Change default recommended JavaScript Tracking Code #10797

tsteur · 2016-10-27T19:24:51Z

Our default tracking code that we generate in Piwik and show on websites looks like this:

<!-- Piwik -->
<script type="text/javascript">
  var _paq = _paq || [];
  _paq.push(['trackPageView']);
  _paq.push(['enableLinkTracking']);
  (function() {
    var u="//demo.piwik.org/";
    _paq.push(['setTrackerUrl', u+'piwik.php']);
    _paq.push(['setSiteId', '1']);
    var d=document, g=d.createElement('script'), s=d.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
    g.type='text/javascript'; g.async=true; g.defer=true; g.src=u+'piwik.js'; s.parentNode.insertBefore(g,s);
  })();
</script>
<noscript><p><img src="//demo.piwik.org/piwik.php?idsite=1" style="border:0;" alt="" /></p></noscript>
<!-- End Piwik Code -->

There are a couple of problems with this:

Noscript does not work and it is not obvious to users that rec=1 would need to be added to make it actually work
Adding custom dimensions and custom variables is hard for users because they need to place it before trackPageView see https://github.com/piwik/plugin-CustomDimensions/issues/23 . I ran into this issue myself recently and took me a while to figure out why set custom variables were not tracked.
I'm sure there are more problems with it, please comment or create an issue

As it is not good to discuss about different topics / problems in one issue I want to focus on point "2) Positioning of trackPageView" .

To solve this there are many options:
a) We could just add a comment to the tracking code showing them where to add calls like setCustomVariable.
b) Move trackPageView further down
c) We could automatically execute an initially set custom variable and custom dimension before trackPageView but this may not be wanted under circumstances and doesn't fix the problem in general for other tracking methods etc.
d) I'm sure there are some more ideas

We should ideally not change anything here in Piwik 2. I know some users perform replacements on a fetched / generated tracking code such as the WordPress Piwik Plugin (str_replace('...trackPageview...', '...', $trackingCode)). To make sure to not break anything there it would be better to only change it in Piwik 3.

I also wanted to embed the JS file via <script async defer src="piwik.js"></script> as it is better readable etc but then users need to specify the domain twice which is no good.

The text was updated successfully, but these errors were encountered:

mattab · 2016-11-12T12:25:02Z

Noscript: we could by default remove the noscript tag from the JS code output. And maybe introduce a checkbox in "Advanced", for "Track users with JavaScript disabled" which adds the noscript call with rec=1
trackPageView: adding a comment may work! (maybe let's not mention setCustomVariable but only setCustomDimension)

tsteur · 2016-11-27T19:05:55Z

FYI: In #10878 (comment) we also discuss about how to be using Piwik JavaScript Tracker when piwik.js is loaded first and only initialized later. Eg we could initialize Piwik like this:

_paq.push(['addTracker', [
  ['enableLinkTracking'],
  ['setSiteId', '5'], 
  ['setTrackerUrl', u+'piwik.php'],
  ['trackPageView']
]]);

Ideally, it would have always looked like this as this is clear. We actually define to add a tracker and configure it. If no addTracker is called, no tracker gets added and no methods executed. This would have so many advantages and I cannot think of any downside. If idSite and trackerUrl is not configured, we would pretty much ignore these requests because we know there is no tracker configured instead of current behaviour where we would send the requests to the current website URL which doesn't work.

When receiving an array of configurations we would be able to sort the methods before executing them and it wouldn't matter whether Piwik is already loaded or not. I think this version is even more readable etc and best: I think we could implement it in a way to keep BC although not 100% sure as it is a bit tricky to not ending up with 2 trackers in this case.

Any thoughts on this?

mattab · 2016-12-02T12:21:20Z

Any thoughts on this?

@tsteur the idea is good I think, but not needed for now so maybe you could move the comment to a new issue if you think it's worth it as this issue is already closed

tsteur · 2016-12-03T18:57:45Z

OK will create new issue. This might be pretty much the only way to make tracker work for people that initialize tracker with paq after piwik was loaded and for people that use multiple trackers and not paq

waa8288 · 2017-05-03T13:39:41Z

I am unable to edit the tracking code generated by Piwik 3.0.3. I need to add 2nd Piwik server configuration
on the tracking code. How can I edit the tracking? Help!

sgiehl · 2017-05-03T14:27:10Z

@waa8288 what exactly are you trying to achieve? You can modify the tracking code however you want before inserting it into your website.

waa8288 · 2017-05-03T14:40:13Z

I can not edit it. I want to edit the tracking code in Piwik and add 2nd Piwik server info so the data from a host can go to 2 Piwik servers. Here is what I want to achieve: Collect your analytics data into two or more Piwik servers The example below shows how to use addTracker method to track the same analytics data into a second Piwik server. The main Piwik server is piwik.example.org/piwik.php where the data is stored into website ID 1. The second Piwik server is analytics.example.com/piwik.php where the data is stored into website ID 77. <script type="text/javascript"> var _paq = _paq || []; _paq.push(['trackPageView']); _paq.push(['enableLinkTracking']); (function() { var u="//piwik.example.org/"; _paq.push(['setTrackerUrl', u+'piwik.php']); _paq.push(['setSiteId', '1']); // Add this code below within the Piwik JavaScript tracker code // Important: the tracker url includes the /piwik.php var secondaryTracker = 'https://analytics.example.com/piwik.php'; var secondaryWebsiteId = 77; // Also send all of the tracking data to this other Piwik server, in website ID 77 _paq.push(['addTracker', secondaryTracker, secondaryWebsiteId]); // That's it! var d=document, g=d.createElement('script'), s=d.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; g.type='text/javascript'; g.async=true; g.defer=true; g.src=u+'piwik.js'; s.parentNode.insertBefore(g,s); })(); </script> Thank you for the reply.

…

________________________________ From: Stefan Giehl <notifications@github.com> Sent: Wednesday, May 3, 2017 10:27:20 AM To: piwik/piwik Cc: Negib Sherif; Mention Subject: Re: [piwik/piwik] Change default recommended JavaScript Tracking Code (#10797) @waa8288<https://github.com/waa8288> what exactly are you trying to achieve? You can modify the tracking code however you want before inserting it into your website. — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<#10797 (comment)>, or mute the thread<https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AFe0LdhTYZfi0yhcYalXowN7xMjCHO59ks5r2I7IgaJpZM4Kiuqt>.

Findus23 · 2017-05-03T14:44:03Z

@waa8288 You don't need to edit the code in the box piwik shows. That's just an example of the code you need to add into the header of your website.

So if you want to modify the tracking code just change it on your website.

waa8288 · 2017-05-03T14:54:47Z

I did that on client hosts side. May be I am missing something. Are you saying that the tracking code in the Piwik server is just an example not part of Piwik configurations and all the change that I want to do (adding 2nd Piwik server) should be the tracking code copied to client hosts?

…

________________________________ From: Lukas Winkler <notifications@github.com> Sent: Wednesday, May 3, 2017 10:44:11 AM To: piwik/piwik Cc: Negib Sherif; Mention Subject: Re: [piwik/piwik] Change default recommended JavaScript Tracking Code (#10797) @waa8288<https://github.com/waa8288> You don't need to edit the code in the box piwik shows. That's just an example of the code you need to add into the header of your website. So if you want to modify the tracking code just change it on your website. — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<#10797 (comment)>, or mute the thread<https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AFe0LaefLyWjk4R8gWcyuqtHTT4DrPZmks5r2JK7gaJpZM4Kiuqt>.

tsteur · 2017-05-03T20:09:16Z

The tracking code shown in Piwik should be copied into your website. For more information about tracking multiple Piwiks check out https://piwik.org/blog/2017/02/complete-guide-tracking-websites-web-apps-multiple-piwiks-easily-efficiently/

tsteur added the RFC Indicates the issue is a request for comments where the author is looking for feedback. label Oct 27, 2016

tsteur added this to the 3.0.0-b3 milestone Oct 27, 2016

mattab modified the milestones: 3.0.0-b4, 3.0.0-b3 Nov 14, 2016

tsteur added a commit that referenced this issue Nov 23, 2016

refs #10797 improve default tracking code

cb53100

tsteur mentioned this issue Nov 23, 2016

JavaScript Tracker: new option "Track users with JavaScript disabled" and the <noscript> tag is not included by default anymore #10900

Merged

tsteur self-assigned this Nov 23, 2016

tsteur mentioned this issue Nov 27, 2016

2.17.1 JS-Tracking does not work anymore #10878

Closed

tsteur mentioned this issue Dec 1, 2016

Show warning when paq.push is not initialized correctly #10889

Merged

mattab closed this as completed in #10900 Dec 1, 2016

iiegn mentioned this issue Feb 10, 2017

tracking code - comment // should be /* */ #11332

Closed

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Change default recommended JavaScript Tracking Code #10797

Change default recommended JavaScript Tracking Code #10797

tsteur commented Oct 27, 2016

mattab commented Nov 12, 2016

tsteur commented Nov 27, 2016 •

edited

mattab commented Dec 2, 2016

tsteur commented Dec 3, 2016

waa8288 commented May 3, 2017

sgiehl commented May 3, 2017

waa8288 commented May 3, 2017 via email

Findus23 commented May 3, 2017

waa8288 commented May 3, 2017 via email

tsteur commented May 3, 2017

Change default recommended JavaScript Tracking Code #10797

Change default recommended JavaScript Tracking Code #10797

Comments

tsteur commented Oct 27, 2016

mattab commented Nov 12, 2016

tsteur commented Nov 27, 2016 • edited

mattab commented Dec 2, 2016

tsteur commented Dec 3, 2016

waa8288 commented May 3, 2017

sgiehl commented May 3, 2017

waa8288 commented May 3, 2017 via email

Findus23 commented May 3, 2017

waa8288 commented May 3, 2017 via email

tsteur commented May 3, 2017

tsteur commented Nov 27, 2016 •

edited