DocumentationExperience PlatformWeb SDK Tutorial

Create identities

Last update: Fri May 31 2024 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

CREATED FOR:

  • Beginner
  • Intermediate
  • Developer

Learn how to capture identities with Adobe Experience Platform Web SDK. Capture both unauthenticated and authenticated identity data on the Luma demo site. Learn how to use the data elements you created earlier for collecting authenticated data with a Platform Web SDK data element type called Identity map.

This lesson focuses on the Identity map data element available with the Adobe Experience Platform Web SDK tags extension. You map data elements containing an authenticated user ID and authentication status to XDM.

Learning objectives

At the end of this lesson, you are able to:

  • Understand the relationship between Experience Cloud ID (ECID) and First Party Device ID (FPID)
  • Understand the difference between unauthenticated vs authenticated IDs
  • Create an identity map data element

Prerequisites

You have an understanding of what a data layer is, gotten familiar with the Luma demo site data layer, and know how to reference data elements in tags. You must have completed the previous lessons in the tutorial:

Experience Cloud ID

The Experience Cloud ID (ECID) is a shared identity namespace used across Adobe Experience Platform and Adobe Experience Cloud applications. ECID provides the foundation for customer identity and is the default identity for digital properties. ECID is the ideal identifier for tracking unauthenticated user behavior because it is always present.

Read more about how ECIDs are tracked using Platform Web SDK.

ECIDs are set using a combination of first-party cookies and Platform Edge Network. By default, the first-party identity cookies are set client-side by the Web SDK. To account for browser restrictions on cookie lifespans, you can opt to set your own first-party identity cookies server-side instead. These identity cookies are referred to as first-party device IDs (FPIDs).

IMPORTANT
The Experience Cloud ID Service extension is not needed when implementing Adobe Experience Platform Web SDK, as the ID Service functionality is built into Platform Web SDK.

First Party Device ID (FPID)

FPIDs are first-party cookies you set using your own web servers which Adobe then uses to create the ECID, instead of using the first-party cookie set by the Web SDK. While browser support may vary, first-party cookies tend to be more durable when set by a server that leverages a DNS A record (for IPv4) or AAAA record (for IPv6), as opposed to when set by a DNS CNAME or JavaScript code.

Once an FPID cookie is set, its value can be fetched and sent to Adobe as event data is collected. Collected FPIDs are used as seeds to generate ECIDs on Platform Edge Network, which continue to be the default identifiers in Adobe Experience Cloud applications.

While FPIDs are not used in this tutorial, you are encouraged to use FPIDs in your own Web SDK implementation. Read more about First-party device IDs in the Platform Web SDK

CAUTION
FPID is an alternative way of generating the ECID by using a cookie set by your web servers. It is not used for identifying authenticated users.

Authenticated Id

As noted above, all visitors to your digital properties are assigned an ECID by Adobe when using Platform Web SDK. ECID is the default identity for tracking unauthenticated digital behavior.

You can also send an authenticated user ID so that Platform can create Identity Graphs and Target can set its Third Party Id. Setting the authenticated id is done by using the Identity Map data element type.

To create the Identity Map data element:

  1. Go to Data Elements and select Add Data Element

  2. Name the Data Element identityMap.loginID

  3. As the Extension, select Adobe Experience Platform Web SDK

  4. As the Data Element Type, select Identity map

  5. This prompts a screen area to the right within the Data Collection interface for you to configure the identity:

    Data Collection interface

  6. As the Namespace, select the lumaCrmId namespace that you previously created in the Configure Identities lesson. If it does not appear in the dropdown, type it in.

  7. After the Namespace is selected, an ID must be set. Select the user.profile.attributes.username data element created earlier in the Create data elements lesson, which captures an ID when users are logged into the Luma site.

  8. As the Authenticated state, select Authenticated

  9. Select Primary

  10. Select Save

    Data Collection interface

TIP
Adobe recommends sending identities that represent a person, such as Luma CRM Id, as the primary identity.
If the identity map contains the person identifier (for example, Luma CRM Id), then the person identifier becomes the primary identity. Otherwise, ECID becomes the primary identity.

At the end of these steps, you should have the following data elements created:

Core Extension Data Elements
Platform Web SDK Extension Data Elements
cart.orderId
data.variable
cart.productInfo
identityMap.loginID
cart.productInfo.purchase
xdm.variable.content
page.pageInfo.hierarchie1
page.pageInfo.pageName
page.pageInfo.server
product.category
product.productInfo.sku
product.productInfo.title
user.profile.attributes.loggedIn
user.profile.attributes.username

With these data elements in place, you are ready to start sending data to Platform Edge Network by creating a rule in tags.

Next: Create a rule in tags

NOTE
Thank you for investing your time in learning about Adobe Experience Platform Web SDK. If you have questions, want to share general feedback, or have suggestions on future content, please share them on this Experience League Community discussion post
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