Processing rules overview

Processing rules simplify data collection and manage content as it is sent to reporting. Processing rules help simplify interaction with IT groups and Web developers by providing an interface to:

Processing Rules Permissions section_8A4846688050453784DAE4D89355169A

Administrators have rights to use processing rules by default. Administrators can also grant these rights to non-administrators through the Admin Tools interface. For instructions, see []

Use Context Data to Simplify Data Collection section_09EEA03612D24C15839631AA9E9668D8

Context data variables are a type of variable that are available only to processing rules. To use context data variables, key/value data pairs are sent in by your implementation, and processing rules are used to capture these values in standard Analytics variables. This frees programmers from understanding exactly which prop and/or eVar should contain which value.

s.contextData['author'] = "Robert Munch";
s.contextData['section'] = "Books";
s.contextData['genre'] = "Youth";

Once set in code, you can set processing rules to assign values to variables. For example:

See contextData in the Implement user guide for more information.

Use Processing Rules to Transform Hit Data and Trigger Events section_8284E72E999244E091CD7FB1A22342B6

Processing rules can monitor incoming values to transform common typos and set events based on reported data. Props can be copied to eVars. Values can be concatenated for reports, and events can be set.

Using Context Data Variables in Reporting section_BD098BC503024A0B8703596628071134

Once context data variables are defined within your implementation, they must be copied to variables such as eVars to be used in reporting.

See Copy a context data variable to an eVar and Set an event using a context data variable for more information.

Known limitations

Use of carats (^) in processing rules. If you want to use carats in processing rules as delimiters or for other purposes, each single carat must be represented by two carats. For example, represent a single carat as ^^, a double carat as ^^^^, etc.