How to override tracking data instead of appending it.

[manish4781]

Hi, I am new to adobe analytics

I have a form where i want to track a progress in adobe analytics, so i create a new event which fires an event on every click

which simply send progress data like 12% or 15%

in adobe side i have created a event, rules and data element which seems to be working fine and giving a result

only problem is when i see the report it shows entry like

Form 1

   Progress 12%

   Progress 15%

   Progress 20%
where as i want single entry like

Form 1

   Progress 20%

[Jennifer_Dungan]

If you are sending an event then you cannot override it... the data has already gone to the server. You should also be aware that Adobe costs are based on server calls, if these forms are heavily used each one of those calls will add up...

What you could do, is have a trigger to set a value, but not send a server call, on the next click, override the value, and on each subsequent call, override the value to the greater value... this way you aren't sending the interim values, just the max value.

Then the tricky part is determining when to send that data... I assume this is to try and understand form abandonment? You might have to set up a trigger for leaving the page...  (if you can get this properly detected, this would be the best option)

OR if you store the values in something like a session var (form name and % complete), you could add that to your page view tracking... if there is a value, send it, then clear the session variable so that it doesn't send again... this would result in the data being sent on the next page view (hence why you need the form name), but if the user closes the tab/browser, you won't capture any data (similar to how the time spent metric doesn't collect data for the last page in the session, as there is no timestamp to calculate the time spent)

Most of this will rely on custom coding to determine when to send the form progress value... 

[manish4781]

Hi @Jennifer_Dungan

currently i am sending an event on each click which i can change it after a certain threshold point like once the form is 25% completed send an event or when 50% completed send an event.

i have these variables set in my application, but still in this case also i will have 4 entries in when i generate adobe report.(currently this application is in non prod, so i can make any changes)

my doubt is how do i override the form progress like, when i send 50% it should override in adobe side and take the latest form progress and just show this form competed 50 percent not Like this

Form 1

   Progress 25%

   Progress 50%

[Jennifer_Dungan · Accepted solution]

Yes, my point is, you cannot override values once they are sent...  

- When you send "progress 25%" that will have a row in the data that says "25%" with the timestamp that it was sent and all the correlation values.

- When you send "progress 50%" you will have a new row in the data that says "50%" with the timestamp that was send and all the correlation values...

- You cannot modify a past event. You will always end up with multiple events

The only way to "override" and only have a single "max % complete" is to completely change how you are tracking and not send any data until an abandonment is detected (i.e. the user attempts to leave the page or close the tab/browser)

While you could use the "most recent" allocation as suggested, if you have multiple forms, this will only show where the user abandoned the last form they interacted with... If you apply a filter for the specific form, if the user attempts the same form two or three times, you will only see the last attempt....  which may not meet your needs, or maybe it does. Without knowing your site or your requirements we can try making different suggestions that you can consider.

Looking at the % complete as a fallout is a good idea (as suggested by @nitesh__anwani), then you can see ALL users hitting those completion points. If you don't have an issue with tracking all those extra server calls, then that could be the way to go...

[nitesh__anwani]

Hi @manish4781 ,

If I try to understand your requirement on this form tagging, the requirement is to understand the form abandonment by the users.

You can use the eVar to send the form progress text values like progress_25pct, progress_50pct, etc...

While configuring this eVar in the report suite, you can use the allocation as the most recent.

When you will check the report for unique visitors along with this eVar, it will allocate the most recent progress value which you passed for the visitor, and allocate the unique visitor account accordingly.

you can configure the expiration after setting the basis on your requirement, like if the user doesn't make any progress till the session, then reset the progress. it depends on your requirement.

also, if you are planning to build some funnels like form start, progress_25pct, progrss_50pct, etc., then you can capture these values in props as well.