Backup Strategy of Adobe Launch (aka Data Collection)

There are some things we don’t have any control of “bad fortune”, but a good?backup strategy plan?gives you the confidence to face adversity.

This article comprises a plan of action essential for an organization using the Adobe Experience Platform Launch (aka Data Collection) the primary Tag Management System (TMS). The strategy outlined in the article protects the development and the marketing team in case of an inadvertent accident, like deletion which may take place in the user interface of Adobe Launch. A system admin or any user on the account who has “Manage Properties” permission on the product profile can perform a delete action.

Adobe Customer Care does not currently support a recovery option once a resource is deleted, as it’s beyond the scope of client care. A resource can be data elements, rules, extensions, hosts, environments, and properties.

The result of a delete action is as follows:

• All the resources complied to the development or staging library are gone with no way to retrieve them.
• There is no effective way to modify the existing production Launch script governing the extensions like Adobe Analytics and additional third-party pixels.

The only choice left with the developer is to reconstruct a new property in Adobe Launch using the embedded library/script running on the production website. The script will have reference to all the resources compiled to the production library. The process of recovery won’t be an easy plug-and-play as the library is large and difficult to read due to code minification.

The library/script is hosted on Akamai but managed by Adobe. The library will continue to host indefinitely but Adobe cannot guarantee that the files will live on Akamai forever. This is a strong indication the time is ticking, and the development team needs to accelerate the process of rebuilding the launching with all that is left after the property is deleted.

The three ways to back up the Adobe Launch (a.k.a Data Collection) properties are:

1.????Copy property

In Adobe Launch, initiate a copy of the property by checking the box of the property you want to copy and then select “Copy” in the actions menu, refer to screenshot (A).

• Screenshot (A)

A duplicate copy of the property is generated with a new creation date as highlighted in screenshot (B).?

• Screenshot (B)

In addition, a success status dialog is generated upon clicking the “Copy Completed” button which provides an explanation of all the resources copied from the original property, refer to screenshot (C)

• Screenshot (C)

Pros

• A full backup of the original launch property.
• All the resources are backed up with a click of the “Copy” action
• The time to restore the launch property is less than 1 hour.
• The code is not minified.

Cons

• The “Delete” action is activated when the selected property is selected.

2.????Create an archive of the environment

The archive is a collection of all resources after each successful build of the environment. The archive includes all the build files which are delivered as a zip file. In the zip file there is the main library file which is a copy of all the resources in a normal javascript format, refer to screenshot (A)

• Screenshot (A)

The content of the file includes the same lines of code from the custom code of the rule in Launch, refer to screenshot (B).?

• Screenshot (B)

To activate the “download latest archive” option, refer to screenshot (C), we need to enable the “create archive” toggle switch, refer to screenshot (D), which can be found by clicking the selected environment on the toggle switch on the selected environment.

• Screenshot (C)

• Screenshot (D)

Pros:

• A full backup of the original launch property.
• The time to restore the launch property is less than 10 to 12 hours, again this depends on the number of resources available in the launch property.
• The “Delete” action is not activated in the process.
• The code is not minified.

Cons:

• There’s no process in Launch to import the main javascript file which will create all the resources in Adobe Launch.
• The developer must manually create each resource using the main javascript file as the reference.

The above two processes are semi-automated, as both the processes require the involvement of an authorized user of the account to take necessary actions like downloading or copying during the backup process.

The last option is an automated process to use Adobe’s API service of Adobe Launch.

3.????Adobe’s API service of Adobe Launch

A system admin or any user with “developers” permission has to create a new project with “Experience Platform Launch API” as the service. The service will require configuration. The official online documentation has detailed instructions on how to configure the service. The user needs to use the service in a script to take a backup of all the resources related to the Launch property.

Pros

• A full backup of the original launch property.
• The time to restore the launch property is less than 10 to 12 hours, again this depends on the number of resources available in the launch property.
• The “Delete” action is not activated in the process.
• The code is not minified.

Cons

• There’s no process in Launch to import the main javascript file which will create all the resources in Adobe Launch.
• The developer must manually create each resource using the main javascript file as the reference.

The developer needs to be cautious when using the API service and avoid referencing or using the “delete” method in the script, as there is a potential risk to delete all the resources without any dialog message or notification to verify the action taken on the Adobe Launch property using the API service.

Conclusion

Adobe Launch is a good tag management solution but its important Adobe Launch resources should be backed up?at least once a week, but preferably once every 24-48 hours, when the Adobe Launch property undergoes a large revision. These backups can be performed by using one of the above three processes.?

References

• Delete-resources
• Launch-environments