2022.1

Personalized URL
Personalized URLs (pURLs) are links that are tailor-made for a specific purpose, generally for
individual clients. They can serve multiple purposes, for instance:
l Click Tracking: A unique ID in the link makes it possible to track the source of the click
(for example, a link in an email campaign).
l User Tracking: A user-specific ID reveals who clicked the link and at what time.
l Landing Pages: Information in the link invokes a unique landing page with specific
products or services.
l Personalized User Pages: Using information from a database, a user is served a
completely personalized web page with their name and information tailored to them,
enhancing user response.
Typically, a pURL takes the recipient to a personalized landing page, for example to download
an invoice or get access to specific products or services.
Prerequisites
Creating a personalized URL in a Connect template requires some planning, because you
need to have a few things at hand when adding it to a template.
First of all, you need a Workflow process for the pURL to point to; in response, this process
will create personalized content.
In order to invoke that process, the host in the pURL must be followed by the HTTP action of
the HTTP Server Input task that starts the process. For example, if its action is MakePDF, you
could trigger the process by adding /MakePDF to the address of the Workflow server.
The rest of this Workflow process depends on what the pURL is used for. If it should output a
personalized landing page, for example, it would be a web process with some OL Connect
tasks (see "Web processes with OL Connect tasks" on page192).
Secondly, the pURL must contain the data that Workflow needs in order to create the
personalized response (be it a web page or other file). For instance, creating a personalized
page that shows a client's invoice may require the Invoice Number to be present in the pURL,
which is then used by Workflow to retrieve the invoice data, generate the invoice in PDF or
HTML format using a template, and then return it to the browser.
The data needs to be included in the URL. In this URL, for example:
http://www.example.com/MakePDF?uuid=8c33eda8-72af-11e5-8bcf-feff819cdc9f, a unique ID
is passed as parameter. Parameters end up as key-value pairs in the request XML file. In the
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