Create an event-forwarding rule

In this video, I will guide you through how to create and - launch a Server Side Rule.

So, the first thing we want to do to build a Rule is actually - create a data element. And the data element, what we - want to do is we want to pull in an item out of that - incoming XDM object. As you recall, from working - with Launch Server-Side and the new Adobe - Experience Platform Web SDK and working with the Adobe - Experience Edge Network, the data that comes - into the Edge has to be in our XDM format. So, on the client side you bundle all your data points up, properly format them in our XDM format using the extension, and then - send them along their way. The Experience Edge receives - that incoming XDM object and based on your Edge - configuration sends it off to Adobe Analytics with the target, straight into the platform or if you’re a server-side customer it also evaluates the Rules that you have and the conditions, and we’ll send the data off to various third party destinations. So, before we can create the data element we have to find the XDM path that we want to pull the item out of. So, what I’m going to do is I’m - actually going to pull up one of our great demo sites, our - Luma Athletic Apparel site, and we’re also going to take a peek at opening up the Experience - Platform debugger. If you haven’t used the Adobe - Experience Platform debugger, please go ahead and download that. There’s one for Chrome and Firefox. Then you just go and find those in the various - browser extension locations. And so, once I’ve logged in you actually have to - log in and authenticate. So that, for the debugger - to work properly. And if I go over here - to the network requests, I’m going to clear the events, and if I hit refresh - on my browser, go back. You will see that we can see the different requests coming in. And if I take a look at the - web SDK and look at events I can actually see that XDM object which was bundled up on - this page and sent along. This is a compressed view. And of course, here you can - go in to the XDM object and see it more exploited out - in an easier to read format. So, what we need to do to create that XDM or the data element is to get the path of this XDM item here and paste it over into the data element form. So, let’s go back. So, we’re going to take that path, and it follows the format on here. So, it’s going to be - events.XDM.web.webpage details.url would give me this URL.

And there’s some tools coming to make this mapping process easier. Right now, we’re just - going to grab that path. We’ll go back in and actually create the - brand new data element and our new property to be able to use. So, let’s create the new data element. We’re going to call it viewportheight, run the core extensions. None of the other functions have added any other functionality yet - and I’m going to do path. And so, we’re going to - paste in the XDM format. Let’s see. Copy. Paste. There we go. I’ve got render data element. It’s all set to go. So, now we’re going to - actually build a Rule. So, the Rule builder is - going to feel familiar to those of you that have - worked on the client side before but there are quite big differences. For example, you notice - there’s no events, event type. The event is that the XDM - object was received by the Edge. So, everything else is - just condition based. So, you can go in, of course do a regular or an exception.

Right now, core extension - is the one that’s here. And there’s not as many - condition types because you know if you think about how things - are fundamentally different on the service side, basically you’re either - doing a custom code or some sort of value comparison. And so, I can do a value - comparison on that data element using that viewport - height equals, contains, does not start with, is greater than, and it does not contain zero. Whatever use case you want to do. You can build in whatever - type of condition you want. I’ll cancel that. I don’t want to put this as a global Rule. And then we can add in our Rule actions. So, for the Rule action right now we’re going to switch over - to the Adobe Cloud Connector. This is our universal pixel center. We’re going to send data. Basically, this is kind of - like postman in the sky. You select what type - of request we’re making depending on the type of - vendor you’re working with. So, we just, we’re going to do a post. And, for example, we need to send this to, you know, yourwebhook.com/ and then we’re going to start adding in different query parameters. Then you can hard code in values. And if you need to, maybe you - have a specific account ID that you have in here - that you need to include. We’re going to also add in - any kind of dynamic values, so, you know, if it’s a confirmation ID and anywhere you see that cylinder icon of course you can - reference the data elements and you can see right here that we were able to build - out this pixel request. And so, whenever this Rule fires, it’s going to, on the server side, quiet title, never see it, you’ll see this data getting pushed out to whatever web hook address you specify. So, let’s keep those changes.

And we’re also going to add - in, I’m going to send data off to Google analytics as well. That’s right. We’re going to send data.

We can add in, you know, - any sort of parameter we want.

And keep those changes. And so now via server-side, - this is a global Rule. I’m just going to run and go all the way through and send data out to the location we specified - in the Cloud Connector, and as well as sending data - off to Google Analytics. Now that we publish the Rule, we act or save the Rule, we actually have to publish it out to one of our environments. So, let’s open up our publishing workflow. We’ll create a new library and we’re just going to push - it out to that, QA Library. And we’re going to add all the resources. These are the exact same steps that we did on the client side. So, you know, the first time you’re adding on all the extensions and the - data element and the thing and we’re going to save and - build that for development. Now that configuration - information is being pushed out to the experience - platform Edge Network, so that when that XDM object comes in from the right environment with this coding, we’ll - actually send that data out to where we want her to go to see it. So, let’s take a look at what, how we can actually see - that data happening. Now, of course you can - log into whatever system you’re sending the data to and wait for that data to show up. But sometimes we want to see it you know, in a real - time as it’s happening. So, let’s open back up our debugger. And this time we’re going to - switch back over to launch. I’m going to clear these events. And there it is, an Edge Trace Feature. So, we’re going to start that trace. And if I hit refresh on the browser and we go back into the debugger, you can see this is showing us real time how the requests were - being received by the Edge. And so right here this data here was received - by the Experience Edge. There was automatic data that - went over to Adobe Analytics. There were some server side Rules doing value comparison as well. We sent data right here - to Google analytics. And so, all of this is, you know, - we’re able to see this data on the Edge because - we’re authenticated in. So, we want you to feel confident. They just don’t have the same level of troubleshooting and - debugging that you do now. Being able to see from a testing and troubleshooting standpoint, - those data calls happen. You don’t have to just wait and hope that they’d make it - to the different destinations.

So, to review, we went through the steps to create a data element - from the XDM object. We discussed Rule conditions - and the Rule Builder. We talked about the Rule - Actions in the Rule Builder, and we published that Rule. - -