Updating Adobe Analytics Code

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Locutus243

27-02-2018

So we are using a version of the analytics code which is 7 yrs and 26 versions old. I've tried to get an update to the code briefed in to the product teams as it seems like it should be the right thing to do.

However I'm being asked why we need to do this. And honestly from reading the Adobe documentation on the releases I'm still not sure myself. I know it will unlock ClickMap capabilities, but essentially that's just representation of data we are already receiving so probably isn't valuable enough on its own.

I wondered if anybody would be able to help me with genuine business benefits of updating the code used

(i.e. you can't track visitors properly as oppose to, renames this tag).

I'd like everything to be as up to date as possible, but in the prioritisation process I'm going to need stronger reasons than that.

Or I wondered if anyone had any examples where not having updated code has hampered their use of Adobe Analytics?

Thanks for any help you can give

Mark

Accepted Solutions (1)

Accepted Solutions (1)

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AlexisCazes

MVP

28-02-2018

Hi Mark,

1. New version of Adobe Analytics AppMeasurement contains:

  • Bug fixes: some bugs might impact your data collection which ultimately will impact your reporting.
  • Security fixes: as the AppMeasurement library is a third party library in your website implementation, keeping it up to date will make sure that most up to date security fixes are applied and won't create security loop holes one your website
  • Performance: AppMeasurement is way faster and lighter than H code or G code. You don't want analytics to impact page loading, rendering etc...
  • New features: new features are only available with latest versions. You might not use latest features but if you do not keep up to date and you want to use a feature then you won't be able to. Most of the new features nowadays rely on Marketing Cloud Visitor ID services and to use this service you need to use at least a minimum version of AppMeasurement or H code.
  • Most of Adobe Marketing product can now be integrated but most of them rely on Visitor ID Services. It is also important to note that some integrations had issues in old version of the libraries so updating to latest will prevent any integration issues and data reporting issues.

2. G code is depreciated, H code is going to be depreciated (Downloading legacy JavaScript (H code) from the Code Manager is no longer supported.)

3. These are the benefits to moving to AppMeasurement version: About AppMeasurement for JavaScript

Benefits

  • 3-7x faster than H.25 code.
  • Only 21k uncompressed and 8k gzipped (H.25 code is 33k uncompressed and 13k gzipped).
  • Native support for several common plugins ().
  • Small and fast enough to be used with mobile sites, and robust enough to be used on the full desktop web, allowing you to leverage a single library across all web environments.

4. As website as made mobile friendly nowadays, making sure your website loads faster is a priority. Using old libraries might affect the rendering performance.

5. If you are in the process to update your tracking libraries I will strongly encourage you to investigate using a Tag Management System . Adobe has 2 at the moment, DTM and Launch (new one, will replace DTM ultimately I believe)

Using a TMS, has loads of benefits (faster deployments, easy deployments, keeps libraries up to dates, allows to load libraries to specific site sections, leverage data layers etc..)

Best regards.

Alexis Cazes