Integrate a store with an external analytics system (other than IBM Digital Analytics)

To meet your analytics requirements, we can integrate a WebSphere Commerce store with any web-based analytics system that uses a JavaScript based tagging mechanism. For this purpose, WebSphere Commerce provides an extensible JSP-based tag library framework for analytics.

Integration architecture

The following illustration provides a high-level view of the integration of a WebSphere Commerce store with a web-based external analytics system:

WebSphere Commerce provides a JSP-based tag library framework for analytics. The tag library framework consists of a set of generic tags, one for each event. We can extend this tag library to send analytics data from the site to the external analytics system. As shown in the previous illustration, the analytics tags must be placed in each store page that requires tracking. Each tag generates the vendor-specific JavaScript with data in the format that the external analytics system requires. The Java classes that support each generic tag gather data required for analysis from a data bean or a service data object (SDO). Then, place the data in a java.util.Vector or java.util.HashMap object based on the event type.

1. Creating vendor-specific tag classes by extending the base tag classes
   For each event that we must capture analytics data for, create a vendor-specific tag class that extends the base tag class. For example, to capture data about product view events, extend the ProductBaseTag class. Each base tag class generates standard data for its associated event; however, the base tag classes support optional parameters we can use to send additional information to the external analytics system, if necessary.

2. Creating a tag library definition file
   A tag library definition file is used to deploy custom JSP tag libraries. The WebSphere Commerce analytics tags are implemented as custom JSP tags, so you need to create a taglib definition file (TLD) for the analytics system. All the tags created for the analytics system need to be defined in the TLD file.

3. Updating the biConfig.xml file
   All the configuration information used by the analytics tags must be defined in the biConfig.xml file. We must update this file to include information specific to your analytics provider.

4. Tagging the store pages for the external analytics system
   Tag each store JSP file with the vendor-specific tag library created. When customers browse these tagged pages in the WebSphere Commerce site, data is collected and sent to the external analytics system based on the programming logic in the vendor-specific tag classes. The external analytics system can then use this data to perform its analytics work.

Related concepts
Integrating a store with multiple analytics providers