I am trying to make the google analytic __utm.gif request using php. I have broken all the variables and the only one which I don't know about is utmu parameter. It is not documented anywhere.
When I see a pageview tracking request it is appended to the end of request as &utmu=qB~
While doing ecommerce tracking it is appended as &utmu=qBAL~
Please help me with this.
It is a bitmap of all of the methods used to build the request.
Source: http://glucik.blogspot.com/2011/02/utmu-google-analytics-request-parameter.html
utmu doesn't actually contain anything of external meaning. Google uses it to store some internal values that help them improve ga.js. It's not required to make any functionality work, so, your PHP code doesn't need to account for it.
However, you should know there are already a few long-standing PHP-based Google Analytics projects, like Server Side Google Analytics (SSGA), as well as the semi-official Google Analytics for Mobile PHP and PHPGA.
Related
I have settled my google tag manager as from the guide.
I have got in place a page that redirect just after the tag gtm-load is collected into the dataLayer. It's actually a "transition" page that should redirect instantaneously.
In this way I make sure google-analytics.com/r/collect is called, as I can see from the network ta of my browser, seems the only way to do so for an "instant redirect page".
However I need to test it from the back-end side.
Is there any way to have a feedback from Google Analytics about the data is actually sent? For example something like google-analytics.com/get/data/lastEntry, so that I can use a restAPI to check it out?
As far as I know, google analytics provide only metrics through a web page, and no actual data sent to.
Moreover there are some Rest API here but they are only for configuration purpose.
you might pass a JavaScript function as a hitCallback parameter of analytics send command and it will be called right after hit data were sent:
https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/field-reference#hitCallback
Here's an example of how to use it with GTM alongside another useful feature of eventcallback
https://www.simoahava.com/gtm-tips/hitcallback-eventcallback/
Hope this helps.
There is a realtime API in Google Analytics, so what I have done for testing is to call my test URL with utm campaign parameters attached. Then I made a call to the realtime API and filtered by my custom campaign.
The realtime API is fairly limited (no session based values, obviously, you cannot test custom dimensions etc), but at least this tells you if your hit has registered in GA.
I am having some pages where I need to track page views and get data for reports. So I need to use some tracking events without using gtag.js.
I have tried solutions like GIF Request Parameters
But this solution was there in ga.js and its a legacy
The format used in your linked documentation is deprecated since Google introduced Universal Analytics in 2012.
However the current solution to send requests to Googke Analytics without a library, the Measurement Protocol, works broadly the same way. You have an endpoint (google-analytics.com/collect) and add the necessary parameters as described in the reference, depending on what kind of interaction you want to track. The endpoint returns a 200 http status and a gif (no matter if the request has actually been logged in analytics, this just confirms that you actually hit the server).
I have used Amplitude analytics in the past in my react Web app to send event data. However I just started with Google Tag Manager and noticed it does not run because being blocked by adBlockers. Amplitude was always functional because I loaded their Javascript SDK through NPM install 'github:amplitude/Amplitude-Javascript' and initialized it at app load with client API key. I like the approach of Google Tag manager where I dont have redeploy app to make changes to my analytics logic. How can I take a similar approach to avoiding being blocked by adblockers.
It may very well be that Google products are popular so Adblock specifically just block google analytics products not other analytics products.
You don't. If people don't want to be tracked, that is their decision. You should not be forcing people to provide you with any data they do not want to provide. Especially by using some shady "bypassing" measures. Instead-
You could use a cookie to permanently disable your tracking of those who do not wish to be tracked, to help you preserve reliable analytics. See: http://www.multiminds.eu/2016/05/19/how-to-disable-tracking-via-google-tag-manager/
Or, better yet, simply measure the percentage of visitors who have disabled tracking so your analytical data can remain accurate. See: https://marthijnhoiting.com/detect-if-someone-is-blocking-google-analytics-or-google-tag-manager/
Yes, it's possible.
You can use reverse proxy for Google Tag Manager.
First, download the Google Analytics JavaScript library itself and host it on your server.
Then alter the code in the downloaded library to change the target host from www.google-analytics.com to your own domain name using find-replace.
Replace the link from the default Google Analytics script in your codebase to modified one.
Create a proxy endpoint to Google Analytics servers on your back end. One important step here is to additionally detect the client’s IP address and write it explicitly in requests to Google Analytics servers to preserve correct location detection.
Test the results. You’re done!
more detail info on freecodecamp.org/news/save-your-analytics-from-content-blockers and https://analytics-bypassing-adblockers.netlify.com
There's dataunlocker.com as well as some other open source alternatives (1, 2) which can help to fix reporting accuracy of Google Tag Manager, Amplitude, Google Analytics etc.
Talking about ethics and privacy, tools like DataUnlocker are just tools which allow you to bypass ad blockers as if you have implemented server-side analytics. I think by correctly implementing that "we use cookies" consent one can solve any privacy concerns.
I've managed to get around some blockers with the following in a node app:
var request = require('request');
app.get('/proxy*', function(req,res) {
const newurl = req.url.split('/proxy/')[1];
const data = request(newurl);
//data.on('response', function(response){console.log(JSON.stringify(response))});
data.pipe(res);
});
Then in your snippets for GTM prepend: "/proxy/" in the url and now the call goes via your server.
The caveat with the above is that without additional code you can't preview the container, but the container does load correctly. Lack of preview is a different issue to deal with.
I maintain a WordPress store locator plugin, and this week someone told me it wasn't working anymore. Eventually he fixed it by verifying his domain in the API Console.
That this was a solution to some APIs of Google Maps not working was new to me, and it's also the first time someone told me they fixed it this way.
The problem is that I can't find any information in which scenario verifying your domain fixes a Google Maps API related problem. I read through the Geocode API / Google Maps JavaScript API / Google Places API Web Service pages, but no where do I see something about the need to verify your domain ( I could of course have missed it ).
Does anyone know when you need to verify your domain if you want to use the Google Maps APIs? Normally it works fine without doing it, but in his case it wasn't, and I really like to know what he could possible have done to make it a requirement.
You shouldn't need to verify the domain for using Google Maps API.
You need to generate one API Key for your app so you can use it when you call the Google Map JavaScript API like this:
<script src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?key=YOUR_API_KEY&callback=initMap" async defer></script>
Substitute the value YOUR_API_KEY for the one that Google generated for you.
I've been trying to send data to Google Analytics through url, but it's not working.
Here is the url:
http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=MY-UA
&utmn=0.57942900+13058623924dd5e0f88d784
&utmp=%2Fmypage.html
&utmr=http%3A%2F%2Fpp.test%2Fmypage-ref.html
&utmdt=test+ga&utmul=en-us
&utmhn=pp.test
&utmcc=__utmz%3D1.1304060743.1.1.utmcsr%3D%28direct%29%7Cutmccn%3D%28direct%29%7Cutmcmd%3D%28none%29%3B+__utma%3D1.100229728.1304060743.1304060743.1304060743.1%3B+__utmz%3D185677488.1304391672.1.1.utmcsr%3D%28direct%29%7Cutmccn%3D%28direct%29%7Cutmcmd%3D%28none%29%3B+__utma%3D185677488.2126025763.1304391672.1304667350.1305106191.6%3B+PHPSESSID%3Dpghin7v4q3g5lssq5c5mjchfj6
&utmcn=1
&utmcr=1
&utmwv=1
&utmsr=1280x1024
&utmsc=32-bit
&utmcs=-
&utmje=0
I have been trying follow the parameter here http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/concepts/gaConceptsOverview.html
I call the url by curl and tested through the address bar, but not working, no data in my Google Analytics :(
Any ideas please?
It's possible, although if you're trying to do it you're probably doing something wrong.
But there's more to it than you can see at first sight. The best way to achieve it is to use a mobile library for Google Analytics. Google already provides this for a couple of languages. These libraries are built to send data to Google Analytics via your server. And if you check the server code you'll see that there are some calculations involved. You can possibly change one of these libraries to be run without a request. They're not complicated.
http://code.google.com/mobile/analytics/docs/web/