The s object,
up close.

1 · The anatomy of s

The first time you see an AppMeasurement implementation in the wild, it looks like a wall of boilerplate. Calm down — there are really only three categories of thing inside the s object:

That's it. Configuration tells Adobe where to send the hit; data variables describe what happened; methods send the hit.

// Configuration (Launch's "Adobe Analytics" extension sets these for you)
s.account = "examplecorpprod";
s.trackingServer = "metrics.example.com";
s.trackingServerSecure = "smetrics.example.com";
s.visitorNamespace = "examplecorp";
s.currencyCode = "USD";

// Data — the page-view payload
s.pageName = "Product Detail: ASTRO-3000";
s.channel = "Telescopes";
s.eVar4 = "ASTRO-3000";        // product SKU
s.prop4 = "telescopes";        // product category
s.events = "prodView";

// Send it
s.t();

That five-line block is a working Adobe Analytics implementation. Everything else in this course is variation on these five lines.

2 · s.t() vs s.tl() — the only two methods that matter

AppMeasurement has many methods. Two of them carry 99% of the load. Master these and you can implement almost anything.

2.1 — s.t(): the page view

s.t() sends a page view hit. It is greedy: it sends every variable currently set on s. Use it when a meaningful new page has loaded.

s.pageName = "Home";
s.channel  = "Home";
s.eVar1    = "logged-in";
s.events   = "event5";
s.t();
// → A page view hit, with pageName, channel, eVar1, events all sent.

Behaviour notes:

• Increments the page view counter.
• Sets pageName in the report suite — any subsequent link hits will attribute to it.
• Clears linkTrackVars and linkTrackEvents after firing.
• Other variables are not cleared. If you set s.eVar1 = "x" on page A, it will fire again on page B unless you clear it. This is one of the great sources of bugs.

2.2 — s.tl(): the link hit

s.tl() sends a link hit. It is shy: by default it sends almost nothing. You must explicitly whitelist the variables you want sent, using s.linkTrackVars and s.linkTrackEvents.

s.linkTrackVars   = "events,eVar15,prop15";
s.linkTrackEvents = "event10";
s.events = "event10";
s.eVar15 = "newsletter footer";
s.prop15 = "newsletter footer";
s.tl(true, "o", "Newsletter Signup");
//   ↑      ↑   ↑
//   |      |   └── linkName — appears in the Custom Links report
//   |      └────── linkType — 'o' (custom), 'd' (download), 'e' (exit)
//   └───────────── linkObj  — true (or `this`) tells AA not to delay the click

The signature is:

s.tl(linkObj, linkType, linkName, variableOverrides, doneAction);

3 · The variable families

3.1 — Standard variables

These have specific reports built around them. Adobe knows what they mean.

3.2 — Custom variables

Three families. Memorise these.

* Standard accounts get 75 eVars. Higher tiers get 100–250. Treat 75 as the practical ceiling.

Module 05 spends 75 minutes on these. For now, you need only this mental model: props describe traffic, eVars accumulate conversion credit, events count things.

3.3 — Hierarchy variables (hier)

A hierarchy variable holds a path: "Home,Telescopes,Astro 3000". Adobe parses the separator and builds a drilldown report. Use them for site taxonomy.

s.hier1 = "Home,Telescopes,Astro 3000";
//        └── separator default: comma

3.4 — List variables (list)

A list variable holds a delimited list of values, each of which Adobe treats as an independent dimension value (so the metric is divided across them, not summed). Three exist: list1, list2, list3.

// "User opened a product that had three categories"
s.list1 = "Telescopes,Astronomy,Optics";
//        └── delimiter is configured in the report suite (default: comma)

Each value gets credit for the page view. Useful for tags, faceted search, or any one-to-many relationship between page and dimension.

3.5 — The products string

The products variable is the strangest piece of AppMeasurement. It packs a product list into a single semicolon-delimited string:

category;name;quantity;price;event-list;eVar-list

telescopes;ASTRO-3000;1;499.00;event3=1.00;eVar5=premium

Multiple products are separated by ,. So a two-product cart looks like:

s.products = "telescopes;ASTRO-3000;1;499.00,accessories;TRIPOD-X;1;79.99";
s.events = "scAdd";

Empty positions are still required:

s.products = ";ASTRO-3000;;;event3=2.50";
//             ↑           ↑↑
//             no category, no qty, no price — just SKU and a merchandising event

We will work through the products string in module 05 with the embedded sandbox. For now, remember its structure: category, name, quantity, price, events, eVars — separated by semicolons; products separated by commas.

4 · The wire format

When you call s.t(), AppMeasurement encodes your variables into a query string and fires an HTTPS request. You will be inspecting this format for the rest of your career, so let's look at it.

https://metrics.example.com/b/ss/examplecorpprod/1/JS-2.20.0/s47213094
  ?ns=examplecorp           <-- visitorNamespace
  &pageName=Product%20Detail
  &ch=Telescopes           <-- channel
  &events=prodView,event3=1
  &v4=ASTRO-3000           <-- eVar4
  &c4=telescopes           <-- prop4
  &h1=Home,Telescopes      <-- hier1
  &l1=Telescopes,Optics    <-- list1
  &products=telescopes;ASTRO-3000;1;499.00
  &g=https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Fastro-3000.html
  &r=https%3A%2F%2Fgoogle.com%2F
  &s=1920x1080             <-- screen resolution
  &mid=01234567890         <-- Marketing Cloud Visitor ID
  &aid=ABCDEF12-34567890   <-- Analytics Visitor ID

The mapping you need to memorise is the short one:

5 · Account & config

These rarely change after initial setup, but knowing them prevents an entire class of "why is no data arriving" mysteries.

// The report suite(s) to write to
s.account = "examplecorpprod";

// Where to send the hit. Adobe issues this URL — get the right one or hits disappear.
s.trackingServer       = "metrics.example.com";
s.trackingServerSecure = "smetrics.example.com";

// First-party cookie domain — Safari ITP demands a CNAME under your own domain
s.visitorNamespace = "examplecorp";

// Currency assumed for all monetary values
s.currencyCode = "USD";

// Character set of variable values
s.charSet = "UTF-8";

// "Outgoing link" determination — anything matching is treated as internal
s.linkInternalFilters = "javascript:,example.com";

Two configuration rules you should treat as commandments:

5.1 Use first-party cookies

Your trackingServer should be a CNAME that points to Adobe but lives under your domain (e.g. metrics.example.com, not examplecorp.sc.omtrdc.net). Otherwise Safari's Intelligent Tracking Prevention will treat your visitor cookie as third-party and effectively expire it every seven days.

5.2 Set linkInternalFilters correctly

This is how Adobe decides which outbound clicks count as "exits." Anything in this comma-list is considered internal; anything else is an exit. Default is your own host — fine for single-domain sites, dangerously wrong for multi-domain estates.

6 · The full method list

7 · The plugins you will see

For nearly two decades, Adobe shipped a library of helper functions called plugins. They aren't part of AppMeasurement's core — they're extra code you add via Launch. You'll see them everywhere.

Adobe has been pushing teams to migrate plugin logic into Launch rules and data elements (where it is visible and version-controlled) rather than relying on hidden plugin code. Default to native Launch logic when starting fresh; respect plugin patterns when inheriting them.

8 · Live sandbox

Time to make this concrete. Below is a working mock of the s object. Edit the code, click RUN, and the simulator decodes the hit you fired — every parameter, exactly the way Adobe's collection server would receive it.

8.1 — Exercises