Campaign element template parameters

Campaign element template parameters specify the pieces of data that a campaign element task command needs to perform its function. The marketing services pass the data to the task command when a customer reaches the trigger, target or action in a marketing activity.

Take note of the following distinction:
  • For triggers, campaign element template parameters are specified with the element <Parameter>, for example:
    <Parameter name = "numberOfDays" value = "MARKETING_numberOfDays"/>
  • For targets and actions, campaign element template parameters are specified with the element <Argument>, for example:
    <Argument name = "numberOfDays" value = "MARKETING_numberOfDays"/>

The examples in this section use the element <Argument>.

Campaign element template parameters are specified in the corresponding campaign element template definition. Each template definition can contain 0 or more campaign element template parameters. These parameters typically map to the data that a business user enters in the user interface, but the data can come from other places.

Format of campaign element template parameters

The format of an campaign element template parameter depends on where the data is coming from. There are two options:

  1. Data is coming from the user interface.
    If the data the task command needs is data that a business user entered when setting up the trigger, target or action, then the format looks like this:
    <Argument name="paramName" value="MARKETING_paramName" />

    All parameter values that come from the user interface start with this prefix: MARKETING_. Here is an example; in this case, it is for a target that evaluates the support level that a customer has paid for as Gold, Silver or Bronze.

    <Argument name="supportLevel" value="MARKETING_supportLevel" />

    When a business user inputs data about a trigger, target or action used in a marketing activity, the name-value pairs for each campaign element template parameter are saved to the DMELEMENTNVP table. Here is an example of a row in the table for a target with the DMELEMENT_ID of 1000:

    Sample DMELEMENTNVP table content
    DMELEMENT_ID NAME VALUE
    1000 "supportLevel" "Gold"

    When the marketing activity is activated:

    • The marketing services look up the paramName in the DMELEMENTNVP table, and replace the value MARKETING_paramName in the implementation definition with the corresponding value.
    • If the paramName is not found in the DMELEMENTNVP table, then value will be set to any empty string, and that parameter will be ignored.
  2. Data is specified directly in the template definition.

    For certain triggers, targets and actions, the task command needs data that a business user does not enter. In this case, the parameter value does not have the prefix MARKETING_.

    For example, if a task command must check the user's behavior on the current page, then the following parameter can pass the current page data to the task command:

    <Argument name="matchLocations" value="request" />

Parameters for lists captured in grid objects

For some campaign elements, business users can specify lists of things like categories, or catalog entries, or customer segments. For example, a business user can specify more than one category for the Recommend Category action. In the properties view of the campaign element, the lists are captured using a grid object. When the list is persisted in the DMELEMENTNVP table, each row in the grid corresponds to one row in the DMELEMENTNVP table, and each row refers to the same property name. For example:

Sample DMELEMENTNVP table content for a grid object
DMELEMENT_ID NAME VALUE
1000 "categoryIdList" "10101"
1000 "categoryIdList" "10102"
1000 "categoryIdList" "10103"

When this type of parameter is included in a campaign element template definition, the parameter needs to specify only one element. For example, the parameter for the previous example looks like this:

<Argument name="categoryIdList" value="MARKETING_categoryIdList"/>

To get the list from the user interface, the corresponding campaign element task command must call the method getElementParameters. The method returns a comma separated list of all the values from the DMELEMENTNVP table. For the previous example, the code getElementParameters().get("categoryIdList") returns 10101,10102,10103. To provide the values in a List object, use the method MarketingUtil.parseList. For the previous example, the line of code looks like this:

List categoryIdList = MarketingUtil.parseList(getElementParameters().get("categoryIdList"));

Common parameters used in campaign elements

The triggers, targets and actions shipped with the Management Center have many parameters defined. If you are creating a new trigger, target or action, you can use the parameters defined here to send user interface data to the task command, or you can create your own.

Parameter Data it specifies, or valid values
MARKETING_categoryIdList A category
MARKETING_catalogEntryIdList A catalog entry (a product or SKU, for example)
MARKETING_collateralIdList A piece of content (an advertisement, for example)
MARKETING_promotionId A promotion
MARKETING_emailMessageId An e-mail template
MARKETING_segmentIdList A customer segment
MARKETING_urlValueList A value on a name-value pair
MARKETING_searchTermList A search term
MARKETING_cookieValueList A cookie value
MARKETING_anyOrAll Valid values:
all
All specified data must be matched (and)
any
Only one of the data specified needs to be matched (or)
MARKETING_containsOperator Valid values:
=
contains (for example, browsed, searched for)
!=
does not contain (for example, has not browsed, did not search for)
MARKETING_numberOfTimesOperator Valid values:
>
greater than
>=
greater than or equal to
<
less than
< =
less than or equal to
=
equal to
MARKETING_numberOfTimes An integer that is used to indicate how many times this behavior did, or did not, occur
MARKETING_matchLocations Valid values:
request
Current request: check only the current request. For example, consider an e-MarketingSpot on the product display page. If the customer is currently browsing a product that is in the BBQ Grills category, you want to recommend the BBQ bundle. In this example, only the customer's current URL request should be checked for the user behavior.
history
Past history: check the customer's history, including the current request. For example, consider an e-Marketing Spot on the shopping cart page. If the customer has browsed the BBQ Grills and BBQ Accessories categories, you want to display an ad that suggests customers join the BBQ mailing list. In this example, the customer's previous online behavior history and the current request should be checked for the specified user behavior.
referral
Referral URL: check the current referral URL.
MARKETING_amountOperator1 MARKETING_quantityOperator1 MARKETING_daysOperator MARKETING_beforeAfterOnDate Valid values:
=
equal
>
greater than
>=
greater than or equal
<
less than
< =
less than or equal
MARKETING_amountOperator2 MARKETING_quantityOperator2 MARKETING_beforeDate Valid value:< (less than)
MARKETING_amountValue1 (use with amountOperator1)

MARKETING_amountValue2 (use with amountOperator2)

Value of the customer's order
MARKETING_quantityValue1 (use with quantityOperator1)

MARKETING_quantityValue2 (use with quantityOperator2)

Number of the customer's orders, number of an item from a category
MARKETING_date1 (use with beforeAfterOnDate)

MARKETING_date2 (use with beforeDate)

A specific date (on, after, before)
MARKETING_days (use with daysOperator) A number of days (within, prior)
repeatSchedule Indicates that the campaign element should be processed by the SendMarketingTriggers scheduled job. The method forwardTriggersForProcessing will be called on the campaign element task command. A value of runDaily sets that the processing should occur every day. A value of runOnce sets that the processing should only happen the first time the SendMarketingTriggers scheduled job runs after the activity becomes active and the current time is past the activity start date.
rankingBasedOnOrders Indicates that this campaign element is for a best sellers list, and that the data in the campaign element should be used when an order has been placed to create the appropriate entries in the DMRANKINGSTAT database table.