"Just Links" Event firing after "History Change" event - google-analytics

Question

Google Tag Manager (GTM) has a built in trigger called "Just Links". In my VueJS application, using Vue Router, GTM fires a "History Change" event before firing the "Just Links" trigger.
(the "History Change" event has nothing to do with page view events)
Because of this, the Page Path GTM data-layer variable, which is supposed to be the path that the event was triggered on, is the same value as the Click URL GTM data-layer variable, which is the href value in the <a/> tag.
For instance:
User is on /support
User clicks on link to /about
Vue Router update browsers history
History Change event fires and updates all the internal values of Google Tag Manager data layer (including location and page path)
"Just Links" event fires, Page Path and Click URL values are now both /about
I'm assuming GTM/Google Analytics have some type of built in deferment strategy in place to not interfere with other things running on the main Javascript thread. So Vue Router changes routes (hence triggering the history change) before GTM/Google Analytics fire the "Just Links" trigger event.
(Strangely enough, when you use the built in Click - All Elements in GTM, the events fire in the right order.)
Has anyone else encountered this issue and come up with any type of solution? There might be a solution with just using Click - All Elements but that by default doesn't traverse the DOM tree with <a/> and strip the href for the Click URL value, which means extracting the href value on nested elements within an <a/> doesn't work. However, Just Links does do this.
Thanks!

Answer 1

You can look at tag firing priority. Adjust the click tag to have higher priority than the tag that's dependent on the history change trigger.

Answer 2

I just ran into this problem due to a site update. Instead of switching all of my "Just Links" to "All Elements" and dealing with the many headaches, I created a new Variable to reference for the page path instead of the built-in "Page Path" Variable. This Variable is basically storing what "gtm.linkClick" now treats as the previous page path because of the History Change. I'm just at beginner-level JS, so I'm sure there is a better way to write the code, but it works.
The first step is to create a new Custom HTML Tag (name it whatever you want) set to fire on All Pages and History Changes. The Tag will first attempt to store the current page path into Session Storage, or fallback to a cookie if Session Storage is not accessible. I used the {{JS - setCookie}} Variable method that was created by Simo Ahava to set cookies. There is a 2 second delay before writing the page path to storage, which is plenty of time for the "Just Links" Trigger to fire and receive the "correct" value before it is overwritten on the next pageview or history change. I gave the sessionStorage and cookie the same name "gtm.truepage".
Custom HTML Tag
<script>
function truePage() {
try {
var page = document.location.pathname;
var storage = window.sessionStorage;
if(storage) {
setTimeout(function() {
storage.setItem("gtm.truepage", page);
},2000);
} else {
setTimeout(function() {
{{JS - setCookie}}("gtm.truepage",page,1800000,"/",window.location.hostname);
},2000);
}
} catch (e) {
}
}
truePage();
</script>
Custom HTML Tag Screenshot
1st Party Cookie Variable
The next step is to create a new 1st Party Cookie Variable named "gtm.truepage". This Variable will be used as a reference for the Custom Javascript Variable. Therefore, if you change the name, you will also need to change the name in the next part.
Cookie Variable Screenshot
Custom Javascript Variable
The final step is to create a Custom Javascript Variable (whatever name you want) that you will use for your "Clicks - Just Links" Trigger. The script will first attempt to retrieve the page path that was set by the Custom HTML Tag from Session Storage and then try the 1st Party Cookie Variable.
function() {
return window.sessionStorage.getItem('gtm.truepage') || {{gtm.truepage}};
}
Custom Javascript Variable Screenshot

Answer 3

You can add an after hook to your router to create a custom path variable like this:
router.afterEach((to) => {
window.vuePath = to
}
Then in Google Tag Manager create a new User-Defined Variable with the JavaScript Variable type called Vue Path. Set Global Variable Path to window.vuePath.
Now you can use Vue Path instead of Page Path in your Triggers to get the correct page path.