Object type mapping terminology and concepts

A domain is the top-level container for your unified customer data. Each domain belongs to a single AWS account and holds its own profiles, object types, keys, encryption settings, and retention configuration. You must create a domain before you can create object types or ingest data. All object types and keys you define are scoped to that domain.

A profile contains all the information known about a specific customer or contact. Each profile includes a single standard profile object and any number of additional profile objects.

A standard profile object is a predefined object that every profile contains. It holds standard fields such as FirstName, LastName, PhoneNumber, EmailAddress, ShippingAddress, and custom Attributes. Because the format is fixed, applications can read profile data the same way regardless of the original source (for example, Salesforce, ServiceNow, or Marketo).

A standard object is a predefined record with a fixed schema that Customer Profiles maintains alongside (or as part of) a profile. The standard profile object is one example; other standard objects represent business entities like assets, orders, cases, loyalty memberships, and travel records. Field Target values write into a standard object—for example, _asset.SerialNumber or _case.Reason. For more information, see Reference for standard objects in Customer Profiles.

A profile object is a single unit of source data attached to a profile—for example, a phone call, a support ticket, or a click-stream record. A profile object can be up to 250 KB and can be any structured JSON document. Profile objects are what you ingest with PutProfileObject.

An object type mapping tells Customer Profiles how to ingest a specific type of data: how source values populate the standard profile object and standard objects, and which fields are indexed and used to assign objects to a profile. For more information, see Field definitions in Customer Profiles object type mappings and Key definitions in Customer Profiles object type mappings.

A field defines a single piece of data extracted from a source object. Each field specifies a source (where to read the value), an optional target (where to write it in the standard profile object), and a content type (how to normalize it for search and matching). For more information, see Field definitions in Customer Profiles object type mappings.

A key is a named combination of one or more fields used to find profiles or objects. Keys are global to a domain, so the same key name in two object type mappings refers to the same logical identifier. Keys drive profile matching during ingestion and power lookups with the SearchProfiles API. For more information, see Key definitions in Customer Profiles object type mappings.

A standard identifier is a tag applied to a key that defines its role during ingestion—for example, UNIQUE (identifies the object instance), PROFILE (used to match a profile), or LOOKUP_ONLY (used to match but not stored). For the full list and combination rules, see Standard identifiers in Customer Profiles.

A content type tells Customer Profiles how to normalize a field value so searches and matches work across formats. Supported values are STRING, NUMBER, PHONE_NUMBER, EMAIL_ADDRESS, and NAME. For example, a PHONE_NUMBER field is normalized so +15551234567 matches (555)-123-4567.

An inferred profile is a profile that Customer Profiles creates automatically when an ingested object can't be matched to any existing profile. Its standard profile object starts mostly empty—only fields Customer Profiles can populate from the ingested object (such as phone or email) are filled in. For more information, see Profile matching and inferred profiles in Customer Profiles.

A mapping template is a predefined object type mapping that ships with Customer Profiles for well-known source objects, such as Connect Customer contact records, Salesforce accounts, ServiceNow users, and Marketo leads. Templates let you ingest data from these sources without defining fields or keys yourself. For the complete list, use the ListProfileObjectTypeTemplates API. For more information, see Mapping templates and implicit object types in Customer Profiles.