Online Marketing Explorer system diagram

The system diagram explains the system architecture and how the components work together. Online Marketing Explorer Online Marketing Explorer consists of the software components installed on the Content Manager Server and on the Presentation Server.

Content Manager Server

Online Marketing Explorer consists of the following components installed on the Content Manager Server:

Online Marketing Explorer interface
Marketers create, model and monitor Initiatives in the Online Marketing Explorer user interface. An Initiative contains Assets (Entry Assets, regular Assets, and a Target Asset) which are tracked on the Presentation Server.
Aggregation Framework
The Aggregation Framework is the conduit for processing tracking information. The main component of the Aggregation Framework is the Aggregation Service which retrieves, aggregates, and exposes data. The Aggregation Service:
  • Receives visitor tracking information (configured using Synchronization Targets) and passes this information on to its Aggregators. Aggregators connect to the Online Initiative Marketing Explorer to get Initiative details in order to save the correct statistics.
  • Persists tracking data aggregated by the Aggregators in the Aggregation Database.
  • Receives information (TCM URIs) about what items (Assets) to track from the Online Marketing Explorer.
  • Retrieves statistical data about Initiatives that is displayed in the Online Marketing Explorer (the Data Provider—enables viewing of statistical data).

Aggregation database

Online Marketing Explorer needs a database. The Aggregation Database stores aggregated data about Web site visitors interaction with Assets in online Initiatives allowing you to view statistical data, compiled in reports, about the progress of Initiatives.

Content Delivery Server

Content Delivery modules turn the content in your Content Manager into a fully functional Web site. For Online Marketing Explorer, you need to configure the Content Deployer Tracking extension which transform the tracking TCDL tag added to Web pages by the Page Tracking and Component Tracking Template Building Blocks provided with Online Marketing Explorer.

Synchronization Server

The Synchronization Server is responsible for synchronizing data between Online Marketing Explorer (on the Content Manager Server) and the Presentation Server. The Synchronization Server consists of:

  • the Web tracking synchronization component and Tracking Core installed in a .NET or Java Web application (on a not publicly accessible Web site).
  • a Synchronization Target on the Content Manager Server configured to communicate with the Web tracking synchronization component.
Synchronization Target
A Synchronization Target points to the URL of a Web tracking synchronization component—Webtrackingsync.aspx or webtrackingsync.jsp. The Synchronization Target:
  • sends a list of TCM URIs of Assets that need to be tracked on the Presentation Server.
  • receives tracking data collected on the Presentation Server.
Web tracking synchronization component
The Web tracking synchronization component communicates with the Tracking Core to persist Asset TCM URIs received by a Synchronization Target.
The Tracking Core also handles requests from Synchronization Targets for session data collected. The Tracking core stores each user request is separately and these requests are bundled into batches. Synchronization Targets pick up these batches when they poll—at intervals configured in the Tridion.Aggregation.config file— the Tracking Core. By default, a Synchronization Target picks up sessions that have not changed in the last 20 minutes (configurable in the tracking_conf.xml file).

Tracking database

The Presentation Server components for Online Marketing Explorer require a database to store Tracking data. You can use an existing Content Data Store to store your Tracking data for Online Marketing Explorer, or you can create a separate instance of the Content Data Store to store tracking data.

Presentation Server

The Presentation Server is the machine which serves Web site content to visitors. Web sites driven by SDL Tridion run as Java or ASP.NET Web applications on a Web Application Server. Online Marketing Explorer requires the following components installed on the Content Manager Server:

Ambient Data Framework
The Ambient Data Framework is a Content Delivery module that provides a flexible and configurable framework for gathering and transforming all kinds of Web site data. Online Marketing Explorer provides cartridges (Tracking cartridge and SmartTarget Tracking cartridge) that plug into the Ambient Data Framework.
For Online Marketing Explorer, the Ambient Data Framework creates a client-side cookie to keep track of anonymous visitors (and recognized visitors) and a session cookie to store information about the user session.
Tracking cartridge
The Tracking cartridge is responsible for gathering data about Web site visitors. The Tracking cartridge is called on every Web site request and stores the following information:
  • Timestamp when the request occurred
  • Unique visitor ID assigned by Web server
  • External referrer URL, if any (the URL of the page which visitor comes from)
  • Internal referrer TCM URI, if any (the TCM URI of another page which user comes from)
  • Contact ID (TCM URI) and Mailing ID (TCM URI), if Outbound Email links are clicked
  • TCM URIs of visited Page and Page Template
  • List of Component Presentations on the Page (Component ID and Component Template ID (TCM URIs pairs)
When a request ends, the Ambient Data Framework sends visitor tracking information to the Tracking Core.
SmartTarget Tracking cartridge
SDL SmartTarget integrates the SDL Tridion and Fredhopper products to provide out-of-the-box support for marketers to create and manage targeted and personalized content for Web sites driven by SDL Tridion.
The SmartTarget Tracking cartridge gathers data about SmartTarget Promotions, the SmartTarget Page Regions in which they are displayed, and Promotional items viewed.
If you are using SmartTarget and have configured to add SmartTarget data to the Claim Store (in the smarttarget_conf.xml file), SmartTarget adds data on Promotions, SmartTarget Page Regions and promotional items to the Claim Store of the Ambient Data Framework. The SmartTarget Tracking cartridge picks up and processes this data and adds tracking information to the Tracking Core.
Tracking Core
The Tracking Core handles the persisting of visitor tracking information and the synchronization of tracking data:
  • The Tracking Core persists tracking data to the Tracking database. You configure which instance of the Content Broker Database you want to store data to in the cd_storage_conf.xml configuration file.
  • The Tracking Core handles requests from Synchronization Targets for session data collected. The Tracking Core keeps track of sessions that have not changed for 20 minutes. Synchronization Targets pick up these sessions when they poll the Tracking Core.
The tracking_conf.xml file is the configuration file for the Tracking Core. The file contains settings for configuring synchronization.