@adobe/target-node-client v0.15.2

Target Node.js SDK v1.0 released

Target Node.js SDK v1.0 has been published and open-sourced.
Please see the CHANGELOG for important notes on breaking changes and BatchMbox v2 API deprecation.
This package is now deprecated, please use the new @adobe/target-nodejs-sdk NPM package instead.

Adobe Target Node Client

The Adobe Target Node Client lets customers execute requests against the Adobe edge network and retrieve personalized content that can be used to enhance the user experience.

Behind the scenes, the Target Node Client wraps two Adobe Marketing Cloud solutions:

• The Marketing Cloud Identity Service (MCID), also known as the Visitor API
• Adobe Target

Super Simple to Use

The Target Node Client has been designed to be the simplest way to interact with the Adobe Target batch delivery API.

const TargetNodeClient = require("@adobe/target-node-client");

const client = TargetNodeClient.create({
  config: {
    client: "acmeclient",
    organizationId: "1234567890@AdobeOrg",
    timeout: 5000
  }
});

const request = {
  payload: {
    mboxes: [{
      mbox: "server-side-mbox",
      indexId: 0
    }]
  }
};

client.getOffers(request)
.then(response => console.log('Response', response))
.catch(error => console.error('Error', error));

Table of Contents

• Adobe Target Node Client
  • Super Simple to Use
  • Table of Contents
  • Target Only
  • MCID Integration
  • MCID with Customer IDs Integration
  • MCID and Analytics Integration
  • Shared MCID and Analytics Integration
  • MCID, Analytics and at.js Integration
  • Troubleshooting
  • Target Node Client API
    • TargetNodeClient.create
    • TargetNodeClient.getOffer
    • TargetNodeClient.getOffers

Target Only

The Target Node Client can be used to retrieve personalized content from Target without being forced to use the MCID.

const TargetNodeClient = require("@adobe/target-node-client");

const client = TargetNodeClient.create({
  config: {
    client: "acmeclient",
    organizationId: "1234567890@AdobeOrg",
  }
});

const request = {
  payload: {
    mboxes: [{
      mbox: "server-side-mbox",
      indexId: 0
    }]
  }
};

client.getOffers(request)
.then(response => console.log('Response', response))
.catch(error => console.error('Error', error));

By default, the Target Node Client generates a new session ID for every Target call, which might not always be the desired behavior. To ensure that Target properly tracks the user session, you should ensure that the Target cookie is sent to the browser when Target content is retrieved and the Target cookie value is passed to getOffer() as a request is processed.

In an Express application, this could look something like this:

const express = require("express");
const cookieParser = require("cookie-parser");
const TargetNodeClient = require("@adobe/target-node-client");
const CONFIG = {
  client: "acmeclient",
  organizationId: "1234567890@AdobeOrg"
};

const app = express();
const client = TargetNodeClient.create({config: CONFIG});

app.use(cookieParser());

function saveCookie(res, cookie) {
  if (!cookie) {
    return;
  }

  res.cookie(cookie.name, cookie.value, {maxAge: cookie.maxAge * 1000});
}

function sendSuccessResponse(res, response) {
  res.set({
    "Content-Type": "text/html",
    "Expires": new Date().toUTCString()
  });

  saveCookie(res, response.targetCookie);

  res.status(200).send(response);
}

function sendErrorResponse(res, error) {
  res.set({
    "Content-Type": "text/html",
    "Expires": new Date().toUTCString()
  });

  res.status(500).send(error);
}

app.get("/abtest", function (req, res) {
  const targetCookieName = encodeURIComponent(TargetNodeClient.getTargetCookieName());
  const targetCookie = req.cookies[targetCookieName];
  const payload = {"mbox" : };
  const request = {
    payload: {
      mboxes: [{
        mbox: "server-side-mbox",
        indexId: 0
      }]
    }
  };

  console.log("Request", request);

  client.getOffers(request)
  .then(response => {
    sendSuccessResponse(res, response);
  })
  .catch(error => {
    sendErrorResponse(res, error);
  });
});

app.listen(3000, function () {
  console.log("Listening on port 3000 and watching!");
});

Full sample: https://github.com/Adobe-Marketing-Cloud/target-node-client-samples/tree/master/target-only

MCID Integration

Although using the Target Node Client for fetching content from Target can be powerful, the added value of using MCID for user tracking outweighs using Target only. MCID allows leveraging all the goodies found in the Adobe Experience Cloud, such as audience sharing, analytics, etc. Using Target and MCID in an Express application is pretty straightforward. MCID has a client-side part, so we'll have to use a simple template that references the MCID JavaScript library.

Here is the Express application:

const express = require("express");
const cookieParser = require("cookie-parser");
const TargetNodeClient = require("@adobe/target-node-client");
const CONFIG = {
  client: "acmeclient",
  organizationId: "1234567890@AdobeOrg"
};
const TEMPLATE = `
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <title>Target Node Client NodeJS SDK Sample</title>
  <script src="VisitorAPI.js"></script>
  <script>
    Visitor.getInstance("${organizationId}", {serverState: ${visitorState}});
  </script>
</head>
<body>
  <p>${content}</p>
</body>
</html>
`;

const app = express();
const client = TargetNodeClient.create({config: CONFIG});

app.use(cookieParser());
// We assume that VisitorAPI.js is stored in "public" folder
app.use(express.static(__dirname + "/public"));

function saveCookie(res, cookie) {
  if (!cookie) {
    return;
  }

  res.cookie(cookie.name, cookie.value, {maxAge: cookie.maxAge * 1000});
}

function sendSuccessResponse(res, response) {
  res.set({
    "Content-Type": "text/html",
    "Expires": new Date().toUTCString()
  });

  const result = TEMPLATE
  .replace("${organizationId}", CONFIG.organizationId)
  .replace("${visitorState}", JSON.stringify(response.visitorState))
  .replace("${content}", response.content);

  saveCookie(res, response.targetCookie);

  res.status(200).send(result);
}

function sendErrorResponse(res, error) {
  res.set({
    "Content-Type": "text/html",
    "Expires": new Date().toUTCString()
  });

  res.status(500).send(error);
}

app.get("/abtest", function (req, res) {
  const visitorCookieName = encodeURIComponent(TargetNodeClient.getVisitorCookieName(CONFIG.organizationId));
  const visitorCookie = req.cookies[visitorCookieName];
  const targetCookieName = encodeURIComponent(TargetNodeClient.getTargetCookieName());
  const targetCookie = req.cookies[targetCookieName];
  const payload = {
      mboxes: [{
        mbox: "server-side-mbox",
        indexId: 0
      }]
    }
  };
  const request = Object.assign({payload}, {targetCookie}, {visitorCookie});

  console.log("Request", request);

  client.getOffers(request)
  .then(response => {
    sendSuccessResponse(res, response);
  })
  .catch(error => {
    sendErrorResponse(res, error);
  });
});

app.listen(3000, function () {
  console.log("Listening on port 3000 and watching!");
});

The biggest benefit of using the MCID integration is that it allows you to share Audience Manager segments with Target. Because this is a server-side integration for first-time visitors, you might not have any Audience Manager related data.

Full sample: https://github.com/Adobe-Marketing-Cloud/target-node-client-samples/tree/master/mcid-integration

MCID with Customer IDs Integration

Sometimes when you have logged details, you could be more specific and pass the logged details via customerIds. The customerIds object is similar to the MCID functionality described here: https://marketing.adobe.com/resources/help/en_US/mcvid/mcvid-authenticated-state.html.

Here is the Express application that shows customerIds in action:

const express = require("express");
const cookieParser = require("cookie-parser");
const TargetNodeClient = require("@adobe/target-node-client");
const CONFIG = {
  client: "acmeclient",
  organizationId: "1234567890@AdobeOrg"
};
const TEMPLATE = `
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <title>Target Node Client NodeJS SDK Sample</title>
  <script src="VisitorAPI.js"></script>
  <script>
    Visitor.getInstance("${organizationId}", {serverState: ${visitorState}});
  </script>
</head>
<body>
  <p>${content}</p>
</body>
</html>
`;

const app = express();
const client = TargetNodeClient.create({config: CONFIG});

app.use(cookieParser());
// We assume that VisitorAPI.js is stored in "public" folder
app.use(express.static(__dirname + "/public"));

function saveCookie(res, cookie) {
  if (!cookie) {
    return;
  }

  res.cookie(cookie.name, cookie.value, {maxAge: cookie.maxAge * 1000});
}

function sendSuccessResponse(res, response) {
  res.set({
    "Content-Type": "text/html",
    "Expires": new Date().toUTCString()
  });

  const result = TEMPLATE
  .replace("${organizationId}", CONFIG.organizationId)
  .replace("${visitorState}", JSON.stringify(response.visitorState))
  .replace("${content}", response.content);

  saveCookie(res, response.targetCookie);

  res.status(200).send(result);
}

function sendErrorResponse(res, error) {
  res.set({
    "Content-Type": "text/html",
    "Expires": new Date().toUTCString()
  });

  res.status(500).send(error);
}

app.get("/abtest", function (req, res) {
  const visitorCookieName = encodeURIComponent(TargetNodeClient.getVisitorCookieName(CONFIG.organizationId));
  const visitorCookie = req.cookies[visitorCookieName];
  const targetCookieName = encodeURIComponent(TargetNodeClient.getTargetCookieName());
  const targetCookie = req.cookies[targetCookieName];
  const customerIds = {
    "userid": {
      "id": "67312378756723456",
      "authState": TargetNodeClient.AuthState.AUTHENTICATED
    }
  };
  const payload = {
      mboxes: [{
        mbox: "server-side-mbox",
        indexId: 0
      }]
    }
  };
  const request = Object.assign({customerIds}, {payload}, {targetCookie}, {visitorCookie});

  console.log("Request", request);

  client.getOffers(request)
  .then(response => {
    sendSuccessResponse(res, response);
  })
  .catch(error => {
    sendErrorResponse(res, error);
  });
});

app.listen(3000, function () {
  console.log("Listening on port 3000 and watching!");
});

Full sample: https://github.com/Adobe-Marketing-Cloud/target-node-client-samples/tree/master/mcid-customer-ids-integration

MCID and Analytics Integration

To get the most out of the Target Node Client and to use the powerful analytics capabilities provided by Adobe Analytics, you can use the MCID, Analytics, and Target combo.

Here is a simple Express application that demonstrates how you can use all three solutions in a single application:

const express = require("express");
const cookieParser = require("cookie-parser");
const TargetNodeClient = require("@adobe/target-node-client");
const CONFIG = {
  client: "acmeclient",
  organizationId: "1234567890@AdobeOrg"
};
const TEMPLATE = `
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <title>Target Node Client NodeJS SDK Sample</title>
  <script src="VisitorAPI.js"></script>
  <script>
    Visitor.getInstance("${organizationId}", {serverState: ${visitorState}});
  </script>
</head>
<body>
  <p>${content}</p>
  <script src="AppMeasurement.js"></script>
  <script>var s_code=s.t();if(s_code)document.write(s_code);</script>
</body>
</html>
`;

const app = express();
const client = TargetNodeClient.create({config: CONFIG});

app.use(cookieParser());
// We assume that VisitorAPI.js and AppMeasurement.js is stored in "public" folder
app.use(express.static(__dirname + "/public"));

function saveCookie(res, cookie) {
  if (!cookie) {
    return;
  }

  res.cookie(cookie.name, cookie.value, {maxAge: cookie.maxAge * 1000});
}

function sendSuccessResponse(res, response) {
  res.set({
    "Content-Type": "text/html",
    "Expires": new Date().toUTCString()
  });

  const result = TEMPLATE
  .replace("${organizationId}", CONFIG.organizationId)
  .replace("${visitorState}", JSON.stringify(response.visitorState))
  .replace("${content}", response.content);

  saveCookie(res, response.targetCookie);

  res.status(200).send(result);
}

function sendErrorResponse(res, error) {
  res.set({
    "Content-Type": "text/html",
    "Expires": new Date().toUTCString()
  });

  res.status(500).send(error);
}

app.get("/abtest", function (req, res) {
  const visitorCookieName = encodeURIComponent(TargetNodeClient.getVisitorCookieName(CONFIG.organizationId));
  const visitorCookie = req.cookies[visitorCookieName];
  const targetCookieName = encodeURIComponent(TargetNodeClient.getTargetCookieName());
  const targetCookie = req.cookies[targetCookieName];
  const payload = {
      mboxes: [{
        mbox: "server-side-mbox",
        indexId: 0
      }]
    }
  };
  const request = Object.assign({payload}, {targetCookie}, {visitorCookie});

  console.log("Request", request);

  client.getOffers(request)
  .then(response => {
    sendSuccessResponse(res, response);
  })
  .catch(error => {
    sendErrorResponse(res, error);
  });
});

app.listen(3000, function () {
  console.log("Listening on port 3000 and watching!");
});

Using MCID, Analytics, and Target lets you:

• Use segments from Audience Manager
• Customize the user experience based on the content retrieved from Target
• Ensure that all events and success metrics are collected in Analytics
• Use Analytics' powerful queries and benefit from awesome visualizations

Full sample: https://github.com/Adobe-Marketing-Cloud/target-node-client-samples/tree/master/mcid-analytics-integration

Shared MCID and Analytics Integration

By default, the Target Node Client instantiates a new Visitor instance on each getOffer or getOffers call.
In cases when the same Visitor instance needs to be shared across several Target Node Client API calls, this can be achieved by explicitly initializing the Visitor instance and passing it in getOffer/getOffers calls as a request parameter.

Check out the sample here: https://github.com/Adobe-Marketing-Cloud/target-node-client-samples/tree/master/shared-mcid-analytics-integration

MCID, Analytics and at.js Integration

Most of the time the Target Node Client will be used in a NodeJS application, such as Express, Hapi, Koa, etc. However, with the recent proliferation of frameworks that allow server-side rendering (such as Facebook React or Angular 4.x), there are use cases where server-side should be aware and work in tandem with client-side libraries. In Target's case the client-side library is at.js.

The integration between server-side and client-side is also known as "hybrid" testing mode. The biggest challenge when trying to integrate server-side and client-side is to ensure that both server-side and client-side Target calls are hitting the same Target edge cluster. Otherwise you might end up with different user profiles being created by server-side and client-side calls.

To mitigate this situation, Target uses the so-called location hint cookie. To be able to use the location hint cookie you must add the following JavaScript to your HTML page before at.js or make sure that this code is executed before at.js, if you are using a tag manager such as Adobe Launch.

window.targetGlobalSettings = {
  overrideMboxEdgeServer: true
};

To see the Target location hint cookie and at.js integration in action, here is a simple Express application:

const express = require("express");
const cookieParser = require("cookie-parser");
const TargetNodeClient = require("@adobe/target-node-client");
const CONFIG = {
  client: "acmeclient",
  organizationId: "1234567890@AdobeOrg"
};
const TEMPLATE = `
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <title>Target Node Client NodeJS SDK Sample</title>
  <script src="VisitorAPI.js"></script>
  <script>
    Visitor.getInstance("${organizationId}", {serverState: ${visitorState}});
  </script>
  <script>
    window.targetGlobalSettings = {
      overrideMboxEdgeServer: true
    };
  </script>
  <script src="at.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
  <p>${content}</p>
  <script src="AppMeasurement.js"></script>
  <script>var s_code=s.t();if(s_code)document.write(s_code);</script>
</body>
</html>
`;

const app = express();
const client = TargetNodeClient.create({config: CONFIG});

app.use(cookieParser());
// We assume that VisitorAPI.js, at.js and AppMeasurement.js is stored in "public" folder
app.use(express.static(__dirname + "/public"));

function saveCookie(res, cookie) {
  if (!cookie) {
    return;
  }

  res.cookie(cookie.name, cookie.value, {maxAge: cookie.maxAge * 1000});
}

function sendSuccessResponse(res, response) {
  res.set({
    "Content-Type": "text/html",
    "Expires": new Date().toUTCString()
  });

  const result = TEMPLATE
  .replace("${organizationId}", CONFIG.organizationId)
  .replace("${visitorState}", JSON.stringify(response.visitorState))
  .replace("${content}", response.content);

  saveCookie(res, response.targetCookie);
  saveCookie(res, response.targetLocationHintCookie);

  res.status(200).send(result);
}

function sendErrorResponse(res, error) {
  res.set({
    "Content-Type": "text/html",
    "Expires": new Date().toUTCString()
  });

  res.status(500).send(error);
}

app.get("/abtest", function (req, res) {
  const visitorCookieName = encodeURIComponent(TargetNodeClient.getVisitorCookieName(CONFIG.organizationId));
  const visitorCookie = req.cookies[visitorCookieName];
  const targetCookieName = encodeURIComponent(TargetNodeClient.getTargetCookieName());
  const targetCookie = req.cookies[targetCookieName];
  const targetLocationHintCookieName = encodeURIComponent(TargetNodeClient.getTargetLocationHintCookieName());
  const targetLocationHintCookie = req.cookies[targetLocationHintCookieName];
  const payload = {
      mboxes: [{
        mbox: "server-side-mbox",
        indexId: 0
      }]
    }
  };
  const request = Object.assign({payload}, {targetCookie}, {visitorCookie}, {targetLocationHintCookie});

  console.log("Request", request);

  client.getOffers(request)
  .then(response => {
    sendSuccessResponse(res, response);
  })
  .catch(error => {
    sendErrorResponse(res, error);
  });
});

app.listen(3000, function () {
  console.log("Listening on port 3000 and watching!");
});

Using the at.js integration allows use cases where a Target experience is started on the server-side and is continued on the client-side by at.js, also known as "hybrid" testing. The downside of this approach is that you might see some performance degradations when a NodeJS application that uses the Target Node Client is not geo-distributed as Target edge clusters.

Full sample: https://github.com/Adobe-Marketing-Cloud/target-node-client-samples/tree/master/mcid-analytics-atjs-integration

Troubleshooting

The Target Node Client is a glorified HTTP/HTTPS client, so to understand what is happening on the wire, you can provide a logger object. The logger object is expected to have a log() method that receives a list of parameters. The default logger has a noop log() implementation. To be able to inspect the HTTP request and response, you can provide a custom logger.

Here is an example that shows a logger that logs everything to console:

const fs = require("fs");
const express = require("express");
const cookieParser = require("cookie-parser");
const TargetNodeClient = require("../lib/index");

const CONFIG = {
  client: "acmeclient",
  organizationId: "1234567890@AdobeOrg",
};

const logger = getLogger();

function getLogger() {
  return {
    log: function(...arr) {
      console.log(...arr);
    }
  };
}

function createTargetNodeClient(logger, config) {
  const options = Object.assign({logger}, {config});

  return TargetNodeClient.create(options);
}

const client = createTargetNodeClient(logger, CONFIG);

client.getOffers({
  payload: {
    mbox : "some-mbox"
  }
})
.then(response => console.log('Response', response))
.catch(error => console.error('Error', error));

If you want to use a more robust logger, you can always create a logger that delegates to winston, bunyan, or any other well-known NodeJS logging library.

If you are interested in using Target trace functionality you could try using the sample: https://github.com/Adobe-Marketing-Cloud/target-node-client-samples/tree/master/target-traces

Target Node Client API

TargetNodeClient.create

TargetNodeClient.create(options: Object): TargetNodeClient creates an instance of the Target Node Client.

The options object has the following structure:

The config object should have the following structure:

TargetNodeClient.getVisitorCookieName(organizationId: string): string is used to retrieve the MCID cookie name.

TargetNodeClient.getTargetCookieName(): string is used to retrieve the Target cookie name.

TargetNodeClient.getTargetLocationHintCookieName(): string is used to retrieve the Target location hint cookie name.

TargetNodeClient.getOffer

TargetNodeClient.getOffer(request: Object): Promise is used to fetch a single offer from Target.

The request object has the following structure:

NOTE: sessionId is not required for single mbox request, however when you want to fetch content for multiple mboxes that should be displayed in HTML page, then we have to use sessionId. This will ensure that mbox requests will use the same profile.

To learn more about the Target Server-Side Delivery API, see http://developers.adobetarget.com/api/#server-side-delivery

The promise returned by TargetNodeClient.getOffer(...) wraps an offer.

The offer object has the following structure:

The cookie object used for passing data back to the browser has the following structure:

TargetNodeClient.getOffers

TargetNodeClient.getOffers(request: Object): Promise is used to fetch multiple offers from Target in a batch request.

The request object has the following structure:

NOTE: sessionId is not required for a single-batch mbox request; however, when you want to fire multiple batch requests, then we have to use sessionId. This will ensure that mbox requests will use the same profile.

The payload at the very least should contain an mboxes array. Each mbox object from mboxes array should have the following structure:

Note: customerIds object is used to provide additional data about users. More detailed description can be found here and here's an example.

To learn more about the Target Server-Side Batch Delivery API, see http://developers.adobetarget.com/api/#batch-overview

The promise returned by TargetNodeClient.getOffers(...) wraps the response returned by the Target Server-Side Batch Delivery API. It has the following structure:

The content object has the following properties:

Each mbox object from mboxResponses array has the following structure:

The cookie object used for passing data back to the browser has the following structure:

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