Kameleoon has announced a major update to its personalisation and A/B testing platform. This update follows substantial recent advances with new features aimed at developers. It is in addition to the ability to handle the restrictions imposed by the latest Apple Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) 2.3 update.
Central to the new release is a switch from JavaScript to TypeScript within its engine code, which has also been substantially rewritten. It means scripts deployed on visitor devices by sites using Kameleoon to deliver testing and personalisation are now 30% smaller. These scripts at 30.7KB are under half the size of some rivals. Kameleoon says this improves execution speed and the visitor experience. It enables brands to deliver seamless personalisation and testing without any performance impact on visitors.
Moving to TypeScript
Designed for enterprise applications, TypeScript is an open-source programming language that adds functionality to JavaScript. TypeScript programmes compile to JavaScript for both client-side and server-side execution. Moving to TypeScript increases the robustness of Kameleoon’s code. It also reduces development time and makes it easier to add custom developments for clients.
“At Kameleoon, we are dedicated to ensuring our clients can deliver the most powerful personalisation and testing programmes. This is to benefit the user experience, engagement and conversions,” said Frédéric De Todaro, Chief Product Officer, Kameleoon. “Our latest upgrades helps our clients benefit when putting personalisation and experimentation at the heart of their digital strategies.”
Testing and personalisation
Apple’s latest update to ITP 2.3 imposes a seven day limit on storage of user data by sites accessed via the Safari browser on desktop or mobile. This significantly impacts testing and personalisation, making experiment results unreliable. If visitors using Safari and involved in a test, return to a site after more than seven days, they will not see the same variant as before. Kameleoon solves this issue through server-side cookies synchronised with Local Storage.
Customer benefits
The company says the latest update to Kameleoon also brings multiple customer benefits:
- Move to beacon calls drastically reduces the number of network calls. It improves performance for clients who run a large number of experiments and personalisations.
- Better, more flexible management of legal consent in line with regulations such as the GDPR and CCPA. Clients can easily define different levels of consent to respect privacy and meet all possible use cases and constraints.
New features for developers have been introduced. It includes the ability to code experiments without needing to use the graphical editor. Chrome Extension, which enables troubleshooting of live experiments, runs direct from the developer’s browser.
“I am glad Kameleoon has switched to TypeScript as we are already users and it brings lots of advantages – speed is definitely one of them. We can’t imagine working without it anymore,” added Henry Münster, Product Manager Testing & Senior Software Engineer, WELT Digital.
“The new code editor and Chrome Extension are also game-changing features as they provide big steps forward for developers. We are still exploring the possibilities and features of Chrome Extension. But it offers a large amount of information and insights into running tests, goals and data.”
Kameleoon users will automatically be upgraded to the latest version of the platform, which went live on 3 June 2020. It removes any possibility of migration issues.
Enterprise Times: What this means for business?
Consumers rightly want personal data to remain private when they are online. Furthermore, they do not want it to be used to unnecessarily track them around the digital world. This has led to increased regulation, such as the GDPR and CCPA. As a result, many technology companies have changed how they handle third-party cookies in their browsers.
Apple CEO, Tim Cook has publicly committed to protecting customer data and putting privacy at the heart of everything Apple does. This commitment extends to its Safari browser, which has included Apple’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) technology since 2017. Hence the significance of Kameleoon’s platform changes that handle the restrictions imposed by the latest Apple’s ITP 2.3 update. This update reinforces the company’s position as the best-performing optimisation tool on the market.
