Skip to main content

Popular business uses

Popular business uses

Example: Configure login IDs to be searchable

For web applications that use or require user authentication, capturing login IDs can be a useful means for tracking visitor behavior.

While a login ID is not a guaranteed indicator of a unique visitor, it does provide insight into the activities on your web application that are engaged through specific user accounts, which is useful for addressing customer service issues.

Note: Use the Tealeaf Cookie Injector to generate unique, persistent cookies for individual visitors.

As part of the installation, Tealeaf provides a number of pre-defined data objects that you can use for tracking basic activities, metrics, and other useful information about your web application. Among these are two objects for capturing Login IDs. This End-to-End Scenario describes how to configure the provided Login ID data objects for your web application's needs and then to surface that information in search through the Portal.

As part of the set of provided data objects, Tealeaf includes a hit attribute, an event, and a session attribute for detecting the Login ID displayed in your web application.

  • A hit attribute is used to define the set of characters in request or response data that demarcate an element of data that you want to track through an event.
  • An event is triggered by a condition. In this case, the condition is the presence of the Login ID hit attribute. When this hit attribute is detected, the event is fired, which stores the Login ID value in the session attribute Login ID.
  • A session attribute is a session-level variable that can be populated and updated based on events. The Login ID session attribute is the first one in your system. Tealeaf supports the creation of up to 64 session attributes.
  • When the hit attribute for Login ID is detected, the event is triggered, and the session attribute Login ID is updated with the value.

The scenario begins with how to configure the Login ID hit attribute and test if the session attribute is being properly populated.

Prerequisite steps for configuring the login ID to be searchable

Before you configure the login ID to be searchable, you must review where the value of the Login ID for your web application is published in the response delivered to the visitor.

You can identify this information by logging into your publicly available version of the web application, navigating to a page where the login ID is published, and then viewing the source of the page through your web browser.

In the web page source, you must locate a uniquely identifiable snippet of HTML code that appears just before the login ID value and the HTML snippet that marks the end of the login ID.

The Start Tag and End Tags to uniquely identify the Login ID published on the pages of your web application must be known before you can complete this scenario.

Note: The login ID for your web application can be more easily extracted from the request of a hit. Where it appears depends on your web application and how Tealeaf is configured. For more information, contact your web development team.

Create a hit attribute called Login ID

This first step requires the creation of the Login ID hit attribute provided by Tealeaf to identify the login identifiers published in each page of your web application.

  1. Login to the Portal as an administrator.
  2. From the Portal menu, select Configure > Event Manager.
  3. In the Event Manager, click the Hit Attributes tab.
  4. Locate the Login ID hit attribute.

    You can filter for the hit attribute by entering Login ID in the Filter Hit Attributes entry box in the left column.

  5. Right-click the Login ID hit attribute and select Edit Hit Attribute....
  6. In the Edit Hit Attribute window, configure the following properties:
    1. Name: Leave this value as Login ID.
    2. Description: Enter a meaningful description here.
    3. Active: Set to true.
    4. Search In: Set to Response if login ID's are published in the pages delivered to your visitors. Otherwise, if it appears in the request, set this value to Request.

      Depending on your web application and Tealeaf configuration, the login ID may be in the Request instead of the Response.

    5. Select Use Start Tag/End Tag.
    6. Start Tag: Enter the value of the start tag as specified in your web application.
    7. End Tag: Enter the value of the end tag as specified in your web application.
      Note: In a tag, you can use \r for carriage return and \n for line feed.
      • All lines in the request are separated by \r\n, so they can be used to indicate the start and end of lines.
      • The line separator used in the response is controlled by your application's code. It may contain \r, \n, or both.
      Note: To reduce the memory usage of a hit attribute, set All Matches to false. Only the first instance of the hit attribute is tracked; all other instances on the page are ignored.
  7. Save your draft.
  8. Save your changes and commit them.

The Login ID hit attribute is configured with the Start and End tags to track login identifiers for your web application.

Create an event called Login ID Sample

Review the provided event Login ID Sample to verify that it is properly configured.

A key step in the review is to verify that it is supplying values to record to the Login ID session attribute.

This session attribute is included by default in all new installations. However, it is not enabled at startup. Those steps are included.

When you finish the configuration, the data flow look like the following line:


Login ID hit attribute > Login ID Sample event > Login ID session attribute
Note: It is possible that the session attribute is modified to suit another purpose. If you verify that it is being used differently than expected, you must create another session attribute to store the output of the Login ID Sample event.
  1. In the Event Manager, click the Events tab.
  2. Locate the Login ID Sample event.

    You can filter for the event by entering Login ID in the Filter Events entry box in the left column.

  3. In the Icon column, you can see the icon that is displayed in the Portal when the event is fired. Remember this icon.
  4. Right-click the event and select Edit Event....
  5. The Event Wizard is displayed. Verify the following information:
    1. Summary information:
      1. Set Evaluate On to Every Hit. Depending on how your application is constructed, the login identifier can be first displayed on any page in the session.
      2. Set Track to First Per Session.
      3. Set Value Type to Text.
      4. Select the Active check box.
      5. Searchable and Reportable: false
        • When set to true, this option enables the storage of the event data in the database. For this scenario, however, you must assign a session attribute to track this information.
        • If you do enable this option, then the Display in Portal option is enabled. If that option is selected, then the Display in Session List option becomes available.
    2. Click the Condition step:
      1. The hit attribute that is listed as the only condition for the event must be Login ID.
      2. The action is set to First Value must be tested. This value must be set to Is not empty.
    3. Click the Value step. The following properties and values should be specified:
      1. If the listed value to record is not set to the Login ID hit attribute, then click Select....
      2. Select the Login ID hit attribute.
      3. Set the value for the item to record to be First Match per Hit.
    4. Click the Report Groups step.

      In this step, you can configure the report group that is associated with the Login ID event. Report groups contain dimensions, which are defined contextual information that can be captured and associated with an event occurrence. For purposes of this exercise, you do not must configure report groups.

    5. Click the More Options step.
    6. Next to Update Session Attribute, click Select.... Select or create the Login ID session attribute.
  6. To save your draft, click Save Changes.
  7. Save your changes and commit them.

The event Login ID Sample is configured to use the hit attribute Login ID as a condition. The values that are detected update the session attribute Login ID.

Create a session list template for the Login ID attribute

After you create the data objects, you can configure your session list template so that these values are surfaced in the Portal.

In the subsequent step, you will locate a session that contains a populated Login ID value.

Note: The standard session list template includes the Login ID column. If you do not want to add this column to a different session list template, then you can skip this step.
  1. In the Portal menu, select Configure > Search Templates.
  2. Click the Session List Templates tab.
  3. In the Session List Templates tab, click Standard Template.
  4. The fields in the standard session list template are displayed.
  5. Look for the Login ID field.
  6. If Login ID is listed:
    1. Select it and click Edit.
    2. In the Configure Session List Column dialog, verify the following properties:
      1. Title: Login ID
      2. Type: If this drop-down is present, select cxImpact.
      3. Field: Session Attribute Value
      4. Attribute: The name of the session attribute that you created or modified to store the value of the login identifier (e.g. Login ID).
      5. Operation: <Display Field Value>.
      6. Leave Contains Large Text Values cleared.
      7. If you made changes to the above properties, click Save.
  7. If Login ID is not listed:
    1. Click All Columns.
    2. In the Configured Session List Columns dialog, click the + icon.
    3. In the Configure Session List Column dialog, create the new session list column. Be sure to specify the properties and values described in the verification step above.
    4. Click Save.
    5. In the Configured Session List Columns dialog, select the new Login ID field and click Add to Template.
    6. The newly created session list column has been added to the selected session list template.

A session list column containing the recorded Login ID session attribute value is added to a selected session list template.

Test the Login ID hit attribute and event

After you have created or configured the hit attribute, event, and session attribute for Login ID, you can test that they are properly configured and captured from your web application.

Note: Tealeaf must be currently capturing and analyzing data from your web application.

You may also test events and hit attributes in the Event Tester.

To test the Login ID Hit attribute and event:

  1. Login to the version of the web application that you're monitoring using a login ID that is unique and not used by others.
  2. Navigate to a page where the Login ID is populated.
    • When the page is captured by Tealeaf and processed in the Short Term Canister, the Login ID hit attribute on the page is detected, and the event is fired on the page in your captured session. The login ID value is recorded in the session attribute and can now appear in the session list template you configured.
    • Within a minute or two, the data should be available in Tealeaf.
  3. From the Portal menu, select Active > Sessions.
  4. In the Active Sessions page, in the displayed session list template the Login ID column for one of the sessions should be populated by the Login ID value that you used to login. Also, you should see the icon for the Login ID event in the Events column.

    If the Login ID column or Events column does not appear in the page, select the session list template that you modified in the previous step from the drop-down in the upper-right corner.

  5. If the test fails, verify that the Start Tag and the End Tag for the hit attribute match exactly the HTML output from your web application.
    1. You must edit the hit attribute again.
    2. You can then rerun the sequence in this step to verify that the data is being captured properly.

The session you were creating is displayed the list of active sessions. In the list of fields in the session list template is the Login ID column, which contains the value for the login identifier that you used to create the session.

Since this value is populated by the Login ID session attribute, you have verified that it is being properly populated by the event, which is triggered by the hit attribute.

Enable searching for the new session attribute

After you verify the capture and storage of the Login ID value to the Login ID session attribute, you might want to enable searching for the session attribute in active and completed session data.

For example, for customer service representatives in your organization, you might want to add the Login ID session attribute to the default active search template so that they can review sessions with customers on the phone who are still navigating the web application.

Note: Search for active sessions and for completed sessions uses different search templates. You can repeat this step for each type of search template.

Create a search template for the Login ID attribute

To begin, you must add it to an Active search template first, since you can immediately search for data against the active session that you already created.

  1. In the Portal menu, select Configure > Search Templates.
  2. Click the Search Templates tab.
  3. In the Search template configuration page, select the type of search template in which to add theLogin ID field. For this example, you can click the Active node. Select Default Active.
    The search fields in the template are listed in the right pane.
  4. If Login ID is not included in the search template, complete the following steps:
    1. Click Search Fields.
    2. In the Configured Search Fields dialog, scan the list for Login ID.
    3. If the field is available, select it and click Add to Template. Skip the remaining steps in this sequence.
    4. If it is not available, complete the following steps:
      1. Click the + icon. In the Configure Search Field dialog, you must specify the following properties:
        1. Name: Enter a name for the search field (for example, Login ID).
        2. Input Type: Select Free Text.
        3. Keyword: Select Session attribute.
        4. MD5 Hashing: Select Disabled.
        5. Attribute: Click <Select an attribute. In the Attribute Selector, select Login ID and click Select.
        6. Click Save.
      2. In the Configured Search Fields dialog, click Add to Template.
      3. Close the window.
    5. Click Save. The new field is added to the selected search template.
  5. You might want to repeat the previous steps to add the Login ID session attribute field to search templates of the other types (Completed and All Sessions).

The Login ID field is added to one or more search templates.

Search for login ID values

Use the newly added search field Login ID to search for login ID values.

To search for login ID values:

  1. To test the search template, select Search in the Portal menu, followed by the type of search template.

    If you added it to a Completed session search template only, you might have to wait until your sample session is closed by you or times out and the session is processed by Tealeaf.

  2. In the Search page, check the search template in use. If it is not the one that you edited, click the Search Template link and select the edited search template.
  3. In theSearch page, the Login ID field should be available. Click the Login ID field to add it the search criteria.
  4. Enter the value for the login identifier that you used to create your session.
  5. Click Search.
  6. Your created session should be displayed in the Search Results page.
  7. If you cannot see the Login ID column, select the session list template that you modified from the drop-down.

You are able to search using the Login ID value you used to create your session and to find the session in the displayed search results.

If required, you can create a dimension to track whether or not the Login ID Sample event occurred during a session, which can be useful in segmenting your reports between registered visitors and non-registered ones.

Related articles

  • Acoustic Campaign

    • Customers

    About acoustic

    © Copyright 2024 Acoustic, L.P. All Rights Reserved.