Web-Specific Settings for Transformation

Information about web-specific settings that are defined in Transformation Dataset Include files that are delivered with Adobe profiles for Site.

The conditions, dimensions, and parameters that are defined by these settings are created during the transformation phase of dataset construction.

• Page View Condition
• URI Dimension
• Referrer Dimension
• Session Parameters

Page View Condition

The Page View Condition is a condition operation that determines whether a particular log entry (that is, a page request) should be included in the data gathered about a visitor’s page view history. When the log entry satisfies the Page View Condition, it becomes an element of the Page View countable dimension. If a log entry does not satisfy the Page View Condition, its data fields still are accessible by other dimensions. In addition to the Page View dimension, the following dimensions can be affected by the results of the Page View Condition:

• URI and Page: These dimensions are directly affected by the Page View Condition. If the given page does not pass the Page View Condition, it is not be included in the URI or Page dimensions.

• Visitor Page Views and Session Page Views: The Visitor Page Views and Session Page Views dimensions are a count of the number of pages viewed by a visitor to or in a given session, respectively. Pages filtered out by the Page View Condition are not part of this count.

• Session Number: The Page View Condition has an indirect effect on the Session Number dimension. The Session Number dimension is created prior to the Page View Condition; therefore, when considering Session Number in relation to the Page Views, it is possible to have sessions with no page views.

Your default implementation of Site includes a Transformation Dataset Include file in which the Page View countable dimension and the related Page View Condition are defined.

For information about countable dimensions, see Extended Dimensions.

To edit the configuration settings for the Page View Condition

1. Open the Profile Manager within your dataset profile and open the Dataset\Transformation\Traffic\Page View.cfg file.

   NOTE

   If you have customized your implementation of Site, the file in which these configuration settings exist may differ from the location described.

2. Review or edit the values of the parameters of the Page View Condition as needed. Use the following example as a guide. In this file, the Page View Condition is defined by a Copy transformation. Note that this file also contains the definition of the Page View countable dimension.

   

   NOTE

   For information about countable dimensions, see Extended Dimensions. For information about the Copy transformation, see Data Transformations.

3. Save the file by right-clicking (modified) at the top of the window, then click Save.

4. To make the locally made changes take effect, in the Profile Manager, right-click the check mark for the file in the User column, then click Save to > < profile name>, where profile name is the name of the dataset profile or the inherited profile to which the dataset include file belongs.

   NOTE

   Do not save the modified configuration file to any of the internal profiles provided by Adobe, as your changes are overwritten when you install updates to these profiles.

URI Dimension

If you are working with Site, you need to define the URI dimension whose elements are the URI stems of the website pages viewed. Your default implementation includes a Transformation Dataset Include file in which the URI simple dimension is defined.

For information about simple dimensions, see Extended Dimensions.

To edit the configuration settings for the URI dimension

1. Open the Profile Manager within your dataset profile and open the Dataset\Transformation\Traffic\URI.cfg file.

   NOTE

   If you have customized your implementation of Site, the file in which these configuration settings exist may differ from the location described.

2. Review or edit the values of the parameters of the file as desired. Use the following example and information as guides.

The configuration settings for the URI dimension include the following two parameters:

• Case Sensitive: True or false. If true, letter case (upper/lower) is considered in identifying unique pages. The default value is true.

• Maximum Elements: The maximum number of elements (that is, URIs) for the URI dimension. The default value is 32768.

  NOTE

  Changing this value can cause serious performance issues. Do not change this value without consulting Adobe.

• Save the URI.cfg file by right-clicking (modified) at the top of the window, then click Save.

• To make the locally made changes take effect, in the Profile Manager, right-click the check mark for the file in the User column, then click Save to > < profile name>, where profile name is the name of the dataset profile or the inherited profile to which the dataset include file belongs.

  NOTE

  Do not save the modified configuration file to any of the internal profiles provided by Adobe, as your changes are overwritten when you install updates to these profiles.

Referrer Dimension

If you are working with Site, you need to define the Referrer dimension whose elements consist of the second level domains of the referrers of the first log entries in all sessions. Your default implementation includes a Transformation Dataset Include file in which the Referrer simple dimension is defined.

For information about simple dimensions, see Extended Dimensions.

To edit the configuration settings for the Referrer dimension

1. Open the Profile Manager within your dataset profile and open the Dataset\Transformation\Traffic\Referrer.cfg file.

   NOTE

   If you have customized your implementation of Site, the file in which these configuration settings exist may differ from the location described.

2. Review or edit the values of the parameters of the file as desired. Use the following example and information as guides.

   

   The configuration settings for the Referrer dimension include the Maximum Elements parameter, which specifies the maximum number of elements (that is, referrers) for the Referrer dimension. The default value is 32768.

   NOTE

   In the example above, the Maximum Elements parameter is set to 0. When this parameter is set to 0, the data workbench server uses its internal default value of 32768.

3. Save the Referrer.cfg file by right-clicking (modified) at the top of the window, then click Save.

4. To make the locally made changes take effect, in the Profile Manager, right-click the check mark for the file in the User column, then click Save to > < profile name>, where profile name is the name of the dataset profile or the inherited profile to which the dataset include file belongs.

   NOTE

   Do not save the modified configuration file to any of the internal profiles provided by Adobe, as your changes are overwritten when you install updates to these profiles.

Session Parameters

If you are working with Site, you can specify parameters that define the boundaries of a visitor’s session on a website. These parameters are valid only when defined in a Transformation Dataset Include file within your Site implementation.

The following parameters are unique in that they can be members of Transformation Dataset Include file’s Parameters vector, or they can be listed as individual parameters in the Transformation.cfgfile. A parameter can be defined exactly once, so these parameters are defined either in the Transformation.cfgfile or in the Parameters vector of the dataset include file - not in both files.
Maximum Session Duration and Session Timeout

Maximum Session Duration and Session Timeout are string parameters that define the length of a visitor’s session. These parameters work with the Internal Domains parameter to determine session length.

Maximum Session Duration specifies the longest length of session before a new session is started. This keeps web pages that have auto content refreshing from creating sessions that are arbitrarily long. If the referrer of a click is set to one of the entries in the Internal Domains parameter, this timeout is used to define the end of a session. No session may be longer than the specified Maximum Session Duration regardless of how many clicks it contains. The recommended value is 48 hours.

Session Timeout specifies the amount of time that needs to pass between log entries of a given visitor to determine the end of one session and the start of a new session (that is, the typical timeout used to define a user session). The recommended value of this parameter is 30 minutes. If the referrer of a click is not set to one of the referrers in the Internal Domains parameter, this timeout is used to define the session. If cs(referrer-domain) for a log entry is in the list of internal domains, then Maximum Session Duration determines whether the current log entry is part of an existing session or the start of a new session.

Consider a situation in which a visitor is called away from his computer for a period of time longer than the Session Timeout while in the middle of browsing the site. Upon returning, he continues browsing where he left off. Because the visitor never leaves the site or closes his browser, the cs(referrer-domain) of his next click is the same as the internal domain, and his original session remains active as long as the Maximum Session Duration setting is not reached. If the domain of the site is listed as an internal domain, and the maximum timeout is not reached, the visitor’s interaction appears as a single session and not two separate sessions. However, if the visitor returns to his computer and his next click has an external (or blank) referrer, a new session begins.

To edit the Maximum Session Duration and Session Timeout parameters

If you are working with Site, your default implementation likely includes a Transformation Dataset Include file in which the names and recommended values of these parameters are specified.

1. Open the Profile Manager within your dataset profile and go to Dataset\Transformation\Traffic\Session Parameters.cfg.

   NOTE

   If you have customized your implementation of Site, the file in which these parameters are defined may differ from the location described.

2. Edit the values of the parameters as desired. Be sure to specify the desired units (minutes, hours, and so on).

   

3. Save the Session Parameters.cfg file by right-clicking (modified) at the top of the window and clicking Save.

4. To make the locally made changes take effect, in the Profile Manager, right-click the check mark for the file in the User column, then click Save to > profile name, where profile name is the name of the dataset profile or the inherited profile to which the dataset include file belongs.

   NOTE

   Do not save the modified configuration file to any of the internal profiles provided by Adobe, as your changes are overwritten when you install updates to these profiles.

Internal Domains

Internal Domains is a vector parameter that lists domain level hosts (internal referrers) that should be treated as part of a particular website. These hosts are removed from the referrer dimension (which is a list of the external referrer information). When cs(referrer-domain) matches any of the strings listed in the set of internal domains, Session Timeout is ignored and Maximum Session Duration is used to determine session length.

The Internal Domains parameter also can be used to prevent the start of a new session when visitors move among a company’s multiple domains associated in a way that exceeds session timeout. For example, consider a company that has parts of its site split across two domains: one is logged ( xyz.com), and the other is not logged ( xyz-unlogged.com). If these sites are integrated in a way that facilitates the seamless movement of traffic across the two domains, it is not desirable to generate a different session each time the visitor moves from xyz-unlogged.com domain back to the xyz.com domain. Listing xyz-unlogged.com as an internal domain keeps sessions from being split into multiple sessions as a result of traffic across these two domains as long as the Maximum Session Duration setting is not reached.

To add an internal domain

If you are working with Site, your default implementation includes a Transformation Dataset Include file for defining the Internal Domains parameter. In this file, the parameter is named; you just enter the internal domains that you want to include and save the updated file.

1. Open the Profile Manager within your dataset profile and go to Dataset\Transformation\Traffic\Internal Domains.cfg.

   NOTE

   If you have customized your implementation of Site, the file in which the Internal Domains parameter is defined may differ from the location described.

2. Right-click Value for the Internal Domains vector parameter and click Add new > Value.

3. Edit the values as desired.

   

4. Save the Internal Domains.cfg file by right-clicking (modified) at the top of the window and clicking Save.

5. To make the locally made changes take effect, in the Profile Manager, right-click the check mark for the file in the User column, then click Save to > < profile name>, where profile name is the name of the dataset profile or the inherited profile to which the dataset include file belongs.

   NOTE

   Do not save the modified configuration file to any of the internal profiles provided by Adobe, as your changes are overwritten when you install updates to these profiles.