Practical explanation for the User Tagging options

[Peter_Youssef]

Hi dears 

If possible, I need the simplest practical explanation for the mentioned below user tagging options:

• CSS selector. Use when the user's identifier is visible on the page. This mechanism captures the first match innerText/textContent value (available for browsers that support querySelector). To retrieve a specific attribute value of the element, append the '@' symbol followed by the attribute name, for example, #someDomElement@someAttribute.
• JavaScript variable. Use when you are already sending your user's identifier via a tag manager to other tools. You can then reuse your data layer object. This variable must be available globally. Use dot notation for property reference with JavaScript variables (someVar.version). Refer to your tag manager documentation for details.
• Meta tag:. Use when your user's identifier is present in one of the meta tags in the page source. This specifies the meta tag name that Dynatrace uses to capture its content value.
• Cookie value. Use when your user's identifier is present in one of your existing cookies.

• Query string. Use when your user's identifier is part of a certain query string parameter, which you can define here.
• Server-side request attribute. Use when you want to use a server-side request attribute to tag each user session.
  Once you've defined a request attribute, all you need to do is to set Server-side request attribute as Source type. Note that the service request attribute may not be captured for every user action and user session, as your server-side PurePath may be not captured due to adaptive capture control.

Thanks

[Julius_Loman · Accepted solution]

User Tag is the user identification in the user sessions. (mostly for being able to find a particular sessions if you know the user identification).

The user tag may be captured from different sources - that is the list you have pasted:
CSS selector - captured from the page using CSS selectors that allow you to specify elements in the HTML. The user tag is captured and session is tagged as soon as the element value specified by the selector is present.
JavaScript variable - user tag is retrieved from the global javascript variable
Meta tag - user tag value is captured from the <meta> elements in the page.
Cookie value - user tag value is captured from a cookie specified
Query string - user tag value is captured from the query string (e.g. the  https://myapplication.tld/homepage?user=usertag - the parameters after ?)
Server-side request attribute - the user tag is captured from the request attribute. For this to work, the application must be deep-monitored by oneagent, request attribute must be defined to capture the value from the application code or by other means and also Dynatrace must be able to link the sessions to purepaths on the server side. 

[Rapidez]

Hi @Peter_Youssef , The option you choose depends on the application you are monitoring. If you have a cookie aviliable with user name - use it. If you have javascript variable with user name - use it ... etc.

From a practical perspective, I avoid using CSS selector as a user tag source - it is the least reliable in my opinion.