Collecting and Storing Profiles
Profile data is collected at a Commerce Server site in two ways. Users visiting your site provide profile data about themselves; this is called explicit profiling. For example, when users purchase products from your site, they typically provide their name, mailing address, phone number, and e-mail address. This information is used to populate their user profile.
You can also collect data through implicit profiling. In implicit profiling, the actions of all users (anonymous and registered) are recorded in Web log files as the users interact with your Web site. For example, Web log files record the links that anonymous users click, what products they search for, the length of their sessions, and how long they visit a given Web page. Even though the users are anonymous — you do not know their names, e-mail addresses, or other information — how they use your site is still important information. For example, a click history provides a path through the Web pages visited; you can use this information to determine a particular set of interests. For information about how cookies are used in Commerce Server, see Authentication Concepts.
Another form of implicit profiling is performed by the Commerce Server Predictor resource. If some information about a user is missing—for example, the Music Preference associated with a user—the Predictor resource can guess this information based on the aggregate properties of the user population who visits your site and the CDs they purchase. For information about the prediction feature, see Prediction and Data Mining Concepts.
All the information that is collected during a specific user session is collected in a single profile, that is, one instance of a profile definition.
When profile data is initially collected, it is first stored in the Commerce Server databases and the Web server logs. The system administrator imports the profile data into the Data Warehouse on a regular basis. After the profiles are imported into the Data Warehouse, you can use Business Desk to analyze user data, and then use the results of your analysis to update your Web site or apply values to user profile properties.
The following figure shows how the OLE DB Provider for Commerce Server gets data from the Profile data import DTS task, and uses it to update the relevant databases.
.gif "A figure that shows how the OLE DB Provider for Commerce Server gets data")
The following figure shows how the OLE DB Provider for Commerce Server gets data from the Business Desk Profiles modules and the Profiles resource in Commerce Server Manager, and uses it to update the relevant databases.
.gif "A figure that shows how the OLE DB Provider for Commerce Server gets data")
See Also
Using Profiles in Web Site Management
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