Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR VALIDATION OF EVENT TRACKING
ACQUIRED DATA
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Technical Field
[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of event tracking
testing, and more
particularly to a method and an apparatus for validation of event tracking
acquisition data.
Description of Related Art
[0002] Data acquisition is the very first step of big data technologies, and
thus the quality of
event trackings has direct influence on downstream data warehouse
construction, people profile
formation, etc. Therefore, it is of particular importance to improve the
quality of event trackings.
Conventionally, validation of event tracking acquisition data is mainly
performed in the
following two ways:
1. Validation is performed directly at the front end. With this approach,
amendments of
validation rules have to be published at the front end, and this weakness
makes it less
flexible, less versatile, and less capable of handling validation for big
batches of pages.
Meanwhile, it may adversely affect the performance of the front end when
applied to
websites with high concurrency.
2. Validation is performed at the back end to off-line data. Since the testing
environment
and the production environment are not intercommunicated, differences of
validation
rules may exist between the two environments and lead to less accurate
validation
results. If the validation rules of the production environment are
synchronized to the
testing environment, the problems of delayed synchronization and high cost
come
along.
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SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0003] The objective of the present invention is to provide a method and an
apparatus for
validation of event tracking acquisition data, and features capability of
effectively solving
problems about inconsistency of validation rules for accessing logs between a
testing
environment and a production environment and inaccuracy of validation results.
[0004] To achieve the foregoing objective, in a first aspect the present
invention, a method for
validation of event tracking acquisition data is provided, which comprises:
[0005] standardizing validation rules for validating event tracking
acquisition data in a testing
environment and in a production environment, and configuring page parameters
and business
parameters for testing pages;
[0006] periodically acquiring event tracking acquisition data in to-be-tested
pages from the
testing environment, and/or periodically acquiring event tracking acquisition
data in the to-be-
tested pages from the production environment; and
[0007] based on the event tracking acquisition data, retrieving the page
parameters and the
business parameters of the corresponding testing pages, validating the event
tracking acquisition
data according to the validation rules, and outputting validation results.
[0008] Preferably, the step of configuring page parameters and business
parameters of testing
pages comprises:
[0009] in a page management system, configuring the page parameters including
testing-page
basic information and event tracking parameter information, wherein the basic
information at
least includes page codes of the testing pages, and the event tracking
parameter information
includes plural event tracking testing parameters; and
[0010] in the page management system, configuring the business parameters of
the testing
pages, wherein the business parameters include business-description
information and validation-
rule information.
[0011] More preferably, the step of periodically acquiring event tracking
acquisition data in to-
be-tested pages from the testing environment, and/or periodically acquiring
event tracking
acquisition data in the to-be-tested pages from the production environment
comprises:
[0012] periodically acquiring accessing logs from the testing environment and
from a quasi-
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production environment, wherein the accessing logs include the event tracking
acquisition data;
and/or periodically acquiring an off-line table from the production
environment, wherein the off-
line table includes the event tracking acquisition data; and
[0013] wherein the event tracking acquisition data include basic information
of the to-be-tested
pages and the event tracking parameter information.
[0014] Preferably, the step of based on the event tracking acquisition data,
retrieving the page
parameters and the business parameters of the corresponding testing pages,
validating the event
tracking acquisition data according to the validation rules, and outputting
validation results
comprises:
[0015] validating whether the page parameters in the event tracking
acquisition data acquired
from the to-be-tested pages contain the page codes, and if not, outputting a
said validation result
indicating that the pages do not have any event tracking; and
[0016] if yes, based on the page codes, identifying the event tracking
parameters and the
business parameters of the corresponding testing pages from the page
management system by
means of matching, comparing the event tracking acquisition data with the
event tracking
parameters and the business parameters in the testing pages one by one
according to the
validation rules, and outputting the validation results according to
comparison results.
[0017] Preferably, the step of comparing the event tracking acquisition data
with the event
tracking parameters and the business parameters in the testing pages one by
one according to the
validation rules, and outputting the validation results according to
comparison results comprises:
[0018] identifying event tracking items in the event tracking acquisition data
and parameters
corresponding to each said event tracking item, and determining whether the
event tracking items
in the corresponding testing pages are necessary event trackings and whether
the parameters
corresponding to the event tracking items are constant parameters;
[0019] for the event tracking items that are necessary event tracking and have
the corresponding
parameters being constant parameters, comparing the constant parameters with
the
corresponding event tracking parameters in the testing pages, respectively,
and if a resulting
comparison result shows inconsistency, outputting a said validation result
indicating
inconsistency, or if the resulting comparison result shows consistency,
outputting a said
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validation result indicating pass; and
[0020] for the event tracking items that are necessary event tracking and have
the corresponding
parameters being non-constant parameters, comparing the non-constant
parameters with the
business parameters, if a resulting comparison result shows pass, outputting a
said validation
result indicating pass, or if the resulting comparison result shows not pass,
outputting a said
validation result indicating not pass.
[0021] Preferably, the step of comparing the non-constant parameters with the
business
parameters comprises:
[0022] identifying types of said individual non-constant parameters,
extracting rules of the
corresponding types from the validation rule information of the business
parameters to validate
each said non-constant parameter, and when all the non-constant parameters are
validated as pass,
outputting a said validation result indicating pass, or otherwise outputting a
said validation result
indicating not pass;
[0023] in which types of the validation rule information include dimension
rules, custom
enumeration rules, and regular rules.
[0024] Preferably, the method further comprises:
[0025] visually informing an event tracking owner of the validation result,
and making an
alerting prompt.
[0026] As compared to the prior art, the method for validation of event
tracking acquisition data
of the present invention has the following beneficial effects:
[0027] In the method for validation of event tracking acquisition data as
provided in the present
embodiment, validation rules for validating event tracking acquisition data in
the testing
environment and in the production environment are unified first. Configuration
of page
parameters and business parameters is also performed for the testing pages.
After these
operations, event tracking acquisition data in to-be-tested pages are
periodically acquired from
the testing environment, and/or event tracking acquisition data in the to-be-
tested pages are
periodically acquired from the production environment. Then the page
parameters and the
business parameters of the corresponding testing pages are retrieved based on
the foregoing event
tracking acquisition data, and the event tracking acquisition data are
validated according to the
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validation rules for outputting validation results.
[0028] It is thus clear that the with the back-end testing scheme, the present
embodiment can
provide standardized validation rules for event tracking acquisition data
generated in the testing
environment and in the production environment, thereby preventing inconsistent
accuracy of
validation results caused by environmental differences.
[0029] In a second aspect, the present invention provides an apparatus for
validation of event
tracking acquisition data, which is applicable to the method for validation of
event tracking
acquisition data of the foregoing technical scheme. The apparatus comprises:
[0030] a configuring unit, for standardizing validation rules for validating
event tracking
acquisition data in a testing environment and in a production environment, and
configuring page
parameters and business parameters for testing pages;
[0031] an acquisition unit, for periodically acquiring event tracking
acquisition data in to-be-
tested pages from the testing environment, and/or periodically acquiring event
tracking
acquisition data in the to-be-tested pages from the production environment;
[0032] a validating unit, for based on the event tracking acquisition data,
retrieving the page
parameters and the business parameters of the corresponding testing pages,
validating the event
tracking acquisition data according to the validation rules, and outputting
validation results.
[0033] Preferably, further comprises:
[0034] prompting unit, for visually informing a event tracking owner of the
validation result of
not pass, and making an alerting prompt.
[0035] As compared to the prior art, the disclosed apparatus for validation of
event tracking
acquisition data provides beneficial effects that are similar to those
provided by the disclosed
method for validation of event tracking acquisition data as enumerated above,
and thus no
repetitions are made herein.
[0036] In a third aspect, the present invention provides a computer-readable
storage medium,
storing thereon a computer program. When the computer program is executed by a
processor, it
implements the steps of the method for validation of event tracking
acquisition data as described
previously.
[0037] As compared to the prior art, the disclosed computer-readable storage
medium provides
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beneficial effects that are similar to those provided by the disclosed method
for validation of
event tracking acquisition data as enumerated above, and thus no repetitions
are made herein.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0038] The accompanying drawings are provided herein for better understanding
of the present
invention and form a part of this disclosure. The illustrative embodiments and
their descriptions
are for explaining the present invention and by no means form any improper
limitation to the
present invention, wherein:
[0039] FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a method for validation of event tracking
acquisition data
according to one embodiment of the present invention;
[0040] FIG. 2 is a technical diagram of the method for validation of event
tracking acquisition
data according to the embodiment of the present invention; and
[0041] FIG. 3 is an overall business logic diagram of the method for
validation of event tracking
acquisition data according to the embodiment of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0042] To make the foregoing objectives, features, and advantages of the
present invention
clearer and more understandable, the following description will be directed to
some embodiments
as depicted in the accompanying drawings to detail the technical schemes
disclosed in these
embodiments. It is, however, to be understood that the embodiments referred
herein are only a
part of all possible embodiments and thus not exhaustive. Based on the
embodiments of the
present invention, all the other embodiments can be conceived without creative
labor by people
of ordinary skill in the art, and all these and other embodiments shall be
embraced in the scope
of the present invention.
Embodiment 1
[0043] Referring to FIG. 1-3, the present embodiment provides a method for
validation of event
tracking acquisition data, comprises:
[0044] standardizing validation rules for validating event tracking
acquisition data in a testing
environment and in a production environment, and configuring page parameters
and business
parameters for testing pages; periodically acquiring event tracking
acquisition data in to-be-tested
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pages from the testing environment, and/or periodically acquiring event
tracking acquisition data
in the to-be-tested pages from the production environment; based on the event
tracking
acquisition data, retrieving the page parameters and the business parameters
of the corresponding
testing pages, validating the event tracking acquisition data according to the
validation rules, and
outputting validation results.
[0045] In the method for validation of event tracking acquisition data as
provided in the present
embodiment, validation rules for validating event tracking acquisition data in
the testing
environment and in the production environment are unified first. Configuration
of page
parameters and business parameters is also performed for the testing pages.
After these
operations, event tracking acquisition data in to-be-tested pages are
periodically acquired from
the testing environment, and/or event tracking acquisition data in the to-be-
tested pages are
periodically acquired from the production environment. Then the page
parameters and the
business parameters of the corresponding testing pages are retrieved based on
the foregoing event
tracking acquisition data, and the event tracking acquisition data are
validated according to the
validation rules for outputting validation results.
[0046] It is thus clear that the with the back-end testing scheme, the present
embodiment can
provide standardized validation rules for event tracking acquisition data
generated in the testing
environment and in the production environment, thereby preventing inconsistent
accuracy of
validation results caused by environmental differences.
[0047] In the embodiment as described above, the step of configuring page
parameters and
business parameters of testing pages comprises:
[0048] in a page management system, configuring the page parameters including
testing-page
basic information and event tracking parameter information, wherein the basic
information at
least includes page codes of the testing pages, and the event tracking
parameter information
includes various event tracking testing parameters; in the page management
system, configuring
business parameters of the testing pages, wherein the business parameters
includes business-
description information and validation-rule information.
[0049] In specific implementations, the page management system is configured
with page
parameters of plural testing pages, and the business management system is
configured with
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business parameters of plural testing page. Diverse testing pages may come
from different sites.
Therein, the basic information usually includes information such as page
codes, page names, and
product lines. The event tracking parameter information records parameters for
which event
trackings are set in the testing pages, such as page categories, merchandise
types, page tags, page
titles, merchandise codes, store codes, supplier codes, etc. The business
description information
includes basic information of the business parameters, such as parameter
abbreviations,
parameter Chinese names, business scene descriptions, applicable business
domains, etc. The
validation rule information may be divided into three types, namely dimension
rules, custom
enumeration rules, and regular rules.
[0050] In the embodiment as described above, the step of periodically
acquiring event tracking
acquisition data in to-be-tested pages from the testing environment, and/or
periodically acquiring
event tracking acquisition data in the to-be-tested pages from the production
environment
comprises:
[0051] periodically acquiring accessing logs from the testing environment and
from a quasi-
production environment, wherein the accessing logs include the event tracking
acquisition data;
and/or periodically acquiring an off-line table from the production
environment, wherein the off-
line table includes the event tracking acquisition data; and wherein the event
tracking acquisition
data include basic information of the to-be-tested pages and event tracking
parameter information.
[0052] In specific implementations, the testing environment includes an actual
testing
environment and a pre-production environment. The data generated in the
testing environment is
of a relatively small size so the accessing logs can be extracted directly for
validation. After
aggregation of the accessing logs from the actual testing environment and the
pre-production
environment, the aggregation will be stored into a third-party storage
platform, thereby keeping
data from the testing environment and from the pre-production environment from
contaminating
data from the production environment. Additionally, the third-party storage
platform provides
cross-domain access. The size of data generated in the production environment
is huge, and thus
accessing logs for validation have to be extracted from an off-line table. It
would be understood
that since the data in the accessing logs from the testing environment are
directly extracted
without cleaning, so the validation results are more accurate.
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[0053] In the embodiment as described above, the step of based on the event
tracking
acquisition data, retrieving the page parameters and the business parameters
of the corresponding
testing pages, validating the event tracking acquisition data according to the
validation rules, and
outputting validation results comprises:
[0054] validating whether the page parameters in the event tracking
acquisition data acquired
from the to-be-tested pages contain the page codes, and if not, outputting a
said validation result
indicating that the pages do not have any event tracking; and if yes, based on
the page codes,
identifying the event tracking parameters and the business parameters of the
corresponding
testing pages from the page management system by means of matching, comparing
the event
tracking acquisition data with the event tracking parameters and the business
parameters in the
testing pages one by one according to the validation rules, and outputting the
validation results
according to comparison results.
[0055] In specific implementations, for an entry of event tracking acquisition
data, validation
is performed first to determine whether there is a page code. A negative
result means that there
is not any event tracking, and the corresponding validation result is "page
having no event
trackings," which means no not pass in the validation. If there are or more
page codes, matching
is performed in the page management system. If there is not any match found,
the validation
result is "no page parameters configured," and the business side will be
prompted to perform
page registration in the page management system. If one or more matches are
found, validation
matching will be conducted on the event tracking acquisition data according to
the event tracking
parameters and the business parameters set in the page management system one
by one following
the he validation rules. Only when all the event tracking testing parameters
of an entry in the
event tracking acquisition data have their matches found in the event tracking
parameters or the
business parameters, and the corresponding parameters are within a threshold
range, can this
entry be determined as passing the validation. Otherwise, this entry of event
tracking acquisition
data is determined as not-pass data.
[0056] Further, in the embodiment as described above, the step of comparing
the event tracking
acquisition data with the event tracking parameters and the business
parameters in the testing
pages one by one according to the validation rules, and outputting the
validation results according
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to comparison results comprises:
[0057] identifying event tracking items in the event tracking acquisition data
and parameters
corresponding to each said event tracking item, and determining whether the
event tracking items
in the corresponding testing pages are necessary event trackings and whether
the parameters
corresponding to the event tracking items are constant parameters; for the
event tracking items
that are necessary event tracking and have the corresponding parameters being
constant
parameters, comparing the constant parameters with the corresponding event
tracking parameters
in the testing pages, respectively, and if a resulting comparison result shows
inconsistency,
outputting a said validation result indicating inconsistency, or if the
resulting comparison result
shows consistency, outputting a said validation result indicating pass; and
for the event tracking
items that are necessary event tracking and have the corresponding parameters
being non-
constant parameters, comparing the non-constant parameters with the business
parametersõ if a
resulting comparison result shows pass, outputting a said validation result
indicating pass, or if
the resulting comparison result shows not pass, outputting a said validation
result indicating not
pass.
[0058] In specific implementations, at first, whether the event tracking items
in the event
tracking acquisition data are necessary event trackings in the corresponding
testing pages as
recorded in the page parameters of the corresponding testing page is to be
determined. For the
event tracking items that are necessary event tracking and have the
corresponding parameters
being constant parameters, the constant parameters are compared with the
corresponding event
tracking parameters in the testing pages, respectively. If the comparison
result shows
inconsistency, a validation result indicating inconsistency is output. If the
comparison result
shows consistency, a validation result indicating pass is output. For the
event tracking items that
are necessary event tracking and have the corresponding parameters being non-
constant
parameters, the non-constant parameters are compared to the business
parameters, respectively.
When the non-constant parameters are within the range of the corresponding
business parameters,
a validation result indicating pass is output. Otherwise, a validation result
indicating not pass is
output.
[0059] Specifically, the step of comparing the non-constant parameters with
the business
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parameters comprises:
[0060] identifying types of said individual non-constant parameters,
extracting rules of the
corresponding types from the validation rule information of the business
parameters to validate
each said non-constant parameter, and when all the non-constant parameters are
validated as pass,
outputting a said validation result indicating pass, or otherwise outputting a
said validation result
indicating not pass; in which types of the validation rule information include
dimension rules,
custom enumeration rules, and regular rules.
[0061] In specific implementations, the types of non-constant parameters
include dimension
parameters, custom enumeration parameters, and regular parameters. For
example, the dimension
parameters may include the phone brand dimension, the operator dimension, etc.
The custom
enumeration parameters are parameters defined by users. The regular parameters
may include,
for example, the number of digits of order numbers. Therein, the dimension
parameters may be
managed through a dimension database, such as through a Http interface
provided by a data
warehouse, to realize centralized dimension management. The custom enumeration
parameters
may be managed in the business management system. For regular parameters, such
as some
numeral parameters, regular matching rules may be set in the business
management system. For
example, errors of the validation results may be divided into several types as
given below:
Error Code Error Type
1 Page parameters not configured
2 Page having no page codes buried
3 Parameter values inconsistent with page
parameter configuration table
4 Parameter values not meeting enumeration rules
Parameters not configured in page parameter
table
[0062] In the embodiment as described above, further comprises: visually
informing an event
tracking owner of the validation result, for providing an altering prompt.
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[0063] In the embodiment as described above, when a validation result of no
pass is generated,
an error report is stored in the database associated with the production
environment for the front
end to check visually. Meanwhile, the platform will notify an event tracking
owner of the relevant
page of this result. Then the event tracking owner can enter the platform
through a link to view
the validation results of pages under his/her charge and make correction on
the errors of the
corresponding page event trackings, thereby improving the quality of the event
trackings. In
special cases where the event trackings need no corrections or the event
tracking owner does not
want to be notified again, the owner could choose to ignore the notification,
and the notification
would stop.
[0064] To sum up, the present embodiment provides event tracking validation
from two data
source, namely a testing environment and a production environment, and makes
use of flexibly
configured page parameters and business parameters, so as to achieve different
configurations
for multiple pages in multiple sites. Meanwhile, since a set of unified
validation rules is used in
both of the testing environment and the production environment, consistency of
validation results
can be ensured. Thereby, timely, accurate, and intuitive display of validation
results can be
provided for the event tracking side, and corresponding notifications are also
made.
Embodiment 2
[0065] The present embodiment provides an apparatus for validation of event
tracking
acquisition data, which comprises:
[0066] a configuring unit, for standardizing validation rules for validating
event tracking
acquisition data in a testing environment and in a production environment, and
configuring page
parameters and business parameters for testing pages;
[0067] an acquisition unit, for periodically acquiring event tracking
acquisition data in to-be-
tested pages from the testing environment, and/or periodically acquiring event
tracking
acquisition data in the to-be-tested pages from the production environment;
and
[0068] a validating unit, for based on the event tracking acquisition data,
retrieving the page
parameters and the business parameters of the corresponding testing pages,
validating the event
tracking acquisition data according to the validation rules, and outputting
validation results.
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[0069] Preferably, the apparatus further comprises:
[0070] prompting unit, for visually informing an event tracking owner of the
validation result
of not pass, and making an alerting prompt.
[0071] As compared to the prior art, the disclosed computer-readable storage
medium provides
beneficial effects that are similar to those provided by the disclose method
for validation of event
tracking acquisition data as enumerated above, and thus no repetitions are
made herein.
Embodiment 3
[0072] The present embodiment provides a computer-readable storage medium,
storing thereon
a computer program. When the computer program is executed by a processor, it
implements the
steps of the method for validation of event tracking acquisition data as
described previously.
[0073] As compared to the prior art, the disclosed computer-readable storage
medium provides
beneficial effects that are similar to those provided by the disclose method
for validation of event
tracking acquisition data as enumerated above, and thus no repetitions are
made herein.
[0074] As will be appreciated by people of ordinary skill in the art,
implementation of all or a
part of the steps of the method of the present invention as described
previously may be realized
by having a program instruct related hardware components. The program may be
stored in a
computer-readable storage medium, and the program is about performing the
individual steps of
the methods described in the foregoing embodiments. The storage medium may be
a ROM/RAM,
a disk, a compact disk, a memory card or the like.
The present invention has been described with reference to the preferred
embodiments and it is
understood that the embodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the
present invention.
Moreover, as the contents disclosed herein should be readily understood and
can be implemented
by a person skilled in the art, all equivalent changes or modifications which
do not depart from
the concept of the present invention should be encompassed by the appended
claims. Hence, the
scope of the present invention shall only be defined by the appended claims.
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