Create and configure datastreams
This document covers the steps for configuring a datastream in the UI.
Access the Datastreams workspace
You can create and manage datastreams in the Data Collection UI or Experience Platform UI by selecting Datastreams in the left navigation.
The Datastreams tab displays a list of existing datastreams, including their friendly name, ID, and last modified date. To view its details and configure services, select the name of a datastream.
To reveal more options for a particular datastream, select the “more” icon (…). To update the basic configuration for the datastream, select Edit. To remove the datastream, select Delete.
Create a datastream
To create a datastream, start by selecting New Datastream.
The datastream creation workflow appears, starting at the configuration step. From here, you must provide a name and optional description for the datastream.
If you configure a datastream for use in Experience Platform and you also use the Web SDK, you must also select an event-based Experience Data Model (XDM) schema to represent the data you plan on ingesting.
Configure geolocation and network lookup
Geolocation and network lookup settings help you define the level of granularity of the geographical and network-level data that you want to collect.
Expand the Geolocation and network lookup section to configure the settings described below.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Geo Lookup | Enables geolocation lookups for the selected options based on the visitor’s IP address. Available options include:
Not selecting any option disables geolocation lookups. Geolocation happens before IP Obfuscation, which means that it is not impacted by the IP Obfuscation setting. |
| Network Lookup | Enables network lookups for the selected options based on the visitor’s IP address. Available options include:
|
If you enable any of the fields above for data collection, make sure that you correctly set the context array property when configuring the Web SDK.
Geolocation lookup fields use the context array string "placeContext", while network lookup fields use the context array string "environment".
Also, make sure that each desired XDM field exists in your schema. If it does not, you can add the Adobe-provided Environment Details field group to your schema.
Configure device lookup
The Device Lookup settings allow you to select device-specific information that you want to collect.
Expand the Device Lookup section to configure the settings described below.
The settings shown in the table below are mutually exclusive. You cannot select both user agent information and device lookup data at the same time.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Keep user agent and client hints headers | Select this option to only collect the information stored in the user agent string. This setting is selected by default. Populates xdm.environment.browserDetails.userAgent |
| Use device lookup to collect the following information | Select this option if you want to collect one or more of the following device-specific information:
|
| Do not collect any device information | Select this option if you do not want to collect any device lookup information. No device, hardware, browser, operating system, user agent, or client hint data is collected. |
If you enable any of the fields above for data collection, make sure that you correctly set the context array property when configuring the Web SDK.
Device and hardware information use the context array string "device", while browser and operating system information use the context array string "environment".
Also, make sure that each desired XDM field exists in your schema. If it does not, you can add the Adobe-provided Environment Details field group to your schema.
Configure advanced options
To reveal advanced configration options, select Advanced Options. Here, you can configure additional datastream settings, such as IP obfuscation, First Party ID cookies, and more.
You are responsible for ensuring that you have obtained all necessary permissions, consents, clearances, and authorization required under applicable laws and regulations to collect, process, and transmit personal data, including precise geolocation information.
Your IP address obfuscation selection does not affect the level of geolocation information that is derived from the IP address and sent to your configured Adobe solutions. Geolocation lookups must be limited or disabled separately.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| IP Obfuscation | Indicates the type of IP obfuscation to be applied to the datastream. Any processing based on customer IP is impacted by the IP obfuscation setting. This includes all Experience Cloud services which receive data from your datastream. Available options:
|
| First Party ID Cookie | When enabled, this setting tells the Edge Network to refer to a specified cookie when looking up a first-party device ID, rather than looking up this value in the Identity Map. When enabling this setting, you must provide the name of the cookie which should store the ID. |
| Third Party ID Sync | ID syncs can be grouped into containers to allow different ID syncs to be run at different times. When enabled, this setting lets you specify which container of ID syncs is run for this datastream. |
| Third Party ID Sync Container ID | The numeric ID of the container to be used for third party ID sync. |
| Container ID Overrides | In this section, you can define additional third party ID sync container IDs which you can use to override the default one. |
| Access Type | Defines the authentication type that the Edge Network accepts for the datastream.
|
| Media Analytics | Enables processing of streaming tracking data for Edge Network integration via Experience Platform SDKs or Media Edge API. Learn about Media Analytics from the documentation. |
From here, if you are configuring your datastream for Experience Platform, follow the tutorial on Data Prep for Data Collection to map your data to a Platform event schema before returning to this guide. Otherwise, select Save and continue to the next section.
View datastream details
After configuring a new datastream or selecting an existing one to view, the details page for that datastream appears. Here you can find further information about the datastream, including its ID.
From the datastream details screen, you can add services to enable capabilities from the Adobe Experience Cloud products you have access to. You can also edit the datastream’s basic configuration, update its mapping rules, copy the datastream, or delete it entirely.
Add services to a datastream
On the details page of a datastream, select Add Service to start adding available services for that datastream.
On the next screen, use the dropdown menu to select a service to configure for this datastream. Only the services that you have access to are shown in this list.
Select the desired service, fill in the configuration options that appear, and then select Save to add the service to the datastream. All added services appear in the details view for the datastream.
The subsections below describe the configuration options for each service.
Each service configuration contains an Enabled toggle that is automatically activated when the service is selected. To disable the selected service for this datastream, select the Enabled toggle again.
Adobe Analytics settings
This service controls whether and how data is sent to Adobe Analytics. See Sending data to Adobe Analytics.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Report Suite ID | (Required) The ID of the Analytics report suite that you want to send data to. This ID can be found in the Adobe Analytics UI under Admin > ReportSuites. If multiple report suites are specified, then data is copied to each report suite. |
| Visitor ID namespace | (Optional) The namespace you want to use for the Adobe Analytics visitorID. When you send an event with a value specified for this namespace, it will be automatically used as the visitorID in Analytics. |
| Report Suite Overrides | In this section, you can add additional report suite IDs that you can use to override the default one. |
Adobe Audience Manager settings
This service controls whether and how data is sent to Adobe Audience Manager. All that is needed to send data to Audience Manager is to enable this section. The other settings are optional but encouraged.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Cookie Destinations Enabled | Allows the SDK to share segment information via cookie destinations from Audience Manager. |
| URL Destinations Enabled | Allows the SDK to share segment information via URL destinations from Audience Manager. |
Adobe Experience Platform settings
When enabling a datastream for Platform, take note of the Platform sandbox that you are currently using, as displayed in the top ribbon of the UI.
Sandboxes are virtual partitions in Adobe Experience Platform that allow you to isolate your data and implementations from others in your organization. Once a datastream is created, its sandbox cannot be changed. For more details about the role of sandboxes in Experience Platform, see the sandboxes documentation.
This service controls whether and how data is sent to Adobe Experience Platform.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Event Dataset | (Required) Select the Platform dataset that customer event data will be streamed to. This schema must use the XDM ExperienceEvent class. To add additional datasets, select Add Event Dataset. |
| Profile Dataset | Select the Platform dataset that customer attribute data will be sent to. This schema must use the XDM Individual Profile class. |
| Offer Decisioning | Enables Offer Decisioning for Web SDK implementations. See the guide on using Offer Decisioning with Web SDK for more implementation details. For more information on Offer Decisioning capabilities, refer to the Adobe Journey Optimizer documentation. |
| Edge Segmentation | Enables edge segmentation for this datastream. When the Web SDK or Edge Network Server API sends data through a datastream with edge segmentation enabled, any updated audience memberships for the profile in question are sent back in the response. You can use this option in combination with Personalization Destinations for same-page and next-page personalization use cases through edge destinations or Offer Decisioning. |
| Personalization Destinations | When enabling this after enabling the Edge Segmentation checkbox, this option allows the datastream to connect to personalization destinations, such as Custom Personalization. Refer to the destinations documentation for specific steps on configuring personalization destinations. |
| Adobe Journey Optimizer | Enables Adobe Journey Optimizer for this datastream. Enabling this option allows the datastream to return personalized content from web and app-based inbound campaigns in Adobe Journey Optimizer. This option requires Edge Segmentation to be active. If Edge Segmentation is unchecked, this option is grayed out. |
Adobe Target settings
This service controls whether and how data is sent to Adobe Target.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Property Token | Target allows customers to control permissions by using properties. For more information on properties, see the guide on configuring enterprise permissions in the Target documentation. The property token can be found in the Adobe Target UI under Setup > Properties. |
| Target Environment ID | Environments in Adobe Target help you manage your implementation through all stages of development. This setting specifies which environment you are going to use with this datastream. Best practice is to set this differently for each of your dev, stage, and prod datastream environments to keep things simple. However, if you already have Adobe Target environments defined, you can use those. |
| Target Third Party ID namespace | The identity namespace for the mbox3rdPartyId you want to use for this datastream. If you use a Customer Attributes integration with Adobe Target or use thirdPartyId to update or create profiles via Adobe Target Profiles API, you must provide a namespace value of your choice. You must use this namespace in the IdentityMap section of your XDM schema to send the customerID or thirdPartyId used in your Customer Attributes file uploads or in your Profile Update API calls. See the guide on implementing mbox3rdPartyId with the Web SDK for more information. |
| Property Token Overrides | In this section, you can define additional property tokens that you can use to override the default one. |
Event Forwarding settings
This service controls whether and how data is sent to event forwarding.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Launch Property | (Required) The event forwarding property that you want to send data to. |
| Launch Environment | (Required) The environment within the selected property that you want to send data to. |
You can select Manually enter IDs to type in the property and environment names instead of using the dropdown menus.
Copy a datastream
You can create a copy of an existing datastream and alter its details as needed.
Datastreams can only be copied within the same sandbox. In other words, you cannot copy a datastream from one sandbox to another.
From the main page in the Datastreams workspace, select the ellipsis (…) for the datastream in question, then select Copy.
Alternatively, you can select Copy Datastream from the details view of a given datastream.
A confirmation dialog appears, prompting you to provide a unique name for the new datastream to be created, along with details about the configuration options that will be copied over. When ready, select Copy.
The main page of the Datastreams workspace reappears with the new datastream listed.
Next steps
This guide covered how to manage datastreams in the Data Collection UI. For more information on how to install and configure the Web SDK after setting up a datastream, refer to the Data Collection E2E guide.
