Documentation Experience Platform Web SDK Guide

Client-side logging for A4T data in the Platform Web SDK

Last update: Wed Jul 19 2023 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

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Overview overview

The Adobe Experience Platform Web SDK allows you to collect Adobe Analytics for Target (A4T) data on the client side of your web application.

Client-side logging means that relevant Target data is returned on the client side, allowing you to collect it and share it with Analytics. This option should be enabled if you intend to manually send data to Analytics using the Data Insertion API.

NOTE

A method for performing this using AppMeasurement.js is currently under development and will be available in the near future.

This document covers the steps for setting up client-side A4T logging for the Web SDK and provides some implementation examples for common use cases.

Prerequisites prerequisites

This tutorial assumes that you are familiar with the fundamental concepts and processes related to using the Web SDK for personalization purposes. Please review the following documentation if you require an introduction:

Set up Analytics client-side logging set-up-client-side-logging

The following subsections outline how to enable Analytics client-side logging for your Web SDK implementation.

Enable Analytics client-side logging enable-analytics-client-side-logging

To consider Analytics client-side logging enabled for your implementation, you must disable the Adobe Analytics configuration in your datastream.

Analytics datastream configuration disabled

Retrieve A4T data from the SDK and send it to Analytics a4t-to-analytics

In order for this reporting method to work properly, you must send the A4T related data retrieved from the sendEvent command in the Analytics hit.

When Target Edge computes a propositions response, it checks if Analytics client-side logging is enabled (i.e. if Analytics is disabled in your datastream). If client-side logging is enabled, the system adds an Analytics token to each proposition in the response.

The flow looks similar to this:

Client-side logging flow

The following is an example of an interact response when Analytics client-side logging is enabled. If the proposition is for an activity that has Analytics reporting, it will have a scopeDetails.characteristics.analyticsToken property.

{
  "requestId": "1234",
  "handle": [
    {
      "payload": [
        {
          "id": "AT:eyJhY3Rpdml0eUlkIjoiNDM0Njg5IiwiZXhwZXJpZW5jZUlkIjoiMCJ9",
          "scope": "a4t-test",
          "scopeDetails": {
            "decisionProvider": "TGT",
            "activity": {
              "id": "434689"
            },
            "experience": {
              "id": "0"
            },
            "strategies": [
              {
                "algorithmID": "0",
                "trafficType": "0"
              }
            ],
            "characteristics": {
              "eventToken": "2lTS5KA6gj4JuSjOdhqUhGqipfsIHvVzTQxHolz2IpTMromRrB5ztP5VMxjHbs7c6qPG9UF4rvQTJZniWgqbOw==",
              "analyticsToken": "434689:0:0|2,434689:0:0|1"
            }
          },
          "items": [
            {
              "id": "1184844",
              "schema": "https://ns.adobe.com/personalization/html-content-item",
              "meta": {
                "geo.state": "bucuresti",
                "activity.id": "434689",
                "experience.id": "0",
                "activity.name": "a4t test form based activity",
                "offer.id": "1184844",
                "profile.tntId": "04608610399599289452943468926942466370-pybgfJ"
              },
              "data": {
                "id": "1184844",
                "format": "text/html",
                "content": "<div> analytics impressions </div>"
              }
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "id": "AT:eyJhY3Rpdml0eUlkIjoiNDM0Njg5IiwiZXhwZXJpZW5jZUlkIjoiMCJ9",
          "scope": "a4t-test",
          "scopeDetails": {
            "decisionProvider": "TGT",
            "activity": {
              "id": "434689"
            },
            "characteristics": {
              "eventToken": "E0gb6q1+WyFW3FMbbQJmrg==",
              "analyticsToken": "434689:0:0|32767"
            }
          },
          "items": [
            {
              "id": "434689",
              "schema": "https://ns.adobe.com/personalization/measurement",
              "data": {
                "type": "click",
                "format": "application/vnd.adobe.target.metric"
              }
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "type": "personalization:decisions",
      "eventIndex": 0
    }
  ]
}

Propositions for Form-based Experience Composer activities can contain both content and click metric items under the same proposition. Thus, instead of having a single analytics token for content display in scopeDetails.characteristics.analyticsToken property, these can have both a display and a click analytics token specified in scopeDetails.characteristics.analyticsDisplayToken and scopeDetails.characteristics.analyticsClickToken properties, correspondingly.

{
  "requestId": "1234",
  "handle": [
    {
      "payload": [
        {
          "id": "AT:eyJhY3Rpdml0eUlkIjoiNDM0Njg5IiwiZXhwZXJpZW5jZUlkIjoiMCJ9",
          "scope": "a4t-test",
          "scopeDetails": {
            "decisionProvider": "TGT",
            "activity": {
              "id": "434689"
            },
            "experience": {
              "id": "0"
            },
            "strategies": [
              {
                "algorithmID": "0",
                "trafficType": "0"
              }
            ],
            "characteristics": {
               "displayToken": "2lTS5KA6gj4JuSjOdhqUhGqipfsIHvVzTQxHolz2IpTMromRrB5ztP5VMxjHbs7c6qPG9UF4rvQTJZniWgqbOw==",
               "clickToken": "E0gb6q1+WyFW3FMbbQJmrg==",
               "analyticsDisplayToken": "434689:0:0|2,434689:0:0|1",
               "analyticsClickToken": "434689:0:0|32767"
            }
          },
          "items": [
            {
              "id": "1184844",
              "schema": "https://ns.adobe.com/personalization/html-content-item",
              "meta": {
                "geo.state": "bucuresti",
                "activity.id": "434689",
                "experience.id": "0",
                "activity.name": "a4t test form based activity",
                "offer.id": "1184844",
                "profile.tntId": "04608610399599289452943468926942466370-pybgfJ"
              },
              "data": {
                "id": "1184844",
                "format": "text/html",
                "content": "<div> analytics impressions </div>"
              }
            },
            {
              "id": "434689",
              "schema": "https://ns.adobe.com/personalization/measurement",
              "data": {
                "type": "click",
                "format": "application/vnd.adobe.target.metric"
              }
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "type": "personalization:decisions",
      "eventIndex": 0
    }
  ]
}

All the values from scopeDetails.characteristics.analyticsToken, as well as scopeDetails.characteristics.analyticsDisplayToken (for displayed content) and scopeDetails.characteristics.analyticsClickToken (for click metrics) are the A4T payloads that need to be collected and included as tnta tag in the Data Insertion API call.

IMPORTANT

The analyticsToken, analyticsDisplayToken, analyticsClickToken properties can contain multiple tokens, concatenated as a single comma-delineated string.

In the implementation examples provided in the next section, multiple Analytics tokens are being collected iteratively. To concatenate an array of Analytics tokens, use a function similar this:

code language-javascript

code language-javascript
`var concatenateAnalyticsPayloads = function concatenateAnalyticsPayloads(analyticsPayloads) { if (analyticsPayloads.size > 1) { return [].concat(analyticsPayloads).join(','); } return [].concat(analyticsPayloads).join(); };`

var concatenateAnalyticsPayloads = function concatenateAnalyticsPayloads(analyticsPayloads) {
  if (analyticsPayloads.size > 1) {
    return [].concat(analyticsPayloads).join(',');
  }
  return [].concat(analyticsPayloads).join();
};

Implementation examples implementation-examples

The following subsections demonstrate how to implement Analytics client-side logging for common use cases.

Form-Based Experience Composer activities form-based-composer

You can use the Web SDK to control the execution of propositions from Adobe Target Form-Based Experience Composer activities.

When you request propositions for a specific decision scope, the proposition returned contains its appropriate Analytics token. Best practice is to chain the Platform Web SDK sendEvent command and iterate through the returned propositions to execute them while collecting the Analytics tokens at the same time.

You can trigger a sendEvent command for a Form-Based Experience Composer activity scope like this:

alloy("sendEvent", {
    "decisionScopes": ["a4t-test"],
    "xdm": {
      "web": {
        "webPageDetails": {
          "name": "Home Page"
        }
      }
    }
  }
).then(function(results) {
  for (var i = 0; i < results.propositions.length; i++) {
    //Execute the propositions and collect the Analytics payload
  }
});

From here, you must implement code to execute the propositions and construct a payload that will ultimately be sent to Analytics. This is an example of what results.propositions might contain:

[
  {
    "id": "AT:eyJhY3Rpdml0eUlkIjoiNDM0Njg5IiwiZXhwZXJpZW5jZUlkIjoiMCJ9",
    "scope": "a4t-test",
    "scopeDetails": {
      "decisionProvider": "TGT",
      "activity": {
        "id": "434689"
      },
      "experience": {
        "id": "0"
      },
      "strategies": [
        {
          "algorithmID": "0",
          "trafficType": "0"
        }
      ],
      "characteristics": {
        "eventToken": "2lTS5KA6gj4JuSjOdhqUhGqipfsIHvVzTQxHolz2IpTMromRrB5ztP5VMxjHbs7c6qPG9UF4rvQTJZniWgqbOw==",
        "analyticsToken": "434689:0:0|2,434689:0:0|1"
      }
    },
    "items": [
      {
        "id": "1184844",
        "schema": "https://ns.adobe.com/personalization/html-content-item",
        "meta": {
          "geo.state": "bucuresti",
          "activity.id": "434689",
          "experience.id": "0",
          "activity.name": "a4t test form based activity",
          "offer.id": "1184844",
          "profile.tntId": "04608610399599289452943468926942466370-pybgfJ"
        },
        "data": {
          "id": "1184844",
          "format": "text/html",
          "content": "<div> analytics impressions </div>"
        }
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "id": "AT:eyJhY3Rpdml0eUlkIjoiNDM0Njg5IiwiZXhwZXJpZW5jZUlkIjoiMCJ9",
    "scope": "a4t-test",
    "scopeDetails": {
      "decisionProvider": "TGT",
      "activity": {
        "id": "434689"
      },
      "characteristics": {
        "eventToken": "E0gb6q1+WyFW3FMbbQJmrg==",
        "analyticsToken": "434689:0:0|32767"
      }
    },
    "items": [
      {
        "id": "434689",
        "schema": "https://ns.adobe.com/personalization/measurement",
        "data": {
          "type": "click",
          "format": "application/vnd.adobe.target.metric"
        }
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "id": "AT:eyJhY3Rpdml0eUlkIjoiNDM0Njg5IiwiZXhwZXJpZW5jZUlkIjoiMCJ9",
    "scope": "a4t-test",
    "scopeDetails": {
      "decisionProvider": "TGT",
      "activity": {
        "id": "434688"
      },
      "experience": {
        "id": "0"
      },
      "strategies": [
        {
          "algorithmID": "0",
          "trafficType": "0"
        }
      ],
      "characteristics": {
          "displayToken": "91TS5KA6gj4JuSjOdhqUhGqipfsIHvVzTQxHolz2IpTMromRrB5ztP5VMxjHbs7c6qPG9UF4rvQTJZniWgqgEt==",
          "clickToken": "Tagb6q1+WyFW3FMbbQJrtg==",
          "analyticsDisplayTokens": "434688:0:0|2,434688:0:0|1",
          "analyticsClickTokens": "434688:0:0|32767"
        }
      }
    },
    "items": [
      {
        "id": "1184845",
        "schema": "https://ns.adobe.com/personalization/html-content-item",
        "meta": {
          "geo.state": "bucuresti",
          "activity.id": "434688",
          "experience.id": "0",
          "activity.name": "a4t test form based activity 1",
          "offer.id": "1184845"
        },
        "data": {
          "id": "1184845",
          "format": "text/html",
          "content": "<div> analytics impressions 1</div>"
        }
      },
      {
        "id": "434688",
        "schema": "https://ns.adobe.com/personalization/measurement",
        "data": {
          "type": "click",
          "format": "application/vnd.adobe.target.metric"
        }
      }
    ]
  }
]

To extract the Analytics token from a proposition with content items, you can implement a function similar to the following:

function getDisplayAnalyticsPayload(proposition) {
  if (!proposition || !proposition.scopeDetails || !proposition.scopeDetails.characteristics) {
    return;
  }
  var characteristics = proposition.scopeDetails.characteristics;
  if (characteristics.analyticsDisplayToken) {
    return characteristics.analyticsDisplayToken;
  }
  return characteristics.analyticsToken;
}

A proposition can have different types of items, as indicated by the schema property of the item in question. There are four proposition item schemas supported for Form-Based Experience Composer activities:

var HTML_SCHEMA = "https://ns.adobe.com/personalization/html-content-item";
var MEASUREMENT_SCHEMA = "https://ns.adobe.com/personalization/measurement";
var JSON_SCHEMA = "https://ns.adobe.com/personalization/json-content-item";
var REDIRECT_SCHEMA = "https://ns.adobe.com/personalization/redirect-item";

HTML_SCHEMA and JSON_SCHEMA are the schemas that reflect the type of the offer, while MEASUREMENT_SCHEMA reflects the metrics that should be attached to a DOM element.

Analytics payloads for click metrics should be collected and sent to Analytics separately from content items, at the moment when the visitor actually clicks on the previously displayed content.

The following helper function for getting the click metric A4T payloads will come in handy in this case:

function getClickAnalyticsPayload(proposition) {
  if (!proposition || !proposition.scopeDetails || !proposition.scopeDetails.characteristics) {
    return;
  }
  var characteristics = proposition.scopeDetails.characteristics;
  if (characteristics.analyticsClickToken) {
    return characteristics.analyticsClickToken;
  }
  return characteristics.analyticsToken;
}

Implementation summary implementation-summary

In summary, the following steps must be executed when applying Form-Based Experience Composer activities with the Platform Web SDK:

Send an event that fetches Form-Based Experience Composer activity offers;
Apply the content changes to the page;
Send the decisioning.propositionDisplay notification event;
Collect the Analytics display tokens from the SDK response and construct a payload for the Analytics hit;
Send the payload to Analytics using the Data Insertion API;
If there are any click metrics in delivered propositions, click listeners should be setup so that when a click is performed, it sends the decisioning.propositionInteract notification event. The onBeforeEventSend handler should be configured so that when intercepting decisioning.propositionInteract events, the following actions happen:
1. Collecting the click Analytics tokens from xdm._experience.decisioning.propositions
2. Sending the click Analytics hit with the collected Analytics payload via Data Insertion API;

alloy("sendEvent", {
    "decisionScopes": ["a4t-test"],
    "xdm": {
      "web": {
        "webPageDetails": {
          "name": "Home Page"
        }
      }
    }
  }
).then(function(results) {
  var analyticsPayload = new Set();
  results.propositions.forEach(function (proposition) {
    proposition.items.forEach(function (item) {
      if (item.schema === HTML_SCHEMA) {
        // 1. Apply offer
        // 2. Collect executed propositions and send the decisioning.propositionDisplay notification event
        // 3. Collect the display Analytics tokens
      }
      if (item.schema === MEASUREMENT_SCHEMA) {
        // Setup click listener, so that when clicked:
        // 1. Collect clicked propositions and send the decisioning.propositionInteract notification event
        // Note: onBeforeEventSend handler should be configured, so that when intercepting decisioning.propositionInteract events:
        //   1. Collect the click Analytics tokens from xdm._experience.decisioning.propositions
        //   2. Send the click Analytics hit with the collected Analytics payload via Data Insertion API
      }
    });
  });
  // Send the page view Analytics hit with the collected display Analytics payload via Data Insertion API
});

Visual Experience Composer activities visual-experience-composer-acitivties

The Web SDK allows you to handle offers that were authored using Visual Experience Composer (VEC).

NOTE

The steps for implementing this use case are very similar to the steps for Form-Based Experience Composer activities. Please review the previous section for further details.

When auto rendering is enabled, you can collect the Analytics tokens from the propositions that were executed on the page. Best practice is to chain the Platform Web SDK sendEvent command and iterate through the returned propositions to filter those that the Web SDK has attempted to render.

Example

alloy("sendEvent", {
    "renderDecisions": true,
    "xdm": {
      "web": {
        "webPageDetails": {
          "name": "Home Page"
        }
      }
    }
  }
).then(function (results) {
  var analyticsPayloads = new Set();

  for (var i = 0; i < results.propositions.length; i++) {

    var proposition = propositions[i];
    var renderAttempted = proposition.renderAttempted;

    if (renderAttempted === true) {
      var analyticsPayload = getDisplayAnalyticsPayload(proposition);

      if (analyticsPayload !== undefined) {
        analyticsPayloads.add(analyticsPayload);
      }
    }
  }
  var analyticsPayloadsToken = concatenateAnalyticsPayloads(analyticsPayloads);
  // Send the page view Analytics hit with collected Analytics payload via Data Insertion API
});

Using `onBeforeEventSend` to handle page metrics using-onbeforeeventsend

Using Adobe Target activities, you can set up different metrics on the page, either manually attached to the DOM or automatically attached to the DOM (VEC authored Activities). Both types are a delayed end-user interaction on the web page.

To account for this, the best practice is to collect Analytics payloads using the onBeforeEventSend Adobe Experience Platform Web SDK hook. The onBeforeEventSend hook should be configured using the configure command, and will be reflected across all events that are sent through the datastream.

The following is an example of how onBeforeEventSent can be configured to trigger Analytics hits:

alloy("configure", {
  edgeConfigId: "datastream configuration ID",
  orgId: "adobe ORG ID",
  onBeforeEventSend: function(options) {
    const xdm = options.xdm;
    const eventType = xdm.eventType;
    if (eventType === "decisioning.propositionInteract") {
      const analyticsPayloads = new Set();
      const propositions = xdm._experience.decisioning.propositions;

      for (var i = 0; i < propositions.length; i++) {
        var proposition = propositions[i];
        analyticsPayloads.add(getClickAnalyticsPayload(proposition));
      }
      // Trigger the Analytics hit
    }
  }
});

Next steps next-steps

This guide covered client-side logging for A4T data in the Web SDK. See the guide on server-side logging for more information on how to handle A4T data on the Edge Network.

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