM_SEGMENT_3, 999);

3 - Custom Events

For help with deciding whether your user actions should be stored as a Custom Event or a Custom Segment, contact onboarding@openback.com anytime.

Custom Events can be used to deliver notifications to users based on in-app actions. A Custom Event can deliver the notification immediately or after a specific delay that can be set on device or by the OpenBack dashboard.

When migrating from Swrve, any Custom Events that would have been used for segmenting users and delivering notifications can be converted to Custom Events.

To see more about how to use Custom Events you can go to our Android and iOS docs.

Here are examples of your existing code for Swrve, and also the updated code for OpenBack Custom Events:

• Android
• iOS

// Swrve example code

SwrveSDK.event("sent_invitation");

// OpenBack example code

// OpenBack.signalEvent(event_name, delay_in_seconds);

OpenBack.signalEvent("sent_invitation", 10);

4 - Goals

For help with deciding which user actions should be stored as Goals, contact onboarding@openback.com anytime.

Goals are used to track the value of actions that users complete in your app after they have received a message.

When migrating from Swrve, any IAP or Virtual Economy events that would have been used for tracking KPIs can be converted to Goals.

To see more about how to use Goals you can go to our Android and iOS docs.

Here are examples of your existing code for Swrve, and also the updated code for OpenBack Goals:

• Android
• iOS

// Swrve example code

// A virtual economy purchase

SwrveSDK.purchase(item, currency, cost, quantity);

SwrveSDK.currencyGiven(givenCurrency, givenAmount);

// An in-app purchase currently only supported for Google Play

SwrveSDK.iapPlay(purchaseProductId, purchasePrice, purchaseCurrency, purchaseRewards, receipt, receiptSignature);

// OpenBack example code

// Goal, Step, Value, Currency

OpenBack.logGoal("goalCode", 1, 10.0, "USD")

5 - Payloads & App Inbox

Custom payload content can be added to App Inbox messages and then used within your app. Payload content can be any form of text, for example JSON/CSV/XML, as long as your app can read and process it. The payloads are currently for use with our App Inbox feature on both Android and iOS, on Android however, you can also send a payload alongside a Dynamic Push message.

When migrating from Swrve, any silent push payload events can be converted to App Inbox payloads for Android and iOS.

To see more about how to use payloads with the App Inbox, you can go to our Android and iOS docs.

Here are examples of your existing code for Swrve, and also the updated code for OpenBack Payloads:

• Android
• iOS

// Swrve example code

SwrveSDK.setSilentPushListener(new SwrveSilentPushListener() {

@Override

public void onSilentPush(Context context, JSONObject payload) {}

});

// OpenBack example code

private List<AppInboxMessage> messages;

private BroadcastReceiver mMessageReceiver = new BroadcastReceiver() {

@Override

public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {

String event = intent.getStringExtra(OpenBack.APP_INBOX_EVENT_EXTRA);

if (event != null) {

switch (event) {

case OpenBack.APP_INBOX_MESSAGE_ADDED:

case OpenBack.APP_INBOX_MESSAGE_READ:

case OpenBack.APP_INBOX_MESSAGE_EXPIRED:

messages = OpenBack.getAppInboxMessages();

AppInboxMessage message = messages.get(0);

String payload = message.payload;

break;

}

}

}

};

5 - Importing Push Tokens

This is typically not required as by default the OpenBack SDK handles the user’s push token and syncs the token with the OpenBack Engine (backend), which starts once the OpenBack SDK is included in the app, so importing push tokens is not usually relevant, but can be supported.

A push token is a unique key, created and assigned by Apple(APNs) or Google(FCM) to create a connection between a specific mobile app on a specific iOS or Android device. The push token is then used by conventional platforms when sending push notifications from their backend systems to APNs/FCM who then make efforts to deliver the notification to that device. Push tokens change from time to time, and sometimes go stale. Push tokens are a key source of the deliverability issues which OpenBack resolves, you can read more about that here.

While not strictly necessary, OpenBack recommends setting up APNs/FCM as then a silent push notification is sent out to apps whenever there is updated content & settings for faster updates.

If you have a collection of your user’s push tokens, usually in .CSV format, we can bulk import them for you. Contact onboarding@openback.com to finalize an import plan; and also for help exporting Push Tokens from existing platforms including Airship, OneSignal and others.

note

Android push tokens are always mixed casing whereas iOS push tokens can sometimes be all lower case or all upper case. If importing existing push tokens into OpenBack, pay attention to the casing of iOS push tokens to avoid duplicate records.

6 - Detailed SDK Comparisons

SDK	Swrve	OpenBack
Android Size	1.2MB	230kB
iOS Size	4.9MB zipped	900kB or less
Unity Plugin	Yes	Yes
React Native Plugin	Yes	Yes
Titanium Plugin	Not Available	Yes
Cordova/Phonegap Plugin	Yes	Yes
Deliverability Optimisation	Not Available	Yes
Moment of Delivery Control	Not Available	Yes
Full Notification Metrics	Not Available	Yes
Client-side Real-Time Content Personalisation	Not Available	Yes
Dynamic Push (Auto-Remove/Update)	Not Available	Yes
App Inbox	Not Available	Yes
In-app Video Message	Not Available	Yes