* Marketing Cloud Engagement *

Hi, 

I'm looking for guidance on a use case involving migration from Salesforce Marketing Cloud Engagement to Marketing Cloud Next (MC Next). 

Current architecture – Marketing Cloud Engagement 

- An external system sends customer data through the Journey Builder API Entry Event. 

- The incoming event data is automatically stored in a Data Extension. 

- Journey Builder then sends a mobile push notification. 

- We use SFMC Data Views to retrieve send and tracking information, such as send time, SubscriberKey, notification details, and available engagement events. 

- This tracking information is then passed back to Salesforce CRM (SFSC). 

Proposed architecture – Marketing Cloud Next 

I'm considering the following approach: 

1. External System invokes an API-triggered On-Demand Flow. 

2. The flow receives the customer and notification payload. 

3. A Salesforce custom object  stores the incoming payload for audit purposes. 

4. The flow sends the mobile push notification using the push notification activity. 

5. The notification's send and engagement tracking information is retrieved and passed back to Service Cloud. 

My questions 

1. Can this use case be implemented in MC Next without directly using Data Cloud/Data 360 for data ingestion, transformation, or customer profile unification? 

2. Can we use a standard Salesforce custom object to retain the incoming payload for audit purposes instead of using Data Cloud? 

3. Does the push notification process require Data Cloud/Data 360 for recipient identification, device registration, or message activation? 

4. Reporting and tracking: What is the equivalent of SFMC Data Views in MC Next for retrieving push notification tracking data, such as send timestamp, recipient/customer identifier, notification details, delivery status, and available engagement events (for example, opens)? 

5. Can this event-level tracking data be retrieved through supported Salesforce APIs, standard objects, or reports and stored in Salesforce CRM without directly querying or using Data Cloud/Data 360? 

The incoming API payload already contains the data required for the notification, and the main requirements are to retain the original payload for audit purposes, send the push notification, retrieve the relevant tracking information, and pass that information back to Salesforce CRM. 

I'm trying to understand whether Data Cloud/Data 360 provides any necessary capability for this specific use case or whether standard Salesforce records and MC Next flow capabilities are sufficient. In particular, I'd appreciate clarification on whether Data 360 is only needed for reporting and analytics, or whether it is also required to access the underlying event-level tracking data. 

Any recommendations, documentation links, or implementation experiences would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone, 

I'm working on a use case in Salesforce Marketing Cloud Engagement and I'm stuck on a specific requirement. Hoping someone has tackled this before. 

A subscriber registers for an event (webinar, meeting, etc.) through a Cloud Page and opts in to receive communications. After registration, the client wants to send them a calendar invitation — not a regular marketing email with an .ics file attached or linked, but an actual calendar invite, like the kind you receive when someone schedules a meeting with you in Outlook or Google Calendar. 

The goal is that when the subscriber receives the email, it should show up as a proper calendar invitation with Accept / Decline / Maybe options, and the event should appear in their calendar in a "tentative" state (grayed out) even before they respond — just like a standard meeting invite from Outlook or Google Meet. 

We can generate an .ics file and include its URL in a button or link inside the email, but clicking that link downloads the file instead of opening it as an invitation directly in the calendar. That's not the experience the client wants. 

Is there a way to send a real calendar invitation from SFMC — either through a specific email format, an SMTP header configuration, or any other mechanism — so that the email client recognizes it as an invite and renders the Accept/Decline UI natively? 

Any pointers to documentation, workarounds, or third-party integrations that could help would be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance!

🪟 It's time for @* Marketing Cloud Engagement * SQL Window Functions: https://mateuszdabrowski.pl/docs/salesforce/marketing-cloud-engagement/sql/sql-window-functions/

Built for SQL power users, with a real-life example in every section: the latest open of each subscriber, the days between two orders, your top 10 customers. Most of us build those with a chain of Query Activities and a staging Data Extension. Deduplication, top N lists and running totals - window functions do it in one query, with a few traps along the way: 

🔵 Nearly everything works. 

ROW_NUMBER, RANK, NTILE, LAG and running totals all run in MCE. Even IGNORE NULLS from SQL Server 2022 works, so the last coupon each subscriber used takes a single function. 

🟠 Ties pick a random winner. 

ROW_NUMBER over two orders from the same day keeps either of them, and the next run can keep the other. There is no error, and your Data Extension changes between runs. End every ORDER BY inside OVER with a unique column. 

🔴 Filtering needs a subquery. 

WHERE ROW_NUMBER() OVER (...) = 1 fails with "Windowed functions can only appear in the SELECT or ORDER BY clauses." The usual fix, a WITH, fails too, as the MCE syntax validation wants SELECT as the first word (sic!). A subquery in FROM does the job. 

Encountering issues? My free and open source

flags them before you run anything and offers fixes with one click.  

Writing SQL with Claude instead? The newly updated

{} MCE SQL Reference doesn't mention JSON at all. @* Marketing Cloud Engagement * SQL reads, changes and builds it anyway. Learn how: https://mateuszdabrowski.pl/docs/salesforce/marketing-cloud-engagement/sql/sql-json-functions/

API payloads, CloudPages submissions and product feeds land in your Data Extensions as JSON. Most of us reach for SSJS to read them and fight against performance, but a Query Activity can do much of that work itself, with a few traps along the way: 

🔵 It builds JSON, too.

Despite documentation, the silently updated SQL Server behind MCE supports 2022 feature set: JSON_OBJECT, JSON_ARRAY and JSON_PATH_EXISTS. FOR JSON PATH turns each subscriber's abandoned cart into one field your email can loop over. 

🟠 Reading has a limit.

JSON_VALUE returns NULL for any value over 4000 characters. 4000 works, 4001 doesn't, and there's no error. OPENJSON would lift the limit, but the MCE syntax validation treats it as a Data Extension name (sic!). 

🔴 Broken JSON stops everything.

One truncated payload fails the whole Query Activity, and the Action Log says only "Automation failed due to system error." Wrap your reads in ISJSON, and the broken records return NULL instead. 

Every output in the article comes from a live test in my Query Studio replacement - SQL Studio - which just got version 1.2: save results straight to a new Data Extension, share snippets across your Business Unit and add a JOIN to your query in one click.

More to come, so keep on querying!