---
schema_version: "1"
id: 172775e54382b0764060a53d2f7be05aa49314557d7d78e624b34c8972efc51a
title: About Identity Setup for the Event API
collection: admin
version: current
locale: en-us
portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/mktg/264-0-0/mc_pers_identity_event_api_about.md
canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=mktg.mc_pers_identity_event_api_about.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5
source_site: help.salesforce.com
content_type: documentation
content_hash: 332bf71f76f4195af39d88f14de2dae77d1a73d10e4e1060e33f013e85117116
description: Learn about setting up the identity system for the Event API.
products:
  - Marketing
  - Salesforce Personalization
release: "264"
---
# About Identity Setup for the Event API

Learn about setting up the identity system for the Event API.

## Before You Configure

Before configuring Personalization’s identity system for the Event API, make sure to review this information:

- [Identity Types and Attributes](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=mktg.mc_pers_identity_type_attributes.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "Personalization’s identity system uses deterministic matching to create a Unified Customer Profile for each of your customers. Specific identifiers, called identity types, determine how to process web events, API events, and channel events to identify users from various sources. Personalization includes several built-in identity types, such as email address and customer ID. If the built-in identity types don’t meet the needs of your organization, you can create additional identity types.")
- [Built-In Identity Types](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=mktg.mc_pers_identity_type_built_in.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "Identity types are specific identifiers that determine how Personalization processes web events, API events, and channel events to identify users from various sources. Personalization includes several built-in identity types, such as email address and customer ID. The built-in identity types don’t require configuration other than setting up event capture mechanisms, such as the sitemap or ETL jobs.")

## API Request Format

For information about formatting API requests, see the developer documentation for [Event API Requests](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/marketing/personalization/guide/event-api.html).

![Example](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-mktg-mc_personalization-264-0-0-production-enus/16bf1f60-f44c-4260-a56e-f052cfe515a3/images/icon_example.png)

Example

**Option A**

In the following example, the API request sends the email address and customer ID identity types as user attributes. The request doesn’t include the user ID parameter.

```
{
    "action": "sample",
    "user": {
        "attributes": {
            "emailAddress": "test@test.com",
            "CustomerId": "123"}
        },
    "source": {
            "channel": "Server",
    }
}
```

**Option B**

In the following code example, customer ID is the identity type for the event API, and the API request is sending it as the user ID parameter. The API request also includes the email address identity type as a user attribute.

```
{
    "action": "sample",
    "user": {
        "id": "456",
        "attributes": {
            "emailAddress": "test@test.com"}
        },
    "source": {
            "channel": "Server",
   }
}
```