Explore the Summer ’23 Marketing Cloud Release for Developers

The Summer ’23 Marketing Cloud release is sizzling hot with some great new features for developers. There are many innovations across channels for email messages, landing pages, mobile applications, data, and artificial intelligence. In this blog, I will cover my top picks and favorite highlights of the release.

`BuildRowSetFromJSON()`

There has been a lot of buzz around this new AMPscript function in the community, and rightfully so. This means that there’s no way I can leave this off my list. The new AMPscript BuildRowsetFromJSON() function allows developers to parse JSON in their email messages and landing pages. Prior to BuildRowSetFromJSON(), developers needed to use Guide Template Language or Server-Side JavaScript to parse JSON. Now, developers can stick with AMPscript instead of switching to another Marketing Cloud programming language to parse their JSON.

Journey History Download API

With the Journey History Download API, developers can download up to 30 days of Journey Builder history data via REST API. Some of the data that developers will be able to download includes details about journey entry and exit criteria, activity status, and errors. You can download the data via CSV format for use cases like troubleshooting, error reconciliation, advanced segmentation, raw data for visualization tools, retargeting campaigns, and more. We have added this new API to our public Postman collection, and have released two additional routes (Freshness and Estimate) to help you better understand the data you query.

The Postman console with JSON key value pairs

CloudPages custom error content

Sometimes errors happen, and how developers handle errors can potentially impact customers and their experience. A CloudPage may encounter an error because it is not published, or there may be an error due to existing custom code that impacts the ability of the CloudPage to render. In CloudPages, developers can now set custom content for errors, which will allow developers to gracefully direct their customers to alternative assets in case of an error. The image below shows the new capability with the option to set the custom error content. Fun fact — this was an idea on the idea exchange that got delivered in this release!

The Marketing Cloud dialog box for a CloudPages landing page with a field to change the error content

Loyalty Mobile SDK

The Loyalty Mobile Software Development Kit (SDK) is a new software developer kit that enables developers to build mobile applications for their company’s loyalty programs.

The Mobile SDK helps consists of native features and capabilities, such as enrollment and profile details. The SDK is available for iOS and Android development. The Loyalty Mobile SDK is built on the core platform and uses core functionalities, However, it is part of the Marketing Cloud family. Salesforce Developers already familiar with building on the core platform should find this to be a very new and enjoyable SDK to experiment with. Marketing Cloud developers, this is something very exciting and new to learn!

Einstein Studio Bring-Your-Own Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML) Model to Data Cloud

Developers are sure to have some fun, and maybe a little bit of a challenge, with designing their own AI models using Amazon SageMaker and Data Cloud. The Einstein Studio integration between Data Cloud and Amazon SageMaker is our first bring-your-own AI/ML partnership. Developers and data science teams can build and incorporate their own AI/ML models for lead conversion predictions, case classifications, and more. Marketers can then use these predictions to personalize every touchpoint with their customers. See the release notes and help documentation for more information.

Diagram of Salesforce Data Cloud, its lake house, and data model connecting to Amazon SageMaker

I hope you enjoyed my highlights of the Summer ’23 release and are ready to start developing with the many new features across the Marketing Cloud platform. There are plenty more features in the Summer ’23 release for developers that may interest you. I encourage you to go to the Marketing Cloud Summer ’23 release notes to read about some of the other enhancements included in this release.

Resources

About the author

Danielle Larregui is a Senior Developer Advocate at Salesforce, where she focuses on creating Data Cloud and Marketing Cloud content. She loves UI/UX, digital marketing, and coding. Danielle also enjoys attending user groups, community conferences, and Salesforce technical events. You can follow her on Twitter @dnlarregui or LinkedIn to keep up with her technical content.

BuildRowSetFromJSON()