Processing rules overview

Last update: July 15, 2025

Topics:
Processing Rules

CREATED FOR:

Admin

Processing rules allow you to modify how your data is collected before it is written to a report suite.

Admin > Report Suites > Select report suite > Edit Settings > General > Processing rules

WARNING

Processing rules directly affect data collection, and can cause data loss if used incorrectly. Always test processing rules in a development report suite before enabling them in a production report suite to mitigate data quality issues.

The two primary use cases for processing rules include:

Use the context data variable implementation workflow: Instead of directly setting variables in your implementation, you can use Context data variables to set key/value pairs. For example, instead of setting:
```
s.eVar1 = "Robert Munch";
s.eVar2 = "Books";
s.eVar3 = "Youth";
```
You can instead set:
```
s.contextData['author'] = "Robert Munch";
s.contextData['section'] = "Books";
s.contextData['genre'] = "Youth";
```
You can then map the context data variables to the desired dimensions and metrics in the Analytics UI.

When communicating with developers in your organization to implement Analytics on a property, using context data variables simplifies the communication process. Developers can simply implement each key/value pair once, then you as an Analytics admin can ensure that the data makes it to the correct implementation variable.
Modify data as it is collected: This use case has a wide range of applications, such as temporary fixes to data quality or to help fill in implementation gaps. See Processing rules use cases for more information and specific examples.

Permissions

Product admins have access to processing rules by default. You can grant access to processing rules to non-admins by including them in a product profile that includes the Processing rules permission item. See Product profile permissions for Report Suite Tools for more information.

Considerations when creating or editing processing rules

When creating or editing processing rules, take the following into consideration:

Possible empty values: When you create a rule, consider cases when the overwriting value is empty. For example, if you have a rule that overwrites eVar1 with eVar2 and eVar2 is empty, both variables are blanked out. Adobe recommends adding a condition that checks for a variable value before using it to overwrite another value.
Apply immediately on save: Processing rules apply to collected data the moment that you save them. They do not apply retroactively to data that is already collected.
Processing order within rules: If you have multiple processing rules, the order that they run matters. Make sure that if you use a given variable in multiple rules that they are executed in the correct order. If you overwrite eVar3 in rule 1, that original eVar3 value is not available in any subsequent rules.
Processing order within the data collection pipeline: See Processing order for data in Adobe Analytics to understand where processing rules apply in the overall data collection pipeline.
Encoding: Stick to UTF-8 encoding in almost all cases.
Case sensitivity: String comparisons in processing rules are not case-sensitive. The string values that you use to overwrite values use the same rules as directly populating the variable.
Single report suite: When you edit processing rules, they apply to only one report suite. Selecting multiple report suites in the Report suite manager forces you to select a single report suite. Once you have created or edited the desired processing rules, you can copy those rules to other report suites.
No data exclusion: Excluding data is not an intended feature of processing rules. Consider using abort at the data collection level or use VISTA rules after data is collected.
Available variables: Not all dimensions and metrics are available in processing rules. See Dimensions and metrics available to processing rules for the full list of what is supported.
Number of rules allowed: Each report suite can contain up to 150 rules. Each rule can contain up to 30 conditions.

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