What is a hit?

[cathyw49544988]

From I was told that a hit is a service call, it is a image data send. The thing I still feel confuse is, for example,:

in DTM, when a page load, I will have a page load rule which will setup bunch of variables, then I will have some special event  or page rules are fired due to the nature of the visit. In this case, for example, when a visitor visit a page, 3 rules fired, then how many hits do we consider? How may image will be send to server.

Then if user just click a link, a link click rule will fire, will this be another hit? and another service call / image send?

I guess my question is 1 hit is 1 rule fire? or 1 hit can have more than 1 rule fire? How did adobe construct a image call?

Thanks

[ShamshulA]

cathyw49544988 A single image request to Adobe servers, generated when a user requests a resource on a website. A request can result in an error or a successful transmission of any data type. Each Track and Track Link call generates a hit.

1 hit can have more than 1 rule fired.

In this case, for example, when a visitor visit a page, 3 rules fired, then how many hits do we consider? It will be 1 hit

Then if user just click a link, a link click rule will fire, will this be another hit? and another service call / image send? Again 1 hit

An image request is used to send data to Adobe data collection servers. It is also known as a web beacon and is a transparent graphic image no larger than 1x1 pixel.When there is hit the pixel carry the information to Adobe server.

[cathyw49544988]

So my understanding of a hit is a user's action, doesn't matter how many rules fired.

For example, user typed in a URL and load a page, this is an action, maybe more than 1 rules fired due to the load of this page, all the related variable changes will be in the same image and send to adobe server, consider as 1 service call

If the action of user is click something on the page if this action is a tracking action, then even just 1 rule fired, still a image which contains all the variable changes will be sent to server. It is a service call also.

In the case, I will give hit a definition as a tracked user action. Do you agree?

[ShamshulA]

Yes.I agree.Your understanding is correct.

[Kaushalendra]

Hi cathyw49544988​,

Let me try to explain in a more modular way.

There are 3 types of rules in DTM:

- Page Load Rules

- Event Based Rules

- Direct Call Rules

Page Load Rules do not fire a server call by itself and rely on the call fired from the Analytics tool whenever a page is loaded.

With Event Based Rule and Direct Call Rule you can decide whether or not to fire Analytics Server call based on the Tracking configuration:

If you want to check on an existing website, how many server calls are firing, just filter for b/ss in the network tab and it will give you the calls that are fired.

[cathyw49544988]

Hi Kaushalendra,

Thanks for your answer. It is very helpful. So, if a page load happens, a service call will happen. For event and direct call, if I set it as increase the page view, then a service call will be fired? If not increase the page view, then those rules will wait until the next page load happen and all the data will be in the same service call?

Thanks,

[Kaushalendra]

Your understanding is correct cathyw49544988​. One thing to note here is that if you do not choose to fire a call (either s.t or s.tl), no call will be fired and when the page navigation happen, next page will load and variables will be reset.

So, you won't be setting variables in a event based or direct call rule unless you want to fire a server call.

[cathyw49544988]

I know if I choose disable, then definitely no call will be fired.

s.t() will increase the the pageview count and will trigger the service call fire. no question.

for example if I am tracking a link click event, then I don't want to increase to page view count. I should choose s.tl(). If I choose s.tl(), then will there be a service call fire?

Based on what you said, there will not have a service call fired for this event based rule. Then when next time, a page load, all the variable will be overwritten, then I will lost my data???

Something seems not quite right?

[Kaushalendra · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the detailed description cathyw49544988​.

I now understand the query and was previously considering that you chose "disabled" in the rule.

If you choose s.tl(), a link call will be fired with the values set and no data will be lost.

Note: Both s.t() and s.tl() fire server calls. The server call fired by s.t() increments Page Views whereas server call fired by s.tl() don't.

I hope this clarifies