Property (jExperience)
A jExperience property is an attribute carried by a visitor profile (jExperience), a session or an event (jExperience) in jExperience, Jahia’s personalization solution. It is what the marketing team works with when splitting its audience into segments or building a personalization rule, such as "public sector visitors", "arrived from a campaign" or "submitted the contact form".
Definition and how it works
Knowing which object an attribute belongs to prevents targeting mistakes. A profile property describes the person and is meant to stay with them over time, provided the visitor returns with the same browser without having cleared their cookies, or logs in. At session level, it describes a given visit. At event level, it describes one specific interaction. Targeting a visitor on a detail that only applied to one visit produces badly timed personalization.
The Academy glossary gives "number of children" as an example of a profile attribute. These values can be fed by browsing, by a login or by a form. The Forms documentation describes mapping form fields to jExperience profiles. Because a profile can hold personal data, creating a new attribute also falls under the privacy rules that apply to your organization.
Academy documentation: managing profile properties in jExperience
Related terms: Visitor Profile (jExperience) · Event (jExperience) · Property (content) · Content item · Content Type · Content management system
Resources that cover this term
jExperience property vs content property: the differences
The word "property" exists on both sides of Jahia. In the CMS it describes a content item. In jExperience it describes a visitor, a visit or an interaction.
| Concept | What distinguishes it |
|---|---|
| Property (content) | An attribute of an editorial content item, declared in a content type and filled in by editors. |
| Visitor Profile (jExperience) | The profile is the object that carries the attributes describing the person along with, depending on context, their sessions and events. |
| Event (jExperience) | An event is a recorded interaction. Its attributes specify what happened, such as which form was submitted. |
jExperience property in practice
A visitor states their industry when downloading a guide. The form field is mapped to a profile property. On later visits, a "public sector" segment built on that property can show them relevant use cases without them having to identify themselves again, provided the visitor returns with the same browser without having cleared their cookies, or logs in.
Before the property is created, the team decides which values it can take, what feeds it and how long it stays relevant.
Frequently asked questions
Should every event detail be copied into the visitor profile?
No. An interaction detail and a lasting attribute of the person do not have the same meaning. An event records an interaction, such as a form submission, while a profile attribute describes the person and can evolve. The specific form submitted one day belongs to the event. The industry the visitor declared belongs to the profile. Copying every event detail into the profile can make it hard to read and govern.
Can we create our own profile properties in jExperience?
The jExperience profile model can be extended. The Academy’s "number of children" example shows a business-specific attribute. A new attribute is created in jExperience’s Profile Properties Manager, with a type (boolean, date, email, number or text). It should be scoped with the technical team and the person in charge of data protection.