To global or to regional, that is the question

[THE_DK]

I'm a bit new to Target and trying to build some guideline docs.  Can anyone point me to a 'best practice' on when to choose a regional mbox over global mbox?  

[Ryan_Roberts_ · Accepted solution]

Hi @THE_DK,

If you are talking about web use then typically the global mbox (AKA pageLoad for at.js 2.x) is the way to go as it allows you to use the visual experience composer (VEC) for experience setup.

Regional mboxes (AKA locations) are used in other channels/use-cases such as IOT, native mobile app, email, and server-side implementations of Target. They can also be used in a regular client-side web deployment though the vast majority of cases can be accomplished with the global or pageLoad request.

Here's a help doc that covers a little of this topic: https://docs.adobe.com/content/help/en/target/using/implement-target/client-side/mbox-implement/glob...

Hope that helps

[THE_DK]

thanks Ryan! Hoping you can help me get my head around this use case though. We may have the need to load a mbox or 'location' passing in data captured from user interaction or data that is fetched from a server call. If I'm following correctly, this would cause holding up the global mbox from completing and thus holding the whole UI causing lots of flicker. Would it be a best practice to maybe say that if an activity/test needs specific data not available at page load, use a region? l?

[Ryan_Roberts_]

Ah...if you are just wanting to send data into Target (e.g., visitor profile info, or event tracking) you can use the adobe.target.trackEvent() function for that. Here's the link: https://docs.adobe.com/content/help/en/target/using/implement-target/client-side/functions-overview/.... Those can be fired as the data becomes available. TrackEvent is only for recording data/events. If you actually want content returned from Target they you want to use the getOffers() function instead https://docs.adobe.com/content/help/en/target/using/implement-target/client-side/functions-overview/....

[THE_DK]

Again thanks! we have A4T set, so good there. Our use case is concerning the case of say 3rd party data needed for an Activity. Another case is we need to derive a data layer data point from the DOM, assume we have no server-side generated data layer., to pass as a param to Target. In both of these instance, the global mbox use would hold up delivery of said global mbox right? and introduce massive FOOC right? Or am I missing something?

[karand53490614]

@THE_DK  If you are building a Target activity through VEC, then these would always be configured using the target-global-mbox.

Regional mboxes are used to configure form based activities which are used for channels such as mobile apps.

Regards,

Karan