Courier Vocabulary
Working with Courier is easier once you understand some of the terminology common to our service. You will be working with Notifications, Integrations, and Channel Rules.
Notifications
Notifications are the messages you pass to the delivery systems that you integrate with Courier. More specifically, a Notification is a template for a type of message that can be sent more than once. For example, you might create an "Appointment Reminder" Notification or “Reset Password” Notifications.
Notifications can contain variables, (e.g. {name} or {apt_time}) so that the same Notification can be sent to many people (on their delivery system of choice — see Channel Rules below).
Notifications can be sent using one or many Integrations…
Integrations
Courier passes your Notifications to the service providers you already use. Rather than replace these existing providers, Courier integrates with them. By building on top of these delivery channels, which we call Integrations, Courier simplifies your notification strategy, allowing you to manage multiple service providers in one place.
To see a list of all available Integrations, visit our Documentation page
Courier then provides the ability to prioritize these Integrations using Channel Rules…
Channel Rules
Courier allows you to prioritize which Integrations are used to send your Notifications. Selected Integrations are arranged in a top-to-bottom hierarchy. The Notification sends via the highest-ranked Integration for which the user has contact information listed.
For example, a Notification could utilize Slack and email, in that order. If the recipient has a Slack account in their Courier recipient profile, the Notification will send via Slack only. If they have no Slack account listed, but do have an email address listed, it will send via email.
There is also the option to “Always send to” a certain Integration. For example, a Notification might be configured for Slack, Twilio, and email, in that order. The sender can choose to “Always send to” email, overriding the hierarchy, so that every recipient receives an email (provided their profile contains an email address). Then, in addition to email, recipients with a Slack configuration in their profile will receive a Slack message as well. Recipients who do not have a Slack configuration in their profile, but do have a phone number, will receive the message via Twilio, as well as email.
A sender can also assign a preferred Integration to a specific recipient, using the Preferences API below. This will override the hierarchy of the Channel Rules and send the message only via the Integration specified in the recipient’s profile.