So you use ColdFusion and by now you have heard the news that Omniture is going to be purchased by Adobe. So what?  Why should you care?

The vast majority of ColdFusion sites I’ve work on in the past are not public sites, and historically there have been little, if any concern for web analytics.  Sure, we had basic usage data, but nothing close to the level of detail that Omniture can provide.  This goes beyond SEO, and just numbers for the marketing department.  It is the ability to gain a true understanding of what your users are doing on your applications.  Which features they really use and which ones they don’t.   Imagine building a web application and being able to have the data to drive the design of navigation and layout of these web apps.  Imagine having the data to take to the decision  makers to prove the effectiveness or lack of effectiveness of certain features.  This is what Omniture can do you for.

At it’s most basic level, the Omniture code is a Javascript file that you will include on every page of your web application or public web site.  On every page load, the JavaScript file makes an image request to Omniture and in doing so, sends the tracking data to Omniture and is then available within their tools to analyze and slice in almost any way imaginable.   Combine this with the power of ColdFusion and the possibilities are dizzying, especially when you start thinking about adding this type of tracking to Flex, Air, and of course Flash applications as well.

Most public sites rely heavily on other JavaScript functions to get any data beyond the basic implementation, but with ColdFusion you have one of the most powerful web languages at your disposal to easily gather and send much more advanced levels of data into Omniture.  I have posted several articles here that demonstrate a few things you can leverage ColdFusion for and send the data into Omniture:

• Social Media Data
• Hierarchy Data
• Build Custom XML for Data Insertion
• Custom Video Tracking

I’ve only been exposed to and been working with the Omniture code for a few months and I’m still learning how powerful this data can be, but I’m a true believer in the value it can bring.  If you made it this far in the past, thanks, and take a look around.  I will be the first to tell you that by no means do I consider myself to be an expert, but I am very excited about the things I have been able to do with Omniture & ColdFusion and I am looking forward to what the merger of Adobe & Omniture could mean for the ColdFusion community.

-Rudi