Personalization and Visitor Groups - Optimizely CMS 12

Exam Area: Content Area 1 – Product Knowledge (15%)
Reference: https://docs.developers.optimizely.com/content-management-system/docs/personalization

---

1. What are Visitor Groups?

Visitor Groups allow editors to show different content to different groups of users based on criteria.

Example criteria:

• Geographic location – Country, city
• Browser/Device – Mobile, Desktop, Browser type
• Time of day – Morning, evening
• Roles – Logged-in users, Admin
• Session data – Number of visits
• Referrer – Coming from Google, Facebook

---

2. Using Visitor Groups (Editor workflow)

1. Admin → Visitor Groups → Create a new group
2. Add criteria to the group
3. In Edit View, select content → "Personalized content"
4. Assign content to a visitor group

---

3. Personalized Content in Views

@* Using Personalized Content helper *@
@using EPiServer.Personalization.VisitorGroups

<div>
    @* Content for everyone *@
    <h1>Welcome!</h1>
    
    @* Content only for logged-in users *@
    @if (User.Identity.IsAuthenticated)
    {
        <p>Welcome back, @User.Identity.Name!</p>
    }
</div>

---

4. Custom Visitor Group Criteria

using EPiServer.Personalization.VisitorGroups;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;

// 1. Model for criterion
[VisitorGroupCriterion(
    Category = "Custom",
    DisplayName = "User Points",
    Description = "Users with certain points")]
public class UserPointsCriterionModel : CriterionModelBase
{
    [Display(Name = "Minimum Points")]
    public int MinimumPoints { get; set; }

    public override ICriterionModel Copy()
    {
        return ShallowCopy();
    }
}

// 2. Criterion implementation
[VisitorGroupCriterion(
    Category = "Custom",
    DisplayName = "User Points",
    Description = "Users with certain points")]
public class UserPointsCriterion : CriterionBase<UserPointsCriterionModel>
{
    public override bool IsMatch(IPrincipal principal, HttpContext httpContext)
    {
        // Logic to check the user's points
        var userPoints = GetUserPoints(principal);
        return userPoints >= Model.MinimumPoints;
    }
    
    private int GetUserPoints(IPrincipal principal)
    {
        // Custom logic
        return 100; // example
    }
}

---

5. Checking Visitor Group Membership in Code

using EPiServer.Personalization.VisitorGroups;

public class PersonalizationService
{
    private readonly IVisitorGroupRepository _visitorGroupRepository;
    private readonly IVisitorGroupRoleRepository _roleRepository;

    public bool IsUserInGroup(IPrincipal user, string groupName)
    {
        var group = _visitorGroupRepository.List()
            .FirstOrDefault(vg => vg.Name == groupName);
        
        if (group == null) return false;
        
        return _roleRepository.IsInGroup(user, group.Id.ToString(), null);
    }
}

---

6. Personalized Content in ContentArea

@* In View, CMS handles the visitor group logic automatically *@
@Html.PropertyFor(m => m.MainContentArea)

Editors can set visitor groups on blocks within a ContentArea via Edit View.

---

7. Caching and Personalization

Important note: When using personalization, be careful with output caching because personalized content must not be shared in a cache.

// Disable output cache for pages with personalized content
[ContentOutputCache(Duration = 0)]
public ActionResult Index(MyPage currentPage)
{
    return View(currentPage);
}

---

8. Built-in Criteria (Out-of-the-box)

Criteria available in CMS by default:

---

Review Questions

1. What do Visitor Groups enable? (Show different content to different groups of users)
2. Which class must a custom criterion inherit from? (CriterionBase<TModel>)
3. Why must you be careful with caching when using personalization? (Personalized content must not be shared in cache)
4. What does the IsMatch method in a custom criterion do? (Checks whether a user belongs to the group)
5. What does the [VisitorGroupCriterion] attribute do? (Registers the criterion with the CMS)