XHR versus a GIF server call

[talkmntome]

We noticed some unspecified data coming into our report suite at an increased rate recently.  Coicidentally we have been managing a lot of email and paid campaigns driving traffic to our site.  I noticed when clicking on some of the links with utm parameters that the server call coming in was an XHR request instead of the usual GIF request.  This seems odd, because it is not passing any of the variables or events connected to the page load on this.  When looking through Adobe workspace, it appears that these visits are attached to our marketing channels but no medium, source, or campaign information is connected them.  We are using a digital data layer and none of these variables are connected to these visits where the server call is an XHR request.  The only identifier we can view is connected to the URL, which is configured to the page URL as a data element.  

I'm confused as to why some of these clicks from these campaigns could be coming in without passing any information into Adobe and some could.  

Any help clarifying this would be greatly appreciated

[yuhuisg · Accepted solution]

XHR beacons are as valid as GIF beacons. The difference is that XHR allow for more data to be tracked via POST network requests, as opposed to GIF beacons that use GET requests.

I assume you're checking your beacon calls using the Adobe Debugger extension in your web browser. Unfortunately, this extension doesn't parse the XHR payload data properly, so you see blanks everywhere.

In such cases, you have to use your browser's Network console and inspect those "b/ss" network requests yourself. You should be able to see the XHR beacons show up as POST requests. You should then be able to inspect the payload data in those POST requests to verify your tracked data.

[talkmntome]

@yuhuisg I typically use the network console to check the server calls with the "b/ss" as the filter.  With these XHR requests there is a general (which points to the right report suite), response headers, request headers, and request payload drop downs.  With a normal GIF request I see the first three options and a query string parameters drop down which contains all the pertinent variabel and event information connected to the request.
I can use various plugins and check in the console that the data is being sent to Adobe, but the server call does not show this 

[yuhuisg]

In your network console, with the XHR requests, what happens when you expand the request payload dropdown? I would expect that you can see the AA parameters in there.

[Alexis_Cazes_]

Another way is to use this code in the custom section of Adobe Analytics:

if (localStorage.getItem('com.adobe.reactor.debug') == 'true') {
        s.debugTracking = true;
    }

You will see the AppMeasurement server calls in your developer console as well.