Variables in Adobe Analytics : Part 3

The Second main type as per whether Variables are auto populated or not in Adobe Analytics is “Auto Populated” Variables.

Recap of Different Types of Variables

You can read the part 1 of this article here. Let’s do a quick recap of the different types of variables :

  • Scenario A) Depending on the values: whether they are Dynamic OR Static
  • Scenario B) Depending on the type of value it holds: whether it is a normal variable OR an array
  • Scenario C) Depending on the type of data it stores & How it is reported:  Dimension OR Metrics
  • Scenario D) Depending on the need for definition: whether they are predefined (built in) OR not predefined (custom)
  • Scenario E) Depending on the type of capture: Whether their values are captured automatically OR need definition
  • Scenario F) Depending on the type of nature: Whether they store Configuration Values or non configuration values.

Lets explore more about Auto Populated Variables ?

So, as the name suggests, Adobe Analytics auto-populates these for us. These majorly fit under Scenario E. Let’s list down certain other properties of these variables per different scenarios as well:

  1. Scenario A: Dynamic
  2. Scenario B: Normal
  3. Scenario C: Reported as a dimension
  4. Scenario D: Not Applicable ! We don’t need to define it as reports are auto populated
  5. Scenario E: Captured automatically/ Populated automatically

Below are few examples of these types of variables :

  • Browser height, width, type, version
  • Time Zones
  • Languages
  • Referring URL
  • Current URL
  • Screen Resolution
  • Color Depth
  • JS Version
  • JS Enabled Status
  • Java Enabled Status
  • Cookies Supported Status
  • OS

How does Adobe Analytics capture the values Under the Hood ?

If you have a Javascript background it will occur to you that these are properties of the “window” object on a browser. Browsers can directly capture the values of these variables. Example:

  1. Browserheight is captured using window.screen.height
  2. Browserwidth is captured using window.screen.width

What Adobe Analytics does is captures these variables directly for us. We dont need to do any manual interventions. These manual interventions can be :

  1. Providing the definition in Report Suite : Similar to what we do for an eVar or prop
  2. Mapping them in Launch

You can see these variables in the image request as well as shown below . Example below is of Flipkart.

You can see this for any page which has Adobe Analytics installed and which fires beacons.

Data Collection Query Paramaters

As these are captured from the image request query parameters, we call them as Data Collection Query Parameters.

This is the reason why we call these variables as Auto populated. So far so good. We have now a good understanding on Auto Populated and Non Auto Populated Variables in Adobe Analytics. 

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