Aviary's customizable SDK powers cross-platform photo editing for over 4,500 partners and over 50 million monthly active users across the globe. Some of our notable partners include Walgreens, Squarespace, Yahoo Mail, Flickr, Photobucket, and Wix. Aviary's network has grown to thousands of partners and over 50 million active users since the fall of 2011. To optimize the photo editing experience, we recently built a content delivery system that targets users with customized effects, stickers, frames, etc. Today, we can distribute targeted content based on a seamlessly extendable set of parameters, including a user's location, language, app, and device.

1. Content Delivery
At Aviary
MongoDb User Group 11/19/13

2. Aviary
Photo-Editing
SDK & Apps
Fully-Baked UI
Configurable, High-Quality Tools
Over 5,000 Partners
Over 50 Million Monthly Users
Over 4 Billion Photos Edited
iOS, Android, Web, Windows, Server
J

3. Who Are We?
Nir
Jack
Lead Serverside
Director of
Engineer
Engineering
Likes:
●
●
●
Automated deployment
Big-O notation
Brainteasers
Hates:
●
Cilantro
Likes:
●
●
●
Parallelizing processes
DRY code
Seltzer
Hates:
●
Food after the sell-by date

4. Content
Effects
Frames
Stickers
Messages
J

5. The “Fat Tiny” Situation
We want to dynamically deliver the Fat Tiny
stickers to our users
How can we do that?
J

6. The CDS
Aviary’s Content Delivery System

7. Version 1
● Static files on S3
● Excess data sent
● Data stored in MySQL
● New features meant new code
N

8. The “Fat Tiny” Situation
We want to display the Fat Tiny sticker pack only
to Picstitch users in Japan who use iOS 7
How can we do that?
N

9. CDS V2
Version 2 Overview

10. Stack
Global
Users
Akamai
AWS Cloud Formation
AWS Elastic LoadBalancer (ELB)
Node.js
AWS Elastic Cloud Computing (EC2)
Ubuntu
Bash
MongoDb
JSON
JSON Schema
Content
Delivery
Network
Load Balancer
API
Servers
Database
Cluster
Management
System
N

11. Why MongoDB?
● Great with Node (JSON-based)
● Schema-less is easy to change/query
● Read-heavy
● Relatively small data set
N

12. How It Works
A Behind-the-Scenes Look

13. Delivered Types
● Manifest JSON
○ Content Set
○ Content Versions
● Content JSON
○ Content Metadata
○ All Assets
N

14. The “Fat Tiny” Situation
We want to manage the Fat Tiny sticker pack
as a single entity, but we want to deliver it to
each device in its own
optimal format.
How can we do that?
N

15. Response Formatting Model
Content Entry
Response Formats
Responses
JSON document describing
content item
JSON documents defining mappings
from entry to responses
Actual JSON responses
delivered to devices
J

16. Content Formats
● JSON schema
{
"type":"object",
"properties":{
"metadata": {
● Added properties
"type": "object",
"properties":{
"displayName": {
"type": "string",
● Custom types
}
}
},
● Validates entries
"icon": {
"type": "object",
"customType": "image"
"properties":{
"path": {
"type": "string",
"required": true,
J

17. Response Formats
● JSON schema
{
"type":"object",
"properties":{
"identifier": {
● dataKey property
"type": "string",
"dataKey": "identifier"
},
● Defines response
"name": {
"type": "string",
"dataKey": "metadata.displayName"
},
structure
"iconImagePath": {
"type": "string",
"dataKey": "icon.path-100"
● Maps content
},
"items": {
"type": "array",
"dataKey": "items"
J

18. Content Deployment
1. Insert/Update CMS Entry
"identifier": "com.aviary.stickers.234fe"
2. Find Response Formats
"type":"object",
"id": "com.aviary.stickers.234fe",
"properties":{
"metadata": {
"displayName": "Hats"
"name": "Hats",
"id": {
"type": "string",
},
"dataKey": "identifier"
"icon": {
"path": "cds/hats/icon.png"
"iconImagePath": "cds/hats/icon100.png"
"stickers": [
{
},
"identifier": "1"
"name": {
"path-100": "cds/hats/icon100.png"
"type": "string",
},
"imageUrl": "cds/hats/1.png"
"dataKey": "metadata.displayName"
"items": [
},
{
"type": "string",
"imageUrl": "cds/hats/1.png"
}
}
],
"iconImagePath": {
"identifier": "1"
]
3. Generate+Insert Responses
"versionKey": "e4532fd342"
"dataKey": "icon.path-100"
},
"stickers": {
"type": "array",
"dataKey": "items"
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19. Manifests
"stickers": [
{
"id": "com.aviary.stickers.234fe",
"versionKey": "e4532fd342"
},
{
"id": "com.aviary.stickers.fed34",
"versionKey": "c54532343d"
}
],
"frames": [
{
"id": "com.aviary.frames.25435",
"versionKey": "fd4324323"
}
]
J

20. Manifest Deployment
Using Aggregate to Find the Newest Versions
Manifest with Correct Version Keys
{
$match:{
"stickers": [
{
formatId:{$in:formatIds},
"id": "com.aviary.stickers.234fe",
identifier:{$in:identifiers}
"versionKey": "e4532fd342"
}
}
},
],
{
$sort: { _id: -1 }
"effects": [
{
},
"id": "com.aviary.effects.25435",
{
"versionKey": "fd4324323"
$group: {
}
_id: "$identifier",
versionKey:{$first:"$versionKey"}
]
}
}
J

21. Scopes and Targeting
Deployed Manifests Have Scopes
End Users Have Scope Parameters
Manifest 1
"targetingScope": {
"apiKey": "abc",
"country": ["JP"]
},
/manifest?
"formattingScope": {
"platform": "ios",
"minOsVersion": "7.0.0"
}
apiKey=abc&
country=JP&
language=ja&
platform=ios&
Manifest 2
osVersion=7.2.0
"targetingScope": {
"apiKey": "def",
},
"formattingScope": {
"platform": "android",
"minOsVersion": "6.0.0"
}
N

22. API Servers
Scope parameters are converted into queries
Manifest 1
"targetingScope": {
db.manifest.find({
"apiKey": "abc",
"apiKey": {$in: ["abc", null]},
/manifest?
country=JP&
"formattingScope": {
"platform": {$in: ["ios", null]},
7002000
"platform": "ios",
"minOsVersion": {$lte: 7002000}
language=ja&
osVersion=7.2.0
},
"language": {$in: ["ja", null]},
apiKey=abc&
platform=ios&
"country": ["JP"]
"country": {$in: ["JP", null]},
"minOsVersion": "7.0.0"
}).sort({
}
"apiKey": -1,
Manifest 2
"language": -1,
"targetingScope": {
"country": -1,
"apiKey": "abc",
"minOsVersion": -1,
},
"platform": -1,
"formattingScope": {
"_id": -1
"platform": "ios",
}).limit(1)
"minOsVersion": "6.0.0"
}
N

23. Versioned Content
Received Manifests Contain VersionKeys
"stickers": [
{
"id": "com.aviary.stickers.234fe",
"versionKey": "e4532fd342"
},
{
"id": "com.aviary.stickers.fed34",
"versionKey": "c54532343d"
db.content.findOne({
/content?
versionKey=e4532fd342
}
"versionKey": “e4532fd342”
});
],
"frames": [
{
"id": "com.aviary.frames.25435",
"versionKey": "fd4324323"
}
]
N

24. Response Caching
db.manifests.find({
/manifest?
"apiKey": {$in: ["abc", null]},
apiKey=abc&
"country": {$in: ["JP", null]},
country=JP&
"language": {$in: ["ja", null]},
language=ja&
"platform": {$in: ["ios", null]},
platform=ios&
"minOsVersion": {$gte: 7002000}
osVersion=7.2.0
}).sort({
…,
"_id": -1
}).limit(1)
db.cachedManifests.findOne({
"url": "/manifest?apiKey=abc&country=JP&language=ja&osVersion=7.2.0&platform=ios"
})
N

25. PAULA
The CDS Management Console

26. Auto-generated UI
J

27. Other Mongo Usage
● PAULA permissions in user objects
users collection
{
"name": "nir",
"email": "nir@aviary.com",
"permissions": [
"content",
"dev",
"admin",
"partying"
]
}
● Integration tests interact with schemaless db willy nilly
N

28. Conclusion
The Takeaway

29. The Facts
● Built and deployed in 3 months
● Very few struggles with MongoDB
● Seamless management
● Graceful scaling from 0 to over 20M MAUs
● Happy serverside engineers
J

30. The Future
● Targeted Translations
● Granular User Targeting
● PAULA for the masses
N

31. Questions?
Comments also welcome
nir@aviary.com
jack@aviary.com
…and by the way, WE’RE HIRING!