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[AAE] Have Adobe Analytics Global Variables fire on all AA rules

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Level 9

8/21/18

The variables set in the Analytics extension's Global Variables seem to not fire on all rules/rule types (see Global Variables - Direct Call Rule ). This is similar to how it was in DTM.

It would be great if we had some control over this (maybe give me the ability to say "fire for all beacons" or "fire for all s.t beacons" or "fire immediately before any beacon, but after other rules" or something), or by default they DID fire anywhere the Analytics Extension was in a rule. Otherwise, folks still have to resort to using doPlugins, or setting up a rule for global variables that somehow fires on all other AA rules/beacons.

23 Comments

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Level 9

5/21/21

Ah, fair, it appears it will set on s.tl beacons if you don't ever use Clear Variables; I should have caught that in my little demo site. I guess the key difference is that I do count on dynamic values (especially on single page apps), and I do use the Clear Variables action (especially on single page apps), and I like keeping all "global-ish" variables all in one place, so you can set it up once and forget it and not worry about which fires on which beacon, so I'm clearly not the target audience for this functionality:).  

But it's come up enough for my clients that it feels like something needs to change- often enough that I've learned as soon as we start troubleshooting a variable not behaving as the client expects, I should ask if they're setting anything as global variables. 

But I appreciate you helping me think through how they can be used.

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Level 9

5/25/21

Thanks for that- that makes sense. I've come to expect data elements to always (re)evaluate at the time my rules run, but it sounds like since we're using the data element in a configuration component, the data element will only evaluate when that extension configuration component runs.
So it's bigger than just the Adobe Analytics Extension- I'd imagine many extensions that allow for dynamic data elements in the extension configuration could have this same problem (it's just not that often that we'd be expecting different dynamic values... though with the rise in SPAs, I suspect that will increase).