How to Create a Data Extension from JSON

Note: Deployment Manager was retired in 2022 and replaced with Package Manager.

With Deployment Manager you can create a Data Extension automatically from a JSON file. This is a huge time saver when you’ve got a DE to create with 30+ fields!

This is what the JSON looks like:

[{
	"componentPayloadVersion": 1,
	"componentType": "DataExtension",
	"clusterComponentKey": "DataExtension.1",
	"created": "TIMESTAMP",
	"component": {
		"dataRetentionProperties": {
			"isDeleteAtEndOfRetentionPeriod": false,
			"isRowBasedRetention": false,
			"isResetRetentionPeriodOnImport": false,
			"rowBasedThreshold": 100000000
		},
		"description": "ADD DE DESC",
		"devicePreferenceFieldName": "",
		"name": "ADD DE NAME",
		"status": 0,
		"fields": [{
			"description": "",
			"isHidden": false,
			"isInheritable": false,
			"isNullable": false,
			"isOverridable": false,
			"isPrimaryKey": false,
			"isReadOnly": false,
			"isTemplateField": false,
			"length": 50,
			"masktype": "None",
			"mustOverride": false,
			"name": "FIELD_NAME",
			"ordinal": 0,
			"storagetype": "Plain",
			"type": "Text",
			"clusterComponentKey": "DataExtension.field.X",
			"idClusterComponentKey": "DataExtension.field.id.X"
		}],
		"customerKey": "XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX",
		"isSendable": true,
		"isTestable": false,
		"isFieldModificationAllowed": true,
		"isFieldAdditionAllowed": true,
		"sendableCustomObjectField": "Subscriber Key",
		"sendableSubscriberField": "_SubscriberKey"
	},
	"dependencies": [],
	"namedDependencies": {},
	"metadata": {}
}]

When you select a JSON file to deploy, minify the JSON first to avoid this error:

On the Deploy Snapshot screen this error means there’s a problem with your JSON:

Check these things in the JSON fields array:

ordinal starts at 0 and increments per field
DataExtension.field.X starts at 1 and increments per field
DataExtension.field.id.X starts at 1 and increments per field
Make sure your data types are correct
Decimal types need length and scale key-value pairs
Fields with type EmailAddress should have 254 chars max
Number and Decimal fields should have null for length
Change the customerKey to something random that’s not already in use, if attempting to re-deploy a DE that already exists