Customizing an e-Marketing Spot to display content in a random order

By default, the results that are returned in an e-Marketing Spot are displayed in the same order as they are defined in the web activities, and sequence of entries in the database. However, you might want the results to be in a different order each time the e-Marketing Spot is viewed. An e-Marketing Spot can be configured to randomize the results displayed. This configuration is done by creating appropriate database entries.

About this task

Ordering can be enabled for:
  • Individual e-Marketing Spots (per content type)
  • All e-Marketing Spots in a store (per content type)

Procedure

  1. Use the following chart to determine the applicable values for CONTENTTYPE and DMEMSPOTORD_ID to set random ordering for a specific content type.
    Content Type CONTENTTYPE DMEMSPOTORD_ID
    Product CatalogEntry -1
    Category CatalogGroup -2
    Content MarketingContent -3
  2. Then, create an entry in the DMEMSPOTCMD database table, by using the values for CONTENTTYPE and DMEMSPOTORD_ID.
    1. Set DMEMSPOTCMD_ID to a unique value for the DMEMSPOTCMD table
    2. Find the values for EMSPOT_ID and STOREENT_ID from the EMSPOT table
    For example, to set random ordering for catalog entries in an e-Marketing Spot with an EMSPOT_ID of 12345 in the store with a STOREENT_ID of 10101 insert the following SQL statement: 
    DMEMSPOTCMD(DMEMSPOTCMD_ID, CONTENTTYPE, STOREENT_ID, EMSPOT_ID, DMEMSPOTORD_ID) values (100000, 'CatalogEntry', 10101, 12345, -1)
    Note:
    • If you want all e-Marketing Spots in a store have random ordering, then set EMSPOT_ID to null
    • If you want all e-Marketing Spots in a store to have random ordering except for one spot, then set DMEMSPOTORD_ID to null for that particular EMSPOT_ID.
    • If the results returned are from multiple web activities that are scheduled to the e-Marketing Spot, results from higher priority activities have a greater probability of being returned.