Set Geo Coordinates using Update Interaction Contact (best record) BAdI in Marketing Cloud

Introduction

Using below steps you can add Longitude and Latitude to any contact before it is created in system.

The logic is ignored if the incoming payload already has longitude/latitude information in it.

the BAdI logic will read the Geo Location from the available free database openstreetmap.org based on the contact’s City and Country and will update the contact

Implementation

Go to marketing cloud

open app Custom Communication Scenario

go to outbound services, give description and service id like shown in below screenshot

save and publish

go to communication system and create a new communication system with system ID, Name, Host Name and Port like below.

make sure to give User for outbound communication as None

now go to Communication arrangement

create a new one with the scenario ID which was created in first stem

use the system created in above step

it ill select the user as None from communication system

and it will show the outbound service from scenario

now go to Custom fields and Logic App

go to tab custom Logic

click on + icon and create a new BADI

select the business context as Marketing: Contact and Corporate

and choose the Badi Update Interaction Contact(best record)

and create the badi with some meaningful description

1 use the communication scenario and outbound service to access the service

2 loop at the contact data available in BAdI and check if country is filled and longitude&Latitude are initial.

3 build the query by selecting city and country value from contact

4 send the request to service and receive the address fields as response

5 set contact’s longitude and latitude from the incoming response

DATA: lr_ic_root_new TYPE REF TO cuan_s_ce_ic_rt_badi.
DATA: ls_body TYPE string.
"create http client to access the outbound service
DATA(lo_client) = cl_ble_http_client=>create(
                    communication_scenario = 'YY1_API_GPS_OPENSTREETMAPS'
                    outbound_service       = 'YY1_APIOPENSTREETMAPS_REST').
"creation of the service request
DATA(lo_request) = cl_ble_http_request=>create( )->set_method( if_ble_http_request=>co_method-get ).
 
"process all updated interaction contacts
LOOP AT new_contact_root REFERENCE INTO lr_ic_root_new.
if lr_ic_root_new->country is not initial and lr_ic_root_new->latitude = 0 and lr_ic_root_new->longitude = 0.
*fetch the data on city level
  DATA(lv_query) = '?format=json' && '&city=' && lr_ic_root_new->city1 && '&country=' && lr_ic_root_new->country.
  "extend the uri by the specified query parameters
  lo_request->set_resource_extension( lv_query ).
  TRY.
      "send a request and receive a response"
      DATA(lo_response) = lo_client->send( lo_request  ).
    CATCH cx_ble_http_exception .
      lr_ic_root_new->yy1_street2_mps = 'exception'.
  ENDTRY.
  "get the body of the response
  ls_body = lo_response->get_body( ).
    ""lr_ic_root_new->yy1_street2_mps = ls_body .
    "find the appropreate coordinates from the answer
    lr_ic_root_new->latitude = substring_before( val = substring_after( val = ls_body sub = '"lat":"') sub = '"' ).
    lr_ic_root_new->longitude = substring_before( val = substring_after( val = ls_body sub = '"lon":"') sub = '"' ).
endif.
ENDLOOP.

How to Test the functionality

To test the feature, simple go to Contacts app and create a contact with valid city and country and save.

to enable the fields longitude and latitude on contact Profile, open the contact, click on Adapt UI from the right side menu

right click anywhere below the Additional Data

click on Add Field from the popup

and select longitude and latitude

save, save and exit.

How to Test in Postman

it is also possible to call this free service from postman to do quick test and compare the results.

use below link in Postman, you can change the country and city and test further. also you can add a street to receive more precise coordinates.

https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/?format=json&street= &city=Bengaluru &country=IN

Conclusion

If you are receiving contacts to Marketing cloud without Geo Coordinates and if you still wish to segment the contacts based on their Geo Location, you can enable this feature.

Depending on the data that you receive, you can easily change the above implementation to use different address fields like Street/Pincode to determine the Geo Coordinates.

Please share yours thoughts or feedback by leaving a comment below. 🙂