Matching rules

When setting up page groups, conversions, events, etc., Ptengine Experience uses the following five matching rules. These are "Include", "Forward Match", "Backward Match", "Exact Match" and "Regular Expression".

Include

URLs that contain specific character strings, e.g., if you select the "Include" rule with the "abc.com" specification, the URL will be targeted if it contains the URL you entered, such as "abc.com.contact".

Forward Match

Forward matching is targeted when the string matches from the first character to the last character specified.

This forward matching mode is suitable when the URL of a website usually does not vary much, but contains various parameters at the end of the URL.

For example, if the site visited by a particular visitor is https://www.example.com/checkout.cgi?page=1&id=9982251615, the registration numbers of other users will not be included if the site is registered by forward matching. If you set "http://www.example.com/checkout.cgi?page", all registration numbers will be counted including the contents of other pages except page=1. If you set "http://www.example.com/checkout.cgi?page=1", all users with all registration numbers will be counted, but limited to the relevant pages.

Backward Match

Backward matching targets cases where a match is made from the last character of the string to the first character specified.

For example, if the URL is http://www.example.com/s/test/index.html, the URL to be matched in backward matching mode should be set to "/test/index.html".

In this case, even if the front part of the site is different and becomes http://www.123.com/s/test/index.html, it will still match.

Also, if the URL is http://www.example.com/s/test/index.html?wore=xxx , it cannot be matched by backward matching because of the "?wore=xxx" at the back.

Exact Match

Exact match means that all characters in the URL match exactly from beginning to end, with no exceptions.

Regular Expression

Ptengine Experience supports regular expressions, which allow you to configure detailed settings. A regular expression is a way of expressing several strings of characters in a single format.

Commonly used combinations in regular expressions

1. The forward part of the domain should be an exact match, with a / or ? parameter at the end.

Regular Expression：
^https:\/\/www.ptmind.com($|\/$|\/\?.*)

• URL included：
  https://www.ptmind.com
https://www.ptmind.com/
https://www.ptmind.com/?WT.mc_id=xxxx

• URL excluded：
  https://www.ptmind.com/abc

2. If you want to combine URLs that contain http or https and subdomains

Regular Expression：
^(http|https):\/\/(sh|bj|tj).ptmind.com

• URL included：
  http://sh.ptmind.com
http://bj.ptmind.com/abc
http://tj.ptmind.com
https://sh.ptmind.com
https://bj.ptmind.com/?WT.mc_id=xxxx
https://tj.ptmind.com

• URL excluded：
  https://www.ptmind.com

3. If you want to combine URLs that contain http or https and have different subdirectories for www or www.

Regular Expression：
^(http|https):\/\/[a-z0-9]*[.]*ptmind.com\/service\/mng_units\/lp03$

• URL included：
  http://www.ptmind.com/service/mng_units/lp03
https://www.ptmind.com/service/mng_units/lp03
http://ptmind.com/service/mng_units/lp03
http://a123.ptmind.com/service/mng_units/lp03
https://ptmind.com/service/mng_units/lp03

• URL excluded：ー

4. If you want to summarize URLs whose id is in the relevant range (6984604 to 6984783)

Regular Expression：
^http:\/\/ptmind.com\/detail\/id=6984([6][1-9][0-9]|[6][0][4-9]|[7][0-7][0-9]|[7][8][0-3])$

• URL included：
  http://ptmind.com/detail/id=6984604
http://ptmind.com/detail/id=6984783

• URL excluded：
  http://ptmind.com/detail/id=6984784
http://ptmind.com/detail/id=6984603

Regular expression validation tool

You can use a tool such as this one to check if the regular expression description is correct.
https://www.regexpal.com/