2 Planning an Interaction Strategy

This chapter describes when to use different types of Personalization and explains the relationships between the Interaction Management features.

This chapter includes the following sections:

• Section 2.1, "Choosing the Type of Interaction Management to Develop"

• Section 2.2, "Checklist for Planning Your User Interaction Strategy"

• Section 2.3, "Checklist for Planning Your Campaign Strategy"

• Section 2.4, "Planning Your Behavior Tracking Strategy"

• Section 2.5, "Updating Interaction Management Features"

• Section 2.6, "Upgrading Interaction Features from Portal 8.1"

2.1 Choosing the Type of Interaction Management to Develop

Use Table 2-1 to determine which type of Interaction Management to develop.

This section contains the following topic:

• Section 2.1.1, "Understanding Conditions"

Table 2-1 Types of Interaction Management

If you want to	...do this
Display different graphics – each time an employee visits the Intranet portal, display a different picture from the company picnic. This action displays a binary property from a single content item from the virtual content repository that can change each time a user visits your portal or clicks Refresh.	Create a generic rotation of content for all users by creating a Placeholder and adding a default query for the Placeholder that displays the range of content you want. Create a targeted rotation of content for each user based on each user's characteristics by creating a Placeholder and a Campaign. Set up the Campaign with content actions that put different types of content in the Placeholder for different types of users. Define the necessary conditions and rules to use in the Campaign. You can also use the <ad:adTarget> JSP tag as an alternative to a Placeholder to manually embed a content query in a JSP. See Chapter 7 for more information.
Display a graphic specific to the user type – when a certain type of user visits the portal, display a graphic specific to the user type. For example, if a manager user views the portal, show the manager the performance review reminder graphic. If a regular employee user views the portal, show the employee the benefits open enrollment graphic. This action displays a binary property from a single content node from the Virtual Content Repository that shows the same content node for each type of user.	Target specific users differently by creating a Placeholder with a default query for all users or a Placeholder used by a Campaign to target specific users differently. Use one of the following ways to show the same content node without content rotation: Set up your content with properties and values that can uniquely identify each piece of content. Create highly focused content queries in the Placeholder or the Campaign to retrieve those single unique content items. See Chapter 7 and Chapter 8 for more information.
Show each user a unique list of recommended books – the list is based on the user's characteristics. This action displays multiple content nodes and properties from the virtual content repository simultaneously.	Show multiple content nodes from the Virtual Content Repository simultaneously by creating Content Selectors and adding them to your JSPs. See Chapter 6 for more information.
Show content that matches a user's characteristics – provide different sections of HTML content in a JSP but show users only the sections that match their characteristics. This action displays personalized content from an inline section of a JSP.	Display personalized inline JSP content by creating User Segments and using the <pz:div> JSP tag to wrap personalized content. You can also use the following JSP tags to display inline JSP content based on the device that is viewing the content (for example, a handheld device or a PC): <cscm:default>, <cscm:not-default>, <cscm:recognized>, <cscm:not-recognized>, <cscm:when>, and <cscm:when-not>. The cscm tags are Portal Multichannel JSP tags. The are contained in the client_taglib.jar file. See Chapter 6 and the Oracle Fusion Middleware JSP Tag Java API Reference for Oracle WebLogic Portal for more information.
Send users automatic e-mails.	Create and store e-mail message files and create a Campaign that uses an e-mail action. See Chapter 8.
Use rules in Page Flows and Web Services to provide a personalized user experience	Use the Rules Executor control in your Page Flows and Web Services. See Chapter 10. Note: Page flows are a feature of Apache Beehive, which is an optional framework that you can integrate with WLP. See "Apache Beehive and Apache Struts Supported Configurations" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Portal Development Guide for Oracle WebLogic Portal.

2.1.1 Understanding Conditions

Interaction Management uses a variety of conditions that identify users and what they are doing.

When you build Interaction Management functionality, you use conditions to perform the following actions:

1. Specify the exact characteristics that identify the users you want to target

2. Define the actions that occur when users that match those conditions visit your portal

Figure 2-1 illustrates how personalized content is dynamically displayed to users with a Content Selector. Conditions are captured, specific users are identified, and actions occur for those users.

Figure 2-1 Simple Example of Interaction Management Logic and Flow

Description of "Figure 2-1 Simple Example of Interaction Management Logic and Flow "

A rules engine runs behind the scenes on a server in a portal domain, reads all available conditions in memory, evaluates those conditions against the rules you created, and executes the actions you defined if the conditions match your rules.

For example, the following list contains some of the conditions that a Campaign can use to determine which users to target with personalized content:

• Dynamically predefined groups of users (User Segments).

• Properties in a User's Profile (such as personal preferences).

• Specific properties in the HTTP request or session.

• An event that occurs (such as performing a click).

• Date and time factors.

2.2 Checklist for Planning Your User Interaction Strategy

Adding Personalization to your portal can involve setting up several related pieces. The checklist in Table 2-2 includes items that you should consider when planning a personalized portal.

Table 2-2 User Interaction Strategy Checklist

Check box	Planning Item	Description
[ ]	1. Create content	Determine the content you want to display, when it should display, and set specific properties on your content items. For example, you can use Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse to add properties to your content that can make an image clickable, end a Campaign after a specific number of clicks, start a movie, provide a clickable URL, and so on. See Chapter 3 for instructions. You should also consult the Oracle Fusion Middleware Content Management Guide for Oracle WebLogic Portal for information on creating and maintaining a virtual content repository.
[ ]	2. Set up Property Sets and properties	Property sets use properties to create conditions that uniquely identify users. The properties you create in Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse are used in the conditions you define for your Personalization logic. For example, you could create a NewHire property set to target these users with benefit enrollment information. Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse provides editors to help you define the following properties to create conditions that identify users: User Profile properties determine which user information to save. User Profile properties can also be used to define Visitor Entitlement and Delegated Administration roles. Request properties capture and use specific HTTP request information to trigger Personalization. Session properties capture and use specific HTTP session information to trigger Personalization. Custom Events can trigger Personalization and Campaigns and track user behavior. Based on the logic conditions, each user is dynamically served personalized, accurate web content, and automatic e-mails. See Chapter 4 for instructions.
[ ]	3. Set up users	Access existing users in external databases or add new users to your portal. For instructions on setting up and managing users, see the Oracle Fusion Middleware User Management Guide for Oracle WebLogic Portal.
[ ]	4. Create User Segments	You can create User Segments to dynamically categorize users based on conditions or criteria that define the target visitor. Those conditions can include characteristics, such as occupation, browser type, User Profile values, or other user properties. For example, you could classify all users who ordered more than five on-demand movies in the last 30 days If visitors match the defined characteristics, they automatically become members of that User Segment and are shown specific web content with Content Selectors or are targeted with Campaign Actions. User Segments can be used over and over in Content Selectors, Placeholders, and Campaigns. See Chapter 5 for instructions.
[ ]	5. Create Content Selectors	A Content Selector lets you target specific groups of people with content items from the WLP Virtual Content Repository. For example, after you create a User Segment to trigger Personalization, you can create a Content Selector that defines the content that is shown to users in a specific User Segment. You could display a list of recommended movies to users identified as movie fans. For instructions, see Chapter 6.
[ ]	6. Create Placeholders	A Placeholder displays a single personalized content item on a JSP. The content item is dynamically retrieved from the WLP Virtual Content Repository. A Placeholder uses queries to retrieve and display one piece of content at a time. For example, if a user is identified as a bird lover, a Placeholder in a Campaign can display an image of a bird with a store discount. The image can change with a browser refresh to show other birds as well. You can also use Placeholders by themselves to display specific types of non-personalized content that is not provided by a Campaign. See Chapter 7.
[ ]	7. Create Campaigns	A Campaign lets you target specific users with a single piece of personalized content at a time, automatically send them a predefined e-mail. Campaigns run for a limited time and drive online behavior and Personalization to achieve a specific business goal. Your Marketing Department generally drives the content of a Campaign. For instructions, see Chapter 8.
[ ]	8. Set up Behavior Tracking	You can use events to trigger Campaigns, persist event data in the database, and other actions. Events are generated when users interact with a web interface, such as logging in, clicking or viewing a graphic, clicking a button, navigating to another page in a portal, and so on. These events that occur in a user's path through your portal are logged to the database, so you can analyze the user behavior in your portal. For example, you could determine how many users have registered in a portal and then create a Campaign that automatically sends each user a welcome e-mail when the registration event occurs. You can also be notified of custom events at runtime and respond accordingly. You might decide to forward events to another system or make runtime decisions on the basis of those events. See Chapter 9 for more information.

One of the most important benefits of using Interaction Management is that the logic is decoupled from your source code. The files you create (Campaigns, Placeholders, Content Selectors, and so on) contain the Personalization logic and content queries, and your code references those files. For example, Campaigns show web content using a JSP tag called a Placeholder.

The next step is to define your Campaign to use the existing Placeholders, each of which can display content unique to the Campaign and to the individual users. Campaigns can change and new ones can be added, but you never have to change your JSP code. The Placeholders you need in the JSPs stay the same.

2.3 Checklist for Planning Your Campaign Strategy

Campaigns provide a broad set of features for delivering personalized functionality, such as displaying personalized web content, and triggering e-mail messages. For detailed information about campaigns, see Chapter 8.

The following sample use cases illustrate some ways to use Campaigns to deliver personalized content and functionality:

• A company provides open benefits enrollment for its employees, where employees can change their current benefits choices. In the internal Human Resources portal, the company creates a Campaign that runs from November 1 - 30. During that time the Campaign displays an Open Enrollment graphic in the portal header region and when employees make changes to their benefits and click Submit, a confirmation e-mail is automatically sent.

• A large online retailer is running a holiday special for its external customers. The retailer creates a Campaign that provides a one-time discount of 30% off the cost of books when the total cost of books in any order is $100 or more.

• A mobile devices ISP creates a Campaign that shows targeted add-on services that are specific to each type of mobile device when users click the New Stuff! link.

  Note:

  Campaigns and Behavior Tracking are not currently supported for anonymous, non-trackable users. See the Oracle Fusion Middleware User Management Guide for Oracle WebLogic Portal.

If you plan to use a Campaign in your portal, use the checklist in Table 2-3.

Table 2-3 Campaign Strategy Checklist

Check box	Planning Item	Notes
[ ]	1. Create a Portal application	See the Oracle Fusion Middleware Tutorials for Oracle WebLogic Portal.
[ ]	2. Set up content	When you show personalized content with a Campaign (using a content rule), the content is retrieved from the WLP Virtual Content Repository and displayed in a Placeholder. There are many properties you can add to your content that enable necessary and helpful features for Campaigns For example, to increase the chances of a specific content item being shown in a Placeholder, create an adWeight property (as an Integer) for your content items. The greater the adWeight number you enter for a content item, the greater the chances that it will be displayed in a Placeholder if it is retrieved by a query. For more information on setting up content for use in Interaction Management, see Chapter 3.
[ ]	3. Decide if you will use Goal Setting	Goal Setting ends a Campaign based on the number of content items displayed or clicked. For more information on Goal Setting, see Section 8.2.1, "Planning Your Campaign Logic" and Section 8.2.2.1, "Setting Goal Definitions."
[ ]	4. Create Placeholders	Campaigns use Placeholders to display personalized web content. If you display personalized content through Campaigns, create the Placeholders that will hold your Campaign queries and display the web content. For more information on Placeholders, see Chapter 7.
[ ]	5. Create User Segments	If you want to trigger a Campaign based on users who are grouped dynamically based on specific characteristics, create User Segments. For more information on User Segments, see Chapter 5.
[ ]	6. Create Property Sets	If you plan to trigger a Campaign based on properties from users, events, HTTP sessions, or HTTP requests, perform the following relevant procedures: Create User Profile properties Register Custom Events Create Session Properties Create Request Properties For more information on how these properties are used in Interaction Management, see Section 4.1, "Setting up a Property Set."
[ ]	7. Set up e-mail messages	You can send automatic e-mails in a Campaign. Follow the steps in Section 8.2.5, "Setting Up Automatic E-Mail Messages."
[ ]	8. Trigger the Campaign	Set up a Regular or Behavior Tracking event that start your Campaign. A commonly used event is SessionLoginEvent. For instructions, see Section 8.4, "Triggering a Campaign." See Section 9.11, "Using Events in Campaigns" and Section 9.11.1, "Registering Events for Campaigns" for instructions.

2.4 Planning Your Behavior Tracking Strategy

WebLogic Portal's event framework provides many options for generating and handling events, to track the behavior of visitors to your portal. This section provides guidelines to help you determine the pieces of the event framework you want to use to implement the functionality you need.

This section contains the following topics:

• Section 2.4.1, "Understanding When to Use a Predefined Event"

• Section 2.4.2, "Understanding When to Create a Custom Event"

• Section 2.4.3, "Understanding When to Create a Custom Event Listener"

2.4.1 Understanding When to Use a Predefined Event

WebLogic Portal provides many predefined Behavior Tracking events you can use in your applications, described in Section 9.3, "Using Predefined Events." Each event collects specific attributes and structures those attributes as XML, and the Behavior Tracking listener puts the XML in a buffer to insert into the BT_EVENT database table.

Most of the predefined events also have predefined event property sets in Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse, stored in the portal application's /data/src/events directory. These property sets let you use events in your Campaign definitions to trigger Campaign actions when the events occur or when events have specific attribute values.

The following list explains when to use WebLogic Portal's predefined events:

• You want to store event data as XML in the BT_EVENT table

• The predefined events capture specified attributes

• The events capture the attributes you want, but you want to handle the events in a customized way by creating your own event listener

• You want to use the events in your Campaign

2.4.2 Understanding When to Create a Custom Event

If none of WebLogic Portal's predefined events capture the specific combinations of attributes you need, create a custom event. There are two types of custom events you can create: Behavior Tracking events and regular events.

See Chapter 9 for instructions on setting up events.

2.4.2.1 Planning Behavior Tracking Events

Create a custom Behavior Tracking event when none of Portal's predefined events captures the event attributes you want and you want to use Portal's Behavior Tracking framework to persist event data as XML in the BT_EVENT table. You can use these events in Campaigns and create a custom listener that performs special handling on the event, but unless you want to use the Behavior Tracking framework to store event data as XML, you do not need to create a custom Behavior Tracking event.

If you do not want to use the Behavior Tracking service, create a custom regular event.

2.4.2.2 Planning Regular Events

Create a custom regular event when none of WebLogic Portal's predefined events captures the event attributes you want and you do not want to use the Behavior Tracking service for persisting event data as XML in the BT_EVENT table.

The following list describes when to create a custom regular event:

• You want to capture a specific set of attributes with an event and use that event to trigger Campaigns

• You want to capture a specific set of attributes with an event and execute custom functionality when that event occurs (using a custom event listener)

2.4.3 Understanding When to Create a Custom Event Listener

WebLogic Portal provides two listeners: a Campaign listener and a Behavior Tracking listener.

The Campaign listener tells the Campaign service when an event has occurred (with the exception of the ignored events in the wps.jar file's listener.properties file). The Campaign service reads the current request and executes Campaign actions if the request data matches the conditions of any of your Campaigns. If your Campaign definitions include any event conditions, which you were able to supply with event property sets, the Campaign service evaluates those as well to determine if it must execute Campaign actions.

The Behavior Tracking listener listens for only the Behavior Tracking events that are registered with the Behavior Tracking service. When it receives an event it is interested in, it moves the XML document for that event into a buffer for later persistence into the BT_EVENT table at an interval you determine.

Create a custom event listener if you want to execute functionality not provided by the Campaign listener or the Behavior Tracking listener. For example, if you want to perform your own event data persistence, modify a User Profile, redirect the user to another part of a Page Flow, or provide any other type of real-time response to the event, create a custom event listener that provides the functionality you want.

Note:

Page flows are a feature of Apache Beehive, which is an optional framework that you can integrate with WLP. See "Apache Beehive and Apache Struts Supported Configurations" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Portal Development Guide for Oracle WebLogic Portal.

See Chapter 9 for more information.

2.5 Updating Interaction Management Features

After you create Property Sets, User Segments, Content Selectors, Placeholders, and Campaigns in Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse, you can modify the settings and queries for those components in the WebLogic Portal Administration Console For instructions, see Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, and Chapter 15.

If you need to create new Interaction Management features or modify properties, use Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse and then iteratively push your updates to the running server. For more information, see the Oracle Fusion Middleware Production Operations Guide for Oracle WebLogic Portal.

2.6 Upgrading Interaction Features from Portal 8.1

When you run the Oracle WebLogic Upgrade Wizard, the wizard upgrades your WebLogic Portal 8.1 or 9.2 interaction features, such as Content Selectors, Placeholders, Campaigns, and so on.

When you run the Oracle WebLogic Upgrade Wizard and it detects your Portal 8.1 or 9.2 installation, you can select the Upgrade RDBMSAuthenticator option. Selecting this option replaces the existing authentication provider with the new SQLAuthenticator authentication provider and upgrades all content, including personalization features. You can also choose to manually upgrade your personalization features from Portal 8.1 SP4, SP5, or SP6 to the Portal 10.x RDBMS user store later. For step-by-step instructions on running the Oracle WebLogic Upgrade Wizard, see the Oracle Fusion Middleware Upgrade Guide for Oracle WebLogic Portal.