"IMG" and "A" tag HTTP Request parameters

When Message Connector receives a request, either because an end user opened an email containing a Message Connector-encoded IMG tag or because the end user clicked-through an A tag, it parses the parameters included with the request to return the appropriate offer data. This section provides a list of the parameters that can be included in the requesting URL (either the IMG tag (loaded automatically when a tagged image is displayed when the email is opened) or the A tag (loaded when the person viewing the email clicks through the message to the specified site).

Parameters

When Message Connector receives a request, it parses the parameters included with the request. These parameters include some or all of the following:

Parameter Name	Description	Required?	Default Value
msgId	The unique identifier of the email instance or web page.	Yes	None. This is provided by the system creating the unique instance of the email message or web page containing the tag.
linkId	The unique identifier of the link in this email or web page.	Yes	None. This is provided by the system creating the unique instance of the email message or web page containing the tag.
audienceLevel	The audience level to which the recipient of this communication belongs.	No	The audienceLevel specified as the default in the audienceLevels element found in the MessageConnectorConfig.xml file.
ic	The name of the target interactive channel (IC)	No	The value of the interactiveChannel element found in the defaultParameterValues section of the MessageConnectorConfig.xml file, which is "interactiveChannel" by default.
ip	The name of the applying interaction point (IP)	No	The value of the interactionPoint element found in the defaultParameterValues section of the MessageConnectorConfig.xml file, which is "headBanner" by default.
offerImageUrl	The URL of the target offer image for the IMG URL in the message.	No	None.
offerImageUrlAttr	The name of the offer attribute that has the URL of the target offer image	No	The value of the imageUrlAttribute element found in the defaultParameterValues section of the MessageConnectorConfig.xml file.
offerLandingPageUrl	The URL of the landing page corresponding to the target offer.	No	None.
offerLandingPageUrlAttr	The name of the offer attribute that has the URL of the landing page corresponding to the target offer.	No	The value of the landingPageUrlAttribute element found in the defaultParameterValues section of the MessageConnectorConfig.xml file.
contactEvent	The name of the contact event.	No	The value of the contactEventName element found in the defaultParameterValues section of the MessageConnectorConfig.xml file, which is "contact" by default.
responseEvent	The name of the accept event.	No	The value of the acceptEventName element found in the defaultParameterValues section of the MessageConnectorConfig.xml file, which is "accept" by default.
debug	The debug flag. Set this parameter to "true" only for troubleshooting and at the instruction of IBM® technical support.	No	The value of the debugFlag element found in the defaultParameterValues section of the MessageConnectorConfig.xml file, which is "false" by default.
<audience id>	The audience ID of this user. The name of this parameter is defined in the configuration file.	Yes	None.

When the Message Connector receives a parameter that is unrecognized (that is, does not appear in the above list), it is handled in one of two possible ways:

If an unrecognized parameter is provided (for example, "attribute", as in attribute="attrValue") and there is a matching parameter of the same name plus the word "Type" (for example, "attributeType", as in attributeType="string"), this causes the Message Connector to create a matching Interact parameter and pass it to the Interact runtime.

The values for the Type parameter can be any of the following:

string

numeric

datetime

For a parameter of type "datetime," the Message Connector also looks for a parameter of the same name plus the word "Pattern" (for example, "attributePattern") whose value is a valid date/time format. For example, you might provide the parameter attributePattern="MM/dd/yyyy".

Note that if you specify a parameter type of "datetime" but do not provide a matching date pattern, the value specified in the Message Connector configuration file (found in <installation_directory>/msgconnector/config/MessageConnectorConfig.xml) on the Interact server is used.

If an unrecognized parameter is provided and there is no matching Type value, Message Connector passes that parameter to the target redirect URL.

For all unrecognized parameters, the Message Connector passes them to the Interact runtime server without processing or saving them.

Example Message Connector Code

The following A tag contains an example of a set of Message Connector links that might appear in an email message:

<a href="http://www.example.com/MessageConnector/offerClickthru.jsp?msgId=234
   &linkId=1&userid=1&referral=xyz">
	<img src="http://www.example.com/MessageConnector/offerImage.jsp?msgId=234&linkId=1
      &userid=1&incomeCode=3&incomeType=numeric"/>
</a>

In this example, the IMG tag loads automatically when the email message is opened. By retrieving the image from the specified page, the message passes the parameters for the unique message identifier (msgID), unique link identifier (linkID), and unique user identifier (userid), along with two additional parameters (incomeCode and incomeType) to be passed to the Interact runtime.

The A tag provides the HREF (Hypertext Reference) attribute that turns the offer image into a clickable link in the email message. If the viewer of the message, upon seeing the image, clicks through to the landing page, the unique message identifier (msgId), link identifier (linkId), and user identifier (userid) are passed through to the server, as well as one additional parameter (referral) that is passed to the target redirect URL.