visitorAppendToURL returning different ECID value on each call

[Hey_John]

Hi,

We are using visitorAppendToURL call in a mobile app to support visitor tracking from app to web view, and expect the ECID value in the adobe_mc parameter remains consistent with the ECID generated during the initial app install.

However, we found that the ECID value (MCMID) and also the MCAID value in the URL generated from visitorAppendToURL keeps changing.

Got an impression that the visitorAppendToURL call somehow failed to retrieve the ECID value from the mobile app internal data storage and thus proceed to generate a new ECID.

Anyone has experience on this and how to resolve this?

Thanks,

John

[Jennifer_Dungan]

If this is a testing device, are you uninstalling and reinstalling mobile apps on your device?

Or is this all off of the same install?

When you uninstall the app, all the data is deleted, so fresh installs will create a new ECID. Upgrading will also maintain the same ECID.... 

But if you are doing clean installs between testing builds, that would result in seeing different ECIDs being passed, so I am just trying to establish a baseline.

[Hey_John]

All happens in the same install. Thanks.

[abhinavbalooni]

Hi @Hey_John 

What is the webview page that opens up ?

Is there a possibility of the webview blocking the url parameters and hence the experience cloud id service generating a new ecid everytime?

Something similar has been faced by other users. You can read more here:

https://experienceleaguecommunities.adobe.com/t5/adobe-analytics-questions/mobile-app-analytics-is-t...

Cheers,

Abhinav

[Hey_John]

We use Charles Proxy for debugging, and we can see the full URL of the web view page, and it shows the adobe_mc parameter is different from time to time.

Some more findings, we can identify the true ECID of the app (the ECID generated during app install), by looking at those Adobe calls in the native area of the app, and we can see a consistent ECID. And interestingly, this true ECID shows up also from time to time in the adobe_mc parameter. Roughly speaking, the true ECID shows up ~30% of times, other 60% shows different ECIDs. And there's also like 10% chance that no adobe_mc parameter is appended.

[Jennifer_Dungan]

That's interesting... We haven't used the visitorAppendToURL yet on our side, we don't have a lot of app to web links at this time, so it's been a de-prioritized initiative on our side...

But if you can see the proper ECID, and that this is not being passed this sounds like one of two options:

1. There is a bug in the plugin that Adobe may have to investigate

2. Possibly the code is added to the app in a strange location that might cause the "ECID" extraction to pass through might have a timing issue where maybe sometimes the ECID isn't available when something is appended, and therefore it's generating a new one? Despite the fact that the app does have one set?

I am not an app developer, so my #2 is really a guess... but with it working sometimes and not others, on web that would make me think a timing / extraction failure issue.... 

Have you also opened up a ticket with Client Care? They may be able to work more closely with you to investigate the issue?

[abhinavbalooni]

@Hey_John I was about to mention the timing issue that @Jennifer_Dungan mentioned above. Inconsistent behavior seems to point to timing issue but diagnosing beyond would need someone to look into the app setup.

[Hey_John]

@Jennifer_Dungan , @abhinavbalooni thanks for sharing the ideas.

Have you heard of the similar function call "visitorGetUrlVariablesAsync"? This is found on the same GitHub page of visitorAppendToURL. I am also thinking of a timing issue and the "Async" wording seems intersting...but there's no information about it at all from the internet.

Anyway, a support ticket has been filed.