A Sample Campaign

 

In previous sections of the tour, the focus was on the commerce features of the sample Web application. The descriptions were primarily intended as an overview for the Java developers or Commerce Business Engineers (CBEs) who will use the JSP templates and tags to build applications.

This final chapter of the tour switches the focus to the campaign features, especially from the perspective of the business analysts and marketing professionals who will use the graphical client tool called the BEA E-Business Control Center.

The following topics are discussed:

• Introduction and Prerequisites

• Step 1: Starting the E-Business Control Center

• Step 2: Connecting from the Client Tool to a Running Server

• Step 3: Examining Tour Campaign 1: Simple Banner Ad

• What's Next?

 

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Introduction and Prerequisites

This tour takes you through a basic sample campaign, and shows you the simple JSP tags that have been inserted in the sample JSP templates. These JSP tags do things like provide placeholders on the Web pages for content that it either associated with a campaign, or operates independently of a campaign. The characteristics of that content is determined by the person who defines the campaigns in the E-Business Control Center, the profiles of people using the Web site, and the events that occur while people are using the Web site.

First, a few basic facts about the BEA E-Business Control Center and campaigns:

• A broad range of users, including business analysts, marketing professionals, and CBEs can use the E-Business Control Center to define and manage promotional campaigns, campaign discounts, stand-alone discounts, customer segments, content selectors, ad placeholders, and custom events.

• Although the E-Business Control Center has a separate installation program, it is not a separate product. You can use this client tool for a variety of purposes with all three server packages: BEA Campaign Manager for WebLogic, WebLogic Commerce Server, and WebLogic Personalization Server.

• A run-time license check determines which features of the E-Business Control Center you can use. An abbreviated version of the functionality per license type is as follows:

  • If you are using the WebLogic Personalization Server only license, you can keep track of customer behavior (events), analyze customer interactions via a 3rd-party analytics tool, create placeholders for content display, define customer segments, and target customers with personalized content.

  • If you are licensed only for WebLogic Commerce Server, you can perform all the previously listed functions, plus you can define standalone discounts. A standalone discount is one that is not associated with a campaign.

  • If you are licensed only for Campaign Manager for WebLogic, you can perform all the previously listed functions, plus you can define campaign discounts, execute promotional campaigns, and you can use a 3rd-party tool to analyze the data collected by Campaign Manager for WebLogic to monitor and report on campaign results.

    For more information about the product features according to license, see the Product Family Overview and Using the E-Business Control Center. This latter document is a copy of the online Help that is integrated into the client tool.

• The E-Business Control Center client can be installed either standalone or on the same system as the server software if the platform supports both. For this tour, you can run the E-Business Control Center on a Windows 2000 Professional or Windows Me client machine. If you are using a Windows 2000 machine, the server can be running on the same machine. If you are using Windows Me as the client, the server software must be running on a remote server platform such as Solaris 8, Windows 2000 Professional, or Windows 2000 Server.

• A campaign is a named group of scenarios that work together to achieve strategic business goals. A campaign coordinates several WebLogic Personalization Server, WebLogic Commerce Server, and Campaign Manager for WebLogic services to create and track marketing goals on an e-commerce Web site.

• A scenario is the primary building-block of campaigns. A scenario is composed of one or more scenario actions, all of which take place if their criteria are met: if a particular event occurs or if a customer is part of a specified customer segment.

 

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Step 1: Starting the E-Business Control Center

The E-Business Control Center is a client that connects locally or remotely to a server running Campaign Manager for WebLogic, WebLogic Commerce Server, and WebLogic Personalization Server applications.

If the E-Business Control Center is not installed yet, you or your system administrator should see "Installing the E-Business Control Center" in the Installation Guide. After the installation, you or your system administrator must set up the product license. If that step has not happened yet, see "Post-Installation Considerations" in the Installation Guide.

Before you start the E-Business Control Center, the server must be running. The WLCS Web application does not have to be running, but for the purposes of this tour we suggest that you have it running too. For information about starting the server and opening the WLCS Web application, see Starting the Tour.

On a supported client Windows system, use the Start menu to start the E-Business Control Center. For example:

Start --> Programs -->BEA WebLogic E-Business Platform --> BEA E-Business Control Center --> E-Business Control Center

The E-Business Control Center client displays a splash screen with a number of Initializing.... messages, and then opens its screens on the desktop.

 

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Step 2: Connecting from the Client Tool to a Running Server

Figure 7-1 shows the initial screens that are displayed when theE-Business Control Center client tool has started. In the Server Connection window, the E-Business Control Center prompts you for server connection information on the New Connection tab. For this example, enter:

• An optional name for the connection. For example: Sample Tour

• The name of the running WebLogic host. If you are running the server on the same machine as the client tool, enter localhost. Otherwise, enter the name of the remote machine. In the diagram, we have entered a remote server machine named zazen.

• The port: 7501

  (This assumes that the person who did the server configuration is using port number 7501. If you are not sure, please check with your system administrator.)

• A valid username and password. For example:

  Username: system
  Password: weblogic

  (This assumes that the person who did the installation entered weblogic as the password for the system account. If you are not sure, please check with your system administrator.)

  Or try the default username and password for the administrator account:

  Username: administrator
  Password: password

  Figure 7-1 Server Connection Window and Initial Main Window

  
   

 

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Step 3: Examining Tour Campaign 1: Simple Banner Ad

Once the connection from the client tool to the server is established, we can start exploring some of the sample campaign data. The data comes pre-loaded in the application.

The E-Business Control Center displays an Explorer window, as shown in Figure 7-2.

Figure 7-2 Explorer Window

 

When you click Tour Campaign 1 once, the description explains that in the Web application, a banner ad will be displayed if a customer belonging to the "Affluent Mr/Ms Fix-It" or "Contractor" customer segments has logged in. We will try the login accounts on the sample JSP templates later. For now, though, let's look at the definitions related to Tour Campaign 1.

Double-click on "Tour Campaign 1." In a few seconds, an editor window is displayed, as shown in Figure 7-3.

Figure 7-3 Campaign Editor Window

 

On the right side of the window, click each of the small black triangles in the white circles to expand each category: General, Start/Stop, and Scenarios.

The General category contains the description of the campaign. The Start/Stop section shows the date range for the campaign, and specifies the ending criteria for the campaign on the running server. Notice how the ads that are part of this campaign will be displayed up to 25 times on the server before the campaign ends. For example, see Figure 7-4.

Figure 7-4 Start/Stop Settings for Tour Campaign 1

 

Click in the row for the ending criteria, and then click the Edit button to get a closer look, as shown in Figure 7-5.

Figure 7-5 End Criteria Detail Window

 

Notice how this particular campaign is specifying two banner ad graphics that will be displayed. On this screen, the business analyst or marketing professional can set the target number and characteristics for the campaign, the goal scope, and the goal type.

Click the OK or Cancel button on the End Criteria Detail window. Back on the Editor window for Tour Campaign 1, click the Start/Stop arrow again to minimize it. Then click the arrow for the Scenarios category to expand its display on the window. The Ad Scenario for Campaign is displayed.

On the Editor window for Tour Campaign 1, in the Scenarios category, click the small Details icon (on the right). Figure 7-6 shows the relevant portion of the display.

Figure 7-6 Details Display for Ad Scenario for Campaign

 

Again, a scenario is the primary building-block of campaigns. A scenario is composed of one or more scenario actions, all of which take place if their criteria are met: if a particular event occurs or if a customer is part of a specified customer segment As you can see, two actions are defined for this scenario. The scenario occurs if:

• The Web site visitor who has just logged in is part of the "Affluent Mr/Ms Fixit" customer segment.

• Or if the Web site visitor who has just logged in is part of the "Contractor" customer segment

As you will recall from an earlier chapter in the tour, the newuser.jsp template includes a newdemographictemplate.inc file. It contains form fields that allow the person registering with the Web site to characterize themselves in one of several categories. Figure 7-7 shows a portion of the Demographic Options on the newuser.jsp:

Figure 7-7 Demographic Options from newuser.jsp Template

 

For the sample campaigns, there are two registered customers you need to know about:

• Sue Carpenter: username is suecarpenter; password is password. When she registered with the site, Sue's demographic characteristics included Professional and the salary range off $125,000 and above. This puts Sue in the "Contractor" customer segment that is defined in the E-Business Control Center.

• Bob Smith: username is bobsmith; password is password. When he registered with the site, Bob's demographic characteristics included "Do It Yourselfer" and the salary range of $100,000 to $149,999. This puts Bob in the "Affluent Mr/Ms Fixup" customer segment that is defined in the E-Business Control Center.

Notice how on the initial main.jsp template for the running WLCS Web application, before logging in as any user, the default banner graphics are:

• tourBanner1.gif (top banner that includes the text "Experience Campaigns!"

• tourSide01.gif (side banner that includes the text "Register Now...")

Figure 7-8 shows the initial display for the sample Web application:

Figure 7-8 Initial Display for the WLCS Web Application

 

The tourBanner1.gif and tourSide01.gif images are default images. The placeholder JSP tag is simply:

<ph:placeholder name="<%= banner %>" />

To experience the first sample campaign and see what the Web visitor will see, let's access the WLCS Web application in a browser:

• http://localhost:7501/wlcs (if the server is running locally)

  Or:

• http://<wl-host>:7501/wlcs (substitute the machine name on which the server is running in the <wl-host> parameter). For example:

  http://zazen:7501/wlcs

Click the Log In link in the horizontal navigation section of main.jsp.

When you arrive on the login.jsp template, log in as:

Username: suecarpenter
Password: password

If you entered Sue's username and password correctly, notice the changes when you arrive back on the main.jsp template. Figure 7-9 shows the sample display.

Figure 7-9 Main.jsp Display for Logged-in User Sue Carpenter

 

Sue is in the Contractor customer segment. Notice the targeted "Contractor's Journal" ad is now used in the banner. The image file name is tourBannerJournal.gif.

How was the association made between a customer in the Contractor customer segment and this ad? Let's go back to the E-Business Control Center. On the Editor window for Tour Campaign 1, in the Scenarios section, click in the second action that references the Contractor customer segment, as shown in Figure 7-10.

Figure 7-10 Action that References Contractor Customer Segment

 

With that action highlighted, click the Edit button. On the Ad Action window, click the "ad search" link shown in Figure 7-11.

Figure 7-11 Notice the "ad search" link on the Ad Action Window

 

Click the "ad search" link. Figure 7-12 shows the Ad Search window.

Figure 7-12 Ad Search Window

 
 

Of course, you can now see the tourBannerJournal.gif image that is associated with customers in the Contractor customer segment, as defined in the Tour Campaign 1. If you want, you can highlight the item in the Descriptors row to see how the Preview function works.

On the WLCS Web application, you can log out as Sue Carpenter and then log in as Bob Smith. (The username is bobsmith and the password is password.) Bob is in the "Affluent Mr/Ms Fixup" customer segment. Figure 7-13 shows the main.jsp display for the logged in Bob Smith.

Figure 7-13 Main.jsp Display for Logged In User Bob Smith

 

As you can see, the targeted banner ad for Bob Smith is using the tourBannerFixup.gif image. You can confirm this in the E-Business Control Center by following the scenario action that references the Affluent Mr/Ms Fixup customer segment.

After you create a new placeholder in the E-Business Control Center, a CBE must use a special tag (the <ph:placeholder> JSP tag) in the location that you want to display ads. For example, if you create a placeholder to display ads in the top banner, a CBE must add a <ph:placeholder> tag to the top banner.

When a customer accesses a page that contains a placeholder JSP tag, the tag starts the process of choosing a query, running the query, and then generating the HTML tags that the browser needs to display the ad.

Once a CBE uses this tag on a page on your web site, you use the E-Business Control Center to change the queries that the tag can run; you do not need a CBE to modify the tag.

Note: A documentation walk-through of Tour Campaign 2 (discounts for registered users) may be provided in an update to this document on the BEA E-Docs Web site. Please check http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E13210_01/wlcs/docs35/cstour/campaign.htm.

 

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What's Next?

This concludes the JSP Commerce and Campaign tour. To learn more about the E-Business Control Center, see the online Help in the client tool. A copy of the online Help is also available in the document "Using the E-Business Control Center." This document is of interest to business analysts, marketing professionals, and developers. In the documentation, developers are referred to as Commerce Business Engineers (CBEs).

CBEs should also read the Guide to Developing Campaign Infrastructure and the Guide to Events and Behavior Tracking.

To learn more about the WebLogic Commerce Server JSP templates, Webflow, Pipeline, the product catalog, and the other concepts introduced in the tour, CBEs should see the following documents:

• Guide to Managing Presentation and Business Logic: Using Webflow and Pipeline

• Guide to Building a Product Catalog

• Guide to Registering Customers and Managing Customer Services

• Guide to Managing Purchases and Processing Orders