Sitecore 9 Data flow – Part 1– Introduction

In this series of blog posts I will describe the flow of data in sitecore 9 from the moment when Sitecore gather information to the moment we see these data in reports, everyone knows that Sitecore with its analytics and marketing power (With Sitecore Experience Platform (XP)) gather information for each visit, move this information through a flow until we can see the information in a well-organized reports.

Image Courtesy to jammykam

The process of collecting data (interactions), store the data into xDB, process and aggregate the data to the reporting database is the general outline of how data is flowed through Sitecore XP, in order to be able to understand the data flow we should have a good idea of the different server roles Sitecore has, in addition to a good idea about XP services that Sitecore 9 has. So, in this post we will talk about the different server roles and XP services that Sitecore 9 offers. In future posts will cover the process of data flowing in step by step. Are you excited?! Want to know more, continue reading!

First, I should explain that we are talking about Sitecore Experience Platform (XP) NOT Sitecore Experience Manager (XM), you don’t know the difference? OK, here you go:

Sitecore Experience Manager (XM): Is the web content management core of Sitecore experience platform, it is responsible of creation, management, personalization and publishing of contents. If you want to get more information about it, click here

Sitecore experience Platform (XP): This is the full Sitecore capabilities, it contains both XM in addition to xDB, in another words, in XP you have enabled Sitecore xDB and now you have more powerful marking capabilities in addition to more server roles and XP serveries. You should know here that you have to get an xDB license. If you want more information about it, click here.

If you checked Sitecore documentation, you will find that different categorization for roles had been defined, either by product (XM, XP and XC), by Type (Storage, application, indexes and cloud services), or by combination (core roles, XP Service roles. commerce engine and standalone), you will find a lot of useful information if you check Sitecore documentation.

You can read sitecore documentation to know more about what are the roles that exist in XM, XP or XC, also, you find how roles are categorized into storage, application or any other type, or even check how you can combine different roles together, in this post we are interested to know what are the different roles that exist in Sitecore 9.

CORE ROLES:

We have 4 different core roles in sitecore 9 that I am interested in in this series of posts, following is a brief about each one:

1. Content Management: it is the role that enables content authors to create, manage and publish sitecore content, a lot of information about storage roles, application roles, search indexes, cloud services and scaling can found here.
2. Content Delivery: It is the role that handle requests from visitors, determine which content to serve and render, a lot of information about storage roles, application roles, search indexes, cloud services and scaling can found here.
3.  xDB Processing:  It is the role responsible on analysis and aggregation of collecting data to make it usable for reporting, a lot of information about storage roles, application roles, search indexes, cloud services and scaling can found here.
4. xDB Reporting: It is the role that retrieves reporting data from various data sources to use in Sitecore reporting applications, a lot of information about storage roles, application roles, search indexes, cloud services and scaling can found here.

XP SERVICES ROLES:

We have 7 XP services roles that we are interested in in this services, following is a brief description for each one:

1.       xConnect Collection: responsible of receiving contact and interactions, reading contact and interaction and support data extraction.  Infrastructure, Scaling, privacy and security information can found here.
2.       xConnect Collection Search: enable searching contacts and interactions through xConnect client API, Infrastructure, Scaling, privacy and security information can found here.
3.       Marketing Automation Reporting: allows you to retrieve plan and enrollment statistics using the Marketing Automation Reporting API. Infrastructure, Scaling, privacy and security information can found here.
4.       Marketing Automation Operations: allows you to manage contact enrollments or register live events using the Marketing Automation Operations API, Infrastructure, Scaling, privacy and security information can found here
5.       Reference Data Service: allows you to create or retrieve reference data using the Reference Data Client API. Infrastructure, Scaling, privacy and security information can found here.
6.       xConnect Search Indexer: simple updates the xDB, Infrastructure, Scaling, privacy and security information can found here.
7.       Marketing Automation Engine: processes campaign and activity enrollments, and moves contacts through campaigns, Infrastructure, Scaling, privacy and security information can found here.

The above will Definitely help you to understand the data flow in Sitecore XP, one last note to mention that in a standalone installation all roles are combined in one server, noticing that content publishing can’t be combined it must be on a different server.