How To Test For the Lotame Prebid User ID Module

updated 8 mths ago

OVERVIEW

These are the steps to test if the Lotame Panorama ID User ID module is deployed and working on a prebid enabled website.

Here is a test page where you can walk through these steps to see the output

https://www.lotame.com/projects/prebid/

1. Remove all cookies and local storage for a clean slate (Or use incognito mode or a newly created Chrome profile)

It’s not always practical to remove cookies, history and cache from your main browser profile. You can use a separate browser, a separate Chrome profile within Chrome or incognito mode. There is no mechanism in Google Chrome to clear locally stored data in incognito mode—you simply close the incognito window to wipe that session's data.

2. Visit the website that you’re testing. Consent to your data being collected if there is a call to action do so.

In regions, such as the EU, where GDPR requires that websites must receive opt-in to collect data. Even if the Lotame User ID module is deployed correctly, if there is a requirement for receiving consent via a CMP, then the request to Lotame will not fire and you won't be able to test the User ID module.

3. (Optional) May need to refresh

Depending on the version and configuration of your browser’s developer tools you may need to refresh the page you are testing after it has loaded in order to see the results in the subsequent steps of this process. There are troubleshooting tips at the end of these instructions.

4. Filter the Network tab in the browser's Developer Tools

Open the Developer tools, (Cmd + Opt + I for Mac users or F12, or Ctrl + Shift + I for Windows users). Go to the Network tab and filter for this host:

https://id.crwdcntrl.net/id

5. Check the response from https://id.crwdcntrl.net/id (Does not apply when LT.JS is implemented on page)

What you’re looking for here is a payload of data that has been sent back to the browser from the host id.crwdcntrl.net.

The name of the response will be id and it will look like this. (You may be using a different version of the prebid library).

You might see the id response includes additional parameters such as those required by GDPR

By clicking on the id in the Name column you can see the payload that has been returned to the User ID module.

The core_id member of the json payload is the Panorama ID.

However, If your page has LT.JS implemented, the panorama ID will be returned in the first data call from it, in the "ids" section, with c:"core" and i: being the panorama ID value.

6. Check local storage

You can check the local storage for your testing domain under the Applications tab of the Developer Tools. The Panorama ID will match the core_id returned from the id response.

Notes and Troubleshooting

Re-staging Your Tests

It can be challenging to test a site and not be able to reproduce the same results.

If you repeat your test, close and reopen a fresh incognito window. If you’re using the same Chrome testing profile make sure to again delete our local browser data. File > Clear browser data. (Ctrl-Shift-Delete on Windows and Command+Shift+Backspace on Mac).

You can also just create another new testing profile. To delete testing profiles in Chrome go to your profile icon in the top right hand corner of the screen and click the cog to ‘Manage Profiles’. Click the three dots on the profile to choose to delete it.

If there is a Panorama ID in your Local Storage it may not be that the User ID Module put it there

Don't assume that simply because there is value in our sites domain in local storage that the User ID module is functioning correctly.

The site you’re testing may be using a number of other client side tags that populate the local storage property of ‘panoramaId’.

If the site is using the Lotame lighting tag, or the Lotame Sync.js tag or the Lotame Audience Extraction API then these tags may be populating the localstorage value. None of these tags are responsible for populating the bidstream. These tags may be applied directly by the site owner or via other adtech vendors deployed on the site who use these Lotame tags in their products.

The rule is that if the request to id.crwdcntrl.net is being made and the response includes a Panorama ID then the User ID module is functioning correctly. If the user ID module is set up properly it will check to see if the panorama ID is inside the localstorage and if there is no panorama ID set then it will call id.crwdcntrl.net

Previous Prebid and the User ID Module Next Instructions for SSPs Adopting the Panorama ID in the Bidstream