JP4444308B2 - Tracking server site that tracks user activity in the e-commerce system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a system for tracking user activity in an electronic transaction system on the Internet, and more particularly using an image source tag on an entry page and a transaction completion page browsed on a user terminal. And a system for tracking user activity in an electronic transaction system on the Internet.

  Currently, the Internet is becoming a medium used for electronic commerce, that is, transactions involving the purchase of goods and services. In the transaction system on the Internet, a partner site (or a member site) that provides an advertisement banner to a user terminal is an advertiser or an electronic commerce site (in which an advertisement banner is inserted in the home page of the partner site). EC site) is changed according to the CPM price model or the CPC price model. EC sites may also change their partner sites depending on advertising effectiveness. Accordingly, there is a need to provide a system for tracking and analyzing user activity at partner sites and EC sites within a transaction system.

  In the conventional tracking system as described above, the EC site needs to install some program in order to grasp the user's session activity and send it along with the user's transaction data to the tracking server site. is there. This program is for example an entry program that transfers cookies to the user terminal when the user's session is switched from the partner site to the EC site, a session / transaction that sends data to the tracking server site periodically. A data (or user activity data) transmission program is included. However, installing such a program on an EC site is time consuming and problematic.

  Further, as described above, a cookie is sent from the EC site to the user terminal for tracking. However, depending on the user configuration, the cookie cannot be returned from the user terminal to the EC site. In such a case, it is impossible to track user activity. In addition to the above, session / transaction data transmission programs are often set up to transfer data to the tracking server site once or twice a day, after which the tracking server site Stores session / transaction data and matches them with the click data of the advertising banner to identify which partner site the user visited before visiting the EC site. Therefore, the tracking server site must wait for such data to perform the matching process.

  The present invention has been made to overcome the problems of the prior art as described above. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to obtain session and transaction data as needed without troublesome installation at each EC site and without using cookies, and in addition, the session and transaction data can be obtained in real time. To provide a system for tracking user activity in an EC system on the Internet capable of obtaining data verification information.

The tracking server site according to the present invention is identified by the following items (1) to (16).
(1) A tracking server site configured by a computer information processing system including a communication unit, a storage unit, and a control unit, and tracking a user's activity in an electronic commerce system. (2) The communication unit uses the Internet. (3) The storage means includes a first image storage means in which an EC site ID and first image data are stored in association with each other, and an EC site ID and a second in advance. A second image storage means for storing image data in association with each other; a third storage means for storing session data; and a fourth storage means for storing session data and transaction data in association with each other (4) The control means generates a unique key upon request To include Niki generation means

(5) The electronic commerce system includes a plurality of EC sites, a plurality of partner sites, and a plurality of user terminals, and performs the first to seventh processes via the Internet. (6) First process Then, in response to an information acquisition request in response to a click on the advertisement banner of the user terminal in a state where the user terminal is displaying a homepage with an advertisement banner supplied by the partner site, the user terminal (7) In the second process, when the EC site receives the first request information from the user terminal, the first request information including the banner ID is sent to the user terminal. Transmitting an entry page specified by the banner ID included in the first request information. (8) The entry page is an EC site. (9) In the third process, the user terminal receives the entry page from the EC site, and includes the first set of image source tag information consisting of the homepage address of the server, the address of the tracking server site, and the EC site ID. Transmitting the second request information including the first set of image source tag information included in the entry page to the tracking server site. (10) In the fourth process, the user terminal sends the first request information from the tracking server site to the first In response to receiving the image data and the unique key, the entry page incorporating the first image data is displayed, and the unique key is stored in the user terminal storage means in association with the first image data. (11) In the fifth process, the user Upon completion of the transaction with the end, the EC site includes the second set of image source tag information including the address of the tracking server site, the EC site ID, the user terminal IP address, and transaction data. (12) In a sixth process, the user terminal receives the transaction completion page from the EC site, generates the transaction completion page, and transmits the transaction completion page to the user terminal. Transmitting the third request information including the unique key stored in association with the first image data to the tracking server site. (13) In the seventh process, the user terminal sends the third request information from the tracking server site. 2 in response to receiving the second image data. It performs a process of displaying the transaction completion page incorporating the Jideta

(14) The control means performs a first process in response to receiving the second request information transmitted from the user terminal in the third process, and from the user terminal in the sixth process. The second process is performed in response to receiving the transmitted third request information. (15) The first process obtains a unique key from the unique key generation means, and obtains the EC site ID and the user terminal IP. A first image specified by an EC site ID in the first set image source tag information included in the second request information is generated by creating session data including an address and the unique key and storing it in the third storage means. The data is extracted from the first image storage means and transmitted to the user terminal together with the unique key. (16) The second process includes a user included in the third request information. The session data including the same unique key and user terminal IP address is extracted from the stored session data based on the token key and user terminal IP address, and the extracted session data and transaction data in the third request information are extracted. Are stored in the fourth storage means, and the second image data specified by the EC site ID is extracted from the second image storage means and transmitted to the user terminal.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a system for tracking user activity in an electronic transaction or electronic commerce (EC) system according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, number 1 indicates a user terminal (PC) that can be connected to the Internet, 2 indicates a merchant web site or EC site, 3 indicates a member site or partner site, and 4 indicates a tracking server.・ Show the site. Although FIG. 1 shows only one user terminal 1, one EC site 2, and one partner site 3 for explanation, there are actually a plurality of these.

  The partner site 4 provides the user terminal 1 with an advertisement banner browsed by the user terminal 1. When the user clicks on one of the browsed advertising banners, the session of user terminal 1 is switched from partner site 2 to EC site 2 associated with the clicked advertising banner, which causes EC site 2 to A special entry page for the user terminal 1 is provided. The EC site 2 supplies a transaction completion page (or event page) to the user terminal 1 once the transaction is completed between the user terminal 1 and the EC site 2.

  Session information and transaction information are sent from the user terminal 1 to the tracking server site 4, where each is stored in a database and associated with the partner site 3 or clicked advertisement banner by matching the transaction. The associated information is then collected and stopped and stored in one of the databases. Detailed operation of tracking according to the present invention will be described later.

  FIG. 2 shows the overall architecture of the tracking server site 4. The tracking server site 4 includes a plurality of tracking server boxes 41, a session manager box 42, a session database 43, and a transaction database 44. Of course, the databases 43 and 44 may be constituted by a single common database.

  As shown in FIG. 3, each of the tracking server boxes 41 includes a tracker servlet 411 and a transaction servlet 412, which are configured to receive session data and user data from the user terminal 2 (shown in FIG. 1). Each transaction data is received. The tracker servlet also receives a unique key representing a session and creates header data from the user terminal 1.

  On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 4, the session manager box 42 includes a server 421, a message manager 422, a session manager 423, a header manager 424, a transaction manager 425, a match manager 426, and a header match manager. 427, a session cache 428, and a transaction cache 429 are incorporated.

  The caches 428 and 429 include a linked list that holds data referred to later. Each of managers 422-425 and 427 maintains a vector of objects to be executed. In contrast to caches 428 and 429, which store information until it overflows, items obtained from the vector are retrieved therefrom and processed. The item from which the vector was taken is the oldest. Thus, a manager can be considered to own an in-tray and a cache can be considered to own a filing cabinet.

  Dividing this dichotomy is a transactional cache with a cache and a vector of things to do. The combination of cache and vector is required for multistage bi-directional processing with a database. The managers and caches in the session manager box 42 all have their own threads, and whenever a new object is added, the thread is kicked up. Each of these independent threads processes the entire vector of things to do and ensures that the cache is backed up to the database.

  EC site 2 must place a unique (unique) HTML image source tag (invisible) for the EC site on each of the entry page and the transaction completion (event) page. One of the HTML image source tags on the entry page calls a box tracker servlet 411 in the tracking server box 41, while one of the tags on the event page Call the box's transaction servlet 412, which redirects the user to the tracker servlet 411.

The HTML image source tag on the entry page contains the following data:
Merchant home page: EC site or merchant home page address (for example, http://myshop.com/index.html)
Tracking server: Machine processing tracking address (for example, http://valuecommerce.com/)
-Merchant ID: EC site ID (for example, 4005)

An example of an HTML image source tag on an entry page is as follows:
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv = "refresh"
content = "0; url = http: //myshop.com/index/html">
<title> VC Entry Page </ title>
</ head>
<body>
<img src = "http://valuecommerce.com/tracker?merchanid=4005">
</ body>
</ html>

On the other hand, the HTML image source tag on the event page includes the following data.
Tracking server: Machine processing tracking address (for example, http://valuecommerce.com/)
-Merchant ID: EC site ID (for example, 4005)
User IP address: IP address of user terminal (for example, 210.133.47.84)
-Transaction volume: Total transaction volume (eg, 5250)
Transaction ID: Transaction ID supplied by the merchant (eg 33)
・ Currency: Currency of the transaction (for example, JPY)
-Number of items: Number of items in the transaction (for example, 2)
-Product ID: ID of the product item in the transaction (for example, BRACELET1, Ring3)
・ Payment method …… Payment method (eg VISA)
・ Client name …… Name of the client (for example, Taro Yamada)
Client email: Client email address (eg, tarou_y@abc.ne.jp)
・ Client phone: Client phone number (for example, 03-555-6666)

An example of an HTML image source tag on the event page is represented as follows:
<html>
<head>
<title> Transaction complete page </ title>
</ head>
<body>
<hl> Thanks for shopping at aaMyshop.COM </ hl>
<img src = "http://valuecommerce.com/transaction?
merchanid = 4005 &user7's ipaddress = 210.133.47.84 &
amount = 5250 & transaction = 33 & currency = JPY & noitems = 2 &
productids = BRACELET1 RING3 & paymentmethod = VISA &
customername = tarou Yamada &customermail=tarou#y@abc.ne.jp&
customertel = 03-5555-6666 ">
</ body>
</ html>

Next, the tracking operation in the tracking system according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. The tracking process is redirected to the entry page on the EC site 2 after the user terminal 1, ie the user's browser, clicks on a banner on the web page of the partner site 3, ie, the regression Started when (bound). The redirect message from partner site 3 must contain the following parameters:
-Profile ID: ID of the profile to which the clicked banner belongs
・ Site ID …… Partner site ID
・ Avert ID (AID): Clicked banner ID

  The entry page is set to always be checked by the tracker servlet 411 of the tracking server block 41 before browsing on the user terminal 1, so that the user's browser is requested in step A By trying to load the image it thinks from the tracker servlet 411.

  The request is an HTTP GET TRACKER request including the PID, SID, and AID included in the redirect message from the partner site 3. This includes cookies, etc. if necessary. The tracker servlet 411 takes in the request and checks whether there is an “if-modified-since” message in the request. If this is not present, a “Last-Modified-Time (LMT)” key having a long value is created as a unique ID representing the user's session. The LMT key represents the date (ie, time) when the session is performed, but is not limited to the date.

  Next, the tracker servlet 411 sends a response including the GIF image having the LMT key to the user terminal 1 in step B1. The GIF image is inserted into the entry page and browsed on the user terminal 1. The GIF image and LMT key are stored in the user's browser cache.

  Simultaneously with step B1 or as soon as a response is sent in step B1, the tracker servlet 411 extracts all relevant session information from the parameters associated with the request received at step A. Next, the extracted parameters and LMT key are enclosed in a session data object, and sent to the client 413 in step B22. The client 413 transmits the session data object to the server 421 of the session management box 42 in FIG. 4 and stores it in the session cache 428.

Session data consists of the following elements:
LMT (last change time): an integer that can be interpreted as a date (for example, 858896995000)
IP address: IP address of the user terminal (for example, 210.133.47.84)
Cookie: A value indicating whether or not the cookie was found in the request. Referrer (referrer): URL (including parameters) of the home page that sent the image source request (for example, “http: // traveller. valuecommerce.co.jp./CasadePlata/MainFraim.htm?PID=3001 & SID = 3002 & AID = 3003 ")
・ Advertise ID …… (see above)
・ Site ID …… (see above)
・ Profile ID …… (see above)
• Merchant ID (see above)
-Time stamp: Session creation time-Browser agent: Browser agent that made a request to the tracker servlet (for example, "Mozilla / 4.72 [en] (WinNT; 1)")

  At some later point in time, the user conducts a transaction with a merchant on the home page of EC site 2 and, as a result, browses the transaction completion page or event page. However, basically any other page may be used as long as it is a page in the EC site 2 and includes an image source request for the tracker servlet 411.

  The EC site 2 must have its system set up so that the data associated with the transaction just completed is placed in the parameter string associated with the request to the transaction servlet 411. Accordingly, in step C, a transaction including HTTP GET TRANSACTION causes all of the transaction data including the parameters to be passed to the transaction servlet 412. The structure of the transaction data has already been described with reference to the image source tag on the transaction completion page.

  When the transaction servlet 412 receives the transaction data, in response thereto, the merchant ID (MID) is extracted from the received parameter. Next, in step D1, the transaction servlet 412 redirects the user's browser to the tracker servlet 411 using the received parameter. At this time, the same syntax as used when making a request to the tracker servlet 411 in the entry page is used.

  After performing the redirect in step D1, the transaction servlet 412 parses the transaction data (including parameters and various headers) associated with the request in step C, collects them into a transaction data object, and The data is transferred to the client 413 in D2. The client 413 transfers the transaction data object to the server 421 of the session management box 42.

  Next, in step E, the user's browser sends an HTTP GET TRACKER request including the LMT key. This is a unique ID of the session, which is stored in association with the GIF image in the browser cache. The reason is that the redirection sent by the transaction servlet 412 is exactly the same as that requested by the user's browser on the entry page, and the browser checks whether the result of this request (GIF image) has changed. It is because it is instructed to always check to do. The tracker servlet 411 provides this information explicitly because it can be used to check if the browser is displaying the latest version of the image, but to identify the user To be grasped.

  Thus, the tracker servlet 411 obtains the incoming LMT key header, returns an image with the same LMT key, continues all tracking processes, and further includes an AID / PID / To determine that there is no SID, the tracker servlet 411 verifies that it is not necessary to create a new session data object. The tracker servlet 411 encloses the data related to the request sent in step E, including the LMT key, and creates a header data object. In step F, the header data object is sent to the client 413 to transfer it to the server 421 of the session management box 42.

  The header data object is the same as the session data object, but does not include any of PID, SID, and AID, and the session management box 42 receives them from the referrer page. However, since the header data object contains an LMT key, it is used to match the header data with the correct session data as described below.

  When the server 421 in the session management box 42 receives the incoming string from the client 413 of the tracking server box 41, the data flow in the matching process starts from Step G shown in FIG. The incoming string is one of a session data object, a transaction data object, and a header data object. In step G, the server 421 passes the received data string to the message manager 422, which determines whether the incoming message is a session data object, a transaction data object or a header data object. Identify.

  If the message manager 422 finds a session data object in the incoming message, the message manager 422 wraps the object in a session manager request. The session manager request is sent to the session manager 423 at step H. In step I, session manager 423 passes the request from message manager 422 to session cache 428 by calling an additional session algorithm, where the request is stored. The request is also stored in the session database 43 by an algorithm.

  If message manager 422 identifies a message received from server 421 as containing a transaction data object, message manager 422 wraps it in a transaction manager request. Next, in step J, the transaction manager request is sent to the transaction manager 425. In step K, the transaction manager 425 calls the additional transaction algorithm to pass the received request to the transaction cache 429 for storage. The request is also stored in the transaction database 44 by an algorithm.

  If message manager 422 identifies a message received from server 421 as containing a header data object, it wraps the object in a header manager request. In step L, the header manager request is sent to the header manager 424. When header manager 424 receives the request, manager 424 calls the matching session algorithm at step M to see if the header data matches any of the session data currently in the session cache. Make a decision. The matching session algorithm checks the LMT key following the cookie in the received header manager request, then the browser-agent / IP address.

  If a match is found between the header data and the session data in session cache 428, a match manager request including session data is created and passed to match manager 426 at step N; The match manager further processes the session data. Note that the header data is the same as the session data not including the SID / PID / AID as described above, and the matched header and session data are the same as the session data. .

  On the other hand, if no match is found between the header data and the session data in the session cache 428, the header data is passed to the header match manager 427 at step N1, and the header data is transferred to the session database. It is checked whether it matches any of the session data in 43. If the header match manager 427 finds a matching session in the database 43, it creates a match manager request that includes the matching session data. The request is then passed to the match manager 426 at step N2, which proceeds further.

  Finally, the match manager 426 calls the matching transaction algorithm in step O and checks the correct browser-agent / user IP address combination to match the session data with the transaction data in the transaction cache. Collate.

  If the session data includes a cookie, it is also checked by the match manager 426. The match manager 426 then updates the transaction database 44 by storing a new session and transaction data combination. In this way, session information and transaction information can be correctly combined, so that user activity in the EC system is grasped in near real time and without any complicated program installation at the EC site. be able to.

It is explanatory drawing which shows the system which tracks a user's activity in the electronic commerce system on the internet based on this invention. It is a figure which shows the structure of the tracking server site shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the structure of the tracking server box in the tracking server site shown in FIG. 2 with the data flow in it. It is a figure which shows the structure of the session manager box in the tracking server site shown in FIG. 2 with the data flow in it.

Claims (1)

A tracking server site configured by a computer information processing system including a communication unit, a storage unit, and a control unit, which tracks user activity in an electronic commerce system,
The communication means can communicate with an EC site and a user terminal via the Internet,
The storage means includes first image storage means in which an EC site ID and first image data are stored in association with each other, second image storage means in which an EC site ID and second image data are stored in advance in association with each other, a session, Third storage means for storing data, and fourth storage means for storing session data and transaction data in association with each other,
The control means includes a unique key generating means for generating a unique key in response to a request,
The electronic commerce system includes a plurality of EC sites, a plurality of partner sites, and a plurality of user terminals, and performs the first to seventh processes via the Internet.
In the first process, in response to an information acquisition request in response to a click on the advertisement banner of the user terminal in a state where the user terminal displays a homepage with an advertisement banner supplied by the partner site, the user terminal First request information including partner site ID and banner ID is sent to EC site,
In the second process, when the EC site receives the first request information from the user terminal, the EC site transmits an entry page specified by the banner ID included in the first request information to the user terminal,
The entry page includes first set image source tag information including an EC site homepage address, a tracking server site address, and an EC site ID.
In the third process, the user terminal receives the entry page from the EC site, sends second request information including the first set image source tag information included in the entry page to the tracking server site,
In a fourth process, the user terminal receives the first image data and the unique key from the tracking server site, displays the entry page incorporating the first image data, and A process of storing the unique key in the user terminal storage means in association with one image data;
In the fifth process, in response to completion of the transaction with the user terminal, the EC site includes a second address including the address of the tracking server site, the EC site ID, the user terminal IP address, and transaction data. Generate a transaction completion page including the group image source tag information, send to the user terminal,
In a sixth process, the user terminal receives the transaction completion page from the EC site, and includes the second key image source tag information and the unique key stored in association with the first image data. The third request information is sent to this tracking server site,
In the seventh process, in response to receiving the second image data from the tracking server site, the user terminal performs a process of displaying a transaction completion page incorporating the second image data,
The control means performs a first process in response to receiving the second request information transmitted from the user terminal in the third process, and is transmitted from the user terminal in the sixth process. Performing a second process in response to receiving the third request information;
The first process acquires a unique key from the unique key generation means, creates session data including the EC site ID, user terminal IP address, and the unique key, stores the session data in the third storage means, and 2 The first image data specified by the EC site ID in the first set image source tag information included in the request information is extracted from the first image storage means and transmitted to the user terminal together with the unique key;
The second process extracts session data including the same unique key and user terminal IP address from the stored session data based on the unique key and user terminal IP address included in the third request information. The extracted session data and the transaction data in the third request information are associated with each other and stored in the fourth storage means, and the second image data specified by the EC site ID is stored in the second image storage A tracking server site that is extracted from the means and sent to the user terminal.

Images