Configuring Segmentation with ContextHub configuring-segmentation-with-contexthub

Segmentation is a key consideration when creating a campaign. See Understanding Segmentation for information on how segmentation works and key terms.

Depending on the information you have already collected about your site visitors and the goals you want to achieve, define the segments and strategies needed for your targeted content.

These segments are then used to provide a visitor with specifically targeted content. Activities defined here can be included on any page and define which visitor segment the specialized content is applicable for.

AEM lets you easily personalize your users’ experiences. It also lets you verify the results of your segment definitions.

Accessing Segments accessing-segments

The Audiences console is used to manage segments for ContextHub and audiences for your Adobe Target account. This documentation covers managing segments for ContextHub.

To access your segments, in global navigation select Navigation > Personalization > Audiences. Select your configuration (for example, WKND Site) to see your segments:

Managing audiences

Segment Editor segment-editor

The Segment Editor lets you easily modify a segment. To edit a segment, select a segment in the list of segments and click the Edit button.

Segment editor

Using the components browser you can add AND and OR containers to define the segment logic, then add additional components to compare properties and values or reference scripts and other segments to define the selection criteria (see Creating a New Segment) to define the exact scenario for selecting the segment.

When the entire statement evaluates to true then the segment has resolved. In the event of multiple segments being applicable, then the Boost factor is also used. See Creating a New Segment for details on the boost factor.

CAUTION
The segment editor does not check for any circular references. For example, segment A references another segment B, which in turn references segment A. You must ensure that your segments do not contain any circular references.

Containers containers

The following containers are available out-of-the-box and allow you to group comparisons and references together for boolean evaluation. They can be dragged from the components browser to the editor. See the following section Using AND and OR Containers for more information.

Container AND
The boolean AND operator
Container OR
The boolean OR operator

Comparisons comparisons

The following segment comparisons are available out-of-the-box to evaluate segment properties. They can be dragged from the components browser to the editor.

Property-Value
Compares a property of a store to a defined value
Property-Property
Compares one property of a store to another property
Property-Segment Reference
Compares a property of a store to another referenced segment
Property-Script Reference
Compares a property of a store to the results of a script
Segment Reference-Script Reference
Compares a referenced segment to the results of a script
NOTE
When comparing values, if the data type of the comparison is not set (that is, set to auto detect), ContextHub’s segmentation engine will simply compare the values as javascript would. It does not cast values to their expected types, which can lead to misleading results. For example:
null < 30 // will return true
Therefore when creating a segment, you should select a data type whenever the types of compared values are known. For example:
When comparing the property profile/age, you already know that the compared type is a number, so even if profile/age is not set, a comparison profile/age less-than 30 is returned false, as you would expect.

References references

The following references are available out-of-the-box to link directly to a script or another segment. They can be dragged from the components browser to the editor.

Segment Reference
Evaluate the referenced segment
Script Reference
Evaluate the referenced script. See the following section Using Script References for more information.

Creating a New Segment creating-a-new-segment

To define your new segment:

  1. After accessing the segments, navigate to the folder where you would like to create the segment.

  2. Select the Create button and select Create ContextHub Segment.

    Add segment

  3. In the New ContextHub Segment, enter a title for the segment and a boost value if necessary and then select Create.

    New segment

    Each segment has a boost parameter that is used as a weighting factor. A higher number indicates that the segment is selected in preference to a segment with a lower number in instances where multiple segments are valid.

    • Minimum value: 0
    • Maximum value: 1000000
  4. From the segments console, edit your created segment to open it in the segment editor.

  5. Drag a comparison or reference to the segment editor it will appear in the default AND container.

  6. Double-select the configure option of the new reference or segment to edit the specific parameters. In this example, we are testing for people in Basel.

    Testing for people in Basel

    Always set a Data Type if possible to ensure that your comparisons are evaluated properly. See Comparisons for more information.

  7. Click Done to save your definition:

  8. Add more components as required. You can formulate boolean expressions using the container components for AND and OR comparisons (see Using AND and Or Containers below). With the segment editor you can delete components not needed anymore, or drag them to new positions within the statement.

Using AND and OR Containers using-and-and-or-containers

Using the AND and OR container components, you can construct complex segments in AEM. When doing this, it helps to be aware of a few basic points:

  • The top level of the definition is always the AND container that is initially created. This cannot be changed, but does not have an effect on the rest of your segment definition.
  • Ensure that the nesting of your container makes sense. The containers can be viewed as the brackets of your boolean expression.

The following example is used to select visitors who are considered in our Swiss target group:

 People in Basel

 OR

 People in Zürich

You start by placing an OR container component within the default AND container. Within the OR container you you can add the property or reference components.

Segment with OR operator

You can nest multiple AND and OR operators as required.

Using Script References using-script-references

By using the Script Reference component, the evaluation of a segment property can be delegated to an external script. Once the script is configured properly, it can be used as any other component of a segment condition.

Defining a Script to Reference defining-a-script-to-reference

  1. Add file to contexthub.segment-engine.scripts clientlib.

  2. Implement a function that returns a value. For example:

    code language-javascript
    ContextHub.console.log(ContextHub.Shared.timestamp(), '[loading] contexthub.segment-engine.scripts - script.profile-info.js');
    
    (function() {
        'use strict';
    
        /**
         * Sample script returning profile information. Returns user info if data is available, false otherwise.
         *
         * @returns {Boolean}
         */
        var getProfileInfo = function() {
            /* let the SegmentEngine know when script should be re-run */
            this.dependOn(ContextHub.SegmentEngine.Property('profile/age'));
            this.dependOn(ContextHub.SegmentEngine.Property('profile/givenName'));
    
            /* variables */
            var name = ContextHub.get('profile/givenName');
            var age = ContextHub.get('profile/age');
    
            return name === 'Joe' && age === 123;
        };
    
        /* register function */
        ContextHub.SegmentEngine.ScriptManager.register('getProfileInfo', getProfileInfo);
    
    })();
    
  3. Register the script with ContextHub.SegmentEngine.ScriptManager.register.

If the script depends on additional properties, the script should call this.dependOn(). For example, if the script depends on profile/age:

this.dependOn(ContextHub.SegmentEngine.Property('profile/age'));

Referencing a Script referencing-a-script

  1. Create ContextHub segment.
  2. Add Script Reference component in the desired place of the segment.
  3. Open the edit dialog of the Script Reference component. If properly configured, the script should be available in the Script name drop-down.

Organizing Segments organizing-segments

If you have many segments, they can become hard to manage as a flat list. In such cases, it can be useful to create folders to manage your segments.

Create a New Folder create-folder

  1. After accessing the segments, select the Create button and select Folder.

    Add folder

  2. Provide a Title and a Name for your folder.

    • The Title should be descriptive.

    • The Name becomes the node name in the repository.

      • It is automatically generated based on the title and adjusted according to AEM naming conventions.
      • It can be adjusted if necessary.

    Create folder

  3. Select Create.

    Confirm folder

  4. The folder will appear in the list of segments.

    • How you sort your columns will affect where in the list the new folder appears.
    • You can select the column headings to adjust your sort.
      The new folder

Modify Existing Folders modify-folders

  1. After accessing the segments, select the folder you want to modify to select it.

    Select folder

  2. Select Rename in the toolbar to rename the folder.

  3. Provide a new Folder Title and select Save.

    Rename folder

NOTE
When renaming folders, only the title can be changed. The name cannot be changed.

Delete a Folder

  1. After accessing the segments, select the folder you want to modify to select it.

    Select folder

  2. Select Delete in the toolbar to delete the folder.

  3. A dialog presents a list of folders selected for deletion.

    Confirm delete

    • Select Delete to confirm.
    • Select Cancel to abort.
  4. If any of the selected folders contains subfolders or segments, their deletion must be confirmed.

    Confirm deletion of children

    • Select Force Delete to confirm.
    • Select Cancel to abort.
NOTE
It is not possible to move a segment from one folder to another.

Testing the Application of a Segment testing-the-application-of-a-segment

Once the segment has been defined, potential results can be tested with the help of the ContextHub.

  1. Preview a page
  2. Click the ContextHub icon to reveal the ContextHub toolbar
  3. Select a persona that matches the segment you created
  4. The ContextHub will resolve the applicable segments for the selected persona

For example, our simple segment definition to identify users in Basel is based on the location of the user. Loading a specific persona that matches those criteria shows if that the segment is successfully resolved:

Segment that resolves

Or if it is not resolved:

Segment that does not resolve

NOTE
All traits are resolved immediately, though most only change on page reload.

Such tests can also be performed on content pages and in combination with targeted content and related Activities and Experiences.

If you have set up an activity and experience, you can easily test your segment with the activity. For details about setting up an activity, see the documentation on authoring targeted content.

  1. In editing mode of a page where you have set up targeted content, you can see that the content is targeted via arrow icon on the content.
  2. Switch to preview mode and using the context hub, switch to a persona that does not match the segmentation configured for the experience.
  3. Switch to a persona that does match the segmentation configured for the experience and see that the experience changes accordingly.

Using Your Segment using-your-segment

Segments are used to control the actual content seen by specific target audiences. See Managing Audiences for more information about audiences and segments and Authoring Targeted Content about using audiences and segments to target content.

recommendation-more-help
fbcff2a9-b6fe-4574-b04a-21e75df764ab