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 TourCampaign1: 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 business engineers 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 the portal, campaign, commerce, and personalization features in WebLogic Portal.

• A run-time license check determines which features of the E-Business Control Center you can use. There are two standard licenses. 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), create placeholders for content display, define customer segments, and target customers with personalized content.

  • If you are using the full WebLogic Portal license, you can perform all the previously listed functions, plus you can define the characteristics of portals, portlets, grant access to visitors so they can view and configure portals and portlets, define standalone discounts or campaign discounts, and develop promotional campaigns.

    For more information about the product features according to license, see the Guide to Using the E-Business Control Center. This 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.

• A campaign is a named group of scenarios that work together to achieve strategic business goals. A campaign coordinates several WebLogic Portal 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 files or a server running a server running WebLogic Portal 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 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 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

Although the majority of E-Business Control Center functionality does not require users to log in to a running WebLogic Portal server, some areas of the E-Business Control Center require you to log in to the server to view or use certain data.

1. In the E-Business Control Center, choose Tools -> Connection Settings in the menu. The Connection Settings window appears, as shown in Figure 7-1.

   Figure 7-1 Setting up a Connection to the Server

   
    

2. In the Connections tab, click New. The Connection Details window appears, as shown in Figure 7-2.

   Figure 7-2 Adding a Connection

   
    

3. In the Connection Details window, do the following:

   • In the Display Name field, enter a name for the connection. For example: Sample Tour.

   • In the Application Name drop-down list, select wlcsApp. This is the sample e-commerce application that ships with WebLogic Portal.

   • In the Server field, enter http://<server>:<port>, where <server> is the name of the server that WebLogic Portal is installed on, and <port> is the port number on the server where WebLogic Portal is located.

     For example, http://localhost:7501.

     If your are running the E-Business Control Center on the same server as WebLogic Portal, you can use the name localhost for the server name. The default installation port is 7501. If you are not sure of the port number, please check with your system administrator.

4. Click OK. The new connection is displayed in the Connections tab of the Connection Settings window.

5. In the Associations tab of the Connection Settings window, select the new connection in the All-Purpose Connection drop-down list.

6. Click OK.

During the rest of this tour, you will be prompted for a username and password. Try the following:

Username: system
Password: weblogic

This assumes that the person who did the installation entered weblogic as the password for the system account when WebLogic Server was installed. If you are not sure, please check with your system administrator.

 

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Step 3: Examining TourCampaign1: 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 that ships with WebLogic Portal. To see the sample data, you must load an application in the E-Business Control Center. To do this:

1. Choose File -> Open Application in the menu.

2. In the Open Application window, expand the EBCC_HOME\applications folder. (The installation default for EBCC_HOME is ebcc4.0.)

3. Single-click the wlcsApp subfolder, and click Open.

   The wlcsApp sample application loads in the E-Business Control Center, though it may seem like nothing happens. But you will see "Application: wlcsApp" just below the Explorer window's toolbar.

   This application is a sample enterprise application that ships with WebLogic Portal. You are not loading the enterprise application itself. Rather, you are loading a grouping of XML files that are associated with each tool in the E-Business Control Center. These files, when synchronized to the WebLogic Portal server, will help control the behavior of the enterprise application.

4. Click the Campaigns icon in the Explorer window. The E-Business Control Center displays an Explorer window, as shown in Figure 7-3.

   Figure 7-3 Explorer Window

   
    

5. Single-click TourCampaign1 file. 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 TourCampaign1.

6. Double-click on "TourCampaign1." In a few seconds, an editor window is displayed, as shown in Figure 7-4.

   Figure 7-4 Campaign Editor Window

   
    

7. Click the Start/Stop bar.

   In the Start/Stop pane, notice the existing start and stop dates for the campaign.

   The End Criteria section of the pane is where you can set goals that, when met, will stop the campaign prior to its end date. Goals are either based on ad impressions (when a visitor simply views an ad on a Web page) or ad clickthroughs (when a visitor actually clicks a displayed ad). You determine the number of impressions or clickthroughs required to meet the goal and end the campaign. In TourCampaign1, this goal is set to 25 ad impressions.

8. To get a closer look at the goal setup, click Edit. The Goal Detail window is displayed, 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.

9. Click the OK or Cancel button on the End Criteria Detail window. Back on the Editor window for TourCampaign1, click the Start/Stop bar again to minimize it.

10. Click the Scenarios bar to expand its pane. The Ad Scenario for Campaign is listed in the pane.

11. Click the magnifying glass next to the name of the scenario to show the scenario details, as shown in Figure 7-6.

    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 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 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 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.

Let's go back to the E-Business Control Center.

1. On the Editor window for TourCampaign1, 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

   
    

2. 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

   
    

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

4. If you are prompted to log on, enter the following:

   Username: system
   Password: weblogic

   The password is set when WebLogic Server is installed. Ask your system administrator for the proper password. You can also have your system administrator add you to the Administrators group in the WebLogic Portal Administration Tools. Then you can use your normal username and password.

   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 TourCampaign1. If you want, you can highlight the item in the Descriptors row to see how the Preview function works.

On the 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.

 

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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 Guide to 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 business engineers.

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

To learn more about the Commerce services JSP templates, Webflow, Pipeline, the product catalog, and the other concepts introduced in the tour, business engineers 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