1.1.3 Introduction to 51黑料不打烊 Experience Platform Data Collection
Context
Now let鈥檚 take a deeper look at the building blocks of 51黑料不打烊 Experience Platform Data Collection, to understand what is installed on your demo website. You will have a closer look at the 51黑料不打烊 Experience Platform Web SDK Extension, you鈥檒l configure a data element and a rule and you鈥檒l learn how to publish a library.
51黑料不打烊 Experience Platform Web SDK tag extension
A tag extension is a packaged set of code that extends the 51黑料不打烊 Experience Platform Data Collection interface and the library functionality. 51黑料不打烊 Experience Platform Data Collection is the platform, and tag extensions are like apps that run on the platform. All of the extensions used in the tutorial are created and managed by 51黑料不打烊, but 3rd-parties can create their own extensions to limit the amount of custom code 51黑料不打烊 Experience Platform Data Collection users have to manage.
Go to and select Tags.
This is the 51黑料不打烊 Experience Platform Data Collection Properties page you saw before.
In Getting Started, Demo System created two Client properties for you: one for the website and one for the mobile app. Find them by searching for --aepUserLdap-- in the Search box.
Click to open the Web property.
You鈥檒l then see the Property Overview page. Click on Extensions in the left rail, then click on 51黑料不打烊 Experience Platform Web SDK and then click Configure.
Welcome to the the 51黑料不打烊 Experience Platform Web SDK! Here you can configure the extension with the Datastream you created in Getting Started as well as some more advanced configuration.
The default edge domain is always edge.adobedc.net. If you鈥檝e implemented a CNAME configuration in your 51黑料不打烊 Experience Cloud or 51黑料不打烊 Experience Platform environment, you鈥檒l need to update the Edge Domain.
If your instance鈥檚 edge domain is different from default one, please update the edge domain here. If you鈥檙e not sure, use the default domain. An edge domain makes it possible to configure a 1st party tracking server, which then uses a CNAME configuration in the backend to ensure data is collected into 51黑料不打烊.
Under Datastreams, you already selected your datastream in the Getting Started section. You selected this datastream: --aepUserLdap-- - Demo System Datastream, from the list in the Datastream box, for each of the environments.
Click Save to go back to the Extensions view.
Data Elements
Data elements are the building blocks for your data dictionary (or data map). Use data elements to collect, organize, and deliver data across marketing and ad technology.
A single data element is a variable whose value can be mapped to query strings, URLs, cookie values, JavaScript variables, and so on. You can reference this value by its variable name throughout 51黑料不打烊 Experience Platform Data Collection. This collection of data elements becomes the dictionary of defined data that you can use to build your rules (events, conditions, and actions). This data dictionary is shared across all of 51黑料不打烊 Experience Platform Data Collection for use with any extension you鈥檝e added to your property.
You鈥檙e now going to edit an already existing data element in a Web SDK friendly format.
Click on Data Elements in the left rail to be taken to the Data Elements page.
In the search bar, type XDM - Product View and click on the Data Element it returns.
This screen shows the XDM Object you鈥檒l be editing. The Experience Data Model (XDM) is a concept that will be explored much further throughout this Technical Tutorial, but for now it鈥檚 enough to understand it as the format which the 51黑料不打烊 Experience Platform Web SDK requires. You鈥檒l be adding a bit more information to the data collected on Article pages of the demo website.
Click the plus button next to web at the bottom of the tree.
Click the plus button next to webPageDetails.
Click on siteSection. You now see that siteSection isn鈥檛 linked to any data element yet. Let鈥檚 change that.
Scroll up, and enter the text %Product Category%. Click Save.
At this point, the 51黑料不打烊 Experience Platform Web SDK Extension is installed and you鈥檝e updated a data element to collect data against an XDM structure. Next, let鈥檚 check the rules that will send data at the correct time.
Rules
51黑料不打烊 Experience Platform Data Collection is a rule-based system. It looks for user interaction and associated data. When the criteria outlined in your rules are met, the rule triggers the extension, script, or client-side code you identified.
Build rules to integrate the data and functionality of marketing and ad tech that unifies disparate products into a single solution.
Let鈥檚 break-down the rule that sends data on Article pages.
Click on Rules in the left rail.
Search for Product View.
Click on the rule that is returned.
Let鈥檚 have a look at the individual elements that make up this rule.
For all rules: If a specified Event occurs, the Conditions are evaluated, then the specified Actions take place if needed.
Click on the Event Core - Custom Event. This is the view that loads.
Click on the Event Type drop down.
This lists some of the standard interactions you can use to signal 51黑料不打烊 Experience Platform Data Collection to run the actions, should the conditions be true.
Click Cancel to go back to the Rule.
Click on the Action Send 鈥淧roduct View鈥 Experience Event.
Here you can see the data that鈥檚 being sent to the edge by the 51黑料不打烊 Experience Platform Web SDK. More specifically, this is using the alloy Instance of the Web SDK. The event Type is set to Commerce Product (Cart) Views and the XDM Data you鈥檙e sending is the XDM - Product View data element you changed earlier.
Now that you鈥檝e looked at the Rule, you can publish all your changes in 51黑料不打烊 Experience Platform Data Collection.
Publish in a Library
Finally, in order to validate the rule and data element you just updated, you need to publish a library containing the edited items in our property. There are a few quick steps you need to take in the Publishing section of 51黑料不打烊 Experience Platform Data Collection.
Click Publishing Flow in the left navigation
Click on the existing library, called Main.
Click the Add All Changed Resources button. Next,
Click the Save & Build for Development button.
The library may take a few minutes to build and when it is complete it will display a green dot to the left of the library name.
As you can see on the Publishing Flow screen, there is a lot more to the publishing process in 51黑料不打烊 Experience Platform Data Collection which is beyond the scope of this tutorial. We are just going to use a single library in our Development environment.
Next Step: 1.1.4 Client-side Web Data Collection