Prevent Optimizely from being blocked by privacy-focused browsers and extensions
- Optimizely Feature Experimentation
- Optimizely Web Experimentation
- Optimizely Personalization
Some privacy-focused browsers and extensions might block Optimizely Experimentation from running on your website. These tools check the domain name whenever your browser makes an HTTP request and block the request if the domain is on a list of known tracking platforms.
You must configure a reverse proxy to ensure Optimizely works correctly on your website. This routes Optimizely-related requests through your domain, reducing the chances of these requests being blocked.
Create a reverse proxy server
Deploy a proxy server to forward requests destined for Optimizely's domains. You can do this on various cloud providers and CDNs, including AWS, GCP, Azure, Cloudflare, and Akamai.
See the relevant cloud provider or CDN documentation:
Configure routes
Add the following routes to your reverse proxy. An asterisk (*) represents a wildcard.
Create a route to handle POST requests to https://logx.optimizely.com/v1/events for logging events:
- Feature Experimentation – Create a route to handle GET requests to https://cdn.optimizely.com/*.
- Web Experimentation or Optimizely Personalization
- If you use a PCI-compliant snippet, create a route to handle GET requests to https://cdn-pci.optimizely.com/*.
- Otherwise, create a route to handle GET requests to https://cdn.optimizely.com/*.
Update references to Optimizely’s domains
If you use Web Experimentation, update the script tag on your website to request the snippet from your reverse proxy instead of Optimizely’s CDN.
Note
Ask Optimizely to add your reverse proxy as the event-tracking domain name. If you are still onboarding, contact the Onboarding Solutions Architect. If you have completed onboarding, contact Optimizely Support and mention that you want to update the EVENT_TRACKING_HOST build setting. Provide your Optimizely account ID, the project IDs to be updated, and your proxy URL.
If you use Feature Experimentation, update the SDK client to request the data file from your reverse proxy instead of Optimizely’s CDN.
The following is an example using the JavaScript SDK:
const optimizely = require('@optimizely/optimizely-sdk');
const optimizelyClient = optimizely.createInstance({
sdkKey: '[YOUR_SDK_KEY]',
datafileOptions: {
urlTemplate: 'https://[YOUR_PROXY_URL]/datafiles/%s.json'
}
});Additionally, implement a custom event dispatcher to route events through your proxy. Modify the built-in event dispatcher to send events to your proxy's endpoint. Learn more about the JavaScript (Browser) SDK event dispatcherLearn more about the JavaScript (Browser) SDK event dispatcher.
By implementing the reverse proxy, you can prevent privacy-focused browsers and extensions from blocking Optimizely on your website.