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Using Session Custom Attributes in B2C Commerce
Using session custom attributes, you can customize unique session information to identify customers for a customer group. To do this, configure customized session custom attributes in Business Manager and in your application. This topic applies to B2C Commerce.
Setting Session Custom Attributes
First, you must define a customer group to use session custom attributes. See Creating a Dynamic Customer Group.
Then, you must set a custom session attribute using "session.custom.<attributename> =" in your application.
For
example: session.custom.firstname = "Suri"; _firstName =
session.custom.firstname
These attributes are defined implicitly when they’re set and are stored in the session.
Parsing Session Custom Attributes
Salesforce B2C Commerce doesn't have metadata about session custom attributes and hence doesn't know the actual attribute type. It can only evaluate session custom attribute conditions in a meaningful way if the condition is applicable for the actual type of the session custom attribute. It tries to determine the intended session type when creating a condition rather than determining it during rule evaluation.
| If the selected operator used is... | B2C Commerce assumes |
|---|---|
| 'exists', 'don't exist' | String |
| 'is greater than', 'is less than', 'is greater than or equals', 'is less than or equals', 'is in range' | Number |
| 'is true', 'is false' | Boolean |
| 'starts with', 'ends with', 'contains', 'doesn't contain' | String |
| 'is equal', 'isn’t equal' | If the value string representation is "true" or "false", we assume Boolean |
| If the value string starts with a number, we assume Number | |
| Else, we assume String |
If a condition isn't applicable for the actual type of the session custom attribute, the condition doesn't match. For example, if during rule evaluation, the session custom attribute evaluates to a number from the customer's session, but the actual type is Boolean, the condition evaluates to false.
Using "Is Equal" with Session Custom Attributes
Conditions on string values are converted into conditions on numeric or Boolean values, with these specific conditions, all of which must apply:
- A rule condition evaluates on a session custom attribute
- The operator of the rule condition is is equal
- The condition values and the session custom attributes are numeric or Boolean-like data
If it isn't a session custom attribute, or the operator isn't is equal, or at least one condition value isn't numeric or boolean, Business Manager treats it as a string. Previously, the assignment to a session-based customer group didn’t work when the membership rule had the previous conditions.
For example, with customers with the session custom attribute 'solvencyScore' = '4', where the session attribute is a number, that is, Double(4.0), B2C Commerce stored and evaluated the conditions like conditions on strings. B2C Commerce converted the number into the string "4.0", and compared it with the condition value "4", which didn’t match.
In Business Manager, when you define the values for session custom attributes:
- For numeric values, they must be like "4", "4.0", "4.567", but not
"foo", 123,456.67", or "123,45". For example, "myAttribute is equal
[4.5]" is converted to "myAttribute = 4.5". - # For boolean values, they must be like "true", "false", "True",
but not "foo", "123,456.67", or "123,45". For example, a condition
"myAttribute is equal
[true]" is converted to "myAttribute is true".
Rule Evaluation
Numeric conditions on session custom attributes now match if the value of the session custom attribute is a string. Previously, a numeric condition didn’t match in this situation.
Numeric condition on a string attribute
For example, this rule with a numeric condition applies on a session custom attribute with a string value: "session.custom.myAttribute = 4.0"
| Value of myAttribute | Rule matched previously | Rule matched now |
|---|---|---|
| "foobar" | No | No |
| "4" | No | Yes |
| "4.0" | No | Yes |
| "4.5" | No | No |
String condition on numeric attribute
We didn’t change the way B2C Commerce processes a rule with a string condition on a
session custom attribute with a numeric value. For example "session.custom.myAttribute
is equal [4,4.1 beta]" applies as follows:
| Value of myAttribute | Rule matched previously |
|---|---|
| 4 | Yes |
| Decimal("4") | Yes |
| BigInteger("4") | Yes |
| 4.0 | No |
| 4.5 | No |
| Number("4") | No |
| Number("4.5") | No |
| Decimal("4.5") | No |
[4,4.0]".