Storing cross-device IDs
I have an Enterprise client who does not use SSO at this time who is looking for ways to store a cross-device userID to help them with internal analytics.
We’re re-looking at ways to track engagement from our forum users across our non-forum sites, and wanted to see if there’s somewhere where a cross-device user-ID might be stored and accessible for use in internal analytics? Ex: a Javascript variable or cookies?
We see there’s an ID stored in the vf_eso_BRUTE[0] cookie, but that appears to have an httponly flag due to being used for authenticating account sessions.
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They have an ID they want to attach to the account, or they want easier access to the existing UserID?
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They have an ID they want to attach to the account.
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I'd submit this as a feature / services request to Todd. We need details on how they would prefer to set and access the information (API, in page, via cookie, or something else).
The simplest way I can think of to accommodate this as a service is to do a small addon and add this as a field to the User table.
Other options are Profile Extender or setting up a fake SSO connection to store a UniqueID against it, but those solutions feel worse.
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Well keep in mind Vanilla also generates a User Id, which they could technically fire into their analytics package.
Is this what they are trying to achieve?
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I had shared with them how to retrieve the Vanilla User ID a while back, but either way, here's their response
The hope is to be able to capture some identifier that’s consistent across a logged-in user’s sessions and devices, so if that’s the Vanilla userID then that should fit the bill perfectly. Google’s requires that the identifier be non-identifying to Google, so we can’t use display names.
Our request below was based on the cookie seeming to be the only place that a userID is stored where Google Tag Manager would be able to read it, but if it’s already stored somewhere else not used for authentication, that should be all we need.
Would you happen to have any resources on where in the browser the Vanilla ID is stored, or how we might go about using the Vanilla ID in Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics?
Would that then be what you're sharing here, Adrian?
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So yes and no. The ID is available for those accounts that exist and would only be readable if people are logged in.
We don't store the UserID in the browser or in a cookie, which is what they need (or what I am reading from their question).
So it's not a perfect system. If for example a user is logged into a desktop and then continues on mobile, but does not log in - there is no ID - even if they had logged in before - because no cookie was set.
I guess they could create some code to create a cookie they read, but this is beyond the scope of what I would be comfortable of suggesting, and then in this case Linc's solution is best.
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Thanks, guys!
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