Advantages of integrating SiteCatalyst with AEM

[jakej40603950]

Hello,

What would be the advantages of using SiteCatalyst by integrating it with AEM as described in link below vis-a-vis the traditional way of using SiteCatalyst where the main sitecatalyst javascript file reference is included in one of the base templates and SC variables are set in html / jsp files (e.g. s.prop4=${someValue})?

https://docs.adobe.com/docs/en/cq/5-6-1/administering/integrating_with_adobe_marketing_cloud/sitecat...

Only benefit I can see from the linked article is that mapping of SC variables to CQ variables can be done without any change to the code (though this is kind of offset by having to put in code for populating CQ variables in the component JSPs).

Is there any other benefit to it? Wanted to weigh the pros and cons of each approach to decide which one to go ahead with.

Thanks you.

[smacdonald2008]

The benefit is what you stated - you can map SC vars to an AEM components var. For example, assume you developed an AEM component to track the number visitors use the component. When a user interacts with the component (for example, clicks a link), the component sends information to Adobe Analytics. 

[smacdonald2008]

Also - here is a AEM 6.1 end to end article that talks about this use case:

https://helpx.adobe.com/experience-manager/using/analytics.html

[Jitendra_S_Toma]

Jake J,

The idea is to have cool UI so that non-technical ( i.e admin ) person can change the configuration and tracking variables mapping without bothering the technical team. No code change, No code deployment. It is all easy.

In one of my project, it is managed my pure non-technical person. So, I feel that is the biggest advantage.

--

Jitendra

[kautuk_sahni · Accepted solution]

Hi 

Please find below some points to answer your question:-

1. The CQ Analytics framework allows you to define what events and properties you want to track for a given component. For instance, for a shopping cart component you could track the overall value, the number of items, and cart additions and cart removals as events. All of these interactions will then be stored in AEM's Client Context (which can also be extended by developers: Client Context in Detail). Through a centralized configuration, you can decide what parameters and events get passed through to Adobe Analytics (generally everything that helps you better understand how customers are using the site) This means Client Context becomes the hub for all the contextual information the Marketing Cloud has about your visitor. Same goes for Target, Social,DTM other integration.

2. As mentioned by Tomer, Authoring perspective to the integration. Non Technical person can handle Analytic (mapping, integration etc).

3. An article telling many benefits of AEM with Analytic Link:- http://www.icidigital.com/blog/aem-analytics-ways-aem-can-make-or-break-your-customer-data/

I hope this would help you.

Thanks and Regards

Kautuk Sahni

[jakej40603950]

Thank you all for the replies.

The main benefit of the 'AEM way of doing analytics' that I can glean from your posts is that mapping of SC vars (s.prop, evar, etc.) to page data can be done in the framework UI and doesn't have to be done in the code itself (like s.prop = <%=request.get..%>). Also, making these mapping changes in the UI updates the analytics related JS in the code without any manual effort or code change which can then be replicated unto publishers.

In that sense, would you say that this would make it a bit similar to DTM? Unless of course I'm misunderstanding one of the important benefits of using DTM i.e. mapping of SC vars to page data from a UI and being able to push these changes without any code change?