Analytics tag library for IBM WebSphere Commerce

The basis for the WebSphere Commerce analytics framework is a JSP-based tag library. By adding WebSphere Commerce analytics tags to your store pages, you can communicate information about site usage to an external analytics system.

The analytics tag library acts as an intermediary layer between WebSphere Commerce and the external analytics system. As customers interact with your site, the tag library generates vendor-specific JavaScript snippets that transfer information to the external server. This information includes the pages that are viewed, ads that display, and clickthrough.

Tag versions

WebSphere Commerce provides two versions of each analytics tag:

  1. A default implementation of the tag for IBM Digital Analytics, formerly known as Coremetrics Analytics.
    These WebSphere Commerce analytics tags start with the prefix <cm:, for example, <cm:pageview /> and <cm:cart />. These tags automatically generate related IBM Digital Analytics JavaScript snippets, called data tags. For example:
    • The <cm:pageview /> tag automatically generates this IBM Digital Analytics data tag: cmCreatePageViewTag
    • The <cm:cart /> tag automatically generates this IBM Digital Analytics data tag: cmCreateShopAction5Tag
  2. An abstract base tag implementation class, for analytics vendors other than IBM Digital Analytics.

    Analytics vendors can extend this base tag class to collect the analytical data and implement their own logic to generate the vendor-specific page view tagging APIs.

Tag library usage with IBM Digital Analytics

You can tag your store pages with the WebSphere Commerce analytics tags provided for IBM Digital Analytics, such as the <cm:pageview /> tag and the <cm:cart /> tag. The WebSphere Commerce analytics tags offer simpler alternative to adding the IBM Digital Analytics data tag JavaScript code to your store pages, which can be a cumbersome process. WebSphere Commerce also provides an auto tagging utility that automatically tags all store JSP pages with the <cm:pageview /> tag.

Tag library usage with analytics vendors other than IBM Digital Analytics

IBM Digital Analytics, like many other web analytics vendors, uses a JavaScript tagging mechanism. IBM Digital Analytics provides JavaScript code snippets for you to add to your store pages to collect analytical data for the external analytics system, as do other vendors, typically. Adding the JavaScript code snippets to your store pages can be a cumbersome process. As an alternative, you can use JSTL-based custom JSP tags that contain the logic to generate the JavaScript code snippets in the store pages. The JSTL-based tags are easier to add and maintain than the JavaScript tagging code. By extending the base tag class that WebSphere Commerce provides, you can create custom JSP tags to send the analytics data to the external analytics system. WebSphere Commerce also provides an auto tagging utility that automatically tags all store JSP pages with a page view tag.