Data can enter the mParticle system via platform inputs or feeds:
- If you are collecting data directly from an app on a platform like iOS, Android, or the Web, you can use a platform input to collect that data.
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If you are collecting data from a service like Braze or Google Analytics, you can use a feed that either mParticle or that service’s company created. You can see the full list of feeds in our Integrations directory.
Feeds behave in two different ways:
- Act-as feeds can behave as if they were a platform feed, which means you can connect to any output that accepts that platform. (Not all outputs can accept input data from all feeds or platforms.)
- Unbound feeds are not associated with any platform. They won’t have the identifiers needed to be processed as platform events, though they can still be forwarded to data warehouse outputs and webhook outputs like Amazon S3.
You can see whether a feed has an act-as option during feed configuration.
For more information about feeds, refer to our Feeds guide. For more information about platforms, see the client SDKs documentation for the platform you are interested in.