When to use OCP

This article lists use cases that Optimizely Connect Platform (OCP) can solve, as well as use cases where another Optimizely product might be a better fit. For help with determining if OCP is a good fit for your use case, contact your partner manager.

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Note

Each use case is formatted as follows: Use case – Solution

Use cases for OCP

Below are examples of use cases where building an OCP app is a great solution. Use OCP any time you need a compute environment to pull/retrieve data, transform the data, push it to Optimizely Data Platform (ODP), or export a subset of the data from ODP.

• Transform data from a third-party service and import it into ODP – Write either a function or a job to retrieve the data, transform the data using TypeScript language, and import it into ODP using the OCP Node SDK.

• Periodically fetch a batch of data from a third-party service – Write a job to retrieve the data from a third-party service and use cron expression to schedule the job.

• Expose a webhook and register it in a third-party service to retrieve events – Write a function and process the incoming data in its callback method. Register the webhook in your third-party service at installation or in settings form callback function.

• Export a customer defined segment of users from ODP to a third-party service – Write a channel app, set up authentication and campaign settings forms, and implement callback functions.

• Import historical data from a third-party service – Write a job and trigger it either from a setting form callback or in lifecycle callback.

• Manage schema required by a JavaScript integration tag – Declare expected schema in YAML files and document how to configure JavaScript tag.

• Authenticate and connect ODP account with a third party service account – Configure settings form to retrieve credentials or set up OAuth authentication flow. Store credentials and API tokens securely in the secret store.

• Import user segments from a third-party service into ODP – Write a job and schedule it with cron expression to periodically import batches. Alternatively, if your third-party service supports sending updates using HTTP, write a function to expose a webhook and register the webhook in your third-party service at installation or in settings form callback function.

Use cases for other Optimizely products

Although OCP is a flexible platform, there are some use cases that are better suited for other Optimizely products and services. Below are some examples and solutions.

• Send events to ODP from user browsers (for example, from a JavaScript tag) – Use the ODP Web SDK. This saves an unnecessary network hop. You can still write an OCP app to manage schema and to provide documentation on how to configure your integration.

• Expose an entry point to check if a user belongs to a real-time segment – Use the ODP GraphQL API. This saves an unnecessary network hop.

• Synchronously retrieve data that is used in end-user transactions (for example, placing an order) – Design your solution to work in asynchronous mode to avoid extra latency and dependency. Typical overhead of OCP is very small, but can still negatively affect user experience when you combine it with other required steps to finish the transaction.