Analytics Configuration for Communities Features analytics-configuration-for-communities-features
Overview overview
Adobe Analytics and Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) are both solutions of Adobe Marketing Cloud.
Adobe Analytics may be configured for AEM Communities so that, as a member interacts with supported Communities features, events are sent to Adobe Analytics from which reports are generated.
For example, when a member of an enablement community site views a video resource assigned to them, the resource player will send events to Analytics, including video heartbeat data. From the community site, administrators are able to see various reports regarding the playing of the video.
Further, analytics is necessary for:
-
In the publish environment:
- Reporting on community trends
- Allow site visitors to sort by “most viewed”, “most active”, “most liked”
- View counts on UGC lists
-
In the author environment:
- Display of participation data in the members management console (views, posts, follows, likes)
- Trend summary, video heartbeat and videio device for enablement resource reports
Supported Communities features include:
This section of the documentation describes how to connect an Analytics report suite with Communities features. The basic steps are:
- Replicate the crypto key to ensure encryption/decryption occurs correctly on all AEM instances
- Prepare an Adobe Analytics report suite
- Create an AEM Analytics cloud service and framework
- Enable Analytics for a community site
- Verify Analytics to AEM variable mapping
- Identify primary publisher
- Publish the community site
- Configure import of report data from Adobe Analytics to the community site
Prerequisites prerequisites
To configure Analytics for Communities features, it is necessary to work with your account representative to setup an Adobe Analytics account and report suite. Once established, the following information should be available:
-
Company Name
The company that is associated with the Adobe Analytics account
-
Username
The login username for the user authorized to manage the Analytics account
(Should include Web Service Access privileges)
-
Password
The login password for the authorized user
-
Analytics Data Center
The URL of the Analytics data center for the account
-
Report Suite
The name of the Analytics report suite to use
Adobe Analytics Report Suite for Video Reporting adobe-analytics-report-suite-for-video-reporting
Using the Adobe Marketing Cloud’s Report Suite Manager, Analytics report suites can be configured so that a community site may be enabled to provide reports for Communities features.
By signing in to Adobe Marketing Cloud with Company Name and Username, it is possible to configure a new or existing report suite to have:
-
11 Conversion Variables (evars)
evar1
throughevar11
enabled- Can repurpose (rename) existing evars or create new ones to use for Communities features
-
7 Success Events (events)
-
event1
throughevent7
enabled -
Type
Counter
- not
Counter (no subrelations)
- not
-
Can repurpose (rename) existing events or create new ones to use for Communities features
-
-
-
Video Reporting console
- Enable
Video Core
- Select Save
- Enable
-
Video Core measurement console
- Select
Use Solution Variables
- Select Save
- Select
-
If using a new report suite, be aware that a new report suite may only have 4 evars and 6 event variables, while 11 evars and 7 event vars are required for Communities.
If using an existing report suite, it may be necessary to modify the variable mapping prior to activating the Analytics framework for a community site. Contact your account representative for any concerns regarding the variables dedicated to Communities.
evar1
throughevar11
event1
throughevent7
Video Heartbeat Analytics video-heartbeat-analytics
When Video Heartbeat Analytics is licensed, a Marketing Cloud Org Id
is assigned.
To enable Video Heartbeat reporting after configuring the Analytics report suite for video reporting:
- Create an Analytics cloud service
- Enable Analytics for a community site
- Associate the
Marketing Cloud Org Id
with the community site
The Marketing Cloud Org Id
may be entered at the time of community site creation or later by modifying the community site properties.
When Video Heartbeat Analytics is enabled, the Javascript (JS) code for the video player instantiates the video heartbeat library code (also in JS) which handles all the logic for sending video status updates to the Analytics video tracking servers every 10 seconds (not configurable) and eventually sending a cumulative report of the video session to the main Analytics servers.
If not enabled, the video heartbeat code is never instantiated and only the video progress and resume position tracking is persisted to SRP for reporting.
AEM Analytics Cloud Service Configuration aem-analytics-cloud-service-configuration
To create a new Analytics Integration, which integrates Adobe Analytics with the AEM community site, using the standard UI on the author instance:
- From global navigation: Tools > Deployment > Cloud Services
- Scroll down to Adobe Analytics
- Select either Configure Now or Show Configurations
Create Configuration Dialog create-configuration-dialog
- Select
[+]
icon next to Available Configurations to create a new configuration
On the Create Configuration dialog, the values to be entered identify the configuration.
-
Title
(Required) A display title for the configuration.
For example, enter Enablement Community Analytics
-
Name
(Optional) If not specified, the name will default to a valid node name derived from the title.
For example, enter communities
-
Template
Select
Adobe Analytics Configuration
-
Select Create
- Launches configuration page and opens
Analytics Settings
dialog
- Launches configuration page and opens
Analytics Settings Dialog analytics-settings-dialog
The initial creation of a new Analytics configuration results in the display of the configuration and a new dialog for entry of the Analytics Settings. This dialog requires the prerequisite account information obtained from the account representative.
-
Company
The company that is associated with the Adobe Analytics account
-
Username
The login username for the user authorized to manage the Analytics account
-
Password
The login password for the authorized user
-
Data Center
Select the Analytics data center hosting the report suite
-
Do not add tracking tag to page
Leave as default (unchecked)
-
Use AppMeasurement
Leave as default (unchecked)
-
Do not import page impressions nightly (author)
Leave as default (unchecked)
-
Do not import page impressions nightly (publish)
Leave as default (checked)
To save the settings:
-
Select Connect to Analytics
-
If not successful,
- Verify entries do not contain leading spaces
- Try a different data center
- Contact your account representative
-
-
Select OK
Create Framework create-framework
After successful configuration of the basic connection to Adobe Analytics, it is necessary to create or edit a framework for the community site. The purpose of the framework is to map Communities feature (AEM) variables to Analytics (report suite) variables.
- Select
[+]
icon next to Available Frameworks to create a new framework
-
Title
(Required) A display title for the framework
For example, enter Enablement Community Framework
-
Name
(Optional) If not specified, the name will default to a valid node name derived from the title.
For example, enter communities
-
Template
Select
Adobe Analytics Framework
-
Select Create
Creating the Analytics Framework opens the framework for configuration.
AEM Analytics Framework Configuration aem-analytics-framework-configuration
The purpose of the framework is to map AEM variables to Analytics variables (evars and events). The Analytics variables available for mapping are defined in the report suite.
Select Report Suite select-report-suite
Select the report suite that has been set up for video reporting.
If a report suite has not yet been created or not properly set up, see the previous section:
Adobe Analytics Report Suite for Video Reporting
The Sidekick is not needed and may be minimized so that it does not obstruct access to the Report Suites settings.
Report Suites dialog before and after selecting ‘Add Item’ report-suites-dialog-before-and-after-selecting-add-item
- Select Add Item + two drop down boxes appear
- Choose a
Report suite
the report suites associated with the Company account should be available for selection - Select Yes in the dialog that opens:
Load default server settings? Do you want to load the default server settings and overwrite current values in the Server section?
- Choose a
Run Mode
Choose publish
The Analytic cloud service and framework are now complete. The Mappings will be defined once a community site has been created with this Analytics service enabled.
Enable Analytics for a Community Site enable-analytics-for-a-community-site
Enable for New Community Site enable-for-new-community-site
To add the Analytics cloud service while creating a new community site:
-
In step 3
-
Under the ANALYTICS tab:
- Check the Enable Analytics checkbox
- Choose the framework from the drop-down box
-
Optionally, return to the Analytics framework configuration to adjust the variable mappings.
Enable for Existing Community Site enable-for-existing-community-site
To add the Analytics cloud service to an existing community site:
-
Navigate to the Communities > Sites console
-
Select the community site’s Edit Site icon
-
Select the SETTINGS
-
In the Analytics section:
- Check the Enable Analytics checkbox
- Choose the framework from the drop-down box
-
Optionally, return to the Analytics framework configuration to adjust the variable mappings.
Enable for Customized Sites enable-for-customized-sites
In order for Analytics tracking and import to work properly for a community site, a page element with the scf-js-site-title
class and href attributes must be present. Only one such element should exist on the page, such as it does in an unmodified sitepage.hbs
script for a community site. The value of siteUrl
is extracted and sent to Adobe Analytics as the site path.
# present in default sitepage.hbs
>[!CAUTION]
>
>AEM 6.4 has reached the end of extended support and this documentation is no longer updated. For further details, see our [technical support periods](https://helpx.adobe.com/support/programs/eol-matrix.html). Find the supported versions [here](https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/?lang=en).
# only one scf-js-site-title class should be included
>[!CAUTION]
>
>AEM 6.4 has reached the end of extended support and this documentation is no longer updated. For further details, see our [technical support periods](https://helpx.adobe.com/support/programs/eol-matrix.html). Find the supported versions [here](https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/?lang=en).
# this example sets it to be hidden as it serves no visual purpose
>[!CAUTION]
>
>AEM 6.4 has reached the end of extended support and this documentation is no longer updated. For further details, see our [technical support periods](https://helpx.adobe.com/support/programs/eol-matrix.html). Find the supported versions [here](https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/?lang=en).
<div
class="navbar-brand scf-js-site-title"
href="{{siteUrl}}.html"
style="visibility: hidden;"
>
</div>
For a customized community site that overlays the sitepage.hbs
script, ensure the element is present. The siteUrl
variable will be set when rendered on the server before serving to the client.
For a generic AEM site that includes Communities components, but is not created with the site creation wizard, it is necessary to add the element. The value of the href should be the path to the site. For example, if the site path is /content/my/company/en
, then use:
<div
class="navbar-brand scf-js-site-title"
href="/content/my/company/en.html"
style="visibility: hidden;"
>
</div>
Analytics for Communities Features analytics-for-communities-features
Analytics is automatically used for several Communities features.
The author environment’s OSGi configuration, AEM Communities Analytics Component Configuration
, provides a listing of the components that have been instrumented for Analytics. The automatic mapping of variables is determined by the components listed.
If new custom components are created that are instrumented for Analytics, they should be added to this list of configured components.
Component Configuration component-configuration
Note: the journal
components are used to implement the blog feature.
Mapped Analytics to AEM Variables mapped-analytics-to-aem-variables
Once the community site is saved with Analytics enabled and the cloud config framework selected, the AEM variables will be automatically mapped to the Analytics evars and events beginning with evar1 and event1, respectively, and incrementing by 1.
If using an existing report suite that mapped any of the variables within evar1 through evar11 and event1 through event7, it will be necessary to remap the AEM variables and restore the original mapping.
Following is an example of default mappings after following the getting started tutorial:
Map of eVars sent with each event map-of-evars-sent-with-each-event
Examples for eVar values:
- MIME type: video/mp4
- Community site title: Geometrixx Communities
- Community function name: Forum
- Community group name: Hiking
- Path to community group content: /content/sites/communities/en/groups/hiking
- UGC component resourceType: social/forum/components/hbs/topic
- UGC component title: Hiking Topics
- Login (authorizable Id): aaron.mcdonald@mailinator.com
- SRP path to UGC: /content/usergenerated/asi/…/forum/jmtz-topic3 or path of component to follow: /content/sites/communities/en/jcr:content/content/primary/forum
- Path to community site content: /content/sites/community/en
Modifying Analytics Variable Mapping modifying-analytics-variable-mapping
The mapping of Analytics evars and events to AEM variables is visible from the framework configuration after Analytics is enabled for a community site.
After Analytics has been enabled and before the community site is published, the mapping may be altered in the framework by dragging the desired Analytics evar or event from the left rail and dropping it into the relevant row in the mapping table.
To avoid duplicate mappings, be sure to remove the replaced Analytics evar or event from the row by hovering over it and selecting the “X” which appears to the right of the Analytics variable element.
If Communities evars and events overwrite mappings that pre-existed in the report suite, then to avoid data loss, assign the AEM variables for Communities features to other Analytics evars and/or events and restore the original mappings.
Example Step 1: Dragging Analytics evar14 into mapping table example-step-dragging-analytics-evar-into-mapping-table
Example Step 2: Selecting ‘x’ to remove replaced evar11 example-step-selecting-x-to-remove-replaced-evar
Example Step 3: AEM var eventdata.siteId remapped to Analytics evar14 example-step-aem-var-eventdata-siteid-remapped-to-analytics-evar
Publishing the Community Site publishing-the-community-site
Verify Analytics to AEM Variable Mapping verify-analytics-to-aem-variable-mapping
It is wise to verify the variable mapping prior to publishing the community site, which also publishes the Analytics cloud service and framework.
See sections:
evar1
throughevar11
event1
throughevent7
Primary Publisher primary-publisher
When the deployment chosen is a publish farm, then one AEM publish instance must be identified as the primary publisher for polling Adobe Analytics for report data to write to SRP.
By default, the AEM Communities Publisher Configuration
OSGi configuration identifies its publish instance as the primary publisher, such that all publish instances in a publish farm would self-identify as the primary.
Therefore, it is necessary to edit the configuration on all secondary publish instances to uncheck the Primary Publisher checkbox.
For specific instructions, see the primary publisher section of Deploying Communities.
Replicate the Crypto Key replicate-the-crypto-key
The Adobe Analytics credentials are encrypted. To faciitate the replication or transmission of encrypted analytics credentials between author and publishers, all AEM instances must share the same primary encryption key.
To do so, follow the instructions at Replicate the Crypto Key.
Publish Community Site and Analytics Cloud Service publish-community-site-and-analytics-cloud-service
Once the Analytics cloud service has been enabled for a community site and, if necessary, the mapping of Analytics to AEM variables has been adjusted, it is necessary to replicate the configuration to the publish environment by (re)publishing the community site.
Obtaining Reports from Analytics obtaining-reports-from-analytics
Report Management report-management
The author and primary publisher’s OSGi configuration, AEM Communities Analytics Report Management
, is used to query Analytics.
On author, the queries are for real time reports.
On the primary publisher, the queries are used to provide information in preparation for the Report Importer’s Analytic data import.
The query interval defaults to 10 seconds.
Report Importer report-importer
Once an Analytics enabled community site has been published, the primary publisher’s OSGi configuration, AEM Communities Analytics Report Importer
, may be configured to set the default polling interval for those configurations which are not individually configured in CRXDE.
The polling interval controls the frequency of requests to Adobe Analytics for data to be pulled and saved into SRP.
When the data may be categorized as “big data”, more frequent polling may put a large load on the community site.
The default polling Import interval is set to 12 hours.
Component Report Customization component-report-customization
Presently, to customize the metrics to track, nodes are created in the repository that define time periods for which to generate a report on that metric.
The forum topic is presently the only example of this customization:
-
On the primary publisher
-
Sign in with administrative privileges
-
Navigate to CRXDE Lite
- For example, http://localhost:4503/crx/de
-
Under the
jcr:content
node of the language root- For example,
/content/sites/engage/en/jcr:content
- For example,
-
Navigate to the component configured for Analytics reporting
- For example,
analytics/reportConfigs/social_forum_components_hbs_topic
- For example,
-
Notice the time periods created
last30Days
last90Days
thisYear
-
Notice the
total
node- Modifying the
interval
property will override the Report Importer interval - The value is in seconds, and is set to 4 hours (14400 seconds)
- Modifying the
Manage user data in Analytics manage-user-data-in-analytics
Adobe Analytics provides APIs that allow you to access, export, and delete user data. For more information, see Submit Access and Delete Requests.
Resources resources
- Adobe Marketing Cloud: Analytics Help and Reference
- AEM: Integrating with Adobe Analytics
- AEM: Analytics with External Providers