How to install the A/B Testing solution through Azion Marketplace

Overview

Mainly, you can use A/B tests to validate certain addresses, interfaces, or even workflows. Tests enable you to experiment with variations and how they work with your users, providing two options to access certain content or complete task.

Getting the solution

Using the solution

Configuring the A/B Testing Edge Application

Adding origins

Instantiating the A/B Testing Edge Application

Configuring the Rules Engine

1. Getting the solution

To use the A/B test solution provided through Azion Marketplace, follow these steps:

Access Real-Time Manager (RTM) and log in.
- If you don’t have an account, visit the creating an account documentation
On the upper-left corner of the page, select Products menu > Marketplace.
On the Marketplace’s homepage, type “test” in the search box or browse through the cards below it to find the desired A/B Testing solution.
Select the desired A/B Testing card to be redirected to the solution’s page.
On the Subscribe for section, at the bottom-right corner of the page, click the Get It Now button.

A successful message appears. Your solution is installed and ready to use.

2. Using the solution

Once you’ve gotten your solution on Marketplace, it’ll be available at your edge functions list. To use the solution, you’ll have to create a new edge application.

To create an edge application you have three options:

By visiting the documentation on getting started.
Through RTM, on the upper-left corner of the page, select Products menu > Edge Application and follow the instructions.
Using an already existing edge application.

3. Configuring the A/B Testing Edge Application

On the Edge Application listing page, locate the new A/B Testing edge application and select it.

Some solutions may have prerequisites to function. The A/B Testing solution needs three other products to be enable to run. To enable these products, follow the steps:

Click the Function switch to enable functions module.
Click the Application Acceleration switch to enable the Application Acceleration module.
On the bottom-right corner, click the Save button.

A successful message appears informing that the edge application has been updated.

4. Adding origins

To configure the JSON file, you’ll have to register the origins (the websites) you want to redirect your solution. This origins will receive a unique ID called Origin Key.

On the homepage of the application, follow these steps:

Go to the Origins tab.
Click the Add Origin button.
Give an easy to remember name to this origin.
Select Single Origin for the type of origin.
Select ${host} for the Host Header option.
You can pass an Origin Path, but this is optional.
Choose the protocol you want to use: HTTP, HTTPS, or preserve to preserve the original protocol.
Pass the URL you want to register for this origin.
Click the Save button.

After you save it, you’ll be able to see the Origin Key generated by RTM for the origin you’ve registered. This will be used to fill the originid field on the Args box of the function.

Note: you must register at least two origins.

5. Instantiating the A/B Testing Edge Application

To enable the A/B Testing function, follow these steps:

On the top list, select the Functions tab.
Click the Add Function button.
On the edge function’s name text box, give an easy to remember name.
On the function dropdown menu, select the A/B Testing [Global] function.

This will load the function, showing a for with the source-code of the solution and two tabs: Code and Args.

If you click on the Code tab, you can navigate through the source-code to become familiar with it, but without making changes. On the Args tab you can change the configuration of your A/B Testing function.

Select the Args tab to open the form for the JSON Args where you can add the parameters to execute your application.

Note that the parameters have divisions of at least three sections: params, a, b.

The form will load the parameters as below:

{
	"param": {
		"cookie": {
			"name": "azion_abtest",
			"expiration": "Wed, 04 May 2011 10:16:00 GMT",
			"max_age": 600,
			"domain": "localhost",
			"path": "/"
		},
		"a": {
			"cookie_value": "A_TEST",
			"prob": 0.5,
			"addresses_list": "localhost:2006",
			"originid": "uuid1",
			"live_ingest": false,
			"protocol_policy": "http",
			"path": "",
			"cache_key": "test_a",
			"host": "localhost"
		},
		"b": {
			"cookie_value": "B_TEST",
			"prob": 0.5,
			"addresses_list": "localhost:2010",
			"originid": "uuid2",
			"live_ingest": false,
			"protocol_policy": "preserve",
			"path": "",
			"cache_key": "test_b",
			"host": "localhost"
		}
	}
}

Where:

name: the name of the cookie you’ll choose (choose a significant name that will be easy to remember).
expiration: the expiration date of this cookie.
max_age: the time (in seconds) for the lifespan of a cookie.
domain: the domain where you’re running the tests.
path: the subdomain to the cookie (you can use / to set the subdomain to all the domains).

On the second section, called a, you can add the parameters to the first test:

cookie_value: a value to identify the cookie for this test variation.
prob: the probability to send this address to the user (this value should be between 0 and 1, with 0 being 0% of chances and 1 being 100% of chance).
adressess_list: the address for the a test (for example: www.mytest_ab_of_my_site.com:443).
originid: the identification ID for the origin (this will automatically generated by RTM).
live_ingest: it indicates if the origin is a live streaming (a Boolean value should used here, true or false).
protocol_policy: you can force HTTP or HTTPS, or even keep the default value by passing the preserve value.
path: it indicates the subdomain of the cookie (you can leave it blank, “”, to indicate that this is valid for all domains).
cache_key: here you have to give a name to identify the cache, it should be unique and you can’t repeat it elsewhere.
host: the name of the host that the requisition sends.

6. Configuring the Rules Engine (#rules-engine)

On the Rules Engine tab, you’ll pass the criteria and behavior to run the solution.

Select the Rules Engine tab.
Click the Default Rule.
- Note that you can’t change or configure the criteria for the Default Rule.
On the Behavior field, choose Run Function, and from the dropdown menu choose the A/B Testing solution according to the name you gave it.
Add another behavior by clicking on the + button right bellow the first one.
Pass the first behavior: Bypass Cache.
Click again on the + button bellow the second behavior.
Pass the second behavior needed: Forward Cookies.
Click the Save button.

Done. Now you’ll have to wait for the edge application to propagate through Azion’s edge nodes.

Visit the use cases about the A/B Testing page for more information and reference.

Didn’t find what you were looking for? Open a support ticket.