Custom Campaign URL in DMS 2.0 - sitecore

Edited
The issue (#347688) has been fixed in Sitecore CMS 6.5.0 rev. 120427 (6.5.0 Update-4) and DMS 2.0.1 rev. 120427
We have been asked to explain where the editor can customize the campaign tracking url, they have seen the feature when participating in Sitecore Training sessions, but can't find the features in the our platform that is currently fully updated.
It seems to me the feature has been removed otherwise it is hidden in {3AC13180-912F-4388-AF56-46A0F1172E70} that is missing in the DMS Installation, when looking at the insert options for the Campaign Item.
Does anyone have insight on the topic ? and if the feature is still present or has been removed for another model.
OMS / Custom Campaign tracking URL
When looking at the old documentation for Sitecore OMS the section related OMS Creating Campaign Events, it should be possible for the Editor to personalize the incomming url parameter that triggers the page visit to attach to a specific campaign.
Reference: "OMS Creating Campaign Events" page 13-14
http://sdn.sitecore.net/upload/sitecore6/64/online%20marketing%20suite%20cookbook-usletter.pdf
Engagement Analytics / No Custom Campaign tracking URL (?)
In the new DMS 2.0 / Engagement Analytics there are also Page events, and they should be attachable to Campaigns. But we can't seem to create anything under the Campaign definition even tho the first line in the documentation suggests it. Looking at the Insert options on the campaign there is a missing id: {3AC13180-912F-4388-AF56-46A0F1172E70} that suggest the installation is missing an Item for this feature to function.
Reference: "Engagement Analytics Page Events" page 6-7
http://sdn.sitecore.net/upload/sitecore6/65/engagement_analytics_configuration_reference_sc65-usletter.pdf
Campaigns
You can associate events with specific campaigns. To register a
campaign event, beneath the campaign definition item, insert a
campaign event definition item using the System/Analytics/Campaign
data template. You can activate the campaign using the value of the
sc_camp query string parameter or you can assign a campaign to a
content item, such as a landing page. For more information about
campaigns, see the section Campaign. To change the name of the sc_camp
query string parameter, see the section The
Analytics.CampaignQueryStringKey Setting.

I have been in contact with Sitecore Support and they responded that the option of customizing the url that triggers the campaign has been removed. The documentation is misleading on the subject and they have registered it as a bug.
So yoursite.net/?sc_camp={ID of the campaign item here} or using a landing page with the campaign as trigger is currently the only way to monitor incoming links from a campaign, unless custom code is build.
Thanks for the answers.
Edited:
The issue (#347688) has been fixed in Sitecore CMS 6.5.0 rev. 120427 (6.5.0 Update-4) and DMS 2.0.1 rev. 120427

Mentioned ID {3AC13180-912F-4388-AF56-46A0F1172E70} used to be a Campaign Event template. Campaign Events are no longer used, as they were replaced by Campaign in Sitecore DMS.
In order to track it, use the following URL format: yoursite.net/?sc_camp={ID of the campaign item here}

I just wanted to add in that although it might be what they know and what they want to use, the reason that it's so obscured is because that's really not how you should be doing things and its not a practice I'd recommend since it's not really guaranteed to be tracked. The structure of DMS and the underlying database is such that I'd stick to setting things up by associating things with a campaign. Tracking is done in large part via page events that are triggered... but just amending a url will trigger a visit and a new page, but not a page event to be created unless there is something associated with that item that will trigger an event.
Campaigns are typically associated with items, or events, or engagement plans or any number of different elements of DMS. In all cases, there's a tab on the item that has an option to check the campaign to associate it with. That's how you want to be doing this which ensures that a page event is properly created and associated with the campaign.

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I have also removed the Contact, Lead, and Account tables. But when I click the Add button, the three options are "Add as Contact" and so on.
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I have been using Sitecore for a couple of years, and now looking to begin utilizing the Experience functionality found in Sitecore 8.
I have a view that will capture some user-provided data. How do I go about creating a "person" (don't know the correct Sitecore terminology) in the Analytics database from custom code.
You'll need to create a Contact. Contacts are a kind of profile store for xDb and allows you to store data about your visitors. A contact has a built in list of facets (email, phone number, name etc) that make up the contact record, but it's also possible to create your own facets.
If you are building a form to capture data you can use the new Tracker api to identify and update facets on a contact.
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https://github.com/ianjohngraham/CoreBlimey.Utils/blob/master/CoreBlimey.Utils/xDB%20Contact%20Creator/CreateContact.aspx.cs
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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq6TpMgUGAk
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Trigger Goal Not Associated with Content Item?

Ultimately, I'm trying to track individual links in an ECM (2.1) email.
I recently found the "sc_trk" querystring variable in the Engagement Analytics Configuration Reference Guide, which should allow me to trigger a goal from the querystring. So I've updated my links to include "?sc_trk=xxxxxx", but I am not seeing the goals being triggered when users click on the email links.
I have deployed the goals, but I have not associated them with specific content items. In order to trigger the goal, it doesn't have to be associated with content, does it?
The answer to your question is definitely: yes, your goal does not need to be associated with content to be triggered.
As to why your goals is not being triggered I'd look into the RedirectUrlPage.aspx that ECM uses for its links. Send a campaign out to yourself and study the generated URLs, they go to a page called RedirectUrlPage (where ECM handles tracking some things) which you can find under the /sitecore directory. Possibly your querystring is not being passed on when this redirect happens.

Sitecore ECM Newsletter: links to site doesn't work from mail Inbox

I've created ECM NewsLetter with some links to site (another Items). In online version of NewsLetter links works fine, but when I've sent this NewsLetter to my email and tried to click on links from my mail Inbox it's displays 404 not found error. Base URL - The default address for all links configured properly. What am I missing? Maybe some configuration? I appreciate any help you can provide.
Several things to check here:
Most likely source is that the campaign item that gets created when the email is sent is not published.
If the campaign is published then check the goal that gets installed as part of the ECM module is published: /sitecore/system/Marketing Center/Goals/Click Email Link
The way to test the source of the problem is to search for the guids in the link querystring - the ec_camp part of the querystringis the guid of the campaign. Search for this in your content delivery web databse - if this exists then check the goal mentioned above. The ec_as value is the value used to identify the user in the analytics db. This wont exist in your sitecore tree.
finally if both of the above work then follow this set up guide and ensure all the relevant ECM pages are installed properly on your CD servers - including the connection string to the ECM service that handles all tracking and link processing: http://www.sitecore.net/learn/blogs/technical-blogs/sitecore-magnified/posts/2013/09/ecm-on-cd.aspx
If you view source are they absolute links? If not one thing we did was create a newsletter device and detect we were coming from ecm. Then we could specify an alternative layout/sublayouts/data sources based on device.
The sublayouts could check if they were coming from a newsletter device and ensure they return all links absolute.
Within the ECM you need to make sure that you are saving and publishing as you move throughout the process of setting up and deploying a message. Once the message is edited, save and publish the message. Before dispatching, you should smart publish the target audience which in turn will re-publish the message. Then, when you dispatch you should see all the images.
This seems to be an issue with the configuration of Email Campaign Manager. Follow these steps
Go to Email Campaign Manager.
Select Content tab.
Check the value of Base URL- default address for all links field.
If it is set to some website URL other than your website URL change it to your website URL.

Sitecore ECM how to track the same user's activities in different target audiences

We are using Sitecore 6.5, and the Email Campaign Manager 1.3.3 rev.130212 is installed.
Currently, when i add a Sitecore user, for example 'UserA' to multiple target audiences, lets say 'TargetAudience_A' and 'TargeAudience_B', after I send out these two target audiences, 'UserA' clicks the link in the email which comes from 'TargetAudience_A', then the link will bring user to the site, user visits several pages, Sitecore Analytics will be able to track 'UserA' VisitPageCount and Value, and creates the corresponding campaign of 'TargetAudience_A' with that data.
When the user opens the email sent from 'TargetAudience_B' and clicks the link, visits the site, NO campaign is created for 'TargetAudience_B' in the database, I can see all the data should use to create a new campaign for 'TargeAudience_B' is used to update campaign of 'TargetAudience_A'.
The whole link in the sent email has been modified by Sitecore, the corresponding campaign id is added, which makes the link looks like this:'httP:xx.domain.com/?ec_camp=xxxx&ec_as=xxxx'.
It seems that Sitecore just adds an Id to the url, but does not create a campaign for the 'TargeAudience_B' with that Id.
I use this sql query to check the visits data:
Select * From Visits join Automations on Visits.CampaignId = Automations.CampaignId
Where Automations.data = '{EmailTemplateId}'
the data column on Automations table is the email template id of the target audience.
Does any one know, how to track one user's activities for multiple campaigns? Is this possible to do? Or is this something which needs to be fixed by Sitecore?
Any help will be much much appreciated.
Thanks
EDIT: Sitecore does create Campaign for each target audience, but does not create Visits record for every one of them; Sitecore associates Campaign with the Visits, Sitecore cannot find\create Visits of 'TargeAudience_B', it finds the Visits of 'TargeAudience_A', for some reason it just updates the Visits record of 'TargetAudience_A'.
This does look right, does Sitecore create just one visit for a visitor a day no matter how many target audience this visitor in?
Neither target audience, the Visitor.ExternalUser or anything other than a fresh Visitor cookie will make DMS re-consider your visitor. So to answer your question, I do believe you are correct in your observation, and that this behavior is by design.
Also keep in mind; if your users click the email you send out from say their iPhone and come visit the site, they will be granted a Visitor ID. Later, when they're back home at their PC and click the same email again, they will get a fresh Visitor ID and will not be recognized by DMS as one and the same Visitor. This too, is by design.
If you want to achieve what I believe you're aiming to achieve, you're going to have to "tag" your Visitors with a key you recognize - like the email address - and then hook into the APIs and "grab" all Visitors that match your tagged email address. Not sure how well this will work with all areas of the DMS.
In my example above; if a user was triggered to enter an Engagement Plan or a State in an Engagement Plan - the "iPhone Visitor" would get attached to it - and any actions undertaken by the same person on his personal PC visitor profile on his desktop PC would not be affecting anything in this state.
Yes, it is a bit confusing - I may even have some slight details of this wrong - the DMS API changes a lot. But as far as I can determine, the above is correct and all by design.