Data feeds

Some of the data a test wants is not on the page: a reviews summary, a delivery date, stock, this week's campaign message. Most sites already publish it somewhere as a feed. Connect that feed in the dashboard, and its fields can be used in any variant on the website, the same way as data from the page.

A feed can be JSON or a Google Merchant product feed in XML. You choose which item each visitor sees: the one that matches the page, by product, page address or URL parameter; the one that matches the visitor's campaign or language; the one scheduled for now, using start and end dates, for timed promotions; or a random one, kept the same for the whole visit.

Pertento's servers fetch the feed, not your visitors. It refreshes on a schedule you pick, from every five minutes to weekly, however much traffic the site gets, so a visitor never waits on your server. A visitor's page asks for only the one matching item, and only the fields you ticked: the rest of the feed and its address stay private.

Feed values load after the page has painted, so they do not delay it. Give a feed value a fallback and the fallback shows straight away; without one, the element keeps its space and appears when the value arrives.