xConnect: Rapid Interaction Spoofing and Contact Identification

October 1, 2022

When you're testing contact sessions and contact identification, you don't want to wait for sessions to end on their own; it's too slow. We are going to set up a handful of bookmarkable API GET endpoints so you can rapidly start a session, identify as a specific contact, viw the current session data, and end the session so that the data is written to the database immediately instead of having to wait.

Endpoints for Ending Sessions and Viewing Session Data

VisitController.cs

using Sitecore.Analytics;
using Sitecore.Diagnostics;
using System.Web.Mvc;
namespace Client.Foundation.xConnectPoc.Controllers
{
  public class VisitController : Controller
  {
    [HttpGet]
    public JsonResult Data()
    {
      var currentTracker = Tracker.Current;
      var data = currentTracker.Interaction.ToVisitData();
      return Json(data, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
    }
    [HttpGet]
    public JsonResult End()
    {
      Session.Abandon();
      Log.Info("Closing xDB session", this);
      return Json(new { Message = "xDB Session Closed" }, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
    }
  }
}

InitializeRoutes.cs

using System.Web.Mvc;
using System.Web.Routing;
using Sitecore.Pipelines;
namespace Client.Foundation.xConnectPoc.Pipelines.Initialize
{
  public class InitializeRoutes : Sitecore.Mvc.Pipelines.Loader.InitializeRoutes
  {
      public override void Process(PipelineArgs args)
      {
          RouteTable.Routes.MapRoute(
              "VisitData", // Route name
              "api/visit/data",
              new { controller = "Visit", action = "Data" },
              new[] { "Client.Foundation.xConnectPoc.Controllers" });
          RouteTable.Routes.MapRoute(
              "VisitEnd",
              "api/visit/end",
              new { controller = "Visit", action = "End" },
              new[] { "Client.Foundation.xConnectPoc.Controllers" });
      }
  }
}

Patch.config

<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/">
  <sitecore>
    <pipelines>
      <initialize>
        <!-- Only enable this in test environments -->
        <processor type="Client.Foundation.xConnectPoc.Pipelines.Initialize.InitializeRoutes, Client.Foundation.xConnectPoc" patch:before="processor[@type='Sitecore.Mvc.Pipelines.Loader.InitializeRoutes, Sitecore.Mvc']"/>
      </initialize>
    </pipelines>
  </sitecore>
</configuration>

Now we need to set up the logic to get or set the contact and populate its fields. Getting or setting the contact also implies that we need to support contact identification. Modify the code below to suit your needs.

SpoofVisit.cs

using Sitecore.Analytics;
using Sitecore.Analytics.Model;
using Sitecore.Analytics.Model.Entities;
using Sitecore.Analytics.Pipelines.CreateVisits;
using Sitecore.XConnect;
using Sitecore.XConnect.Client;
using Sitecore.XConnect.Collection.Model;
using System.Linq;
using System.Net;
namespace Client.Foundation.xConnectPoc.Pipelines.CreateVisit
{
  public class SpoofVisit : CreateVisitProcessor
  {
    public override void Process(CreateVisitArgs args)
    {
      // We're using an email in the query string as the primary identification mechanism
      var email = args.Request.Params["email"];
      if (string.IsNullOrWhitespace(email))
      {
        return;
      }
      var firstName = args.Request.Params["firstName"];
      var lastName = args.Request.Params["lastName"];
      // IP address info, if you want
      if (!string.IsNullOrWhitespace(args.Request.Params["geoIp"]))
      {
        var geoip = args.Request.Params["geoIp"];
        var ipAddress = IPAddress.Parse(geoIp);
        args.Interaction.Ip = ipAddress.GetAddressBytes();
      }
      args.Session.IdentifyAs("Email", email);
      var manager = Sitecore.Configuration.Factory.CreateObject("tracking/contactManager", true) as Sitecore.Analytics.Tracking.ContactManager;
      if (manager == null)
      {
        return;
      } 
      if (Tracker.Current.Contact.IsNew)
      {
        // Save contact to xConnect; at this point, a contact has an anonymous
        // TRACKER IDENTIFIER, which follows a specific format. Do not use the contactId overload
        // and make sure you set the ContactSaveMode as demonstrated
        Tracker.Current.Contact.ContactSaveMode = ContactSaveMode.AlwaysSave;
        manager.SaveContactToCollectionDb(Tracker.Current.Contact);
        // Now that the contact is saved, you can retrieve it using the tracker identifier
        var trackerIdentifier = new IdentifiedContactReference(Sitecore.Analytics.XConnect.DataAccess.Constants.IdentifierSource, Tracker.Current.Contact.ContactId.ToString("N"));
        // Get contact from xConnect, update and save the facet
        using (XConnectClient client = Sitecore.XConnect.Client.Configuration.SitecoreXConnectClientConfiguration.GetClient())
        {
          try
          {
            var contact = client.Get(trackerIdentifier, new Sitecore.XConnect.ContactExpandOptions());
            if (contact == null)
            {
              // Handle it
            }
            client.SetFacet(contact, PersonalInformation.DefaultFacetKey, new PersonalInformation()
            {
                FirstName = firstName,
                LastName = lastName
            });
            var emails = new EmailAddressList(new EmailAddress(email, true), "Home");            
            client.SetFacet(contact, emails);
            client.Submit();
            // Remove contact data from shared session state - contact will be re-loaded
            // during subsequent request with updated facets
            manager.RemoveFromSession(Tracker.Current.Contact.ContactId);
            Tracker.Current.Session.Contact = manager.LoadContact(Tracker.Current.Contact.ContactId);
          }
          catch (XdbExecutionException ex)
          {
              // Manage conflicts / exceptions
              Sitecore.Diagnostics.Log.Error(ex.Message, ex, this);
          }
        }
      }
      else
      {
        var anyIdentifier = Tracker.Current.Contact.Identifiers.FirstOrDefault();
        // Get contact from xConnect, update and save the facet
        using (XConnectClient client = Sitecore.XConnect.Client.Configuration.SitecoreXConnectClientConfiguration.GetClient())
        {
          try
          {
            var contact = client.Get(new IdentifiedContactReference(anyIdentifier.Source, anyIdentifier.Identifier), new ContactExpandOptions(PersonalInformation.DefaultFacetKey));
            if (contact == null)
            {
              // Handle it
            }
            if (contact.Personal() != null)
            {
                if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(firstName))
                    contact.Personal().FirstName = firstName;
                if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(lastName))
                    contact.Personal().LastName = lastName;
                client.SetFacet(contact, PersonalInformation.DefaultFacetKey, contact.Personal());
            }
            else
            {
                client.SetFacet(contact, PersonalInformation.DefaultFacetKey, new PersonalInformation()
                {
                    FirstName = firstName,
                    LastName = lastName
                });
            }
            var emailAddressList = contact.GetFacet<EmailAddressList>(EmailAddressList.DefaultFacetKey);
            if (emailAddressList != null)
            {
                // Change facet properties
                emailAddressList.PreferredEmail = new EmailAddress(email, true);
                emailAddressList.PreferredKey = "Home";
                // Set the updated facet
                client.SetFacet(contact, EmailAddressList.DefaultFacetKey, emailAddressList);
            }
            else
            {
                // Facet is new
                var emails = new EmailAddressList(new EmailAddress(email, true), "Home");
                client.SetFacet(contact, EmailAddressList.DefaultFacetKey, emails);
            }
            client.Submit();
            // Remove contact data from shared session state - contact will be re-loaded
            // during subsequent request with updated facets
            manager.RemoveFromSession(Tracker.Current.Contact.ContactId);
            Tracker.Current.Session.Contact = manager.LoadContact(Tracker.Current.Contact.ContactId);
          }
          catch (XdbExecutionException ex)
          {
              // Manage conflicts / exceptions
              Sitecore.Diagnostics.Log.Error(ex.Message, ex, this);
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Patch.config

<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/">
  <sitecore>
    <pipelines>
      <createVisit>
        <!-- Make sure to disable this in PROD -->
        <processor type="Client.Foundation.xConnectPoc.Pipelines.CreateVisit.SpoofVisit, Client.Foundation.xConnectPoc" patch:after="processor[@type='Sitecore.Analytics.Pipelines.CreateVisits.XForwardedFor, Sitecore.Analytics']" />
      </createVisit>
    </pipelines>
  </sitecore>
</configuration>