In our newest release, we are introducing functionality to increase visitor engagement accuracy, as well as notifying you about increased security for 6sense APIs.
- Pause engagement time when a Marketo form appears. This feature is for Marketo clients. When a form appears for visitors, the met threshold timer is automatically paused. When the visitor closes the form, the engagement timer continues. This ensures you are recording genuine interaction within your Experiences.
- Exclude preview visitor data from being recorded for a content track. This new preview feature allows you to share and review Target and Recommend tracks without recording the visit in the consumption data.
- Critical 6sense security enhancement as of July 19 2023. Many users treat Segment Names as sensitive data in the APIs and would like the option to only return Segment IDs instead. Some users might require both the Segment ID and Name to understand the data better, display it accurately, or use it in specific workflows. This is why 6sense is offering the flexibility to choose between both options in the API response.
Important: If you are already leveraging Segment IDs and Segment names, then you do NOT need to make any changes.
Pause Engagement Time When Form Appears
This new feature enhances your visitor engagement data by introducing an automatic pause in the engagement timer whenever a Standard Form is presented to your visitors. This pause ensures that the content consumption data remains meaningful, as it records the interaction with the content while excluding time used for filling in and submitting forms.
When a Standard Form is displayed, the engagement timer stops tracking the visitor’s activity. Once the visitor completes and submits the form, the engagement timer resumes from the point where it was paused, accurately reflecting the engagement with your content only.
Visitor engagement is recorded via webhook. To find out about webhooks, read: What are Webhooks?
You can read about Standard Forms here: Introduction to Forms.
To find out more about visitor engagement, read: Introduction to Visitor Activities.
Exclude Preview Visitor Data from Being Recorded
Preview is a convenient tool to share a content track link for previewing purposes without including these views in visitor engagement data.
The preview function is available by clicking the eye icon, located next to the Get Share URL within the track creation and editing interface. The screen capture below has the new icon highlighted in a red rectangle.
When you click the existing Get Share URL (see example in the screen capture below), you are previewing the track on a URL that is recorded in your Path Analytics dashboard.
To see this new preview feature in action, follow these steps.
- On the main navigation menu, click Content Activation and then select Target or Recommend. In this example, we will choose Target.
- From the list of Target tracks available, select one to open it or create a new one.
Note: For a refresher on creating Target or Recommend tracks, read: Create a New Content Track.
- Now with your track open, you can see all of the icons along the top, with an eye icon highlighted in the screen capture below. This is the preview button.
- Click the eye icon to see what your track will look like to your visitors.
- A preview is displayed as an overlay, and any videos in the Experience automatically begin playing. To close the preview, click its associated X.
- You’ll also notice you can select a Desktop View or Mobile View by clicking that button at the top. In the screen capture below, the buttons are highlighted in red.
API Response Update: Handling Segment ID and Name Options
Important: You do not need to take any action if you are already using both Segment IDs and Segment Names. You can still call the Segments API to retrieve this information (available for approved partners only).
As of July 19th, 2023, 6sense has made changes to their Segments API response data due to security concerns. They have introduced a new feature where users can choose between receiving only the Segment ID or both the Segment ID and Segment Name in the API response. This is a proactive measure to encourage partners to maintain compatibility and ensure a smooth user experience for everyone involved.
By giving 6sense API users the option to choose between receiving only the Segment ID or both the Segment ID and Segment Name, 6sense allows access and handling only for the data they require.
In situations where the Segment Name is unnecessary or irrelevant, providing an option to receive only the Segment ID in the API response can lead to more efficient data handling and reduced data payload size, as the response contains only the essential information needed.
The following APIs are affected by this change.
- Company Identification API
- Company Firmographics API
- Lead Scoring & Firmographics API
Action Needed
To ensure your platform is not affected by the 6sense API response changes, make sure to update your logic to handle both scenarios: Segment ID + Segment Names – and Segment IDs alone – in the API response. If your platform relies solely on Segment Names, you must also update your logic to account for users who might choose to receive only Segment IDs in the response.
Updating the logic ensures that all users, regardless of their preference for receiving data, can continue to receive the necessary information without any disruption or customer impact.
Important: Do NOT disable Segment Names. Doing so will result in the API response having empty fields for attributes that previously contained Segment Names. In this case, only the Segment ID attributes would be populated, potentially causing issues and confusion for users relying on Segment Names in their platforms. By keeping both Segment Names and Segment IDs available, the API response remains consistent and accessible to all users.
For more detailed information about 6sense APIs, you can refer to the current API specifications on the 6sense API Document Portal.