A/B Testing with htaccess

htaccess-ab-test

# ############################### #
#        A/B TESTING (START)      #
# ############################### #

# (1) Check if our cookie is already set. 
#     If so, redirect to the previously-viewed page.

RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} ab_test_vers=([^;]+)
RewriteRule ^THE-PAGE-BEING-TESTED$ HTTP://YOUR-DOMAIN.COM/tracking/%1 [cookie=ab_test_vers_match:true:YOUR-DOMAIN.COM,L]

# (2) If no cookie is set (new visitor)
#     AND the current time is on an even-numbered second
#     Rewrite to /test-option-a AND set our cookie to `even`

RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} !ab_test_vers=([^;]+)
RewriteCond %{TIME_SEC} [02468]$
RewriteRule ^test-page$ /tracking/even [cookie=ab_test_vers:even:YOUR-DOMAIN.COM,L]
Redirect 302 /tracking/even HTTP://YOUR-DOMAIN.COM/a/test-page


# (3) If no cookie is set (new visitor)
#     AND the current time is on an odd-numbered second
#     Rewrite to /test-option-b AND set our cookie to `odd`

RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} !ab_test_vers=([^;]+)
RewriteCond %{TIME_SEC} [13579]$
RewriteRule ^test-page$ /tracking/odd [cookie=ab_test_vers:odd:YOUR-DOMAIN.COM,L]
Redirect 302 /tracking/odd HTTP://YOUR-DOMAIN.COM/b/test-page
	
# ############################### #
#        A/B TESTING (END)        #
# ############################### #

I think the code below is what you need. The only caveat is that all of your test pages have to begin with "test-page", so "test-page-1", "test-page-2", etc. You can change this by replacing every instance of "test-page" with whatever prefix you want. Be sure to clear your cookies before testing the rules below.

# ############################### #
#        A/B TESTING (START)      #
# ############################### #

# (1) Check if our cookie is already set.
#     If so, redirect to the previously-viewed page.

RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} ab_test_vers=([^;]+)
RewriteRule ^(test-page.*)/?$ HTTPS://YOUR-DOMAIN-COM/tracking/%1/$1 [cookie=ab_test_vers_match:true:YOUR-DOMAIN-COM,L]

# (2) If no cookie is set (new visitor)
#     AND the current time is on an even-numbered second
#     Rewrite to /test-option-a AND set our cookie

RewriteCond   %{HTTP_COOKIE} !ab_test_vers=([^;]+)
RewriteCond   %{TIME_SEC} [02468]$
RewriteRule   ^(test-page.*/?)$ /tracking/even/$1 [cookie=ab_test_vers:even:YOUR-DOMAIN-COM,L]
RedirectMatch 302 ^/tracking/even/(.*/?)$ HTTPS://YOUR-DOMAIN-COM/a/$1

# (3) If no cookie is set (new visitor)
#     AND the current time is on an odd-numbered second
#     Rewrite to /test-option-a AND set our cookie

RewriteCond   %{HTTP_COOKIE} !ab_test_vers=([^;]+)
RewriteCond   %{TIME_SEC} [13579]$
RewriteRule   ^(test-page.*/?)$ /tracking/odd/$1 [cookie=ab_test_vers:odd:YOUR-DOMAIN-COM,L]
RedirectMatch 302 ^/tracking/odd/(.*/?)$ HTTPS://YOUR-DOMAIN-COM/b/$1

# ############################### #
#        A/B TESTING (END)        #
# ############################### #

@birender The rules below will probably be easier to manage. They test the entire site (if you want). You will need to create 3 sub-pages on your site: @, a, b so you'll end up with :

https://yourdomain.com/@/test-page-1
https://yourdomain.com/a/test-page-1
https://yourdomain.com/b/test-page-1

The flow will be that a user comes to https://yourdomain.com/@/some-page and be redirected to either https://yourdomain.com/a/some-page or https://yourdomain.com/b/some-page

So any link you use that starts with /@/any-page will be redirected to the same page name under /a/ or /b/ depending on the timestamp on their first visit.

# ############################### #
#        A/B TESTING (START)      #
# ############################### #

# (1) Check if our cookie is already set.
#     If so, redirect to the previously-viewed page.

RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} ab_test_vers=([^;]+)
RewriteRule ^@(.*)/?$ HTTPS://YOUR-DOMAIN-COM/tracking/%1/$1 [cookie=ab_test_vers_match:true:YOUR-DOMAIN-COM,L]

# (2) If no cookie is set (new visitor)
#     AND the current time is on an even-numbered second
#     Rewrite to /test-option-a AND set our cookie

RewriteCond   %{HTTP_COOKIE} !ab_test_vers=([^;]+)
RewriteCond   %{TIME_SEC} [02468]$
RewriteRule   ^@/(.*)/?$ /tracking/even/$1 [cookie=ab_test_vers:even:YOUR-DOMAIN-COM,L]
RedirectMatch 302 ^/tracking/even/(.*/?)$ HTTPS://YOUR-DOMAIN-COM/a/$1

# (3) If no cookie is set (new visitor)
#     AND the current time is on an odd-numbered second
#     Rewrite to /test-option-a AND set our cookie

RewriteCond   %{HTTP_COOKIE} !ab_test_vers=([^;]+)
RewriteCond   %{TIME_SEC} [13579]$
RewriteRule   ^@/(.*)/?$ /tracking/odd/$1 [cookie=ab_test_vers:odd:YOUR-DOMAIN-COM,L]
RedirectMatch 302 ^/tracking/odd/(.*/?)$ HTTPS://YOUR-DOMAIN-COM/b/$1

# ############################### #
#        A/B TESTING (END)        #
# ############################### #

@birender I have created another gist with the whole-site version which you can find here : https://gist.github.com/iconifyit/1b5c51c142f2c929c27c953ae85a0f00

Scott,

First, THANK YOU so much for sharing this, it's exactly what we were looking for & your very thorough explanation of everything was a huge help.

Next, I do have a question - do you have any insight on why this rule would cause JS issues on a website? We muddled through modifying the rule for homepage a/b testing like you see here & it wrecked some core eCommerce functions on our site, most likely my own fault:

# ############################### #
#        A/B TESTING (START)      #
# ############################### #

# (1) Check if our cookie is already set.
#     If so, redirect to the previously-viewed page.

RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} ab_test_vers=([^;]+)
RewriteRule ^$ /tracking/%1 [cookie=ab_test_vers_match:true:example.com,L]


# (2) If no cookie is set (new visitor)
#     AND the current time is on an even-numbered second
#     Rewrite to /test-option-a AND set our cookie

RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} !ab_test_vers=([^;]+)
RewriteCond %{TIME_SEC} [02468]$
RewriteRule ^$ /tracking/even [cookie=ab_test_vers:even:example.com,L]
Redirect 302 /tracking/even https://example.com/welcome/

# (3) If no cookie is set (new visitor)
#     AND the current time is on an odd-numbered second
#     Rewrite to /test-option-a AND set our cookie

RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} !ab_test_vers=([^;]+)
RewriteCond %{TIME_SEC} [13579]$
RewriteRule ^$ /tracking/odd [cookie=ab_test_vers:odd:example.com,L]
Redirect 302 /tracking/odd https://example.com/start-here/

# ############################### #
#        A/B TESTING (END)        #
# ############################### #

Hey Jeff. That makes me happy to hear. I'm glad someone else finds it useful. I don't know off the top of my head why it would break your JS but it may have to do with the rewrite/redirect. I would be happy to take a quick look at the code if you want to email it to me at scott_at_atomiclotus_dot_net.

Hi, Hope you are doing well. Thanks for update Birender Singh Rana

…

On Wed, 17 Jul, 2019, 19:39 Scott Lewis, ***@***.***> wrote: @birender <https://github.com/birender> I have updated the rules in the gist to be more simple. A few things: 1. I have not tested this for entire sites. It is only meant to test a single page. I'm not an expert on A/B testing and I don't know what the best practices are for testing an entire site. That seems like a whole lot of variables to try to test at once. A single page is more manageable in my opinion but perhaps someone else (or you) knows better about this. I can modify it to work with an entire site but not for free. Sorry but this is how I make a living. 2. In the first step you are trying to match ^(.*)$ but I think there is some misunderstanding. The variable %1 that is referenced in /tracking%1 is not the page name it is the even or odd being captured in the first RewriteCond, i.e., %{HTTP_COOKIE} ab_test_vers=([^;]+). The ([^;]+) is capturing the variable. 3. In this rule RewriteRule (.*) https://sendeagle.com/testse/ [cookie=ab_test_vers:true:sendeagle.com,L] don't change ab_test_match to ab_test_vers. It is not a mistake. What you did changes the value of the variable and so breaks the cookie. ab_test_match just indicates that we found a match. The ab_test_match value is never used though. It is really just for debugging the rule if needed. 4. You can't do this Redirect 302 /index.html https://sendeagle.com/index.html - it creates an endless loop. I "think" all you need to do is: 1. Replace all instances of YOUR-DOMAIN.COM with sendeagle.com (make sure to use https where indicated by http in the rules) 2. Replace test-page with the name of the page being tested. 3. Where you see HTTP://YOUR-DOMAIN.COM/a/test-page change this to https://sendeagle.com/test-page-option-a 4. Where you see HTTP://YOUR-DOMAIN.COM/b/test-pagechange this to https://sendeagle.com/test-page-option-b 5. Do not change the instances where the rules refer to tracking/odd, tracking/even, or /tracking/%1. These are used to sort the traffic into A or B requests. 6. You will not be able to redirect to your index.html page. It will create an endless loop. So you will need to create a clone-home-a.html and clone-home-b.html. I believe the rules below should work for you if you create the clone-home-a.html and clone-home-b.html. `RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} ab_test_vers=([^;]+) RewriteRule ^$ https://sendeagle.com/tracking/%1 [cookie=ab_test_vers_match:true:sendeagle.com,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} !ab_test_vers=([^;]+) RewriteCond %{TIME_SEC} [02468]$ RewriteRule ^test-page$ /tracking/even [cookie=ab_test_vers:even: sendeagle.com,L] Redirect 302 /tracking/even http://sendeagle.com/clone-home-a.html RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} !ab_test_vers=([^;]+) RewriteCond %{TIME_SEC} [13579]$ RewriteRule ^test-page$ /tracking/odd [cookie=ab_test_vers:odd: sendeagle.com,L] Redirect 302 /tracking/odd http://sendeagle.com/clone-home-b.html` — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <https://gist.github.com/c8d715d62b6e3960696ac1c9cbd231c5?email_source=notifications&email_token=AAOJK33CTXQDSQ7AX6QISADP74R2TA5CNFSM4IEPKZ7KYY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFVNDWS43UINXW23LFNZ2KUY3PNVWWK3TUL5UWJTQAFVOP4#gistcomment-2972926>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAOJK33P2DADOJH5IMGL3PTP74R2TANCNFSM4IEPKZ7A> .