Members

A member is an individual user within a memberbase. Members are identified by a ref — an external reference string that you control. This ref is the primary key you use to look up, update, and target individual members. Publisher does not generate or enforce any format for refs; they can be email addresses, UUIDs, account numbers, or any string meaningful to your system.

Member References

The ref field is your primary key for a member within a base. It must be unique within the memberbase but can be any string value meaningful to your system:

• User IDs: "user_12345"
• Email addresses: "jane@example.com"
• External system identifiers: "crm-contact-789"

Creating Members

Members are created by upserting them into a memberbase. The bulk upsert endpoint accepts an array of member objects, each identified by their ref. If a member with a given ref already exists in the memberbase, their record is updated; otherwise a new member is created. This idempotent design means you can synchronise your member list on a schedule without worrying about duplicate creation or conflict errors.

{
  "member_base_id": "base_abc123",
  "members": [
    { "ref": "user_001" },
    { "ref": "user_002" },
    { "ref": "user_003" }
  ]
}

Querying Members

• Get a single member by member_base_id and ref
• List members with filters and pagination

The members list endpoint supports filtering by ref and pagination for efficiently working with large audiences.

Attributes

Members can carry attributes defined by the memberbase's attribute schema. These attributes are used by the delivery engine for targeting and personalisation. Member attributes can be updated individually or in bulk, and changes take effect immediately for subsequent delivery decisions.

Deleting Members

Use the bulk delete endpoint to remove members by reference. Deleting a member removes all associated attributes and transaction history.