Versioned documentation archive

This topic provides links to previous versions of the Optimizely User Guide, in case you need information about your Optimizely implementation that is not on the latest version.

This only applies to users running lower versions of CMS, Commerce, and Search & Navigation. Contact your system administrator for information about products and versions in your Optimizely implementation. From version 16-2, PDF files for print are available via Print tile on the start page of this user guide.

Obsolete functionality

From time to time, information about features that are no longer available, are replaced by new functionality, or are removed. The following table shows user guide versions that contain functionality from previous versions of the software.

Date archived Area Functionality User guide version
2021-08-02 CMS Changes to admin view interface 21-4 or earlier
2021-08-02 CMS Changes to visitor group user interface 21-4 or earlier
2021-08-02 CMS Dashboard (removed) 21-4 or earlier
2021-08-02 CMS Reports (removed) 21-4 or earlier
2019-11-08 Personalization Working with the Strategy block 19-9 or earlier
2018-09-10 Commerce Campaigns (legacy, replaced by new functionality) 18-5 or earlier
2018-09-10 Commerce Promotions (legacy, replaced by new functionality) 18-5 or earlier
2018-03-19 CMS Built-in web forms functionality (legacy, replaced by new functionality). 18-2 or earlier
2018-03-19 CMS Dynamic content (legacy, replaced by new functionality). 18-2 or earlier
2018-03-19 CMS Customizing the rich text-editor TinyMCE v1. 18-2 or earlier

Previous release notes

Release notes for the current year is found in the What's new topic. Previous release notes that have been archived.

Released Area Features and release notes updates
2020-12-28 Commerce New feature in Order Management lets you repeat an existing order (update 347).

Payment plans changed to Subscriptions on the Order Management screen (update 347).

2020-12-17 Search & Navigation The menu item Find was renamed to Search & Navigation in the user interface. (update 346)
2020-12-10 Campaign See Deliverability basics for information about DMARC implementation.

Blacklist was renamed to blocklist and whitelist to allowlist. (update 346)

2020-11-25 Campaign The recipient list management lets you create recipient lists and manage recipient list fields.
2020-11-25 Personalization A Reports topic was added to the Visitor Intelligence section. It describes the user interface where you can view commerce reports for insights into collected customer data.
2020-11-12 Personalization Insight was renamed to Visitor Intelligence in the user interface. (update 341)
2020-11-12 Campaign Optimizely Campaign field function templates let you create your own field functions to personalize and modify your mailing content.

The documentation of the Google Tag Manager was revised. Learn how to connect the Google Tag Manager with post-click tracking to transfer data from customers who visited your website by clicking a link in your mailing.

In the Marketing Automation campaign report, you can optionally display the unique opens and clicks as well as the unique open and click rate. (update 342)

2020-10-28 Personalization In Product Recommendations, when an editor makes changes to a merchandizing campaign, a reviewer can accept or reject the changes.
2020-10-13 Campaign Using Web Push, you can send messages that appear in the recipient's web browser without a specific request. (update 338)

In the Post-click tracking topic, you can find information on how to create a tracking pixel without cookie.

2020-10-13 Commerce When searching for line items on the Order Management screen, each search result contains a link to the respective product page on the e-commerce website. (update 336)
2020-10-05 Personalization A repurchase strategy was added to the daily trigger options.
2020-10-05 Episerver platform A globe icon was added to the top menu. This icon takes you to your live sites. (update 335)
2020-09-24 Campaign See Deliverability basics for information about SMTP codes and error messages.
2020-09-17 Episerver platform An introduction to the Optimizely Labs concept was added.
2020-09-02 CMS

Improvements to the projects feature (update 328):

  • The Versions gadget now displays if content versions are associated with projects.
  • You are now notified if there are versions of the current content item associated with other projects:
2020-09-02 Campaign If you forget your password or PIN, you can reset them without contacting customer support. See Resetting password and PIN. (update 332)

In Deep Analytics, you can show the ID instead of the name for the client, mailing and recipient list groupings. (update 332)

2020-08-21 Campaign You can now use an existing target group as template when creating a new target group. (update 330)

If you use unsubscribe lists based on recipient lists, you can choose whether to export global unsubscribers that are not assigned to any particular recipient list or unsubscribers that are assigned to one or more recipient lists. See Exporting recipients. (update 330)

A video on how to create a double opt-in process was added.

2020-08-21 Personalization A Content Recommendations FAQ was added.
2020-08-12 Commerce On the Order Management screen, you can create payment plans. (update 328)
2020-08-12 Personalization Email Content Recommendations is a new Personalization feature that lets you deliver relevant content to your customers by email. (update 326)
2020-08-12 Campaign See Deliverability basics for information about blocklists and blocklisting.
2020-07-22 Campaign In the Recipient history, you can now irrevocably delete recipient data according to GDPR regulations. (update 326)

Changed user management: You can only assign roles to users, not individual permissions. (update 326)

2020-07-02 Episerver platform The new topics, Providing product recommendations and Providing content recommendations, have been added.
2020-06-25 Campaign The new topic Scheduled jobs in the support section informs about the possibilities to set up scheduled import and export jobs and other features using the new online forms on Optimizely World.
2020-06-25 Commerce The beta phase of the Order Management screen was expired. Customer service representatives can perform common tasks on carts, orders and payment plans.

On the Order Management screen, you can now add a new shipping address to a customer's order without editing an existing address or adding a new address to the customer's address book. (update 321)

2020-06-12 Languages Added Connecting to the auto-translation service to Episerver Languages. (update 319)
2020-06-12 Personalization Personalization user interface was updated. (update 318)
2020-06-12 Campaign

A new topic, Using marketing segments as target groups for mailing campaigns, was added.

The new E-commerce integration guide section provides an introduction to working with Optimizely Campaign, and integrations with e-commerce systems.

2020-05-28 CMS A new topic, Best practices for organizing assets, was added.
2020-05-28 Commerce Several updates to the Order Management screen, including the ability to find carts, customers, purchase orders and payment plans. You can now also create purchase orders and exchange orders on the Order Management screen. (update 317)
2020-05-28 Campaign You can use the extended recipient list connector to address more than 100,000 recipients per campaign with Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Deep Analytics: Pivot tables now support HTML5. As some functionalities changed, the documentation was adjusted accordingly. (update 317)

Template Kit: You can now change the image quality of the uploaded image in the image bar paragraphs, text/image paragraphs, content interface paragraphs and in the general SWYN settings to adjust the image display in the mailing. In addition, SWYN is now available for WhatsApp and email.

2020-05-14 Forms You can now disable the replacement of placeholders in rich-text form elements in multi-step forms. (update 315)
2020-05-07 CMS You can now turn the A/B testing feature on and off from admin view. (update 314)
2020-05-07 Personalization Content Recommendations anonymously tracks visitor activity on a website to build a profiles for each visitor. Analysis of a unique profile lets you deliver the most relevant content to each visitor.
2020-04-30 Episerver platform A new topic, Working with search engine optimization, was added.
2020-04-23 Campaign You can change the URL of the confirmation page the unsubscribe link points to. See Unsubscribers. (update 312)

See Deliverability basics for information about email authentication and encryption.

2020-04-16 Commerce Customer service representatives can process a return authorization and create a refund for a customer. (update 311)
2020-04-16 Campaign In the Optimizely Campaign start menu, the Episerver Reach menu item was renamed to Personalization Portal. The Personalization Portal lets you access Optimizely Product Recommendations and Optimizely Email Product Recommendations. The Episerver Insight menu item was renamed to Visitor Intelligence. Episerver Visitor Intelligence lets you view and filter website visitor profiles, and create customer segments. (update 312)
2020-03-20 Marketing automation connectors The ExactTarget Marketing Automation connector is now Salesforce Marketing Cloud (ExactTarget) and the Silverpop Marketing Automation connector is now Watson Marketing (Silverpop).
2020-03-20 Campaign The new Opt-in processes feature lets you create and manage opt-in processes and its opt-in emails (registration confirmations). (update 308)

You can use the Block node in transactional mails to exclude recipients who are on a custom blocklist. (update 308)

2020-03-20 Marketing automation connectors Marketing Automation has a new Delivra connector. (update 306)
2020-03-20 Commerce The scheduled job Collect orders per promotion statistics reworks the collection of order statistics to improve performance. (update 305)
2020-03-20 Search & Navigation The product Episerver Find was renamed to Episerver Search & Navigation throughout this user guide. Note that the old product name 'Find' can still occur in the user interface.
2020-03-20 Campaign In the Advanced node of the Marketing Automation, you can filter recipients by Insight segments. (update 306)
2020-03-20 Commerce

On the Order Management screen, you can now process an order return. (update 305)

2020-03-20 Personalization Email Product Recommendations: You can add an email product description that has a transparent background. When you use a top-up or fallback, a preview appears. (update 306)

Product Recommendations: In generated HTML, you can define the default image size that is sent for empty images that have no products. (update 306)

Triggered Messages: You can fire triggers based on locale so you can send emails to customers in the correct language. When you use the AddToGroup or RemoveFromGroup ESP actions, there is no limit to the number of triggers fired by Contact frequency. You can set a limit for campaigns using the SendMessage ESP action. (update 306)

2020-02-20 Episerver platform A new section, User scenarios, was added to the user guide describing common cross-platform user scenarios, such as working with products, optimizing search results, or using visitor groups for personalization.
2020-02-20 Campaign When configuring a Mobile Push message in Smart Campaigns, you can now upload an image or specify an external image URL. (update 304)
2020-02-20 Campaign In the Advanced node of the Marketing Automation you can limit the number of recipients to whom the mailing is to be sent. (update 302)
2020-02-20 Commerce On the Order Management screen, you can now view returns. (update 299)
2020-02-20 Personalization You can now prioritize Triggered Messages campaigns.
2020-01-20 Campaign The new feature SMS processes lets you create and manage SMS processes such as unsubscribing from marketing SMS by sending the keyword Stop or requesting help by sending the keyword Help. (update 304)
2020-01-20 Search & Navigation A new topic, Using Personalized Search & Navigation, provides information about the Personalized Search & Navigation product: its benefits, how it works, and how to enable it.
2020-01-20 Campaign Several updates to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM integration: You can assign Optimizely Campaign test lists to check the mailing content before dispatch. The process of preparing the campaign activity for dispatch was revised. (update 298)

Several updates to the Magento 2 integration: Screenshots and names have been adjusted to the new version 1.3.5. (update 298)

In the API overview, you can find information about the Optimizely Campaign REST API. (update 298)

2019-12-19 Commerce You can use the Authorize.Net payment gateway to process customer payments. (update 294)
2019-12-19 Optimizely Visitor Intelligence You can create a segment based on a filter definition. See Creating a marketing segment. (update 294)
2019-11-28 Commerce From the Orders tab of the Contact Details screen, you can view a customer’s order history. (update 290)

The Order and Cart Details screens were redesigned to more closely resemble Commerce Manager and make them easier to use. (update 291)

2019-11-28 Campaign You can create coupon codes of type Code 128 bar code or Interleaved 2 of 5 bar code by using the coupon system. (update 292)
2019-11-06 Campaign You can export event data (for example, clicks and opens) in real time via webhooks. (update 290)
2019-10-24 Commerce Support for updating order management and shipment statuses on the Order Management screen. See Placing an order on hold, Canceling an order, and Adjusting an order's shipment status. (update 286)
2019-10-17 Campaign In lists that support multiple selection, the new button Sort by selection lets you sort selected items to the top of the list. (update 286)
2019-10-11 Commerce On the Order Management screen, you can change a cart's Market, and an order's Market and Currency. (update 284)

A new scheduled job exports your product feed (catalog) to Product Recommendations incrementally. (update 284)

2019-10-11 Marketing Automation connectors Support for multiple instances of a connector, to use in separate regions. See Episerver Microsoft Dynamics CRM. (update 284)
2019-10-04 Personalization The Personalization Portal is the user interface for accessing Product Recommendations and Email Product Recommendations features.

You can export and import Email Product Recommendations campaigns.

2019-09-25 Campaign The Performance Dashboard (Beta) now has the additional chart type Basic chart (mailing-based). Use the new hamburger menu within the widgets to export charts. (update 280)

In the Deliverability preview (Beta), the Spam suspicion tab displays the spam score and further information on the spam filters for individual clients. Notes on spam filters of each client have been added to the documentation.

A step-by-step guide for Smart Campaigns was added to split dispatch.

A definition of the mailing types that can be selected in Deep Analytics reports and action-based target group filters was added.

Inline Editing lets you edit the texts of your message template directly in the mailing preview. (update 280)

2019-09-05 CMS The CMS user interface was rebranded. The screenshots have been updated to reflect this. (update 274)
2019-09-05 Commerce Order meta-classes and fields appear on the Order Management screen.

Several updates to the Order Management screen, including the ability to choose a market before selecting a cart, and the ability to create a new cart. (update 279)

2019-09-05 Campaign Use the new Structured data tab in the General settings paragraph in the Template Kit to add structured data to your mailing. Add content in the Gmail Promotions tab section that Gmail should prominently display in the Gmail Promotions tab.
2019-09-05 Marketing Automation connectors New global settings for Marketing Automation connectors. Change to Microsoft Dynamics CRM connector configuration screen (Domain is out; Region is in), and Organization name can be the Unique name or the friendly name.
2019-08-21 Campaign The Deliverability preview (Beta) lets you check your mailing before dispatch, whether the contents are displayed correctly and whether your mailing was classified as spam by the most popular email providers.

In the Performance Dashboard, you can display KPIs Stands for "key performance indicator" (also known as a conversion goal); the measurement of actions on web pages. The actions can be completed purchases, pages visited, time spent on site and so on. as a bubble chart. (update 278)

2019-08-21 Optimizely Visitor Intelligence Visitor groups was added to the filter types for viewing profiles.
2019-08-07 Campaign The IP warming topic provides information about how to build a good reputation with internet service providers as an email sender.
2019-07-24 Campaign In the recipient history, you can view the third-party ID, the pseudonymized recipient ID. See Recipient history. (update 274)

In the Basics section, you can find the new Deliverability basics section with information and best practices for successful deliverability. (update 268)

2019-07-10 Forms The form element types Rich text and Submit button can now be dependent on other fields, which means they can be displayed or hidden depending on a visitor's previous input. See Dependencies tab in Form element types. (update 269)
2019-07-10 Commerce The Order Management screen lets you convert any cart to a purchase order and accept payments. See Order Management screen. (update 271)
2019-07-10 Campaign If you use Spryker as an e-commerce platform, you can integrate Optimizely Campaign to connect e-commerce and mailing activities. See Spryker integration. Added menu entries Episerver Insight and Episerver Reach (Email Product Recommendations and Triggered Messages) to Campaign start menu.
2019-06-13 CMS An administrator can require a review requester to add a comment when sending an item for review. See Managing approval sequences and Collaboration. (update 265)
2019-06-13 Campaign The Episerver Campaign User Guide is a section in the Episerver User Guide.
2019-06-13 Marketing Automation connectors Support for multiple instances of a connector, to use for example in separate regions. See Episerver Pardot and Episerver Marketo. (update 244)

Previous user guides

Previously released user guides, describing available functionality (CMS, Commerce, Find versions 7.5 and higher) at the time of release. User guides for Optimizely versions lower than 7.5 are available here.

2021

Released
(year month)
Product versions User guides
2021-9 (Update 378) CMS Core 12, CMS UI 12, Commerce 14, Search & Navigation 14 Optimizely User Guide 21-5 – English and German
2021-7 (Update 373) CMS Core 11.20.7, CMS UI 11.35.3, Commerce 13.31.0, Search & Navigation 13.4.4 Optimizely User Guide 21-4 – English and German
2021-6 (Update 370) CMS Core 11.20.7, CMS UI 11.35.3, Commerce 13.30.0, Search & Navigation 13.4.4 Episerver User Guide 21-3 – English and German
2021-4 (Update 363) CMS Core 11.20.6, CMS UI 11.35.0, Commerce 13.30.0, Search & Navigation 13.4.3 Episerver User Guide 21-2 – English and German
2021-1 (Update 350) CMS Core 11.20.3, CMS UI 11.32.0, Commerce 13.28.0, Search & Navigation 13.3.0 Episerver User Guide 21-1 – English and German