Confluent Cloud

Overview

The OneSignal + Confluent Cloud integration enables automatic syncing of custom events from your managed Kafka topics to OneSignal. This allows you to trigger automated Journeys and personalized messaging campaigns based on real-time user behavioral data flowing through your Confluent Cloud streaming platform.

Requirements

Access to Event Streams for outbound message events (Plan limitations and overages apply)
Access to Custom Events for inbound event syncing (Plan limitations and overages apply)
Updated Account Plan (not available on free apps)

Confluent Cloud cluster with active topics
API credentials with read access to event topics
Schema Registry (optional, for structured event schemas)
Event topics containing behavioral data with proper message format

Setup

Create API credentials in Confluent Cloud

Generate API credentials for OneSignal in your Confluent Cloud console:

Navigate to Data Integration > API Keys in Confluent Cloud
Click Create key and select Global access
Save the API Key and API Secret (you’ll need these for OneSignal)
Note your Bootstrap servers endpoint from your cluster settings

Configure topic ACLs (if using granular permissions)

Grant OneSignal read access to specific topics containing event data:

confluent kafka acl create \
  --allow \
  --service-account <ONESIGNAL_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_ID> \
  --operation READ \
  --topic <EVENT_TOPIC_NAME>

confluent kafka acl create \
  --allow \
  --service-account <ONESIGNAL_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_ID> \
  --operation DESCRIBE \
  --topic <EVENT_TOPIC_NAME>

Add integration in OneSignal

In OneSignal, go to Data > Integrations and click Add Integration.Select Confluent Cloud and provide:

Bootstrap Servers: Your Confluent Cloud cluster endpoint
API Key: Confluent Cloud API key
API Secret: Confluent Cloud API secret
Consumer Group: Unique group ID for OneSignal (e.g., onesignal-events)
Schema Registry URL (optional): If using Confluent Schema Registry

Configure event topics

Specify the Confluent Cloud topics containing your event data:

Topic Names: Comma-separated list of topics to consume (e.g., user-events,purchase-events)
Event Format: JSON, Avro, or Protobuf message format
Schema Registry: Enable if using structured schemas

Your event messages should contain:

Event name/type (String)
User identifier (String)
Event timestamp (Long/ISO format)
Additional event properties (nested JSON)

Test the connection

Click Test Connection to verify OneSignal can connect to your Confluent Cloud cluster and consume event messages.

Event data mapping

Map your Confluent Cloud to OneSignal’s custom events format:

OneSignal Field	Description	Required
`name`	`event_name`	Event identifier	Yes
`external_id`	`user_id`	User identifier	Yes
`timestamp`	`event_timestamp`	When event occurred	No
`properties`	`event_data`	No

The Sync Key is the column you designate as the unique identifier for each row during sync. OneSignal uses it to detect whether a row has already been processed, so re-syncing your data doesn’t create duplicate events. Choose a column with a unique text value per row. Don’t use a boolean or a value that repeats across rows.

Advanced Configuration

Schema Registry Integration

Leverage Confluent Schema Registry for structured event data:

{
  "schema": "user_event_schema_v1",
  "data": {
    "event_name": "purchase",
    "user_id": "user_12345",
    "event_timestamp": 1640995200000,
    "properties": {
      "product_id": "prod_abc123",
      "amount": 29.99,
      "currency": "USD"
    }
  }
}

Consumer Group Management

OneSignal creates a dedicated consumer group to track message offsets:

Auto-commit: Offsets committed automatically after successful processing
Error Handling: Failed messages logged with retry mechanism
Scaling: Partitions balanced across OneSignal consumer instances

Real-time Processing

Confluent Cloud enables near real-time event activation:

Low Latency: Events processed within seconds of being published
High Throughput: Handles thousands of events per second
Fault Tolerance: Built-in replication and automatic failover

Ensure your Confluent Cloud cluster has sufficient throughput capacity to handle OneSignal’s consumption rate alongside your other consumers.

FAQ

How often does OneSignal consume events from Confluent Cloud?

OneSignal consumes events in real-time as they arrive in your topics, with minimal latency (typically under 5 seconds).

Can I consume from multiple topics simultaneously?

Yes, OneSignal can consume from multiple topics in parallel. Specify topic names as a comma-separated list in the configuration.

What happens if OneSignal can’t connect to Confluent Cloud?

OneSignal will retry connections with exponential backoff. Event consumption will resume automatically once connectivity is restored.

First steps & settings

Message channels

Journeys

OneSignal AI

Audience & events

Analytics & Integrations

Privacy & Security

Confluent Cloud

Overview

Requirements

Confluent Cloud

Setup

Event data mapping

Advanced Configuration

Schema Registry Integration

Consumer Group Management

Real-time Processing

FAQ

How often does OneSignal consume events from Confluent Cloud?

Can I consume from multiple topics simultaneously?

What happens if OneSignal can’t connect to Confluent Cloud?

​Overview

​Requirements

​Confluent Cloud

​Setup

​Event data mapping

​Advanced Configuration

​Schema Registry Integration

​Consumer Group Management

​Real-time Processing

​FAQ

​How often does OneSignal consume events from Confluent Cloud?

​Can I consume from multiple topics simultaneously?

​What happens if OneSignal can’t connect to Confluent Cloud?

Overview

Requirements

Confluent Cloud

Setup

Event data mapping

Advanced Configuration

Schema Registry Integration

Consumer Group Management

Real-time Processing

FAQ

How often does OneSignal consume events from Confluent Cloud?

Can I consume from multiple topics simultaneously?

What happens if OneSignal can’t connect to Confluent Cloud?