Pixel and push domain configuration

Overview

This domain is used for website visitors behavior tracking and handling push notifications subscription and delivery via HTTPS.

This standalone domain is required in any infrastructure design where you want to use behavior tracking and push notifications.it uses cookies for user identification — so it is highly advisable not to change this domain in the future.

There are two ways of pixel handling in Altcraft MP, see Infrastucture design variations for details.

The following terms are used in the article below:

Control server — the main server or server group of Altcraft MP, processing control panel and databases
cookiesaver — Altcraft MP service processing pixel and push domain
main.json — the main Altcraft MP configuration file, placed in config directory of Altcraft MP installation directory.
pxl.example.com — pixel, push and cookies domain
10.20.10.0/24 — Control Server public IPs
10.10.10.0/24 — Control Server private IPs

An A record is made for the pixel domain - pointing cookiesaver's IP address or load balancer's IP address.

pxl.example.com IN A 10.20.10.3

Mind that SSL usage is mandatory for the pixel domain. Examples below use letsencrypt SSL certificates.

Without proxy

When using no proxy or balance loader — the domain's IP points to any of the Control server's network interfaces. NAT usage is also possible.

The following changes should be made in main.json configuration file:

"COOKIESAVER_PUBLIC_IP": "10.20.10.3",
"COOKIESAVER_PUBLIC_HOSTNAME": "pxl.example.com",
"COOKIESAVER_PUBLIC_PORT": 443,
"COOKIESAVER_SSL_CRT_PATH": "/etc/letsencrypt/live/pxl.example.com/fullchain.pem",
"COOKIESAVER_SSL_KEY_PATH": "/etc/letsencrypt/live/pxl.example.com/privkey.pem",

With external proxy

A local network IP address is provided for proxying needs. SSL termination is mandatory.

The following changes should be made in main.json configuration file:

"COOKIESAVER_PUBLIC_IP": "10.10.10.3",
"COOKIESAVER_PUBLIC_HOSTNAME": "pxl.example.com",
"COOKIESAVER_PUBLIC_PORT": 443,
"COOKIESAVER_SSL_ON": false,

Note that even when SSL termination is disabled - port 443 is used. That is a system restriction.

The following configuration depends on the proxy you are going to use. Here is an example for Nginx:

server {
 listen 10.20.10.3:443 ssl;
 server_name pxl.example.com;
 ssl on;
 ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/pxl.example.com/fullchain.pem;
 ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/pxl.example.com/privkey.pem;
 upstream cookiesaver {
  least_conn;
  server 10.10.10.3:443;
  keepalive 1024;
 }
 location / {
  proxy_http_version 1.1;
  proxy_set_header Connection "";
  proxy_pass_header Server;
  proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
  proxy_redirect off;
  proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
  proxy_set_header X-Scheme $scheme;
  proxy_pass http://cookiesaver;
 }
}

Testing and launching

After configuring main.json restart cookiesaver process by akd utility from Altcraft MP installation directory:

./akd onerestart cookiesaver

If no errors occur during restarting cookiesaver, the next step is to restart the platform.

./akd restart

Then you can enable Pixel and Push in Altcraft administrative panel for any service instance account.

To make sure the pixel domain is functional, check if hyperlinks in sent messages are processed within the new domain:

wget http://trk.example.com/0f1d00e4d93978fc/TdguHgCa<cut>w 2>&1 | grep Location:
Location: https://pxl.example.com:443/pixel?_open_pix=1&k=7E<cut>P5 [following]
Location: https://example.com/ [following]

Mind that pixel tracking is disabled for mailing testing. Thus you will need a segment of testing subscribers.

The following pixel and push configuration is set up in Altcraft MP user interface: pixel settings, web push: settings & implementation

Overview​

Without proxy​

With external proxy​

Testing and launching​

Overview

Without proxy

With external proxy

Testing and launching