What changes are in the Webtrends Mobile SDK 1.1?

What changes are in the Webtrends Mobile SDK 1.1?

Products:
Webtrends On Demand
Webtrends Analytics 8.7
Webtrends Analytics 9.2


Introduction:
With the addition of the Screen Views metric, Webtrends updated SDKs include some changes to prevent non-view events from showing up in this metric. Previously all events including app start, terminate, clicks, background and other non-view events were included in the page view totals.

These changes include:

1. Webtrends added an onScreenView (eventForScreenView in iOS, ScreenView in WP7) and deprecated onContentView (eventForContentView in iOS, ContentView in WP7). onScreenView has a WT.dl value of 0 and a WT.sys value of screen.

2. In order to keep application events from being considered screen views, Webtrends changed the following convenience/manual methods to have a WT.dl value of 61 where applicable:
a. onApplicationStart (eventForAppLaunch in iOS, ApplicationStart in WP7)
b. onApplicationTerminate (eventForAppExit in iOS, ApplicationTerminate in WP7)
c. onApplicationBackground (eventForAppBackground in iOS, ApplicationBackground in WP7)
d. onApplicationForeground (eventForAppForeground in iOS, ApplicationForeground in WP7)
e. onApplicationError (eventForError in iOS, ApplicationError in WP7)
f. onActivityStart
g. onActivityEnd
h. onActivityPause
i. eventForNotification (iOS only)

3. The following convenience/manual methods now have a WT.dl value of 60:
a. onAdClickEvent (eventForAdClick in iOS, AdClickEvent in WP7)
b. onAdImpressionEvent (eventForAdImpression in iOS, AdImpressionEvent in WP7)
c. onMediaEvent (eventForMediaView in iOS, MediaEvent in WP7)
  
4. Webtrends also increased the uniqueness of the WT.sys paramter value for many of the convenience methods.  Below are the new values for the convenience methods that have changed:
a. eventForNotification (iOS only) now has a WT.sys value of "notification" rather than "alert"
b. onAdClickEvent (eventForAdClick in iOS, AdClickEvent in WP7) now has a WT.sys value of "adclick" rather than "click"
c. onAdImpressionEvent (eventForAdImpression in iOS, AdImpressionEvent in WP7) now has a WT.sys value of "adimpression" rather than "view"
d. onSearchEvent (eventForSearchEvent in iOS, SearchEvent in WP7) now has a WT.sys value of "search" rather than "view"
e. onContentView (eventForContentView in iOS, ContentView in WP7) now has a WT.sys value of "content" rather than "view"
f. onScreenView (eventForScreenView in iOS, ScreenView in WP7) now has a WT.sys value of "screen"
g. onProductView (eventForProductView in iOS, ProductView in WP7) now has a WT.sys value of "product" rather than "view"
h. onMediaEvent (eventForMediaView in iOS, MediaEvent in WP7) now has a WT.sys value of "media" rather than "view"
i. onButtonClick (eventForAction in iOS, ButtonClick in WP7) now has a WT.sys value of "button" rather than "click"

5. Webtrends has removed configuration options that are no longer used or necessary and configuration options to help identify and categorize the app. The following configuration options have been removed:
a. wt_dc_dcsverbose - We now turn on/off dcsverbose based on the value of wt_dc_debug
b. webtrends_id - The Webtrends SDKs default to using a hashed version of the device ID
c. wt_dc_location_enabled - Webtrends no longer integrates GPS in the SDKs so this has been removed
d. wt_dc_location_method - Webtrends no longer integrates GPS in the SDKs so this has been removed
e. wt_dc_internet_check_url - The SDKs no longer need to use an internet check URL to determine if the end-point is reachable, but rather determine this based off the status of the first hit
f. wt_dc_version - This is now generated within the SDK itself
The following configuration options have been added:
a. wt_dc_app_category - The application's category which populates the WT.a_cat parameter
b. wt_dc_app_name - The application's name which populates the WT.a_nm parameter
c. wt_dc_app_publisher - The application's publisher which populates the WT.a_pub parameter
d. wt_dc_app_version - The application's version which populates the WT.av parameter

Note: The geolocation data can still be passed manually.

Though this will be different from previous data and will cause a decrease in any Screens measure, Webtrends strongly recommend these settings be retained.

If the SDK is being updated and the old definition are required, please select one of the options below:

1. All convenience methods allow a set of name/value pairs to be passed.  Developers are able to override the WT.dl or WT.sys parameter values by passing these parameters with the desired values.  Examples by platform are:
a. Blackberry and Android SDKs:
        
Hashtable customData = new Hashtable();
customData.put("WT.dl","0");
 
b. iOS
 
[event setValue:@"0" forCustomParameter:@"WT.dl"];
    
c. Windows Phone 7  
 
Dictionary<string, string> customData = new Dictionary<string, string>();
customData.Add("WT.dl", "0");
 
Making this change creates desired data being passed to the Webtrends data collector. As this override functionality doesn't noticeably increase the  resources used by the SDK and also doesn't increase the resources needed to analyze the data within Webtrends, this is the preferred method of retaining the original functionality.

2. If the updated SDK has already been implemented and data is being collected with the undesired values, the solution would be to change the Page File Type definition on the profile or to create a URL Search & Replace definition to change the WT.dl value.  Either of these will increase the resources and time required to analyze the collected data.  Information on changing the page file type definition or creating and implementing URL Search & Replace can be found in the Webtrends documentation.

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