Tool settings

This topic is intended for administrators and developers with administration access rights in Optimizely.

In admin view, under ConfigTool Settings you can perform miscellaneous functions for the integration and configuration of Optimizely CMS.

Plug-in Manager

Many functions in Optimizely CMS are created as plug-ins, which you can manage from the Plug-in Manager. You can activate and deactivate selected parts. If your organization invested in additional plug-ins, you can find them in the Plug-in Manager also. After choosing a plug-in, choose which parts of it are accessible in the Overview tab.

Image: Plug-in Manager screen

Rebuild name for web addresses

Rebuild Name for Web Addresses changes addresses in the address field. When a visitor views a page on a website based on Optimizely CMS, a path to the page appears in the address field. The address reflects the page's place in the website structure.

Image: Web address in browser address field

The names in the address field are created automatically from the name an editor specified for the page. If an editor changes the page name, the name in the address field does not change. You can manually change name in the address field by changing the Name in URL field on the Settings tab in edit view.

Some pages have no value in the field for names in web addresses, such as pages imported from other Optimizely solutions. The Rebuild Name for Web Addresses function lets you create all web addresses for the website at the same time. You can also overwrite all existing addresses with new ones.

The Rebuild Name for Web Addresses function can affect links to the website. All internal links are updated automatically. However, if other websites link to a certain page, that link may be broken. The function can also affect visitors' browser favorites (bookmarks).

Creating a rebuilding name for web address

  1. On the Config tab, select Rebuild Name for Web Addresses.

    Image: Replace page names in web addresses

  2. Select Rebuild all page names in web addresses (overwriting existing links).
  3. Click Rebuild Links.

Mirroring

Mirroring duplicates content between websites. Optimizely CMS can mirror selected parts or an entire website, and can run automatically or manually. This is useful if you wish to create sections in a test environment then publish all information at once to the public section.

Mirroring jobs are executed at time intervals that you set, as described in Scheduled jobs.

To enable mirroring, a mirroring application must be installed and running. The application handles data transfer between websites and is run separately to the Optimizely CMS source and target sites. You can configure source and target websites to use separate mirroring applications. You can also install and configure a single mirroring application. See Optimizely World to configure and work with mirroring.

Image: Mirroring Settings screen

Creating a channel

To set up mirroring between two websites, create channels in the admin view. Channels define the mirroring jobs from one Optimizely CMS to another, or even to an external recipient.

Go to the source site in admin view > Config tab > Tool Settings > Mirroring to create a channel for mirroring as follows:

  1. Click Create and enter the following information:

    Setting Description
    Name Type an unique name for the mirroring channel.
    Parameters Optional field that can be used by providers. In this version, there is one parameter which can be handled by the provider:
    Episerver.MirroringService.MirroringTransferProtocol.WCF.MirroringTransferClient.TransferAction.

    The TransferAction has two options None and ForceCurrentVersion. By default, the value is None, which creates a new version for each published page on the target site. The ForceCurrentVersion option does not create a new version for each published page. Instead, it updates the page on the target site.

    Use default URI Select to use the URI defined in the configuration file (web.config) for the mirroring application. When you select this option, the URI field is disabled.
    URI Enter the URI to the destination mirroring application's target service, for example:
    http://localhost/Mirroring/Mirroring/MirroringTransferServer.svc.

    The service for the default provider is:

    MirroringTransferServer.svc.
    Start page Select the local root page on the source site to be mirrored.
    Root page on destination Select the page number on the target site where the pages are mirrored to.
    Include start page Sets whether the start page is mirrored or if only its children are mirrored.
    Import as anonymous user Sets whether an anonymous user does the export and import of pages and files when the mirroring job is run.
    Import content as user Sets whether an identified user does the export and import of pages and files when the mirroring job is run.
    Enable reporting Select to enable reporting for the mirroring job through email. When you select this option, the E-mail address field becomes editable.
    E-mail address Enter the email address where the mirroring job report is sent.
    Continue on Error Select to enable a mirroring job to continue even there is problem on the importing side. If this option is not selected, a mirroring job terminates as soon as an error occurs.
    Enabled Select to enable the channel as active. If this option is not selected, nothing is mirrored for the channel.
    Enable validation Select to enable validation before items are mirrored. The mirroring job validates that all page types for pages being mirrored are present in the target site and that the page type has the same number and type of page properties as the source site. By default the mirroring job checks all necessary page types and page definitions, which is included in the start page and its descendants.
  2. Click Save.
  3. Continue with any of the following options:

    Setting Description
    Reset Channel Select to mirror everything again from the root page of the mirroring channel to the source site next time it is run. To reset the channel, select the name of the mirroring channel and click Continue with Reset.
    Check System To validate the created channel, click Check System. The result appears under the Messages tab. It checks both the source and target site to see if all necessary parameters are set up correctly; such as URI, Root page at destination, Mirroring Server binding, and Access to DataBase. See the section about synchronizing mirroring in the Developer Guide under Deployment > Mirroring > Installing and Configuring mirroring.
    Messages The result of a check system appears in the Messages tab. Click the arrow to view the result and other information regarding previous mirroring jobs that were run.
    Monitoring The status of a mirroring job appears in the Monitoring tab.
    Target Site Configuration To use a site as a mirroring target, some configuration is required.
    Mirror Pages to a Target Site Create a target page in the editorial interface on the target site and create a page that acts as the root page for the mirrored pages. You can also use an existing page as the mirroring root page. To publish pages, the mirroring application needs to be installed and configuration needs to be implemented.
    Mirroring in Other Formats Partners and customers can create mirroring in formats other than Optimizely CMS Import/Export format and plug them in using the provider model.

 

Configuring A/B testing

You can configure the default settings used when running A/B tests in the admin view under Config > Tool Settings > AB Testing Configuration.

Image: AB Testing Configuration screen

Setting Description
Test Duration Sets the default test duration in days. This can be changed in edit view when setting up an A/B test.
Participation Percentage Sets the default number of A/B test participants in percentage. This can be changed in edit view when setting up an A/B test.

If the participation percentage is set to 20, 20 % of the site visitors participate in the A/B test. Half of the test participants are directed to the original version, and half to the variation version; the A/B test then measures which version has the most conversions. Site visitors not participating in the test are directed to the original version.

A higher number means that more visitors participate in the test and data is gathered more quickly, but it also means that a possibly less-effective page, from a conversion point of view, is exposed to more visitors.

Automatically publish the winner of the test if the results are significant? Set this to True and an A/B winner is automatically published when the A/B test completes and the results are statistically significant according to the set confidence level. The winner is the version that has the higher conversion rate. If the conversion rates are equal, the editor must pick a winner manually. This setting affects all A/B tests on the site.

The default setting is False.

Confidence Level Sets the default confidence level of statistical significance you want from the A/B test results. This can be changed in edit view when setting up an A/B test.

The confidence level determines how likely it is that a winning page is in fact better. That is, that the difference between the winning page and the challenger are not due to coincidence. For example, a 95% confidence level means that 95 identical test cases out of 100 would end with the same result. In other words, the higher the number, the more reliable test result.

Enable A/B testing This setting lets you turn on and off the A/B testing feature for the entire site. A/B testing is enabled by default.

If you deselect this check box, the A/B Test Changes option is no longer displayed on the Publish menu. Active tests (and scheduled tests at the scheduled time) will be set as running but no processing of these tests will be done. It is still possible to stop a test or pick a winner. The Enabled/Disabled configuration value is preserved and respected after updates and restarts of the web application.

When the feature has been disabled and is re-enabled, all active tests continue running.

Search configuration

You can configure different search providers depending on the type of content on your website. A search provider searches across the website for pages, blocks, files, categories, forums or page types, or products on an e-commerce website. Search results are available when searching in the Optimizely top menu in edit view.

Enabling search providers

You can decide which search providers you want to enable, and the order in which they appear in the search hit list. To access these settings, go to the admin view and select Config > Tool Settings > Search Configuration.

  • Blocks. Search in blocks.
  • Files. Search in files.
  • Pages. Search in pages.
  • Jump to. Jump directly from the search hit list to menu alternatives matching your search criteria.
  • Products. Search in products if you have Optimizely Commerce installed.
  • Find files, blocks and pages if you have Optimizely Search & Navigation installed.

You can drag and drop the search provider options to change the order between them. This controls the order in which the results are displayed in the hit list. Clearing a check box disables this search provider option.