Documentation Analytics Implementation Guide

Adobe plug-in: manageVars

Last update: January 25, 2024

Topics:
Variables

CREATED FOR:

Admin
Developer

IMPORTANT

This plug-in is provided by Adobe Consulting as a courtesy to help you get more value out of Adobe Analytics. Adobe Customer Care does not provide support with this plug-in, including installation or troubleshooting. If you require help with this plug-in, contact your organization’s Adobe Account Team. They can arrange a meeting with a consultant for assistance.

The manageVars plug-in allows you to manipulate the values of multiple Analytics variables at once. You can also set values to lowercase or remove unnecessary characters from multiple variable values at the same time. Adobe recommends using this plug-in if you want to clean up the value of multiple variables at once.

Install the plug-in using the Web SDK or Web SDK extension

This plug-in is not yet supported for use within the Web SDK.

Install the plug-in using the Adobe Analytics extension

Adobe offers an extension that allows you to use most commonly-used plug-ins with Adobe Analytics.

Log in to Adobe Experience Platform Data Collection using your AdobeID credentials.
Click the desired tag property.
Go to the Extensions tab, then click on the Catalog button
Install and publish the Common Analytics Plugins extension
If you haven’t already, create a rule labeled “Initialize Plug-ins” with the following configuration:
- Condition: None
- Event: Core – Library Loaded (Page Top)
Add an action to the above rule with the following configuration:
- Extension: Common Analytics Plugins
- Action Type: Initialize manageVars
Save and publish the changes to the rule.

Install the plug-in using custom code editor

If you do not want to use the Common Analytics Plugins plug-in extension, you can use the custom code editor.

Log in to Adobe Experience Platform Data Collection using your AdobeID credentials.
Click on the desired property.
Go to the Extensions tab, then click the Configure button under the Adobe Analytics extension.
Expand the Configure tracking using custom code accordion, which reveals the Open Editor button.
Open the custom code editor and paste the plug-in code provided below into the edit window.
Save and publish the changes to the Analytics extension.

Install the plug-in using AppMeasurement

Copy and paste the following code anywhere in the AppMeasurement file after the Analytics tracking object is instantiated (using s_gi). Preserving comments and version numbers of the code in your implementation helps Adobe with troubleshooting any potential issues.

/******************************************* BEGIN CODE TO DEPLOY *******************************************/
/* Adobe Consulting Plugin: manageVars v3.0 (Requires AppMeasurement) */
function manageVars(cb,l,il){var g=cb,c=l,d=il;if("-v"===g)return{plugin:"manageVars",version:"3.0"};var f=function(){if("undefined"!==typeof window.s_c_il)for(var a=0,b;a<window.s_c_il.length;a++)if(b=window.s_c_il[a],b._c&&"s_c"===b._c)return b}();if("undefined"!==typeof f){f.contextData.manageVars="3.0";f.blankVars=function(a){this[a]&&(0>a.indexOf("contextData")?this[a]="":(a=a.substring(a.indexOf(".")+1),this.contextData[a]&&(this.contextData[a]="")))};f.lowerCaseVars=function(a){this[a]&&("events"!==a&&-1===a.indexOf("contextData")?(this[a]=this[a].toString(),0!==this[a].indexOf("D=")&&(this[a]=this[a].toLowerCase())):-1<a.indexOf("contextData")&&(a=a.substring(a.indexOf(".")+1),this.contextData[a]&&(this.contextData[a]=this.contextData[a].toString().toLowerCase())))};f.cleanStr=function(a){function b(a){if("string"===typeof a){for(a=a.replace(/<\/?[^>]+(>|$)/g,"").trim().replace(/[\u2018\u2019\u201A]/g,"'").replace(/\t+/g,"").replace(/[\n\r]/g," ");-1<a.indexOf("  ");)a=a.replace(/\s\s/g," ");return a}return""}this[a]&&"function"===typeof b&&(0>a.indexOf("contextData")?this[a]=b(this[a]):(a=a.substring(a.indexOf(".")+1),this.contextData[a]&&(this.contextData[a]=b(this.contextData[a].toString()))))};f.pt=function(a,b,c,d){if(a&&this[c]){a=a.split(b||",");b=a.length;for(var e,f=0;f<b;f++)if(e=this[c](a[f],d))return e}};if(!f[g])return!1;c=c||"";d=d||!0;var b,e="pageName,purchaseID,channel,server,pageType,campaign,state,zip,events,products,transactionID";for(b=1;76>b;b++)e+=",prop"+b;for(b=1;251>b;b++)e+=",eVar"+b;for(b=1;6>b;b++)e+=",hier"+b;for(b=1;4>b;b++)e+=",list"+b;for(b in f.contextData)e+=",contextData."+b;if(c){if(1==d)e=c.replace("['",".").replace("']","");else if(0==d){c=c.split(",");d=e.split(",");e="";for(x in c)for(y in-1<c[x].indexOf("contextData")&&(c[x]="contextData."+c[x].split("'")[1]),d)c[x]===d[y]&&(d[y]="");for(y in d)e+=d[y]?","+d[y]:""}f.pt(e,",",g,0);return!0}return""===c&&d?(f.pt(e,",",g,0),!0):!1}};
/******************************************** END CODE TO DEPLOY ********************************************/

Use the plug-in

The manageVars function uses the following arguments:

cb (required, string): The name of a callback function that the plug-in uses to manipulate the Analytics variables. You can use an Adobe function like cleanStr or your own custom function.
l (optional, string): A comma-delimited list of Analytics variables that you want to manipulate. Defaults to ALL Adobe Analytics variables when not set, which includes:
- pageName
- purchaseID
- channel
- server
- pageType
- campaign
- state
- zip
- events
- products
- transactionID
- All props
- All eVars
- All hierarchy variables
- All list variables
- All context data variables
Il (optional, boolean): Set to false if you want to exclude the list of variables declared in the l argument instead of including them. Defaults to true.

Calling this function returns nothing. Instead it changes the values of Analytics variables based on the desired callback function.

Example Calls

Example #1

The following code…

manageVars("lowerCaseVars");

…changes the values of all the variables described above to lowercased versions. The sole exception to this is the events variable, as some of the events (e.g. scAdd, scCheckout, etc.) are case-sensitive and should not be lowercased

Example #2

The following code…

manageVars("lowerCaseVars", "events", false);

…essentially produces the exact same result as the first example since the events variable isn’t lowercased by default.

Example #3

The following code…

manageVars("lowerCaseVars", "eVar1,eVar2,eVar3,list2");

…will change (e.g. lowercase) only the values of eVar1, eVar2, eVar3, and list2

Example #4

The following code…

manageVars("lowerCaseVars", "eVar1,eVar2,eVar3,list2", false);

…will change (e.g. lowercase) the values of all the variables described above EXCEPT for eVar1, eVar2, eVar3, and list2

Example #5

The following code…

manageVars("cleanStr");

…changes the values of all the variables described above, including the events variables. Specifically, the cleanStr callback function does the following to each variables’ value:

Removes HTML encoding
Removes whitespaces found at the beginning and end of the value
Replaces left/right single quotes with a straight single quote (')
Replaces tab characters, newline characters, and carriage return characters with spaces
Replaces all double (or triple, etc.) spaces with single spaces

Version History

3.0 (March 19, 2021)

Added version number as context data.

2.1 (January 14, 2019)

Bug fix for Internet Explorer 11 browsers.
Changes for s.cleanStr, which now uses the regular cleanStr function.

2.0 (May 7, 2018)

Point release (including complete reanalysis/rewrite of plug-in)
Added cleanStr callback function

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