"IMG" and "A" tag HTTP Request parameters
When Message Connector receives a request, either because
an end user opened an email containing a Message Connector-encoded IMG
tag
or because the end user clicked-through an A
tag, it
parses the parameters included with the request to return the appropriate
offer data. This section provides a list of the parameters that can
be included in the requesting URL (either the IMG
tag
(loaded automatically when a tagged image is displayed when the email
is opened) or the A
tag (loaded when the person viewing
the email clicks through the message to the specified site).
Parameters
When Message Connector receives a request, it parses the parameters included with the request. These parameters include some or all of the following:
Parameter Name | Description | Required? | Default Value |
---|---|---|---|
msgId | The unique identifier of the email instance or web page. | Yes | None. This is provided by the system creating the unique instance of the email message or web page containing the tag. |
linkId | The unique identifier of the link in this email or web page. | Yes | None. This is provided by the system creating the unique instance of the email message or web page containing the tag. |
audienceLevel | The audience level to which the recipient of this communication belongs. | No | The audienceLevel
specified as the default in the audienceLevels element
found in the MessageConnectorConfig.xml file. |
ic | The name of the target interactive channel (IC) | No | The value of
the interactiveChannel element found in the defaultParameterValues section
of the MessageConnectorConfig.xml file, which is "interactiveChannel"
by default. |
ip | The name of the applying interaction point (IP) | No | The value of
the interactionPoint element found in the defaultParameterValues section
of the MessageConnectorConfig.xml file, which is "headBanner" by default. |
offerImageUrl | The URL of the target offer image for the IMG URL in the message. | No | None. |
offerImageUrlAttr | The name of the offer attribute that has the URL of the target offer image | No | The value of
the imageUrlAttribute element found in the defaultParameterValues section
of the MessageConnectorConfig.xml file. |
offerLandingPageUrl | The URL of the landing page corresponding to the target offer. | No | None. |
offerLandingPageUrlAttr | The name of the offer attribute that has the URL of the landing page corresponding to the target offer. | No | The value of
the landingPageUrlAttribute element found in the defaultParameterValues section
of the MessageConnectorConfig.xml file. |
contactEvent | The name of the contact event. | No | The value of
the contactEventName element found in the defaultParameterValues section
of the MessageConnectorConfig.xml file, which is "contact" by default. |
responseEvent | The name of the accept event. | No | The value of
the acceptEventName element found in the defaultParameterValues section
of the MessageConnectorConfig.xml file, which is "accept" by default. |
debug | The debug flag. Set this parameter to "true" only for troubleshooting and at the instruction of technical support. | No | The value of
the debugFlag element found in the defaultParameterValues section
of the MessageConnectorConfig.xml file, which is "false" by default. |
<audience id> | The audience ID of this user. The name of this parameter is defined in the configuration file. | Yes | None. |
When the Message Connector receives a parameter that is unrecognized (that is, does not appear in the above list), it is handled in one of two possible ways:
If an unrecognized parameter is provided (for example, "attribute", as in
attribute="attrValue"
) and there is a matching parameter of the same name plus the word "Type" (for example, "attributeType", as inattributeType="string"
), this causes the Message Connector to create a matching Unica Interact parameter and pass it to the Unica Interact runtime.The values for the Type parameter can be any of the following:
- string
- numeric
- datetime
For a parameter of type "datetime," the Message Connector also looks for a parameter of the same name plus the word "Pattern" (for example, "attributePattern") whose value is a valid date/time format. For example, you might provide the parameter
attributePattern="MM/dd/yyyy"
.Note that if you specify a parameter type of "datetime" but do not provide a matching date pattern, the value specified in the Message Connector configuration file (found in <installation_directory>/msgconnector/config/MessageConnectorConfig.xml) on the Unica Interact server is used.
- If an unrecognized parameter is provided and there is no matching Type value, Message Connector passes that parameter to the target redirect URL.
For all unrecognized parameters, the Message Connector passes them to the Unica Interact runtime server without processing or saving them.
Example Message Connector Code
The following A
tag
contains an example of a set of Message Connector links that might
appear in an email message:
<a href="http://www.example.com/MessageConnector/offerClickthru.jsp?msgId=234
&linkId=1&userid=1&referral=xyz">
<img src="http://www.example.com/MessageConnector/offerImage.jsp?msgId=234&linkId=1
&userid=1&incomeCode=3&incomeType=numeric"/>
</a>
In this example, the IMG
tag
loads automatically when the email message is opened. By retrieving
the image from the specified page, the message passes the parameters
for the unique message identifier (msgID), unique link identifier
(linkID), and unique user identifier (userid), along with two additional
parameters (incomeCode and incomeType) to be passed to the Unica Interact runtime.
The A
tag
provides the HREF (Hypertext Reference) attribute that turns the offer
image into a clickable link in the email message. If the viewer of
the message, upon seeing the image, clicks through to the landing
page, the unique message identifier (msgId
), link
identifier (linkId
), and user identifier (userid
)
are passed through to the server, as well as one additional parameter
(referral
) that is passed to the target redirect
URL.