Map contextData Variables into Props and Evars with Processing Rules

Hey everybody, this is Doug. In this video I want to show you how to use processing rules in Adobe Analytics to take Context Data Variables and map them to Props and eVars, etc, so that you can see them in your reports in Adobe Analytics. Now, here we have a very basic analytics implementation, I’ve got a pageName, I’ve got prop1, I have a contextData Variable and then s.t sends it into Adobe Analytics. So, there are really two main use cases for using contextData, I think. First of all, one is a web implementation like this, where you are not using Adobe Launch. Now, we do recommend that you use Adobe Launch for your implementation but if you’re not using it yet, or if you’re using a different tag manager, for now, then you can find contextData Variables very useful. You’ll see this prop1 Variable here and it says client-side implementation and, I guess, it’s the type of implementation that we’ve used but I’m, kind of, guessing, right, because prop1 doesn’t tell me anything or eVar1 or Prop2 or whatever. So, if I use contextData Variables and use this syntax, then I get to name my own variable. Instead of saying eVar5, I can say pageAuthor and then we don’t wonder what the value ‘Doug’ is because if it just said eVar1 equals Doug, we wouldn’t really know what that means, but now it’s pretty clear that that is the pageAuthor. Now, the second main use case is for mobile SDK implementations and we’ll talk about that in a different video, but, for now, I wanna show you how to take this value and map it into eVars or Props, using processing rules. So, again, here is the syntax s.contextData, and then we put the name of the variable inside the square brackets and then, of course, our value. Now, when this gets processed and goes into the beacon, take a look over here, on our page, and we can see the beacon and here it is, where it, kind of, has a start of the contextData c., and then it has any Context Data Variables, so we only had one, pageAuthor, Doug, and then this, kind of, closes the contextData Variables, so .c and this is how it comes through in the beacon. Now, again, pageAuthor is not gonna go into any reports as is, so I’ve gotta map that over into a Prop or an eVar or both. So, let’s jump over to the interface and see how to do that in processing rules.

So, here I am in the Analytics UI and I’ve gone to Admin, Report Suites, so, as always, you’re gonna need to make sure that you have rights to do this or that you talk to somebody who does, and then I’ve selected my report suite that I was sending that data into, and I go to Edit Settings, General, Processing Rules.

And the first thing we see, really, in this Processing Rules UI is an explanation, here, of where Processing Rules fit in the Data Collection stack, here. So, the data comes in, it goes through the Processing Rules that we’re gonna create below and then it goes through VISTA, any VISTA rules and then it goes through the Marketing Channel Processing Rules. So, we’re not gonna worry about that too much right now. We’re gonna scroll down and actually create a rule. So, click on Add Rule.

First thing I wanna do is put a title in so that I can quickly know what this rule does. So, we’ll put Set page author into Prop/eVar5. Now, I’ve already set it up on the back end for Prop 5 and eVar 5 to be used for the page author, so you’re gonna wanna do that first. Now, the next thing to do is add a condition, so we’ll click on that, and I really only wanna run this rule if there is a value in that page author Context Data Variable. So, I go into my first field and I’ll click this down arrow, and we’ll scroll down to the bottom, and down at the bottom you’ll see Context Variables. Now, had I waited a sufficient amount of time, it would have loaded page author in here for me, but I didn’t wait a long time, I was just setting this up and so, if you don’t find your contextData Variables there, then you can simply start typing them in up here, pageAuthor, and then click down here where it says add ‘pageAuthor’ context data, and now it’s added, and now I can say if that variable is set, then do the following. And again, in this case it’s pretty simple. I want to overwrite the value, which probably doesn’t have anything in it yet, but I wanna overwrite the value of eVar5, Page Author (eVar5) which, again, I’ve already set that up, so, eVar5 with that contextData Variable. Now, it’s there because I’ve added it and, while I’m at it, I wanna add one more action and I wanna overwrite the value of Prop5. So, that is here under my Traffic Variables.

Also, with that contextData Variable, and that’s it, I don’t wanna do anything else and I don’t need any otherwise stuff, and that is, pretty much, it. So, if you’re gonna take Context Data and populate that into Props and eVars then you can simply look for it, see if it’s set, and, if it has a value, then populate it right into those Props and eVars, then I can save that rule, yep, I get my message that that was approved or had succeeded, and then, you can see, it is down there and I can easily see what that is and I can create rules 'til my heart’s content. Good luck.