You can create step attributes through Request view in Browser Based Replay.
Note: Creation of step attributes is not supported in RTV.
When you create objects through Browser Based Replay, the Event Manager checks to see if the selected content is already referenced in an existing event object. If so, the Event Manager selects that object for you to edit.
In some cases, the selected event object is provided by Tealeaf and is, therefore, not editable. For example, Tealeaf provides the CUI
Hit
hit attribute, which references the contents of the HTTP_X_TEALEAF
request variable. When you choose to create attributes or events from the values of this request variable, the Event Manager selects the CUI Hit
attribute for you to edit. This hit attribute cannot be edited.
Note: If you want to create more step attributes and events from session data for which attributes or events are already created, you must create them manually through the Event Manager.
Permissions for creating step-based event objects
To create step attributes, you must have permissions to access the Event Manager, where event-related objects are created in the Portal.
Create a step attribute
When you select a JSON item in BBR and choose to create a step attribute, the Event Manager is opened in the browser window currently opened to the Portal.
Depending on your browser type and configuration, you can manually switch over to the Portal window.
Step attributes are commingled with hit attributes. They do not belong to a special category. What defines an attribute as a step attribute are the properties that are listed.
Attribute Properties | Description |
---|---|
Use Step Pattern |
For step attributes, the Use Step Pattern radio button is selected for you, which enables specification of the xpath to the node whose value you want to track.
When a step pattern is used to identify an attribute, the check is completed by using a case-sensitive search by default. If you choose to change the type of pattern tag to a step pattern, the existing case-sensitive settings are preserved. |
Step Attribute Path |
The Step Attribute Path value contains the node information to uniquely identify the JSON value to acquire in the attribute. For the preceding example, the path is:
This provides a unique path to the description value for the exception message that was submitted from a client framework to Tealeaf. |
Note: You can complete the same Post-Match Operations on a step attribute that you can complete on a hit attribute.
The values of step attributes are always treated as text patterns. As a result, operators such as equals
perform text-based comparisons, even if the captured value is a numeric or Boolean value.
Data availability
Like the hits that contain them, steps are processed in isolation from all other steps. For example, if you want to use data from step 1 for use on step 2, you must create an event to record the data from step 1 for later use.
- Since each step is associated with a parent hit, any hit attributes triggered on the parent hit are available for reference in each step of the hit.
- However, step attributes are available only within the single step that is being evaluated.
- If you want to use a hit attribute in a step attribute, the event trigger must be configured to be evaluated on one of the step triggers.
- Data from events that are triggered on previous steps is available in later steps.
Use data between step attributes
A step triggered event uses only data that is contained in the step in which it is triggered, which is a similar behavior to how hits are triggered.
To use data from step 1 in step 2, you must record the data from step 1 in an event and then reference the event in step 2.
For example, suppose your request data for a single hit looks like:
[appdata]
TLT_URL=/tealeaftarget.php
TLT_CUI_URL= /checkout
[StepAttributes]
{
"type": 4,
"offset": 8063,
"count": 1,
"event": {
"type": "change"
},
"target": {
"id": firstname",
"idType": -1,
"type": "INPUT",
"dwell": 2196,
"currState": {
"value": "MyName"
}
}
},
{
"type": 4,
"offset": 2293,
"count": 2,
"event": {
"type": "click"
},
"target": {
"id": "login:guest",
"type": "INPUT",
"subType": "radio",
"currState": {
"checked": true,
"value": "guest"
}
}
},
In the preceding data:
[appdata]
data is available through standard hit attributes.- There are 2-step messages:
- Step 1: The first step identifies the
change
client event, in which thefirstname
form field is set toMyName
. - Step 2: The second step identifies the
click
client event, in which thelogin.guest
element is set toguest
.
- Step 1: The first step identifies the
A single step-triggered event cannot use data from both step 1 and step 2 at the same time. For example, you cannot create a step-triggered event that fires on the click message and records the value of the firstname
value by using only step attributes.
To capture the value of Step 1 based on the condition of Step 2, you must:
- Create a step attribute to capture
firstname
's value on Step 1. - Create an event that records the value of the step attribute for Step 1.
- Create an event that fires on the click for guest and uses the value for the Step 1 event for the guest value.
Capturing a specific value
By default, a step attribute captures all possible values for the selected JSON path. When the attribute is specified, any value that is detected for the node becomes the value for the attribute.
In some situations, you can gather in the step attribute only specified values. For example, suppose that you are tracking the following JSON path:
.sessions[0].message.clientState.event
By default, any step attribute can capture any instance of any value. So, your attribute can capture values such as load
, attention
, resize
, or scroll
. Suppose that you are interested in creating a step attribute to track only the scroll
values. After you create the step attribute through BBR, you can complete the following modifications to the attribute definition through the Event Manager.
- Edit the step attribute.
- Click thePost Match Operations caret.
- Select User RegEx.
- In the RegEx textbox, enter
scroll
. - To save the change, click Save Draft.
- To commit the change, click Save Changes.
Now, the step attribute records only the instances of the scroll
value for the specified JSON path.
As an alternative, you can specify a step attribute without using the RegEx portion. When you use the step attribute in an event, specify that the value of the step attribute equals scroll
.
Creating a step event
When you select a JSON item in BBR and create an event, the Event Manager opens in the browser window and the Event Wizard is displayed.
Note: Depending on your browser type and configuration, you can manually switch over to the Portal window.
The default event checks every step to see whether the JSON item is present and records the last occurrence in the event by default. Using this configuration, you can track the number of sessions in which the event occurred.
Note: If you cancel creation of a step-based event, you must revert the step attribute, if created, through the Hit Attributes tab.
Step-based events can be evaluated on the Every Step
and After Every
Step
trigger.
For any event that is triggered off step-based data, you must configure it to track occurrences at the individual hit level.
Note: Do not use session-level tracking, as those options operate only on the first or last hit of the session.
Triggers for compound events using step-based events as conditions
There are specific triggers that must be applied when compound events use step-based events as conditions.
Note: If you are creating an event with multiple conditions that uses one or more step-based events, you must set the event to be evaluated on After Every Hit
. That trigger is evaluated after Every Hit
, Every Step
, and After Every
Step
, in that order.
Creating a dimension
After you create the step attribute, event, or both to track a value in a submitted message, you can create a dimension to record values from the event or attribute in the standard manner.
Note: Dimensions that are populated by step attributes or events can capture new values from multiple steps in a hit.
Event Tester
In the Event Tester, you can validate the triggering of step-based attributes and events. Step attributes and the events that are triggered from them are displayed as regular hit attributes and events in the test results
Note: After you create step-based objects, it can take a few minutes before they are available for selection in the Event Tester.
Condition step
When you create an event to track a JSON message item, the step attribute that is required to detect the name-value pair is also created in draft mode for you. For such scenarios, the Hit Attribute condition specifies the step attribute that the Event Manager has also created for you.
The Event Manager pre-populates the event definition with properties to identify the specific JSON item to track.
Note: For step attribute conditions, Match Count
and Last Value
value tests are not useful, as there is only one unique match and its value for a specified property on the hit.
Note: If you do not want to double count actions, use both the event type and the ID/name when you create events for a specific action.
- If you look only for
ID = checkout method
, then this event fires twice when you only wanted it to fire once. Suppose you want to track clicked objects. Each object has the event type click. - To track clicks of a specific object, you must specify both the event type and object ID.
- If a step attribute with the same properties exists, the Event Manager uses the existing step attribute.
- As needed, you can add extra conditions to the event you are creating.
Attribute Properties | Description |
---|---|
Icon | You must select an identifying icon for your step-based events. |
Labels | You can organize your step-based events into labels within the Event Manager. |
Evaluate |
Set the trigger to be either of the step-based triggers. |
Track |
Set the occurrences to track to monitor the first or last occurrence in the session or every occurrence.
|
Value Type |
Step-based events can track numeric or text values or the count of occurrences of the event. |