Property Manager lets you create your own variables to better control how our network serves your traffic. Using variables, you can fine-tune your properties and reduce dependency on your support representatives.

Characteristics of user-defined variables:

• The global variables you set in properties start with the PMUSER_ prefix. The local variables you set in includes start with the PMINC_<includeId> prefix.

• With the Set Variable behavior, they can be populated with fixed strings, values from other variables, randomly generated values, and extracted values from the incoming request (such as cookies, headers, URL path/extension, or query strings).

• With the Set Variable behavior, they can be transformed using a number of different operations, such as extracting substrings, upper/lower case, search/replace, encode/decode, and others.

Security settings

Unlike built-in variables that have a default, non-editable hidden security setting, user-defined variables let you choose the security level when you create the variable.

Visible

Variables are returned to the client in the X-Akamai-Session-Infoheader in response to the Pragma: akamai-x-get-extracted-valuesrequest header.

Hidden

Hidden variables are not returned to the client in the X-Akamai-Session-Infoheader in response to the Pragma: akamai-x-get-extracted-valuesrequest header.

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If your variables contain information you don't want to expose on the Internet, set the variable attribute to Hidden.

Sensitive

As with hidden variables, sensitive variables are not returned via the ​Akamai​ pragma debug headers. In addition, sensitive variables:

• Can't be sent to end-users through Set-Cookie or Response Header Property Manager behaviors.

• Can't be added to the custom logging field.

• Propagate their sensitive attribute to any new variable created from a sensitive variable, meaning that the new variable also has a security setting of Sensitive.

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If your variables contain personal information (PII) or any other really sensitive data, set the variable attribute to Sensitive.

Create a variable

To use a variable in behaviors or matches, you must first create one.

1. In the Property Manager Editor, in the Property Variables or Include Variables section, click Add Variable.

2. Create a name for the variable. Variable names can't be longer than 32 characters. The PMUSER_ prefix for a global variable or PMINC_<includeId> prefix for a local variable is automatically added for the variable.

3. Optionally, enter an Initial Value for the variable. You can also leave it blank if you want to populate the value programmatically with the Set Variable behavior.

4. Enter a meaningful description for your variable.

5. Select Security settings.

6. Save the property or include before using the variable in behaviors.