Introduction to the Simulator

The simulator is a visual interface between Personyze and your website that allows you to open a copy of a target webpage and test drive a newly minted campaign, without altering the original page.

Activating the Simulator:

1. Login to your account in Personyze.com
2. Go to your Dashboard
3. Place mouse cursor over “Personalization” on the top menu bar. This will open up a secondary menu bar, directly beneath the main one.
4. Click on “Simulator”
5. Enter the URL of the page you want the simulator to open and press “Go”
6. Notice how a unique URL has been generated for this session using the simulator. The page you are seeing is NOT the actual webpage.

1. The simulator will open a copy of target URL in a new Tab. You will notice a sidebar with the word “Simulator” on it.
2.  Click on the sidebar. It will expand the Simulator window. 

You can use the Simulator for:

▪     Testing and Editing Segments and Actions defined for the website.
▪     Indentifying page elements and defining Containers.

Using the Simulator to Test Segments and Actions

Normally, Personyze looks for a match between visitors and defined Segments. Once a match is met, linked Actions are executed. Segments can get to be complex, therefore we need a way to test, edit, and sometime even replace them.

Changing System Parameters to Meet Segment Conditions and Trigger Actions:

 

The Simulator allows you to replace any given parameter within the platform and simulate as if rules and conditions were met, therefore, triggering the execution of Actions. For example, you could simulate visits from different countries or at a different time, and see how the tested page would look under these circumstances. Furthermore, all this takes place only inside the simulator and does not affect the live website.
When creating a new segment you can specify segment mode: Production,  Testing or both (see the segment tutorial for additional information). When using the simulator, you should match your current session mode to the segments you want to test by:

1. Expand Session Tab.
2. Choose the appropriate mode.
3. Click on Refresh, to see results.

One of the ways you can match existing segments is by overriding system parameters that are visible to Personyze, by:

1. Expand the “Overrides” Tab.
2. Click on “Set” next to the Parameter you want to override.
3. Change the Parameter and click “Ok” to save the change.

Note: when a specific action or segment is activated, it is immediately registered under the “Actions/segments on page” tab.

Using the Simulator to Activate/Deactivate, and Edit Complex Segments

Personyze offers a great flexibility when defining different segment rules. A segment criteria can be very simple, describing a relationship between one or two rules ( for example sex:”male” and geo location: “USA”), or incredibly complex rules consisting of a large number of parameters, that should be met in a specific  sequence in order for the entire segment to be matched.
When testing out a campaign based on complex segments, it is very important to have a simplistic tool that would allow us to see which criteria within the segment can be easily matched, and which criteria we should work on. Also, since the segmentation engine is at the heart of our personalization platform, using this tool to delete, edit and create new segments based on their performance must be very simple.
The simulator is such a tool.  Expand the “Switch on/off segments and test rules” to look within each segment, see which rules are matched as you are shifting parameters (as explained above), manually activate/deactivate entire segments, edit existing segments, and even delete/create segments!

Activating Segments Manually:

• Under the “State” column, of the appropriate segment, click on change.
• Choose the appropriate value.
• Click on the blue “OK” button to save.

Locating and Editing problematic rules and rule sequences within the Segment:

•    Expand the “Switch on/off segments and test rules” tab in the simulator.
•   Click on “Test Rules” under the name of the chosen segment.

• To see which specific rules are matched, click on the blue “Test Rules” button.

 Adding/Removing Segmentation Rules

• Place your mouse cursor over the specific rule you wish to edit.
• On the right, a plus and minus symbols appear.

• Clicking on the “minus” symbol deletes the rule on the left.
• Clicking on the “plus” symbol lets you add an additional segmentation rule.

Advanced Segment Editing

• Checking the “Edit Segment” checkbox, expands the segment window even further, and opens up a lot of different customization options. In this section we will go over most of them:

• “Keep visitor in segment” allows you to set how many pages the visitor can move away from the moment he matched the segment and still be regarded as matching the segments.
• Uncheck the “Visitor can match this segment again” So that recurring visitors won’t be able to match this segment. (Recommended for onetime promotions).
• Personyze not only allows you to add rules horizontally (testing for all rules simultaneously) but also vertically (according to a specific order of occurrence). Vertical sequencing means that the second sequence of rules will be tested for only once the first sequence was matched. Set up a second sequence of rules by clicking on the “Add” button to the right of the “Rules next in sequence.”
• Edit the name of the segment.
• “Comment” on the segment.
• “Send to Google Analytics” allows your website to automatically keep track of this segment activity with Google Analytics
• “Cancellable Condition” checkbox
• “Make Available in Client Scripts” checkbox
• Set up a fixed custom goal value in the “Goal Value” section
• Extract a goal value from a chosen container.
• Use the “Relative Strength” parameter to solve potential conflicts between different segments.

Going back to a Previous Version of the Segment.

Every time you alter a segment, Personyze automatically saves it as a new version. If for some reason you are unhappy with some recent version of the segment, you can always go back by following these simple steps:

•  Click on “Test Rules” under the name of a chosen segment.
• Once the segment window expands, select the desired version.

Note: Every time you choose a different version, you can browse through all the rules and settings of that version.

• Go back to the segment list. 

Manually Triggering Actions

If you’re just interested in executing an action without messing around with system parameters, doing so is very simple:
1)    Expand the “Trigger Actions” tab in the simulator.
2)    Choose the Action you would like to see executed.
3)   Click on the blue “Trigger” Button.

Note: If you would like to edit an existing action, or even create a new one, you can do so by clicking on “Edit” or “New Action” button.

 

Technically, a ‘Container’ can be any element of a Web page that is described inside of <div> tags in the HTML code of a page. In simple terms, it is our name for different elements of a Web page, such as a paragraph, an image or a text box. Personyze allows you to identify those elements without needing a programmer( A reference detailing all types of containers is provided below).

Containers can be used to:

1.  Track visitors’ behavior in the site, such as counting clicks on an elementa
2. Extract information from inside them, such as the content or value.
3. Execute personalization Actions inside them, such as changing their content and design.

Though you can manually define Containers in the ‘Container Settings’ page, using the Simulator is a lot more intuitive, therefore highly recommended.

Using the Simulator to Define New Containers:

Every element on the webpage, whether it is visible to the visitor or hiding in the background, can be used in the personalization process.  But the majority web developers would never go into the trouble of manually identifying those elements each time. The Simulator allows you to identify every element through a visual process and specify how you wish to implement it.

Placeholder containers can be used to specify the location on your webpage where you would like to have actions (for example: display banners, text, other content) executed.
To set up a new Placeholder Container:

•  In the Simulator, click on the “Container” button to expand the container menu.
•  Assign a type to the container in this case “Placeholder” and name it.

• To find an element on the webpage that will act as a container click on the “Find” button,  then move your mouse over the page to select the location of the element, and click to select.

Note:  You can reset the selection by clicking ‘Find’ in the container menu

• Once the location of the element is selected, a list of all elements at that location will appear. Chose the element you are interested in.

• Select where to execute the action when the container in use:

1. Selected element – Personyze will use this container to display action. In this case Personyze will replace the container content so that previous content will not be displayed.
2. Create a new element inside selected- You can use the container and place the action inside the container so the action will be placed in addition to the container existing content .
3. Create new element After/Before selected- Personyze create a new container After/Before selected element .
4. Use the “Track activity” option to specify what kind of activity the container monitors ( click events, pop ups, mouse going over an element on the page). 

To set a Grab Data container:

Grab data Containers can be used for enriching user profile with additional data that can later be used for analytics/segmentation/dynamic user parameters.

• In the Simulator, click on the “Container” button to expand the container menu.
• Assign a type to the container –  in this case you can use any container that use “Grab” for example container “Grab from the page”  and name it.
• To find an element on the webpage that will act as a container click on the “Find” button,  then move your mouse over the page to select the location of the element, and click to select.
• Note:  You can reset the selection by clicking ‘Find’ in the container menu
• Once the location of the element is selected, a list of all elements at that location will appear. Chose the element you are interested in.

Note:  if it container is of type that it is not visual like grab cookie you should see list of the cookie on the page. Click on the cookie name to see it value.

 

•  Set Mask if you don’t want to take all the content/value from the container and you want to decide what to extract (for example  only numbers).

• Set the “Grab When” option to control when the Personyze takes information from the container and stores it. For instance –  this could make the difference between storing every little thing the visitor types in the internal search bar, and grabbing data only when the container first appears on the webpage.

• Check the “Store grabbed value to social table”  checkbox if you want Personyze to store the data under the user profiles ” Social” table (A table contain user data, With a fixed columns where each user have one raw)  – you can use it for example to store user email or user type , The data store here can be use in dynamic parameter in action or in segment rules under user profile ” social ” or custom data .
• Use the “Track activity” option to specify what kind of activity the container monitors ( click events, pop ups, mouse going over an element on the page).

Reference: types of Containers

▪    Placeholder – An area in which Personyze can insert content, such as HTML code, text or images.
▪    Text input – A text input field from which Personyze can extract typed text.
▪    Text input search – A text input field from which Personyze can extract typed text, and is defined as an Internal Search.
▪    Click event – An element for which Personyze will track mouse click events.
▪    Click event page – An element for which Personyze will track mouse click events, as well as count every click as a page view. It is useful to get an accurate page view count in Ajax pages, when a mouse click loads a new page without requesting a new URL.
▪    Mouse over – An element for which Personyze will track mouse over events.
▪    Grab HTML static – An element from which Personyze will extract the HTML content once, as soon as it changes.
▪    Grab HTML – An element from which Personyze will extract the HTML content once, when the page is loaded.
▪    Grab HTML volatile – An element from which Personyze will extract the HTML content recursively, and will return the last found content while the page was opened.
▪    User data – An element in which Personyze can insert content, such as a numeric value or a string; it can be used to insert dynamic data that was collected by Personyze to be submitted in a form to an external database.
▪    Custom event – Allows you to track custom events that can’t be defined otherwise. Copy the JavaScript code generated by Personyze and paste it in the HTML code of the page in such a way that it runs whenever the event happens.
▪    Load event – Allows you to track whenever an element, such as an image or flash animation, was loaded.
▪    Grab cookie – Allows you to define the value of a cookie as a container.
▪    Grab URL – Allows you to define the value of parameters of the current URL as a container.
▪    Grab internal ID – A field from which Personyze will extract the typed text and use it to identify a visitor browsing from multiple locations or browsers. The field should contain a unique identifier, such as a username or email address.
▪    Grab user data – A field from which Personyze will extract the typed text and place the information in a visitors profile database. You can save each visitor’s email address, name, gender, country, etc.
▪    Grab metatag – Can be used to grab keywords, title and more from the HEAD section of the page’s HTML code. The main benefit or strength of this Container is that it allows you to pass data to Personyze before the page’s content loads (opposed to “grab HTML” Containers that must wait for the page to load, extract the content, and only then send it to Personyze).