Comparing bulk event export and raw recipient data export

Compare bulk event export (BEX) and the raw recipient data export (RRDE) API call to see which option is best for you.

Comparing BEX and RRDE

Bulk Event Export (BEX) - is a feature where the Org Admin users of the organization can define specific export jobs for the events generated for or by the contacts of a specific database.

Once this job is defined, the user will start receiving the event exports in a file on FTP, at a frequency set in the job definition.

RawRecipientDataExport (RRDE) – is an XML API feature that allows for the exporting of unique contact-level events and creates a compressed file that contains a single flat file with all metrics. You can request all (or a subset) of the Event Types.

Deciding if you should use BEX or RRDE depends on which features you want to use for your reporting. Let's look at a comparison of both BEX and RRDE.

Note: BEX jobs can only be created through the API at this time.
Table 1. BEX and RRDE Comparison
Feature BEX RRDE
Organization Enabled Yes - The organization must be enabled for Bulk Export (BEX). Contact Client Support to request enablement for your Org. No – all organizations have API access. No further enablement is required.
User Level Org Admin - The organization admin user is the only user type allowed to submit a request to the BEX Job Creation API. All user levels can access this API.
FTP Dependent

Yes - The organization admin user has logged in to FTP once and the folder for the user exists.

 No – event export files may optionally be placed within the Stored Files area of the user submitting the export request.
Email Recipient Events Only works with
  • emailClick
  • emailSend
  • emailSuppressed
  • emailOpen
  • emailBounce
  • emailOptOut

Works with all available email channel events or a subset of the Event Types that the user specifies.

  • One or more mailings
  • One or more Mailing/Report ID combinations (for Autoresponders)
  • A specific database (optional – include related queries)
  • A specific Group of Automated Messages
  • An Event Date Range
  • A Mailing Data Range

SMS and Push events are not supported.
Job Creation Limitations Yes - jobs can be created using an API for any supported database by any Org Admin for themselves or another Org Admin user. No – any user with access can run this API call.
Database Limitations

No - The event export request job is only supported for restricted and flexible databases, as well as for single and double opt-in databases if enabled for the Org.

 No – any database can be used.
Job and Database Definitions Yes - Only one BEX job can be defined for a database, multiple jobs for the same database are not supported. No – Multiple RRDE calls can be defined for a database. Multiple jobs for the same database are supported.
Name Definitions

Yes - A user can define the name of a file, the format, job frequency, mailingTypes and up to 5 additional database columns to be exported in the file.

 Yes – Required and optional elements are available.
Job Frequency Yes - BEX will generate a temporary (.tmp) file which will be updated with events as they occur. At the end of the job frequency, BEX will convert it to the format requested by the user i.e. CSV/TSV/PSV and leave it at the same ftp folder. Once set, the job will keep running for that database for a set frequency unless edited or deleted at any point in time.
Note: A user may see more than one file for a particular job frequency due to internal handling in the file processor where the event flow may have faced errors. Files are closed in case of error and new files with an identifier '_<number>' is created.
 Yes – all specified info is available immediately upon the completion of the single occurring data job created by the API request. An additional request is required for an additional job to be created; RRDE does not support automated job frequencies.