Create a data feed

When creating a data feed, you provide Adobe with:

The information about the destination where you want raw data files to be sent
The data you want to include in each file

NOTE

Before you create a data feed, it’s important to have a basic understanding of data feeds and and to ensure that you meet all necessary prerequisites. For more information, see Data feeds overview.

Create and configure a data feed

Log in to experiencecloud.adobe.com using your Adobe ID credentials.
Select the 9-square icon in the upper-right, then select Analytics.
In the top navigation bar, go to Admin > Data feeds.
Select Add.

A page displays with three main categories: Feed information, Destination, and Data column definitions.

In the Feed Information section, complete the following fields:

Field	Function
Name	The name of the data feed. Must be unique within the selected report suite, and can be up to 255 characters in length.
Report suite	The report suite the data feed is based on. If multiple data feeds are created for the same report suite, they must have different column definitions. Only source report suites support data feeds; virtual report suites are not supported.
Email when complete	The email address to be notified when a feed finishes processing. The email address must be properly formatted.
Feed interval	Select Daily for backfill or historical data. Daily feeds contain a full day’s worth of data, from midnight to midnight in the report suite’s time zone. Select Hourly for continuing data (Daily is also available for continuing feeds if you prefer). Hourly feeds contain a single hour’s worth of data.
Delay processing	Wait a given amount of time before processing a data feed file. A delay can be useful to give mobile implementations an opportunity for offline devices to come online and send data. It can also be used to accommodate your organization’s server-side processes in managing previously processed files. In most cases, no delay is needed. A feed can be delayed by up to 120 minutes.
Start & end dates	The start date indicates the date when you want the data feed to begin. To immediately begin processing data feeds for historical data, set this date to any date in the past when data is being collected. The start and end dates are based on the report suite’s time zone.
Continuous feed	This checkbox removes the end date, allowing a feed to run indefinitely. When a feed finishes processing historical data, a feed waits for data to finish collecting for a given hour or day. Once the current hour or day concludes, processing begins after the specified delay.

In the Destination section, in the Type drop-down menu, select the destination where you want the data to be sent.

NOTE

Consider the following when configuring a report destination:

We recommend using a cloud account for your report destination. Legacy FTP and SFTP accounts are available, but are not recommended.
Cloud accounts are associated with your Adobe Analytics user account. Other users cannot use or view cloud accounts that you configure.

Data feed destination drop-down menu

Use any of the following destination types when creating a data feed. For configuration instructions, expand the destination type. (Additional legacy destinations are also available, but are not recommended.)

Amazon S3

You can send feeds directly to Amazon S3 buckets. This destination type requires only your Amazon S3 account and the location (bucket).

Adobe Analytics uses cross-account authentication to upload files from Adobe Analytics to the specified location in your Amazon S3 instance.

To configure an Amazon S3 bucket as the destination for a data feed:

In the Adobe Analytics admin console, in the Destination section, select Amazon S3.
Select Select location.

The Amazon S3 Export Locations page is displayed.
(Conditional) If you previously added an Amazon S3 account and location:
1. Select the account from the Select account drop-down menu.
2. Select the location from the Select location drop-down menu.
3. Select Save > Save.
  
  The destination is now configured to send data to the Amazon S3 location that you specified.

(Conditional) If you have not previously added an Amazon S3 account:

Select Add account, then specify the following information:

Field	Function
Account name	A name for the account. This can be any name you choose.
Account description	A description for the account.
Role ARN	You must provide a Role ARN (Amazon Resource Name) that Adobe can use to gain access to the Amazon S3 account. To do this, you create an IAM permission policy for the source account, attach the policy to a user, and then create a role for the destination account. For specific information, see this AWS documentation.
User ARN	The User ARN (Amazon Resource Name) is provided by Adobe. You must attach this user to the policy you created.

Select Add location, then specify the following information:

Field	Function
Name	A name for the account.
Description	A description for the account.
Bucket	The bucket within your Amazon S3 account where you want Adobe Analytics data to be sent. Ensure that the User ARN that was provided by Adobe has access to upload files to this bucket.
Prefix	The folder within the bucket where you want to put the data. Specify a folder name, then add a backslash after the name to create the folder. For example, `folder_name/`

Select Create > Save.

The destination is now configured to send data to the Amazon S3 location that you specified.

Azure RBAC

You can send feeds directly to an Azure container using RBAC authentication. This destination type requires a Bucket name, an Application ID, Tenant ID, and a Secret Key.

To configure an Azure RBAC bucket as the destination for a data feed:

If you haven’t already, create an Azure application that Adobe Analytics can use for authentication, then grant access permissions in access control (IAM).

For information, refer to the Microsoft Azure documentation about how to create an Azure Active Directory application.
In the Adobe Analytics admin console, in the Destination section, select Azure RBAC.
Select Select location.

The Azure RBAC Export Locations page is displayed.
(Conditional) If you previously added an Azure RBAC account and location:
1. Select the account from the Select account drop-down menu.
2. Select the location from the Select location drop-down menu.
3. Select Save > Save.
  
  The destination is now configured to send data to the Azure RBAC location that you specified.

(Conditional) If you have not previously added an Azure RBAC account:

Select Add account, then specify the following information:

Field	Function
Account name	A name for the Azure RBAC account. This name displays in the Select account drop-down field and can be any name you choose.
Account description	A description for the Azure RBAC account. This description displays in the Select account drop-down field and can be any name you choose.
Application ID	Copy this ID from the Azure application that you created. In Microsoft Azure, this information is located on the Overview tab within your application. For more information, see the Microsoft Azure documentation about how to register an application with the Microsoft identity platform.
Tenant ID	Copy this ID from the Azure application that you created. In Microsoft Azure, this information is located on the Overview tab within your application. For more information, see the Microsoft Azure documentation about how to register an application with the Microsoft identity platform.
Secret	Copy the secret from the Azure application that you created. In Microsoft Azure, this information is located on the Certificates & secrets tab within your application. For more information, see the Microsoft Azure documentation about how to register an application with the Microsoft identity platform.

Select Add location, then specify the following information:

Field	Function
Name	A name for the location. This name displays in the Select location drop-down field and can be any name you choose.
Description	A description for the location. This description displays in the Select location drop-down field and can be any name you choose.
Account	The Azure storage account.
Container	The container within the account you specified where you want Adobe Analytics data to be sent. Ensure that you grant permissions to upload files to the Azure application that you created earlier.
Prefix	The folder within the container where you want to put the data. Specify a folder name, then add a backslash after the name to create the folder. For example, `folder_name/`

Select Create > Save.

The destination is now configured to send data to the Azure RBAC location that you specified.

Azure SAS

You can send feeds directly to an Azure container using SAS authentication. This destination type requires a Bucket name, an Application ID, Tenant ID, Key vault URI, Key vault secret name, and a Secret Key.

To configure an Azure SAS bucket as the destination for a data feed:

If you haven’t already, create an Azure application that Adobe Analytics can use for authentication.

For information, refer to the Microsoft Azure documentation about how to create an Azure Active Directory application.
In the Adobe Analytics admin console, in the Destination section, select Azure SAS.
Select Select location.

The Azure SAS Export Locations page is displayed.
(Conditional) If you previously added an Azure SAS account and location:
1. Select the account from the Select account drop-down menu.
2. Select the location from the Select location drop-down menu.
3. Select Save > Save.
  
  The destination is now configured to send data to the Azure SAS location that you specified.

(Conditional) If you have not previously added an Azure SAS account:

Select Add account, then specify the following information:

Field	Function
Account name	A name for the Azure SAS account. This name displays in the Select account drop-down field and can be any name you choose.
Account destription	A description for the Azure SAS account. This description displays in the Select account drop-down field and can be any name you choose.
Application ID	Copy this ID from the Azure application that you created. In Microsoft Azure, this information is located on the Overview tab within your application. For more information, see the Microsoft Azure documentation about how to register an application with the Microsoft identity platform.
Tenant ID	Copy this ID from the Azure application that you created. In Microsoft Azure, this information is located on the Overview tab within your application. For more information, see the Microsoft Azure documentation about how to register an application with the Microsoft identity platform.
Key vault URI	The path to the SAS token in Azure Key Vault. To configure Azure SAS, you need to store an SAS token as a secret using Azure Key Vault. For information, see the Microsoft Azure documentation about how to set and retrieve a secret from Azure Key Vault. After the key vault URI is created, add an access policy on the Key Vault in order to grant permission to the Azure application that you created. For information, see the Microsoft Azure documentation about how to assign a Key Vault access policy.
Key vault secret name	The secret name you created when adding the secret to Azure Key Vault. In Microsoft Azure, this information is located in the Key Vault you created, on the Key Vault settings pages. For information, see the Microsoft Azure documentation about how to set and retrieve a secret from Azure Key Vault.
Secret	Copy the secret from the Azure application that you created. In Microsoft Azure, this information is located on the Certificates & secrets tab within your application. For more information, see the Microsoft Azure documentation about how to register an application with the Microsoft identity platform.

Select Add location, then specify the following information:

Field	Function
Name	A name for the location. This name displays in the Select location drop-down field and can be any name you choose.
Description	A description for the location. This description displays in the Select location drop-down field and can be any name you choose.
Container	The container within the account you specified where you want Adobe Analytics data to be sent.
Prefix	The folder within the container where you want to put the data. Specify a folder name, then add a backslash after the name to create the folder. For example, `folder_name/`

Select Create > Save.

The destination is now configured to send data to the Azure SAS location that you specified.

Google Cloud Platform

You can send feeds directly to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) buckets. This destination type requires only your GCP account name and the location (bucket) name.

Adobe Analytics uses cross-account authentication to upload files from Adobe Analytics to the specified location in your GCP instance.

To configure a GCP bucket as the destination for a data feed:

In the Adobe Analytics admin console, in the Destination section, select Google Cloud Platform.
Select Select location.

The GCP Export Locations page is displayed.
(Conditional) If you previously added a GCP account and location:
1. Select the account from the Select account drop-down menu.
2. Select the location from the Select location drop-down menu.
3. Select Save > Save.
  
  The destination is now configured to send data to the GCP location that you specified.

(Conditional) If you have not previously added a GCP account:

Select Add account, then specify the following information:

Field	Function
Account name	A name for the account. This can be any name you choose.
Account description	A description for the account.
Project ID	Your Google Cloud project ID. See the Google Cloud documentation about getting a project ID.

Select Add location, then specify the following information:

Field	Function
Principal	The Principal is provided by Adobe. You must grant permission to receive feeds to this principal.
Name	A name for the account.
Description	A description for the account.
Bucket	The bucket within your GCP account where you want Adobe Analytics data to be sent. Ensure that you have granted permission to the Principal provided by Adobe to upload files to this bucket.
Prefix	The folder within the bucket where you want to put the data. Specify a folder name, then add a backslash after the name to create the folder. For example, `folder_name/`

Select Create > Save.

The destination is now configured to send data to the GCP location that you specified.

In the Data Column Definitions section, select the latest All Adobe Columns template in the dropdown, then complete the following fields:

Field	Function
Remove escaped characters	When collecting data, some characters (such as newlines) can cause issues. Check this box if you would like these characters removed from feed files.
Compression format	The type of compression used. Gzip outputs files in `.tar.gz` format. Zip outputs files in `.zip` format.
Packaging type	Select Multiple files for most data feeds. This option paginates your data into uncompressed 2GB chunks. (If multiple files is selected and uncompressed data for the reporting window is less than 2GB, one file is sent.) Selecting Single file outputs the `hit_data.tsv` file in a single, potentially massive file.
Manifest	Whether or not Adobe should deliver a manifest file to the destination when no data is collected for a feed interval. If you select Manifest File, you receive a manifest file similar to the following when no data is collected: `text` `Datafeed-Manifest-Version: 1.0` `Lookup-Files: 0` `Data-Files: 0` `Total-Records: 0`
Column templates	When creating many data feeds, Adobe recommends creating a column template. Selecting a column template automatically includes the specified columns in the template. Adobe also provides several templates by default.
Available columns	All available data columns in Adobe Analytics. Click Add all to include all columns in a data feed.
Included columns	The columns to include in a data feed. Click Remove all to remove all columns from a data feed.
Download CSV	Downloads a CSV file containing all included columns.

Select Save in the top-right.

Historical data processing begins immediately. When data finishes processing for a day, the file is sent to the destination that you configured.

For information about how to access the data feed and to get a better understanding of its contents, see Data feed contents - overview.

Legacy destinations

IMPORTANT

The destinations described in this section are legacy, and are not recommended. Instead, use one of the following destinations when creating a data feed: Amazon S3, Google Cloud Platform, Azure RBAC, or Azure SAS. See Create and configure a data feed for detailed information about each of these recommended destinations.

The following information provides configuration information for each of the legacy destinations:

FTP

Data feed data can be delivered to an Adobe or customer-hosted FTP location. Requires an FTP host, username, and password. Use the path field to place feed files in a folder. Folders must already exist; feeds throw an error if the specified path does not exist.

Use the following information when completing the available fields:

Host: Enter the desired FTP destination URL. For example, ftp://ftp.omniture.com.
Path: Can be left blank
Username: Enter the username to log in to the FTP site.
Password and confirm password: Enter the password to log in to the FTP site.

SFTP

SFTP support for data feeds is available. Requires an SFTP host, username, and the destination site to contain a valid RSA or DSA public key. You can download the appropriate public key when creating the feed.

S3

You can send feeds directly to Amazon S3 buckets. This destination type requires a Bucket name, an Access Key ID, and a Secret Key. See Amazon S3 bucket naming requirements within the Amazon S3 docs for more information.

The user you provide for uploading data feeds must have the following permissions:

s3:GetObject
s3:PutObject
s3:PutObjectAcl

NOTE

For each upload to an Amazon S3 bucket, Analytics adds the bucket owner to the BucketOwnerFullControl ACL, whether or not the bucket has a policy that requires it. For more information, see “What is the BucketOwnerFullControl setting for Amazon S3 data feeds?”

The following 16 standard AWS regions are supported (using the appropriate signature algorithm where necessary):

us-east-2
us-east-1
us-west-1
us-west-2
ap-south-1
ap-northeast-2
ap-southeast-1
ap-southeast-2
ap-northeast-1
ca-central-1
eu-central-1
eu-west-1
eu-west-2
eu-west-3
eu-north-1
sa-east-1

NOTE

The cn-north-1 region is not supported.

Azure Blob

Data feeds support Azure Blob destinations. Requires a container, account, and a key. Amazon automatically encrypts the data at rest. When you download the data, it gets decrypted automatically. See Create a storage account within the Microsoft Azure docs for more information.

NOTE

You must implement your own process to manage disk space on the feed destination. Adobe does not delete any data from the server.