How to store full URLs in page view events instead of just the path?

Question

I have a case where I need page view events to store full URLs in the Url property instead of just the paths.

For example, if I explore the Interactions table, inside the Events column, PageViewEvents have the following data:

{"@odata.type":"#Sitecore.XConnect.Collection.Model.PageViewEvent","CustomValues":[],"DefinitionId":"9326cb1e-cec8-48f2-9a3e-91c7dbb2166c","ItemId":"xxxxxxx","Id":"xxxxxxx","Timestamp":"2022-07-08T20:23:06.1411643Z","ItemLanguage":"en","ItemVersion":1,"Url":"/-/media/project/client/image.jpg","SitecoreRenderingDevice":{"Id":"fe5d7fdf-89c0-4d99-9aa3-b5fbd009c9f3","Name":"Default"}}

However, I would like the full URL to be stored in the Url prop; not just the path.

My analysis so far has shown that the Sitecore.XConnect.Collection.Model.PageViewEvent class has a public string Url { get; set; } property. My assumption is that the best practice would be to trigger the page view event manually and/or create a custom page view event model, and populate the Url property with the value that I want. However, I don't want duplicate page view events (1 custom and 1 default).

Otherwise, it seems I would have to override the default behavior in Sitecore.Analytics.XConnect.DataAccess.Pipelines.ConvertToXConnectEventPipeline.ConvertPageDataToPageViewEvent. As an example:

private PageViewEvent CreatePageViewEvent(PageData pageData)
{
    // Note that there is so access to Sitecore context here 

    PageViewEvent pageViewEvent = new PageViewEvent(pageData.DateTime, pageData.Item.Id, pageData.Item.Version, pageData.Item.Language);
    pageViewEvent.Duration = TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds((double)pageData.Duration);
    
    // Populate the full URL here instead, or in PageData before we even get here
    pageViewEvent.Url = pageData.Url.ToString();
    
    // Or, create a new entry in CustomValues (though Sitecore says not to do this)  
    pageViewEvent.CustomValues.Add("FullUrl", "https://www.site.com/-/media/project/client/image.jpg");
    
    ...
}

As well as the associated config:

<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/">
  <sitecore>
    <pipelines>
      <convertToXConnectEvent>
        <processor type="Sitecore.Analytics.XConnect.DataAccess.Pipelines.ConvertToXConnectEventPipeline.ConvertPageDataToPageViewEvent, Sitecore.Analytics.XConnect">
            <patch:attribute name="type" value="Client.Foundation.DataExchange.Pipelines.ConvertToXConnectEventPipeline.ConvertPageDataToPageViewEvent, Client.Foundation.DataExchange" />
        </processor>
      </convertToXConnectEvent>
    </pipelines>
  </sitecore>
</configuration>

The above code does work, however, it modifies all page view events going forward which may not always be applicable. What approach would you recommend?

Answer 1

I have come to the conclusion that the best way to do this is how I outlined in my original question, which is to override the default ConvertPageDataToPageViewEvent pipeline. However, that approach has limitations and drawbacks.

A better approach would be to register a custom event which allows for any necessary customization. That approach is outlined in a related question/answer.