Create subscriber - novu.subscribers.identify()

[jinsley8]

When using novu.subscribers.identify() to create a subscriber before sending a notification, will this first check if subscriber already exists and not create a second time?

https://docs.novu.co/overview/quickstart/get-started-with-nextjs#subscribers

If this is called for the first time with email: null, the next time it is called, if email is available, will it just update the subscriber?

await novu.subscribers.identify('123', {
        email: null,
});

What if I call it again for in-app notification just using it without the data object? Will this still identify the same subscriber based solely on id or doesn't it look for email as well?

await novu.subscribers.identify('123');

[michaldziuba03]

If this is called for the first time with email: null, the next time it is called, if email is available, will it just update the subscriber?

I think it performs upserts, so yes it should update the subscriber.

What if I call it again for in-app notification just using it without the data object? Will this still identify the same subscriber based solely on id or doesn't it look for email as well?

I think it always looks for subscriber id. You should be able to safely update email and other fields and expect it will always look for the same user.

[michaldziuba03]

@jinsley8 I just checked source code to be 100% sure.

It always get subscriber ONLY by id and current environment (environment is assigned to the api key), so you can change email and other fields.

if subscriber doesnt exist - then it creates new one
if subscriber exists - performs update

[jinsley8]

Perfect, thank you!

[jinsley8]

And is it best practice to call the identify function before a trigger?

Right now I'm just using triggers by themselves:

await novu.trigger('asset-sold', {
    to: {
        // user id
        subscriberId: sellerAddress.toLowerCase(),
    },
    actor: {
        // uses product id to display a custom product image in the notification
        subscriberId: `${assetAddress.toLowerCase()}:${assetTokenId}`, 
        avatar: assetImage,
    },
    payload: {
        assetName,
        saleToken,
    },
});

[michaldziuba03]

To be honest, I don't think there is any best practices.

https://docs.novu.co/platform/subscribers#create-a-subscriber

We support creating new subscriber using two ways, Ahead of Trigger means adding subscribers before triggering notification or Inline of Trigger means sending complete subscriber data in to field while triggering.

There is just two ways. I can tell what I personally do (it's not any official recommendation):

• in most cases I use "Inline of Trigger".
• sometimes you may want to update subscriber with data not available during trigger (or in completely different context), so I use "Ahead of Trigger".

[jinsley8]

Makes sense, thanks