Occasionally the pageview call is sent before page load rules are fired

[zdmckee]

We are seeing an issue with data where occasionaly an Adobe Analytics call only includes the information we are capturing through our scode. We have done some testing on the site and have noticed that sometimes the information is loaded just fine but sometimes the pageview is tracked before the rules actually fire (see screenshot). This is causing us to lose that data in those occasions. What is causing this?

[zdmckee]

I've done more testing and it seems that Adobe does not consistently fire the rules before the tool(s) run. Is there any way to force Adobe to fire a specific rule and any scripts within it before the tool(s) run?

[shekhardhiman]

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out to Adobe Community.

There could be multiple reasons which can cause this behavior. You need to check where on the page you are using those rules to fire and on what event/action. Are you using dynamic tag management?

Thanks!

[zdmckee]

From the lack of response I am assuming Adobe or anyone else does not have a solution for this? Is this something that we just "have to live with" with the DTM tool? To me it seems the Tag Management solution is shooting itself in the foot if it can not control completely the load order of rules and the firing of the scripts within those rules. How do we ensure all rules that are set to fire at pageBottom are fired before the pageview is tracked?

[zdmckee · Accepted solution]

Shekhar_Dhiman wrote...

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out to Adobe Community.

There could be multiple reasons which can cause this behavior. You need to check where on the page you are using those rules to fire and on what event/action. Are you using dynamic tag management?

Thanks!

After I posted this question I kept digging and I believe I found the reason. I want to run that by here and see if someone can confirm. We need rules to fire in a specific order. They are all set to fire on Page Bottom. From my understanding the s.t call can either happen at Page Bottom or Page Top (chosen within the Adobe Analytics Tool config). If you have a rule that needs to fire before that s.t call then it can not be fired on DOM Ready or onLoad. Correct?

My next finding was that for some reason Adobe has DTM firing the rules in reverse alphabetical order (Z-A). I came up with a naming method to fire rule in a specific order and it seems to be looking fine. Can anyone confirm that Adobe will fire this consistently in reverse alphabetical order across all browsers? 

[Gigazelle]

Hi Zack,

It's less about DTM shooting itself in the foot and more about the fact that DTM was not designed to be used to supplement s_code.js page load calls. Supplementary implementations using DTM are designed specifically for link tracking image requests.

I'd recommend either switching to a full DTM implementation, or only using DTM for link tracking calls. The viability in using a hybrid implementation for page load calls isn't worth sacrificing the integrity of data.

[zdmckee]

Gigazelle wrote...

Hi Zack,

It's less about DTM shooting itself in the foot and more about the fact that DTM was not designed to be used to supplement s_code.js page load calls. Supplementary implementations using DTM are designed specifically for link tracking image requests.

I'd recommend either switching to a full DTM implementation, or only using DTM for link tracking calls. The viability in using a hybrid implementation for page load calls isn't worth sacrificing the integrity of data.

We aren't trying to implement an s_code.js through DTM. The only scode we have is the one loaded through the DTM Adobe Analytics tool. We just need another script to fire before the DTM Adobe Analytics Tool captures the pageview call. What do you mean by a "full DTM implementation"?

[zdmckee]

zdmckee wrote...

We are seeing an issue with data where occasionaly an Adobe Analytics call only includes the information we are capturing through our scode. We have done some testing on the site and have noticed that sometimes the information is loaded just fine but sometimes the pageview is tracked before the rules actually fire (see screenshot). This is causing us to lose that data in those occasions. What is causing this?

Notice in the attached screenshot the pageview is tracked (highlighted in green) and then more rules fire after that (highlighted in red). Those rules fired after the pageview is tracked include Adobe Analytics information. Since these fired after the pageview was tracked that information was not captured in the Adobe Analytics call.

Why is this happening occasionally?

[img]Wrong_Script_Fire_Order.png[/img]

[zdmckee]

zdmckee wrote...

We are seeing an issue with data where occasionaly an Adobe Analytics call only includes the information we are capturing through our scode. We have done some testing on the site and have noticed that sometimes the information is loaded just fine but sometimes the pageview is tracked before the rules actually fire (see screenshot). This is causing us to lose that data in those occasions. What is causing this?

[img]Wrong_Fire_Order.png[/img]