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Key features

  • To comply with regulations, all the collected data (session, pageviews…) is kept in the browsers cache (and not dispatched) until user consent is gathered.
  • You can setup a custom tracking subdomain to improve data collection.
  • Rimdian only uses 1st party cookies
  • You can activate cross-domain tracking to avoid counting same users twice between your domains (i.e: blog.website.com → shop.website.com)
  • Time spent on every page is accurately recorded by taking care of window focus
  • Anonymous user IDs are automatically merged with authenticated identities when provided
  • User activity can be signed with an HMAC key to protect yourself from malicious data injections
  • You can provide a list of ignored web origins in order to avoid triggering new sessions, which is useful if you redirect your customers to an external payment service (Paypal…)
  • The SDK automatically attaches context (current user, session, device…) to every event (pageview, cart, order…) in order to self-heal the dataset in case of missing or “out-of-order” data points
  • The SDK will automatically reconciliate user identities passed in URLs (cross-device reconciliation)

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General behavior

When a new an anonymous visitor (= that is not logged in your website) lands on your website, the SDK will generate a random user ID, start a new session and save it in a cookie. Basic browser capabilities are collected: user-agent, screen resolution, language and if an ad-blocker is detected. As soon as you allow it, the SDK will start dispatching data to the server. When an anonymous user authenticates himself on your website, you can provide its authenticated user ID to the SDK and its anonymous identity will be merged with his authenticated identity. A new session starts when the previous one expires (30mins of inactivity) or when a new page of your website is loaded from a different origin (i.e: the referrer has a different domain, or the utm_source / utm_medium parameters have changed).

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Installation

The SDK should be initialised between the HTML <head> and </head> tags. It is synchronously loaded but it will wait for your web page to be ready before doing any work. Its impact on your website performance is negligible. Example: 
<head>
  <script src="https://cdn-eu.rimdian.com/js/sdk.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
  <script>
    Rimdian.init({
      workspace_id: 'YOUR_WORKSPACE_ID',
      host: 'https://YOUR_TRACKING_SUBDOMAIN.yourwebsite.com',
      cross_domains: ['blog.yourwebsite.com'],
      ignored_origins: [{
        utm_source: 'paypal.com',
        utm_medium: 'referral'
      }]
    });
    Rimdian.setDispatchConsent(true);
  </script>
</head>

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Usage

Most regulations (GDPR…) allow you to collect web user activities on your website as long as the data is not merged with another dataset and is used to produce anonymous statistical aggregations. In such situation you can dispatch the collected data before collecting user consent on your cookie banner. To start dispatching data to Rimdian use the JS function: 
Rimdian.setDispatchConsent(true);

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On-site personalisation & marketing

As soon as you want to see the navigation history for a specific user in order to customise its on-site experience, you will have to collect his consent_personalization. The consent_personalization field also unlocks a user centric view in the Rimdian Console. For marketing & advertising purpose, you have to collect his consent_marketing. If your user accepts the whole “cookie banner”, you can use the consent_all field. To unlock a user centric view in Rimdian, use the following JS function: 
Rimdian.setUserContext({
	consent_all: true, // accepts everything
	consent_personalization: true, // onsite & user centric experience
	consent_marketing: true // marketing & advertising (Google Ads, Meta...)
});

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Users authentication

As soon as a user is authenticating himself on your website, and you know its user ID, you can provide it to the SDK like this: 
Rimdian.setUserContext({
	external_id: 'YOUR USER ID',
  is_authenticated: true,
	signed_up_at: '2022-08-31T16:11:14.922Z', // required when is_authenticated: true
	// optionaly provide its HMAC signature for maximum security
	hmac: 'YOUR USER ID HMAC'
});

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Dispatching data

By default, all the collected data is kept in the browsers cache. To dispatch it to Rimdian, via your tracking subdomain, use the following function: 
// trackPageview(), trackOrder()... should be placed above dispatch()
Rimdian.dispatch();

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User context

You can enrich the user profiles, when they are logged in, or when they give their email to sign up for your newsletter like this: 
Rimdian.setUserContext({
  external_id: 'YOUR AUTHENTICATED USER ID',
	is_authenticated: true, // true when the user is logged in
  signed_up_at: '2022-08-31T16:11:14.922Z', // required when is_authenticated: true
	hmac: 'user ID HMAC',
  // ISO date: first time you saw this user if he signed up in the past
	created_at: '2022-08-31T16:11:14.922Z', 
	// ISO date: controls how the following data will be merged in the database
	updated_at: '2022-08-31T16:11:14.922Z',
	// ISO format timezone
	timezone: 'Europe/Paris',
  // ISO format language
	language: 'en',
  // ISO format country code
	country: 'FR', 
  // user accepts the whole “cookie banner”
	consent_all: true, 
  // onsite & user centric experience
  consent_personalization: true,
  // marketing & advertising (Google Ads, Meta...)
  consent_marketing: true,
	last_ip: '000.000.000.000',
	longitude: 12.123,
	latitude: 12.123,
	first_name: 'John',
	last_name: 'Doe',
	gender: 'male', // male or female
  // birthday: YYYY-MM-DD
	birthday: '1980-01-20',
  // user profile photo URL
	photo_url: 'https://your-website.com/user-photo.jpg',
	email: 'johndoe@gmail.com',
	email_md5: '9fbdfc2750d2ad86a3ca8e7675582771',
	email_sha1: 'e1e8d3e4a336d4f9dc63b70a534ff10834471556',
	email_sha256: '06a240d11cc201676da976f7b49341181fd180da37cbe40a77432c0a366c80c3',
	// international E164 phone number format 
  telephone: '+33658764102',
	address_line_1: '1 avenue des Champs Elysees',
	address_line_2: 'Apt 4',
	city: 'Paris',
	region: 'Ile de France',
	postal_code: '75001',
	state: 'IDF',

  // extra app field names should start with the app ID
	app_appname_field1: 'abc',
  app_appname_field2: 1.234,
  app_appname_field3: true
});

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Pageviews

You can track the current page view with the trackPageview() function. 
Rimdian.trackPageview();

// with optional fields:
Rimdian.trackPageview({
  page_id: 'homepage', // current page URL by default
  title: 'Homepage', // current page title by default
  referrer: 'https://....', // page referrer by default
  image_url: 'https://image-url.jpg', // blog post cover / product image
  
  // product page metadata
  product_external_id: 'abc123',
  product_sku: 'abc123',
  product_name: 'iPhone 21',
  product_brand: 'Apple',
  product_category: 'mobile phone',
  product_variant_external_id: 'xyz123',
  product_variant_title: 'Gold 1To',
  product_price: 120000, // amount in cents
  product_currency: 'USD', // currency ISO format

  // extra app field names should start with the app ID
	app_appname_field1: 'abc',
  app_appname_field2: 1.234,
  app_appname_field3: true
});

​
Ecommerce

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Shopping cart

To track the current shopping cart, use the following function: 
Rimdian.trackCart({
  // required fields:
  external_id: 'CART ID',
	created_at: '2022-08-31T16:11:14.922Z', 
	// ISO date: controls how the following data will be merged in the database
	updated_at: '2022-08-31T16:11:14.922Z',
  items: [
    {
      // required item fields:
      external_id: 'abc123', // item ID
      product_external_id: 'iphone21', // product ID
      name: 'iPhone 21',
      
			// optional item fields:
      sku: 'iphone21',
      brand: 'Apple',
      category: 'mobile phone',
      variant_external_id: 'iphone-21-gold',
      variant_title: 'iPhone 21 Gold',
      image_url: 'https://product-image.jpg',
      price: 120000, // amount in cents
      quantity: 1,

		  // extra app field names should start with the app ID
    	app_appname_field1: 'abc',
      app_appname_field2: 1.234,
      app_appname_field3: true
    },
   ...more items...
  ],
  
  // optional fields:
  order_external_id: 'order123', // attach this cart to an order
  public_url: 'https://cart-url...', // URL to retrieve the cart

  // extra app field names should start with the app ID
	app_appname_field1: 'abc',
  app_appname_field2: 1.234,
  app_appname_field3: true
});

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Order

Once a customer placed an order you can call the following function: 
Rimdian.trackOrder({
	// required fields:
  external_id: 'order123',
  created_at: '2022-08-31T16:11:14.922Z', // ISO date format
  subtotal_price: 10099, // amount in cents, without taxes and shipping
  total_price: 11099, // amount in cents, with taxes and shipping
  
  // optional fields:
  currency: 'USD', // currency ISO format
  discount_codes: ['code1', 'code2'], // list of discount codes applied
  cancelled_at: '2022-08-31T16:11:14.922Z', // ISO date format
	cancel_reason: 'customer returned the product',

  items: [
    {
      // required item fields:
      external_id: 'abc123', // item ID
			order_external_id: 'order123', // order ID
      product_external_id: 'iphone21', // product ID
      name: 'iPhone 21',
      
			// optional item fields:
      sku: 'iphone21',
      brand: 'Apple',
      category: 'mobile phone',
      variant_external_id: 'iphone-21-gold',
      variant_title: 'iPhone 21 Gold',
      image_url: 'https://product-image.jpg',
      price: 120000, // amount in cents
      quantity: 1
    },
   ...more items...
	],

	// ISO date: controls how the following data will be merged in the database
	updated_at: '2022-08-31T16:11:14.922Z',

  // extra app field names should start with the app ID
	app_appname_field1: 'abc',
  app_appname_field2: 1.234,
  app_appname_field3: true
});
Don’t forget to also send the shopping cart concerned by that order and provide the order_external_id field in the trackCart() function. See above.

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Cross-domain tracking

To maintain consistency between your domains and subdomains, you can provide a list of the concerned domains in the config of the SDK. By doing this, every time a user will go from https://blog.website.com to https://shop.website.com , its user ID & device ID will be passed into the URL of the destination page and prevent the SDK counting the same user twice and start a new session. Example of configuration: 
// configuration for shop.website.com
Rimdian.init({
  workspace_id: 'YOUR_WORKSPACE_ID',
  host: 'https://YOUR_TRACKING_SUBDOMAIN.yourwebsite.com',

  // we specify blog.website.com here
  cross_domains: ['blog.yourwebsite.com'] 
});

// configuration for blog.website.com
Rimdian.init({
  workspace_id: 'YOUR_WORKSPACE_ID',
  host: 'https://YOUR_TRACKING_SUBDOMAIN.yourwebsite.com',

  // we specify shop.website.com here
  cross_domains: ['shop.yourwebsite.com'] 
});
The parameters passed into the destination page are:
  • _did=xxx for the device ID
  • _uid=xxx for the user ID
  • _auth=true if the user ID is authenticated
  • _uidh=xxx for the user ID HMAC if provided

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Cross-device reconciliation

To significantly increase your cross-device reconciliation rate, and improve the quality of your multi-touch attribution results, we encourage you to put the following parameters into all the URLs of the emails/SMS sent to your customers. When they will open your emails/SMS on an anonymous mobile device, it will be automatically merged into their authenticated user profile. All the following parameters are optional:
  • _authuid=xxx for the authenticated user ID
  • _uidh=xxx for the user ID HMAC if provided
  • _email=johndoe@gmail.com for the user email address
  • _emailmd5=xxx for the MD5 hash of user email address
  • _emailsha1=xxx for the SHA1 hash of user email address
  • _emailsha256=xxx for the SHA256 hash of user email address
  • _telephone=+33600000000 for the phone number in E164 international format
Examples: 
// for an authenticated user
https://your-website.com/landing-page?_authuid=12

// for a user with a known email (i.e: from the newsletter)
https://your-website.com/landing-page?_email=johndoe@gmail.com

// for a user with a masked email
https://your-website.com/landing-page?_emailmd5=xxx

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Session filtering

Every session become a touchpoint in the multi-touch attribution models, that will receive credits for conversions, and help measuring the performance of your trafic channels. It’s mandatory to filter out the sources of trafic that don’t contribute to your conversions, especially the payment gateways/redirections during checkout. Otherwise a new session will start after your customer paid his order and some credits will be attributed to your payment provider. Example of filter: 
Rimdian.init({
  workspace_id: 'YOUR_WORKSPACE_ID',
  host: 'https://YOUR_TRACKING_SUBDOMAIN.yourwebsite.com',
  ignored_origins: [{
		// required fields:
    utm_source: 'paypal.com',
    utm_medium: 'referral',
		// optional field:
		utm_campaign: 'xxx'
  }]
});