Expand my Community achievements bar.

Launch by Adobe - General Info & Questions

Avatar

Level 10

Last week at Adobe Summit, we announced our next generation tag management solution, Launch by Adobe.

We know you're just as excited about Launch as we are and we can't wait to release the finished product! In the meantime, if you have questions, leave a comment below and we'll do our best to answer what we can.

 

Conversation Locked - Please post any new questions as your own question in the Launch community.

16 Replies

Avatar

Employee

What is it?
Launch is the next generation of our tag management capability, and it's built into Adobe Cloud Platform. Along with over 20 new features (including a new rule builder, more robust publishing workflow, 100% API powered) Launch allows our clients and partners to build, manage, and update their own integrations. This will give our customers easy access to a vast catalog of client side technologies (Adobe and partners) which allows them to make compelling experiences faster than ever before. Over time, this will be the place for customers to install and configure all of their client side technologies.

Will there be a Beta?
Launch will start a beta program after Summit and will be released later this year. To be considered for the Launch beta program, please ask your Adobe account team to email the beta program manager and request to be added to the waiting list. We will follow up once the program starts up. Once you're added to the candidate list, you'll eventually receive a qualifier survey when we get closer to the beta – since we're still in alpha it might be a bit. There is very high demand for the Launch beta and we will not be able to include everyone. We'll be including folks who best fit the beta customer profile, which will be based on the data we get from that qualifier survey.

What about current DTM users?
Customers who are using DTM, or are currently deploying DTM, should continue to do so. We will work with customers in the future to make the upgrade as painless and automated as possible (no on-page code changes, automated migration of rules and data elements).

Future of DTM/Launch?
This is where our platform is headed, more open, more integrated and as always dedicated to customer success.

More information:

* Brief Launch intro video: http://bit.ly/LaunchFBVid
* Information Page:  http://www.adobe.com/enterprise/cloud-platform/launch.html
* U.S. Summit Session on Launch:  http://bit.ly/launchSession
* Stay informed: http://www.adobe.com/enterprise/cloud-platform/launch.html#platform-rfi
* Launch FAQ: https://marketing.adobe.com/resources/help/en_US/dtm/faq-launch.html

Avatar

Employee

Will the xyz extension include certain features that I want?

The features available in any extension depend entirely on the extension developer – if they build a feature into the extension, then that feature becomes available in Launch through the extension. Adobe doesn’t “require” any specific functionality in third party extensions beyond conforming to the development guides and standards.

Avatar

Level 1

How will this connect with other marketing tools such as Eloqua?

Avatar

Level 10

carolinamedellin wrote...

How will this connect with other marketing tools such as Eloqua?

Hi,

Eventually, all third-party vendors and agencies will have the opportunity to create extensions in Launch. Extensions can be used to do things like deploy code, extend capabilities, or fire marketing pixels. This means the level of integration will be up to the vendor or third-party that chooses to write an extension for that particular product or service.

Cheers,
Jantzen

Avatar

Level 10

Hello Everyone ,

Here are the answers to the 20 Most Frequently Asked Questions About Launch :

1. What Is Launch?
Launch — the next generation of our dynamic tag management capability — is built into the Adobe Cloud Platform and enables clients to:

  • Deploy client-side web products using integrations called extensions, and
  • Consistently capture, define, manage, and share data between marketing and advertising products from other vendors as well as from Adobe.

Launch — an advanced JavaScript delivery system that evaluates both conditions and executed actions to efficiently and effectively deploy client-side libraries and products — provides a highly scalable approach to managing and building extensions, alongside a robust set of application programming interfaces (APIs) for programmatic interaction with the Adobe Cloud Platform.

2. I Heard Launch Is Already Available; How Can I Gain Access?
Unfortunately, Launch is not yet available in production. The product team is just finishing up the alpha program, and we’re about to start the beta program. If you’d like to be considered for participation in the beta program, please email your account team and ask them to forward your request to the beta program manager.

3. If It’s Not Available Now, When Will It Be Released?
The official release date for Launch is “soon.” The product team is working very hard to make Launch ready for general availability (GA) as soon as possible. As we close out the alpha program and start the beta program, we remain focused on making Launch the best it can be for a production release as soon as possible.

4. Is This Just an Updated DTM?
No, Launch is an entirely new product with a new code base. The system has been re-architected from scratch using modern front-end development practices and an API-first approach — everything is built upon a robust set of APIs, making the system very powerful and very flexible.

5. Will Legacy DTM Still Be Available?
Yes, Legacy DTM (the existing production version) will be supported for the foreseeable future. Adobe will continue to fix any significant bugs and ensure consistent performance. At this time, no major feature enhancements are planned for Legacy DTM.

We’re working to make the migration process from Legacy to Launch as easy as possible, so customers can take advantage of more than 20 new features, extensions, and APIs that will be available with Launch.

6. How Much Will Launch Cost?
There is no additional charge for Launch — it will be available for any Adobe Experience Cloud customer.

7. Will I Have to Change the Embed Codes in My Current DTM Implementation?
Good news — no, you won’t have to change your staging or production embed codes if you’re currently using the Legacy DTM system. You can continue to work in your existing DTM company and web properties without worrying at all about changing those embed codes. The product team has not finalized the migration process just yet, but we’re working to make it as easy — and as automated — as possible.

8. I heard There Are Plug-Ins Now. What’s That About?
Launch is built into the Adobe Cloud Platform and is fully extensible. Customers, Adobe Partners, agencies, and marketing or advertising technology vendors will soon be able to build Launch extensions that add new functionalities or modify existing ones. The system allows our Partners and clients to build, manage, and update their own integrations. This is just one way in which we’re opening up the Adobe Cloud Platform so that customers and partners can build products and businesses on the Platform, and everyone can more easily connect our technology to marketing and advertising technologies from other vendors. Over time, this will become the place for customers to install and configure all their client-side technologies.

9. Those Extensions Sound Cool, but Will all Third-Party Tools Be Available Right Away?
When Launch is released, we plan to have extensions available for all Adobe solutions and for a select group of independent vendors. The product team is already working closely with several technology partners to ensure these extensions are available when Launch is released for GA. After the initial release of Launch, we’ll work to expand the number of extensions as quickly as possible. Since extensions can be built, managed, and updated by the Extension Developer, vendors won’t have to wait for Adobe engineering to build them — so this should be a very rapid process going forward.

10. When Will Clients or Partners Be Able to Build Extensions?
Launch will open its virtually self-service portal when it’s released for GA, enabling extension developers to build their own integrations with the Adobe Cloud Platform.

11. Is Launch Secure Enough to Meet My Company’s Security Standards?
Yes, Launch is SOC–2 and Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act ready. Launch also offers the capability of being self-hosted, as the JavaScript libraries can be served from either the customer’s own servers or the content delivery network (CDN) of their choice. This enables IT and security teams to run automated testing; to check the files into their own version-control system; and to fully comply with any internal production-migration processes, security-related or otherwise.

12. I Have a Project Coming up Very Soon. Should I Wait for Launch to, Um, Launch?
Customers who either already use Legacy DTM or currently deploy DTM should continue to do so — don’t wait. Move your projects forward using the existing Legacy DTM, and when you’re ready to move to Launch, we’ll have a migration process in place that’s as easy and as automated as possible — no on-page embed-code changes and automatic migration of rules and data elements, for instance.

13. What New Capabilities Will Exist in Launch That Don’t Exist in Legacy DTM?
Launch will deliver four new major capabilities that aren’t available in Legacy DTM, including:

  1. Quick and Easy Deployment of Non-Adobe, Client-Side Browser Technologies — Using extensions, clients and Partners will be able to control in-browser technologies simply in the interface without managing custom code.
  2. Precise Organization and Management of Libraries — Enterprise-grade publishing will enable users to compartmentalize and control each piece in their libraries and deploy exactly what they need, where they need it, and when they need it.
  3. Robust Approval Workflows — Flexible approval workflows will allow custom processes to match users’ existing internal approval processes.
  4. Granular Rights Management — Administrators will not only designate which extensions are available to each user — as well as those that aren’t — but also determine which areas within Launch are accessible to certain users.

14. Does Launch Support Single-Page Apps and My Favorite Framework?
Yes, Launch gives users and extension developers flexibility in collecting, managing, and distributing data within single-page application experiences and Ajax-heavy webpages or websites, regardless of their development-framework preferences — whether their favorite is Angular, React.js, Ember, Meteor, or any other development framework.

15. Does Launch Support Dynamic Data Layers?
Yes, Launch includes an extension that specifically listens for changes in dynamic data layers.

16. Which Event Types Does Launch Support?
Event types are available through extensions. The preloaded DTM extension includes 30 built-in event types. Other extensions may add additional event types. For example, the YouTube extension includes four video event types: play, pause, end, and time played. Through extensions, Launch can support any other browser event types or synthetic event types such as specific visitor-activity sequences.

17. Will Launch Affect the Speed of My Website?
Launch is designed to deliver and run marketing and advertising technologies on your website as efficiently as possible using today’s best practices. When used properly, Launch has proven to improve website performance more than alternative methods of providing similar functionality.

19. Which Browsers Will Launch Support?
Browsers supported in Launch’s client-side libraries:

  • Chrome (latest)
  • Safari (latest)
  • Firefox (latest)
  • Internet Explorer (9 and above)
  • iOS 7+
  • Android 4.4+

Browsers supported in the Launch application interface:

  • Chrome (latest)
  • Safari (latest)
  • Firefox (latest)
  • Internet Explorer (11 and above)

In Legacy DTM, we support older versions of Internet Explorer; but, over the last few years, the percentage of overall web users who have older, outdated browsers has dropped to a very, very small segment for our clients. Most of our clients now leverage more modern web-platform features in current browsers and create better user experiences like single-page applications and interactive, Ajax-heavy websites and webpages. As most of our clients move to more modern approaches with their sites, they demand a solution like Launch that enables those approaches.

19. Does Launch Work on Native Mobile Apps?
Adobe continues to recommend the Mobile Services/App SDK (Software-Development Kit) to implement data collection and delivery in a native mobile app environment. Adobe mobile services has streamlined the process with a single SDK that works with multiple Adobe Cloud Platform solutions. Going forward, clients will see additional tag management-like functionality in the Mobile Services interface, as the Launch and Mobile teams continue working together closely to create more seamless Cloud Platform access and user experiences.

Avatar

Level 10

AntoniBertel wrote...

Hi guys,

Can i get access to Launch beta?

 

Hi Anton,

The answer to your question can be found in Jeff's original post

"Launch will start a beta program after Summit and will be released later this year. To be considered for the Launch beta program, please ask your Adobe account team to email the beta program manager and request to be added to the waiting list. We will follow up once the program starts up. Once you're added to the candidate list, you'll eventually receive a qualifier survey when we get closer to the beta – since we're still in alpha it might be a bit. There is very high demand for the Launch beta and we will not be able to include everyone. We'll be including folks who best fit the beta customer profile, which will be based on the data we get from that qualifier survey."

Good try though! ;)

Cheers,
Jantzen

Avatar

Level 1

Jantzen.Belliston wrote...

AntoniBertel wrote...

Hi guys,

Can i get access to Launch beta?

 

Hi Anton,

The answer to your question can be found in Jeff's original post

"Launch will start a beta program after Summit and will be released later this year. To be considered for the Launch beta program, please ask your Adobe account team to email the beta program manager and request to be added to the waiting list. We will follow up once the program starts up. Once you're added to the candidate list, you'll eventually receive a qualifier survey when we get closer to the beta – since we're still in alpha it might be a bit. There is very high demand for the Launch beta and we will not be able to include everyone. We'll be including folks who best fit the beta customer profile, which will be based on the data we get from that qualifier survey."

Good try though! ;)

Cheers,
Jantzen

 

Hi Jantzen,

Thanks for your answer. I asked this question regarding to Adobe SPP Help's recomendations. I will try to find e-mail of beta program manager and request access.

Avatar

Level 3

Will you be able to install Launch asynchronously or will it have similar problems as DTM?  The common complaint I hear is that DTM causes a low "Google PageSpeed" score due to the "Render Blocking" script warning which leads to lengthy discussions between analytics and IT teams.  

I get that DTM is not really slowing the page down and Google is not factoring the performance features of DTM (CDN, Caching, etc.) but this will remain a concern with some clients and wonder if this is addressed by Adobe with the new "Launch" product?

Avatar

Employee

There will be options to deploy Launch asynchronously. Of course, should you choose that approach you also accept the limits in using the system imposed by the fact you're deploying Launch itself asynchronously. For example, testing and optimization tools that require synchronous deployment in the  <head> section of the document to facilitate content swapping would no longer be capable of producing the expected behavior.

Avatar

Level 3

OK, I'll need to evaluate when it's available, thanks for responding.

Avatar

Level 2

Jeff,

Can you brief the implications of deploying launch in async ? "You mean swapping from staging to production and vice versa is not possible"? Are there any other implications deploying launch in async?

Avatar

Level 1

Will there be GDPR features available or broader opt-out options built-in for tools/extensions other than Adobe Analytics?

Avatar

Employee

Hey Steven, there are GDPR features available with the Evidon and TrustArc extensions currently and we will be adding additional extensions with similar functionality over time. As the extension catalog expands, expect to see more options for opt-out in many varieties.

Avatar

Level 2

Hi, where can I find a side by side comparison between Launch and DTM?

In some of Adobe's Webinars and training it has been mentioned that Launch is still an early release missing several DTM features and even that it is not intended to replace but to complement. But given that it handles SAPs better I would like to get more details.

thanks

Avatar

Level 2

Hi there

There is no information in documentation as to how to send pagename on ajax modals, pop-ups

 

I see some _satellite.track code, but it is not clear if this code would work, and how?