According to Google's gtag.js guide, it seems like we're able to define custom parameters. However, when using the code examples, only the Event Action gets populated. The Event Label is recorded in Google Analytics as "(not set)" and the Event Category as "general".
Code Example from developers.google.com:
gtag('event', 'video_play', {
'video_title': 'My promotional video',
'duration': '01:32'
});
It's also interesting to note that I cannot figure out how to show custom parameters as the columns in Google Analytics seem to be statically set to "Event Category", "Event Action", and "Event Label". These correspond to the default keys of "event_category", "event_action", and "event_label". Using these keys sends the values correctly. The following code works:
gtag('event', 'redirect', {
'event_category': 'Announcements',
'event_label': '/announcements/index.jsp',
Has anyone gotten custom parameters to work or is this a feature that hasn't been implemented yet in gtag.js? Is there additional configuration needed that I may have missed?
If you you were thinking of GA Custom Dimensions and Custom Metrics, yes it is available in the gtag.js / Global Site Tag syntax, see
https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gtagjs/custom-dims-mets
in the form of a Map of CD indexes and attribute explicit names, followed by setting values to explicit attribute names.
for example
// Maps 'dimension2' to 'age'.
gtag('config', 'GA_MEASUREMENT_ID', {
'custom_map': {'dimension2': 'age'}
});
// Sends an event that passes 'age' as a parameter.
gtag('event', 'age_dimension', {'age': 55});
See also https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gtagjs/migration#custom_dimensions_and_metrics
However, gtag.js is a wrapper to make analytics.js easier to implement by hiding some its complexity.
If you are used to analytics.js, keep using it, you get more control on its behavior.
Or move to GTM, it's way more flexible.
Related
I have implemented a feedback star rating on my website at the bottom of each page. They can select one to five stars and optionally send free-form comments. I have implemented gtag.js to send the star rating integer and comments to my GA4 dashboard. Code snippet is below; I have omitted the JavaScript which allows the user to set the variables, but this is working.
<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=MEASUREMENT_ID"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'MEASUREMENT_ID', {
'custom_map': {
'rating_dimension': 'rating_key',
'comments_dimension': 'comments_key'
},
'rating_key': 'this.value',
'comments_key': 'commentsValue',
});
</script>
gtag('event', 'rating_event', {'rating_key': this.value });
gtag('event', 'comments_event', {'comments_key': commentValue });
I went under Configure>Custom definitions and added the dimensions under the Event scope.
The data is being sent as an event, because this is something the user can optionally do on a page. I have verified that the data is sent to GA, I have the Google Chrome GA Debugger, and can see that it is arriving in the Realtime report under Events.
I would like to build a report which shows the page title/URL, the number of views, the length of time spent, along with its average star rating and any comments. I would like to have some adjustable controls so that I can configure this to be shown for a specified length of time. For example, if the page is modified, I can see the average rating before and after the change. Unfortunately, I am not able to build even the most rudimentary view of this data in the new GA web interface. I tried to modify various existing reports to include my custom dimensions, but they don't offer this option. I went under Explore and tried to add a Freeform report, but I can't get the data to show up there either, it only counts the number of times the event has occurred, which is not what I care about at all.
I have gone to a lot of effort to send the data to GA and had expected to be able to access the data and build a basic report.
Is it that you are unable to add custom dimensions and metrics to the free form exploration? Or when you want to add dimensions or metrics, they don't even show up in the custom section?
Normally you have to wait more or less (some say up to) 24 hours before being able to use custom definitions (metrics and dimensions) in any report.
this might not be your case, but I found your post looking for an answer to my problem, which is the custom metrics and dimensions are there, I am just unable to add them to the report, it looks like a bug, I click the + button, check the custom dimensions and nothing happens.
I followed the directions given when setting up the User-ID option.
I then created a view named 'user_id' for showing user_id info, but I am not seeing anything. When enabling User-ID, the code said to add the following to my tracking code.
gtag('set', {'user_id': '12345UserIdHere'});
However, when I go to the 'user_id' view, nothing is shown.
My current goal is to view which user ids were browsing the system during a given period of time.
Edit:
I am using this library:
https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=MY-ID-STUFF
I mostly used GTM, so I am not completely familiar with the gtag.js syntax, but I don't believe it has a "set" method. According to the documentation you'd have to set the user id in the "config" call instead:
gtag('config', 'GA_MEASUREMENT_ID', {
'user_id': 'USER_ID'
});
(Things in caps are placeholders).
I want to get some server side error messages in google analytics using google tag manager. I managed to push some data in my dataLayer and I'm getting this:
dataLayer.push({
'event':'error_event_nl',
'eventCategory': 'errors',
'eventAction': 'starter_action',
'eventLabel': 'error-messages-label',
'error_messages_data':[
{
'original_message':'Server side error in English Version',
'translated_message':'Server side error inDutch Version'
}
]
});
My event is fired, see img:
and with data:
My question is how can i see in Google Analytics the value of the custom variable (from google tag manager) : errors_messagesData or from js script: error_messages_data ?
In google analytics I receive the values from eventCategory, eventAction and eventLabel. See img:
Thank you
Create 2 Data Layer Variables in GTM: error_messages_data.original_message and error_messages_data.translated_message.
And create 2 hit-level custom dimensions in GA, remember indexes.
Send these Data Layer Variables with events to GA using Custom Dimensions in tags:
Now you can add these dimensions to standard reports as a second dimension or use in custom reports.
I have the following custom dimension parameter that I'm sending on page view:
ga('send', 'pageview', { 'environment': 'DEV' });
(DEV changes depending on the website environment)
I logged into Google Analytics => Admin => Custom Definitions/Custom Dimensions, then "New Custom Dimension" and added "environment", Scope = Hit.
I created a custom report that included Pageviews as the Metric and "environment" as the Dimension and I don't see any information for the custom dimension I added. The js has been in there for several weeks (throughout our development cycle) so I would expect to see some information.
Am I missing a step somewhere?
Bear with me if I'm calling something by the wrong name, I'm relatively new to Google Analytics.
Thanks
JH
The custom dimensions are set by number, what you have named them in the GA interface shouldn't appear in the code. So for your example you'd have
ga('send', 'pageview', {
'dimensionX': 'DEV'
});
where X is the number of the dimension you wish to set.
I'd like to send some custom dimensions back to GA with every blog post that is read on my website - author and category.
When I set up the custom dimensions in GA I got this code to use:
var dimensionValue = 'SOME_DIMENSION_VALUE';
ga('set', 'dimension2', dimensionValue);
However, in the GA docs it specifies a different syntax using "send" rather than "set".
https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/custom-dims-mets
ga('send', 'pageview', { 'dimension4': '<?=$categories?>'});
We are using universal google analytics, but this conflicting information means I'm not sure which syntax to use.
Thanks in advance
The first code block is how you set the custom dimension (CD) that can be sent with any hit: event, pageview, transaction, etc.
The second code block is how you set the CD and send it with a pageview. So it's a specific example of the first method.
Both are valid, it's just that the second example is more complete.
When sending data to CDs, don't forget to create and define them in the GA configuration as well.