Analytics using Adobe Launch

Last update: November 21, 2024

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AEM Forms integrates with Adobe Analytics to let you capture and track performance metrics for your published forms. The objective behind analyzing these metrics is to enable business users to gain insights into end user behavior and optimize the data capture experience. You can capture and track behavior of both logged-in and not logged-in (Anonymous) users via Adobe Analytics for Adaptive Forms.

You can also perform analytics using Cloud Service Framework. For more information on how to integrate AEM Forms with Cloud Service Framework, see Analytics using Cloud Service Framework. The main advantage of using Adobe Launch over Analytics using Cloud Service Framework is that you can also define custom events, in addition to these out of the box events. The customized events are defined using rule editor or customer clientlibs and are mapped to events in Adobe Analytics.

After performing the actions mentioned in this article, you can configure and view reports in Adobe Analytics, as demonstrated in the following video:

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You can use Adobe Analytics to discover interaction patterns and problems users face while using adaptive forms. Out of the box, Adobe Analytics tracks and stores information about the following events:

  • Render: Number of times a form is opened.

  • Submit: Number of times a form is submitted.

  • Abandon: Number of times the users leave without completing the form.

  • Error: Number of errors encountered on the panel and on the fields of the panel.

  • Help: Number of times a user opens help of a panel and the fields of the panel.

  • Field Visit: Number of times a user visits a field in the form.

  • Save: Number of times users save a form to the Forms Portal.

Apart from these out of the box events, you can also define custom events.

The following figure illustrates the actions that you need to perform before viewing reports in Adobe Analytics:

Analytics overview

1. Configure Adobe Analytics

Before configuring Adobe Analytics, create:

Install AEM Forms and Adobe Analytics extensions

Perform the following steps to configure AEM Forms and Adobe Analytics extensions:

  1. Log on to Adobe Experience Cloud and select an appropriate name for the company.

  2. Select Launch/Data Collection and select Go to Launch/Data Collection.

  3. Select New property and specify a name for the configuration.

  4. Specify a domain name and select Save to save the property.

  5. Select the configuration name available in the list of Tag Properties.

  6. In the Authoring section, select Extensions.

  7. Select Catalog and select Install for the Adobe Experience Manager Forms extension. Adobe Experience Manager Forms displays in the list of installed extensions available in the Installed tab.

  8. Select Install for the Adobe Analytics extension.

  9. Select the report suite name in the Development Report Suites, Staging Report Suites, and Product Report Suites drop-down lists and select Save to save the extension.

Configure data elements

You can select any of the configured data elements in a rule created for an event. When an event occurs on an adaptive form, AEM Forms sends these data elements to Adobe Analytics.

After installing the Adobe Experience Manager Forms extension, you can create the following data elements:

FieldNameFieldTitleFormInstance
FormNameFormTitlePageName
PageURLPanelTitleTimeSpent

Perform the following steps to configure data elements:

  1. In the Authoring section, select Data Elements.

  2. Select Create New Data Element.

  3. Specify a name for the Data Element. For example, Form Title for FormTitle data element type.

  4. Specify Adobe Experience Manager Forms as the Extension name.

  5. Select the Data Element Type.

  6. Select Save to save the data element.

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Configure rules

Perform the following steps to create rules based on the Adobe Experience Manager Forms extension:

  1. In the Authoring section, select Rules.

  2. Select Create New Rule.

  3. Specify a name for the Rule. For example, Form Submit to record form submissions.

  4. In the Events section, select Add.

  5. Specify Adobe Experience Manager Forms as the Extension name.

  6. Select the event type. The input for the Name field populates automatically based on the selected event type.

  7. Select Keep Changes to save the event.

  8. In the Actions section, select Add.

  9. Specify Adobe Analytics as the Extension name.

  10. Select Set Variables as the Action Type. The options available in the drop-down list include:

    • Set Variables: Use this action type to define the event type for which the selected data elements are sent from AEM Forms to Adobe Analytics.

    • Send Beacon: Use this action type to send data from AEM Forms to Adobe Analytics.

    • Clear Variables: Use this action type to clear the data trail so that the event registers only once in Adobe Analytics.

      The recommended approach is to use the Set Variables action type to configure the event and data elements, then use Send Beacon to send data, and then use Clear Variables to clear the data trail.

  11. In the Props section, map the report suite options available in the drop-down list with the data elements defined using Configure data elements.

    For example, to send Form Title data element from AEM Forms to Adobe Analytics when you submit a form:

    1. In the Props section, select a prop for Form Title available in the report suite and then select Database icon to map it to Form Title created in Configure data elements.

      define-props

    2. Select Add Another to add more data elements to the list.

  12. In the Events section, select an event from the options available in the report suite and select Keep Changes.

  13. In the Actions section, select + and specify Adobe Analytics as the Extension name.

  14. Select Send Beacon as the Action Type. In the right pane, Select s.t() to send data to Adobe Analytics and treat it as a page view or s.tl() to send data to Adobe Analytics and do not treat it as a page view. Select Keep Changes.

  15. In the Actions section, select + and specify Adobe Analytics as the Extension name.

  16. Select Clear Variables as the Action Type. Select Keep Changes. After performing these steps, the Actions section displays as:
    Actions Configuration

    Customize the Actions section according to your requirements. For example, you can define two Send Beacon steps in an Actions flow to send data to Adobe Analytics and treat it as a page view in one step and send data to Adobe Analytics and do not treat it as a page view in the second step.

    Actions Configuration

  17. Select Save to save the rule.

    You can create rules for all event types, such as Abandon, Error, Field Visit, Help, Render, Save, and Submit.

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Publish flows

After creating the data elements and using them in rules, publish the configuration to collect form data in Adobe Analytics.

Perform the following steps to publish the configuration:

  1. In the Publishing section, select Publishing Flow.

  2. Select Add Library and specify a name and select the environment for the library.

  3. Select Add All Changed Resources and then select Save & Build to Development.

  4. In the Development section, select More options and then select Approve & Publish to Production.

  5. Confirm the changes and the publishing flow soon displays in the Published section.

Publish Flow

2. Configure AEM Forms

Before creating Adobe Launch configuration, create an Adobe IMS Configuration using Adobe Launch as the Cloud Solution.

Create Adobe Launch Configuration

Perform the following steps to create an Adobe Launch configuration:

  1. On the AEM Forms Author instance, navigate to Tools > Cloud Services > Adobe Launch Configurations.

  2. Select a folder to create the configuration and select Create.

  3. Specify a title for the configuration in the Title field.

  4. Select the associated Adobe IMS configuration.

  5. Select the name of the company used while configuring Adobe Analytics.

  6. Select the name of the property created while configuring Adobe Analytics.

  7. Select Save & Close.

  8. Publish the configuration.

NOTE
When you embed AEM Forms within an AEM Sites page, Adobe Launch configurations are not supported in an iFrame for adaptive forms. To resolve this, configure Adobe Launch rules directly on the Sites page or migrate existing Adobe Launch configurations from AEM Forms to the Sites page.

Enable Adobe Analytics for an adaptive form

To use Adobe Launch configuration in an existing Adaptive Form:

  1. On the AEM Forms Author instance, navigate to Adobe Experience Manager > Forms > Forms & Documents.
  2. Select the Adaptive Form and select Properties.
  3. In the Basic tab, select the configuration container used while creating the Adobe Launch configuration.
  4. Select Save & Close. The Adaptive Form is enabled for Adobe Analytics.
  5. Publish the form.

After you enable Adobe Analytics for an adaptive form, you can validate if there is an appropriate data event flow between AEM Forms and Adobe Analytics. The integration of AEM Forms with Adobe Analytics is complete. You can now configure and view reports in Adobe Analytics.

NOTE
In case, if both Analytics using Cloud Service Framework and Analytics using Adobe Launch features are enabled simultaneously, Analytics using Adobe Launch will take precedence.

Create rules to capture custom events (Optional)

Create rules on specific fields of an adaptive form using rule editor to send Analytics data from an adaptive form to Adobe Analytics.

In a two-stage process, you define a rule on a field in an adaptive form. The rule dispatches an event. The name of event is mapped to a custom capture event in Adobe Launch.

To create rules using rule editor in an adaptive form:

  1. Select the field and select Rule Editor to open the rule editor page.
  2. Define a condition in the When section of the rule.
  3. In the Then section of the rule, select Dispatch Event from the Select Action drop-down list.
  4. Specify the name of the event in the Type Event Name field.

For example, if the date of birth is before a certain date, AEM Forms dispatches the Security event.

Dispatch Event

To map the event to a custom capture event in Adobe Analytics:

  1. Create a rule.

  2. In the Events section, select Add.

  3. Specify Adobe Experience Manager Forms as the Extension name.

  4. Select Capture Custom Event from the Event Type drop-down list.

  5. Specify the name of the event that you specified in step 4 while creating a rule using rule editor.

  6. Select Keep Changes and perform the rest of the actions specified in Configure Rules.

3. Configure and view reports in Adobe Analytics

After configuring an adaptive form to send event data to Adobe Analytics, you can start viewing reports in Adobe Analytics:

  1. Select Select Product and select Analytics.

  2. Select Create Project and select Blank project.

  3. Select the report suite name from the dropdown list at the top-right of the freeform.

  4. Specify Form Title in the Search dimension items text to view all form titles.

  5. Drop the adaptive form title to the Drop a segment here (or any other component) text box.

  6. From the Metrics section, drop the events to track to Drop a metric here (or any other component) text box.

  7. Select Visualizations and drop a chart type to the Freeform section. Similarly, you can add multiple chart types to the Freeform section.

  8. Select Ctrl + S keys and specify a name to save the project.

For detailed information on viewing forms analytics reports, see Viewing and understanding AEM Forms analytics reports.

Experience Manager