Launch is a rule-based system. It looks for user interaction and associated data. When the criteria outlined in your rules are met, the rule triggers the extension, script, or HTML you identified.
Build rules to integrate the data and functionality of marketing and ad tech that unifies disparate products into a single solution.
For an introductory video, see Rule builder.
Events are where the majority of interactions on sites take place. You can measure and react to these interactions in real-time, without the need for JavaScript.
Events (If): The event is what you want the rule to look for. This is defined by choosing an event, any applicable conditions, and any exceptions.
Actions (Then): Triggers occur after a rule's events take place and all conditions are satisfied. A rule in Launch can trigger as many discrete actions as you want, and you can control the order in which these actions occur. For example, a single rule for an e-commerce Thank You page can trigger your analytics tools and third-party tags from a single rule. There is no need to create separate rules for each extension or tag.
You can add more event types. Multiple events are joined with an OR, so the rule's conditions will be evaluated if any of the events are met.
Important: Changes do not take effect until they are published.
Events with any conditions are the If portion of a rule.
If a specified event occurs, the conditions are evaluated, then the specified actions take place if needed.
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Events
Specify one or more events that must take place to trigger the rule. Multiple events are joined by an OR. Any of the specified events will trigger the rule.
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Conditions
Narrow the event by configuring any conditions that must be true for an event to trigger the rule. An exception is defined as a NOT condition. Multiple conditions are joined by an AND.
The events that are available depend on which extensions are installed. For information about the events in the Core extension, see Core extension event types.
Note: DTM provided page load, event-based, and direct call event types. This is no longer true in Launch. Rather than event types, Launch extensions configure different individual events.
Only events are required. The conditions and exceptions are optional.
Actions are the Then portion of a rule. When an event is triggered, if conditions evaluate to true and exceptions evaluate to false, the actions are performed. You can drag and drop actions to order them as desired.
The action, or then , part of the formula determines what happens when the event takes place and all conditions and exclusions are met.
Create a rule by specifying what actions occur if a condition is met.
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Open the Rules tab, then click Create New Rule.
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Name the rule.
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Click the Events Add icon.
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Choose your extension and one of the event types available for that extension, then configure the properties for the event. Note: The available event types are defined by the extension.
Some events don't have any properties that need to be configured.
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Set the Order parameter, then click Keep Changes.
Default order for all rule components is 50. If you want one to run sooner, give it a number lower than 50.
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Order of execution is order of numbers. 1 comes before 3. 3 comes before 10. 10 comes before 100, etc.
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Rules that have the same order run in no particular order.
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Rules are fired in order, but do not necessarily finish in the same order. If Rule A and Rule B share an event, and you assign order so that Rule A comes first, then if Rule A does something asynchronously, there's no guarantee that Rule A finishes before Rule B starts.
If you want it to run later, give it a number higher than 50. For more information about ordering, see Rule ordering.
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Click the Conditions Add icon, then choose a logic type, extension, condition type and configure the properties for your condition. Then click Keep Changes.
Logic type:
- Regular logic type allows actions to be executed if the condition is met
- Exception logic type prevents actions from being executed if the condition is met
You can add other conditions. Multiple conditions within the same condition are joined with an OR, multiple conditions configurations are joined by AND. The rule's exceptions are evaluated if any of the events are met, along with their conditions.
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Click the Actions Add icon, then choose your extension and one of the action types available for that extension, configure the properties for the action, then click Keep Changes.
Note: The available action types are defined by the extension.
You can add more event types. Multiple events are joined with an OR, so the rule's conditions will be evaluated if any of the events are met.
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Review your rule, then click Save Rule.
Later, when you publish, you'll add this rule to a library and deploy it.
When you edit or update an existing rule, a new version of the rule is created, which you can then deploy.
When creating or editing rules, you can save and build to your active library. This immediately saves your change to your library and executes a build. The status of the build is displayed.
Rule ordering allows you to control the order of execution for rules that share an event.
It is often important to have your rules fire in a specific order. Examples: (1) you have several rules that conditionally set Analytics variables and you need to make sure that the rule with Send Beacon goes last. (2) you have a rule that fires Target and another rule that fires Analytics and you want the Target rule to run first.
Ultimately, the responsibility for executing actions in order lie with the extension developer of the event type that you're using. For Adobe extensions, Adobe makes sure this works properly. For 3rd party extensions, Adobe provides guidance to extension developers to implement this properly, but it is up to them to do so.
Adobe highly recommends that you order your rules with positive numbers between 1 and 100 (default is 50). Simpler is better. Remember you have to maintain your order. However, Adobe recognizes there might be edge cases where that will feel limiting, so other numbers are allowed. Launch supports numbers between +/- 2,147,483,648. You can also use about a dozen decimal places - but if you're in a scenario where you think you need to do that, you should rethink some of the decisions you've made to get to where you are now.
- Five rules share an event. All have default priority. I want one of them to run last. I just need to edit that one Rule Component and give it a number higher than 50 (60 for example).
- Five rules share an event. All have default priority. I want one of them to run first. I just need to edit that one Rule Component and give it a number lower than 50 (40 for example).
The load order for rules depends on whether the rule action is configured with JavaScript or HTML, and whether the rules uses a page bottom or top event, or a different type of event.
You can use document.write within your custom scripts regardless of the events configured for the rule.
You can order different custom code types among each other. For example, you can now have a JavaScript custom code action, then an HTML custom code action, then a JavaScript custom code action. Launch ensures that they are executed in that order.
- Javascript: The JavaScript is embedded in the main Launch library. The custom script is wrapped in a script tag and written to the document using
document.write. If the rule has multiple custom scripts, they're written in order. - HTML: The HTML is embedded in the main Launch library.
document.writeis used to write the HTML to the document. If the rule has multiple custom scripts, they're written in order.
- JavaScript: The JavaScript is loaded from the server as regular text, wrapped in a script tag, and added to the document using Postscribe. If the rule has multiple JavaScript custom scripts, they will be loaded in parallel from the server, but executed in the same order that was configured in the rule.
- HTML: The HTML is loaded from the server and added to the document using Postscribe. If the rule has multiple custom HTML scripts, they will be loaded in parallel from the server, but executed in the same order that was configured in the rule.