DataLayer - Best Practice or Outdated Concept?

Patrick HegnauerNovember 2019

Whether it's dataLayer, utag.data, or digitalData: The DataLayer has become an indispensable part of the digital analytics environment. What was once introduced as the "Customer Experience Digital Data Layer 1.0" (CEDDL) has now evolved into a true science. Recent developments show that this concept is changing significantly. In a world of single-page applications and event-driven websites, there is often talk of an "Event Driven Data Layer" (EDDL). Will the EDDL now replace the CEDDL?

The Origin: The CEDDL

The Customer Experience Digital Data Layer (CEDDL) document was published in December 2013. It was developed by several authors from the digital marketing field. The goal was to standardize data collection (from various tools). This resulted in a standard JavaScript object that collects data about user behavior and provides it to different vendors in a uniform format. Such data can include:

Page information like page name
Current URL
Clicked elements
Information about users, for example, whether they are logged in or not.

The CEDDL has a nested structure:

digitalData = {

page : {

pageInfo : {

pageName: 'Home Page'

Over time, tag management providers have designed their own DataLayers or recommend using a DataLayer. The layout looks quite different from provider to provider. Tealium uses their standard DataLayer "utag.data", which, unlike the CEDDL, has a flat structure:

utag.data = {

page_pageInfo_pageName : 'Home Page',

page_pageInfo_url : 'https://www.unic.com/en'

The Future: The EDDL

The Event-Driven Data Layer (EDDL) was first mentioned in a blog post by Jim Gordon in April 2019. The trigger was the publication of Adobe's new tag management system, "Adobe Launch". The problem was that Adobe had not provided recommendations for a DataLayer. The often-referenced CEDDL is inefficient according to Jim Gordon. He also claims that while the CEDDL is a suitable introduction to the concept of the DataLayer, it no longer meets today's requirements.

The EDDL is briefly described as an event listener that waits for a dataLayer.push() command. The application thus tells the EDDL which events should be executed when. The dataLayer.push() command not only populates the DataLayer with the corresponding values but also triggers an event in the Tag Management. Thus, the whole concept, as the name suggests, is based on events, with the pageview also representing an event. For example, this event is triggered as soon as all information is available, e.g., at DOM Ready. Unlike the CEDDL, the EDDL is tool-agnostic, as a standard array (.push) function is used to trigger events. Therefore, one is not dependent on proprietary functions. This also simplifies communication and working with developers.

Our Recommendation

Whether CEDDL, EDDL, or custom DataLayer: For each project, it must be evaluated in which form the DataLayer will be integrated. Often, a hybrid solution is implemented, a combination of CEDDL and EDDL.

We would be happy to support you in the conception and implementation of your DataLayer. Contact us now: analytics@unic.com.

Sources:

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Patrick HegnauerMarch 2023

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Patrick Hegnauer