Differences between Props and eVars

The following are the main differences between Props and eVars:

Naming convention: Props are considered traffic variables,

meaning they are used to report on popularity of various
dimensions of your site. eVars are considered conversion
variables. They are used to determine which dimensions of your
site contribute the most to success events.
Persistence: Props do not persist beyond the image request
they were fired on. They cannot be associated with other
variables that are not in the same image request. eVars,
however, are persistent. A backend variable is used to preserve
the value originally fired so it can associate itself with success
events later on.
Success events: Success events, also known as conversion
events, are metrics that measure the number of times a visitor
reaches a goal. This event can be anything from purchasing
something on your site, to subscribing to a newsletter. eVars are
designed to report on conversion events, to show you which
values are most successful in influencing visitors to reach your
goals. Traffic variables do not have this same functionality.
However, you can view participation metrics if you configure
your report suite correctly.
Pathing: Props can use pathing, which allows your organization
to see a given path a user took within the context of the
variable being viewed. An Adobe representative can enable
pathing, if requested. eVars cannot use pathing.
Potentially available metrics: The metrics available between
Props and eVars vary widely based on the variable's settings
and data platform/version. The following list illustrates what can
be enabled, not what is enabled by default. If you want a
specific metric in reporting but do not see it, have one of your
organization's supported users contact ClientCare.
Both Props and eVars:

Instances, Page
Views, Visits and
Unique Visitors

Bounces, Bounce
Rate, Entries, Exits,
and Total Time Spent

Participation metrics
and calculated
metrics

Props (Traffic variables):

Average Time
Spent, Average Page

Depth, Reloads, and

Single Access

eVars (Conversion variables):

All shopping cart

metrics

All purchase metrics,

such as Orders, Units,
and Revenue

All custom conversion

events

Breakdowns: Props use correlations, which display page views

for other traffic variables fired in the same image request. eVars
use subrelations, which provide a breakdown on other
conversion variables in relation to success events.

Omniture Site Catalyst: Props ,eVars and events

Omniture SiteCatalyst is one of the most advanced web analytics solutions available in the market
today. SiteCatalyst's advanced reporting capabilities generate over 150,000 report combinations.
Traffic reporting lets you analyze all aspects of visitor activity, such as traffic patterns, popular
channels, referred technology and finding methods used .
So How does SiteCatalyst collect data?
The SiteCatalyst data collection process is fairly basic. After proper development time, the
SiteCatalyst code (or Code to Paste) is placed in the HTML source code on the desired pages of their
production web site(s).
When a visitor enters your web site, your landing page loads in their browser window. As the page
loads, the SiteCatalyst Code to Paste sets certain variables, for example, the pageName variable, and
the SiteCatalyst JavaScript Include file. The variables (and other identifiers) are used to facilitate the
data collection process, and can be dynamically populated with server or application variables.
The JavaScript Include file builds an image request, or web beacon. The image request uses a
transparent 1x1 pixel image to pass data from the web page to the Omniture data center. No personal
data about the visitors is ever passed to Omniture. The process is repeated every time the visitor
accesses a page that contains SiteCatalyst code.
The image request contains a query string that passes the data variables that are collected on the
page. Some of these variables are set specifically in the Code to Paste, and some variables are set
automatically within the JavaScript file. Additionally, the image request contains a number of variables
in the HTTP header. All of these variables constitute the sum of the data collection elements.

Props, eVars and events :

At the heart of SiteCatalyst's data collection methodology are Props, eVars and events. Props and
eVars are variables that store data and pass them on to the data collection server, whereas events
help in triggering data collection by these variables. Let's look into the variables in a little more detail:
Props and eVars:
Custom Insight Variables, also called props or property variables, are counters that count the number
of times each value is sent into SiteCatalyst. They also enable you to correlate custom data with
specific traffic-related events. s.prop variables are embedded in the SiteCatalyst code on each page
of your website. Through s.prop variables, SiteCatalyst allows you to create custom reports, unique to
your organization, industry, and business objectives. For example, if you are an automobile
manufacturer you may be interested in seeing "Most Popular Car Model" to complement your "Most
Popular Pages" report. You can accomplish this by allocating one of your traffic properties to
represent car model and then implement your code to pass in car model on the appropriate pages.
There are endless business questions that can be answered through the Custom Insight Variables,
depending on what you are capturing from your website. The following list contains a few common
goals and objectives.
Understanding user navigation through the web site
Understanding internal user search behavior
Segmenting traffic by navigation or category
Segmenting visitor behavior by demographics
An important thing to note is that Props are non persistent variables. The values that are populated in
these variables last only within the context of the particular page.
eVars (or Custom Conversion Insight Variables) are used to identify how well specific attributes or
actions contribute to success events on your site. For example, for a media site, eVars may be used
to identify how well internal promotions bring visitors to register. When a visitor clicks on the internal
promotion, an eVar can be used to store a unique identifier for that promotion. When the same visitor
completes registration and a custom success event is fired, the original unique identifier will receive
credit for the registration event.
eVars are persistent variables and can be used to store a particular value throughout a session
unless over written. They can be used to tie success events to custom variable.
Events are triggers that help in collection of data. For example in case you want to check how many
time a certain product has been viewed, you can use an event that is fired each time that product
page is viewed. Omniture offers predefined and Custom events which will discussed a later post.