SP Cookie value

For engineers Collectors
1

Hello,

I’ve been kicking around the idea of reading in the Snowplow cookie and using it for targeting/customisation purposes based on the data we already have received in previous sessions.

So breaking the following Cookie value apart:

b88ce7da-3875-403d-9104-d5d4053db74d.1649843437.64.1655134821.1655131146.69d59dc5-157b-4cab-a1f1-d07752bba28c

I’ve come up with the following:

b88ce7da-3875-403d-9104-d5d4053db74d. The Domain UserId 

1649843437. - Wednesday, 13 April 2022 09:50:37 (cookie create date)

64. Session index

1655134731. - Monday, 13 June 2022 15:38:51 (last event or current session start?)

1655131146. - Monday, 13 June 2022 14:39:06 (previous session start i.e index 63?)

69d59dc5-157b-4cab-a1f1-d07752bba28c - Domain SessionId

Are my assumptions correct? I’m particularly interested in the final two timestamps and probably only require clarification on this.

Thanks
Kyle

2

This is pretty much spot on. The order in the cookie will be:

  • domain user_id
  • cookie creation timestamp (epoch)
  • domain session index (visit count)
  • current visit timestamp (now)
  • last visit timestamp (empty if no previous session)
  • session id

Rather than parsing the cookie you may be able to grab some of these values directly (assuming the tracker is on the page) by using a similar method to the client_session context.

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3

Hey @kfitzpatrick

The format is described here: Cookies & Local Storage - Snowplow Docs

A more detailed explanation of the cookie is here: How the tracker stores state - Snowplow Docs

And a little snippet on how to parse it: Getting the domain user information from the Snowplow Cookie - Snowplow Docs

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4

@mike & @PaulBoocock

Thanks guys exactly what I need, appreciate the responses.

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