Make a real deployable SAINT Campaign Management Tool

[#1]

This is a BIG request, but SAINT Bernard tries to go here but just falls too far short.

I'd really like to see a configurable tool that could be deployed throughout an organization that could truly be the central repository for SAINT Classifications.

This would allow users to come into the tool and request new campaign codes (one at a time or in bulk), Set some required an optional parameters (as defined by an admin), and receive their codes, and possibly the fully formed links if the rules allowed.

SAINT Bernard's tool has too many holes, not enough governance and doesn't allow for bulk creation.

[#2]

Very interesting. Thanks for submitting. I'm going to share this with both our SAINT team and the Engineering Services team that built SAINT Bernard. Also, this *might* be somewhat similar to this: http://ideas.omniture.com/t5/Adobe-Idea-Exchange-for-Omniture/Automatic-rule-based-SAINT-classificat... 

I'd like to learn more about the root problem here. Here's a question that may seem naive: it sounds like you've got marketers and others who are launching campaigns, and ultimately they can add a query parameter and tracking code without that code coming out of any Adobe product, so can you help me understand why it needs to come out of an Adobe tool rather than having the teams create their own tracking codes as they go? 

[#3]

@benjamingaines: basically it's a matter of enforcing consistency.  If you have a lot of 3rd party vendors or departments or people in general creating campaign codes, ideally you want to enforce a format standard, as well as a centralized place showing a history of creation.  Having a system like this would make it much easier to get consistent values in reports, especially concerning SAINT classifications.  

My company has already developed a tool for doing exactly this, since it is a common issue that comes up with our clients.   In principle, the tool basically lets a client define rules for generating a value for xyz variable, and then the tool generates the value (usually it is just done for internal/external campaign variables, but really it can be done for any variable).  The tool also populates classification columns with values, as well.  

An extremely simple example (our tool is pretty complex and offers huge flexibility):

A client wants to create campain codes to be used in banners, emails, etc.. and classify it based on campaign source, region, and vendor. 

Our tool will let the client fill out a form to specify the information, and it will generate a campaign code and classification values, and then upload it to the SAINT ftp account.   The form is completely customizable. The tool also lets you influence how the campaign code is generated (e.g. - lets you add a timestamp or a random number, use a custom prefix, etc..), as well as define the classification column values (e.g. - static values from a lookup table, generated values based on key or other column values, etc.). 

Ideally we would also like the ability to basically reject any values that do not match what is generated.  We can't really do that with our tool, though we can take certain measures elsewhere.  We usually include logic in s_code.js to reject values that do not match, though this won't work 100%.  We can also enforce it through processing rules, which is better than doing it through s_code.js, but processing rules are pretty limited, so often we cannot do them.  Alternatively we can ask for a VISTA rule.  This is currently the best way to enforce it, but it involves throwing ClientCare into the mix and costs lots of money.  I think ideally we would like to see beefed up processing rules, or maybe one day Adobe will open up VISTA rules for us to do ourselves (wishful thinking).  

In any case, my point is that this is something that comes up with my clients all the time, to the point that we have created our own tool for it.  So it is definitely something you should consider baking in to your own system.  And if you were to do it, you would be in a much better position to create something that enforces formats and stuff.