Starting September 22, 2018, the hit data tables “streaming” got a new field, timestamp
. Starting September 26, the “owoxbi_sessions” tables (session data collected with the OWOX BI algorithm) got the hits.timestamp
field.
These fields contain the data about the time when the hit was received — as milliseconds since January 1, 1970.
Why we need these fields
With the upcoming updates, these fields, coupled with the clientId
field data, will be used the session data calculation. This means you won’t need a custom dimension to collect the Session ID data while collecting session data based on the OWOX BI algorithm.
As for now, this custom dimension is still necessary, but the next updates will make it optional.
How it will work
Here is how the upcoming updates will change the session data collection based on the OWOX BI algorithm:
- OWOX BI will match hits to sessions based on the
clientId
andtimestamp
parameters instead ofsessionId
- There will be no need to set the Session ID custom dimension in the OWOX BI interface. It won’t be required to collect session data
We keep on improving our new session data collection algorithm. Previously, we informed you about the:
- Changes in session data collection
- Transfer of all the fields from the "streaming" to the "owoxbi_sessions" tables
- New fields in the "owoxbi_sessions" tables
The updates are to be released shortly. Watch the changelog :)
Let us remind you about the benefits of the new session data collection algorithm
We want you to get complete and accurate data on user behavior at your website. Here are the benefits of using the OWOX BI algorithm:
- The OWOX BI algorithm doesn’t depend on GA Core Reporting API and calculates sessions based on raw non-sampled hit data
- No interruptions of session tables collection caused by the GA Core Reporting API limits exceeding or no access to Google Analytics. No delays caused by the session table fields import from Google Analytics
- The OWOX BI algorithm has no such limits as up to 500 000 sessions a day, 10 million hits a day, or 500 hits per session. All your data will get into Google BigQuery tables
- The data collected doesn't depend on the
sessionId
value sent in a custom dimension (&cd). If it has been set up incorrectly, this can cause data discrepancies that can't be fixed retrospectively. For example, the beginning and the end of a session can be incorrect, or some hits can get to the wrong session. With the OWOX BI algorithm, all hits will be assigned to the respected sessions, and the discrepancies with the Google Analytics data will be minor
That’s not all. With the new algorithm, you also can:
- Track if a direct click is truly direct, not fetched from a paid source. With the OWOX BI algorithm, you can do it thanks to the
trafficSource.isTrueDirect
field and attribute site visits by two models: Last Non-Direct Click and Last Click - Аnalyze how audiences from different websites overlap by collecting an additional anonymous identifier, OWOX User ID
Read also:
The differences between the session data collection algorithms
Why the number of sessions collected differs when using the OWOX BI algorithm
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