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Event Tracking with AFS Analytics¶

Tracking events allows to monitor with more accuracy interactions between the visitors of your website and different pages. By helping detecting design flaws, it allows you to optimise user experience.

Events are sent to AFS Analytics via the send command or automatically detected when activating the autotrack option. This guide explains how to use the send command to send events to AFS Analytics.

Note

Categories, actions or types must be specified in English.

Capturing events with the SEND command¶

Use the send command coupled to the call type event to send an event to AFS Analytics.

Simplified syntax:

aa(
    "send", 
    "event", 
    [category], 
    [action], 
    [label], 
    [type], 
    [url], 
    [callback], 
    [params]
);

Required fields	Description
category	defines the category of the event (eg video). The alternate field eventCategory is supported to ensure compatibility with Google Analytics.
action	specifies the type of action attached to the category (eg play). The name eventAction for this field is supported for compatibility with Google Analytics.
label	gives a title to the event (eg My holiday video). EventLabel is supported to ensure compatibility with Google Analytics.

Optional fields	Description
type	defines the type or additional information about the event.
url	This field defines a location for the event.
callback	Return function to call after transmission of the event to AFS Analytics servers. The function returns three parameters. The hitType, the event object and the params object. This parameter can be a function or a string containing the name of the function.
params	An object defined in the calling function to return as parameters in the return function.

Tip

When an empty string is used as a parameter, the default value of the corresponding field will be used.

Example sending an event:

 /*The following function tells AFS Analytics 
   that a visitor has started to watch a video */

aa ("send", "event", "video", "play", "My video");

The same command with an object as argument :

/* With only Google Analytics compatible fields  */

aa ("send", {
  HitType: "event",
  EventCategory: "Video",
  EventAction: "play",
  EventLabel: "My video"
});


/* Enhanced version including specific AFS Analytics field */ 

Function mycallback (a, b, c) {console.log (a, b, c); }
aa ("send", {
  HitType: "event",
  EventCategory: "video",
  EventAction: "stop",
  EventLabel: "My video test",
  EventType: "all",
  EventUrl: "http: //www.afsanalytics/myvideo.avi",
  HitCallback: mycallback,
  Params: {message: "this has been sent"}
});

Note

HitType object property should not be confused with the type field.

Autotrack option and datasets¶

All the following examples are using autotrack and datasets. It is assumed that the autotrack option has been set to either dataset or on.

If you have any doubt about setting the autotrack option, add the following line after the tracker is created to initialize autotrack in dataset mode.

aa("Set", "autotrack", "dataset");

Setting the the datasets¶

Dataset syntax in an HTML tag:

data-[datasetprefix]-[name of the field]="value of the field"

Note

datasetprefix is a variable defined with the default aa in analytics.js. It can be modified using the set option.

Example of initializating the category field :

data-aa-category="click"

The datasets fields are those specific to AFS Analytics. That is to say hittype, category, action, label, url, callback, and params. In the datasets, only the category and label fields are mandatory. The action field may be recommended for certain types of events. Other fields are usually detected. By default hitType field is set to event.

Tags detected by autotrack¶

The Autotrack option detects any datasets attached to a, div, button, iframe, and form tags.

Example of using dataset in a youtube iframe:

<Iframe width="480" height="280" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cnBtRh08ShQ?rel=0" frameborder="0" 
  data-aa-category="video" 
  data-aa-action="start" 
  data-aa-label="Advanced visitor tracking"> 
</ iframe>

Each click on the video will now be captured by AFS Analytics.

Click events¶

If the action field is empty, analytics.js will automatically detect the type of the click ( inside or outbound). If the url field is not specified, it will be replaced by none.

For an inside click:

aa{"send", "event", "click", "inside", "My click");

For an outbound click:

aa("send", "event", "click", "outbound", "My click");

Click detection using Autotrack and dataset¶

<a href="https://afsanalytics.com" 
  data-aa-hitType="event" 
  data-aa-category="click" 
  data-aa-label="my link" 
>
  my link
</a>

Note

AFS Analytics will automatically detect the url, type and action fields if they are not defined in the datasets.

Download events¶

Downloads events are transmitted to analytics.js using the category Download. As the type field is not used, the value none is indicated. Finally, the URL field indicates the location of the file.

aa(
    "send", 
    "event", 
    "download", 
    "successful", 
    "My file",
    "none","
    http://mysite.com/mypdf.pdf"
);

Detection of downloads via Autotrack and dataset¶

When using autotrack option, the url and type fields do not need to be filled in.

<a href="http://mysite.com/myfile.pdf" 
  data-aa-hitType="event" 
  data-aa-category="download" 
  data-aa-label="my pdf file" 
  data-aa-callback="mycallback" 
  data-aa-params="{message:"test"}" 
>
  myfile.pdf
</a>

Note

The downloaded file URL does not need to be specified in the dataset, as it is set as href source.

Note

In the example above, an optional callback function is passed in order to be executed after the event is sent.

Form events¶

AFS Analytics can detect events related to filling forms. If the events are sent correctly, AFS will calculate the average fill time and the dropout rate. The form category is reserved for the form.

The various steps of filling in a form are:

Opening the form: open action

aa("send", "event", "form", "open", "My form");

Submitting the form: submit action

    aa("send", "event", "form", "submit", "My form");

Submission results:

/* On success: */
 aa("send", "event", "form", "successful", ‘My form’);

/* On Failure */
 aa("send", "event", "form", "failed", ‘My form’);

Closing the form: close

aa("send", "event", "form", "close", "My form");


/* If the form is closed with a cancel button: cancel and close */

aa("send", "event", "form", "cancel", "My form");
aa("send", "event", "form", "close", "My form");

/* or using the action: cancelandclose */

aa("send", "event", "form", "cancelandclose", "My form");

If the open and close actions were correctly defined, the average viewing time of the window will be displayed on the dashboard.

values of the type field associated with the form¶

By adding the "type" parameter you can define the form type. Available options are:

Information
Setting
Signup
Login
Contact
Logout

Capturing forms with Autotrack¶

Note

This section of the document will be added later.

Window events can be either open or close.

On window opening:

aa("send", "event", "window", "open", "My window");

On closing:

aa("send", "event", "window", "close", "My window");

When both actions open and close are sent, the average view time of the corresponding document will be displayed on the dashboard.

Video events¶

Four actions are offered to track Video events:

start
pause
resume
stop

Tip

start action can be replaced by play, both names are accepted

Whenever a user starts playing the video:

aa("send", "event", "video", "start", "My video");

When user clicks the pause button:

aa("send", "event", "video", "pause", "My video");

When user resumes playback of the video:

aa("send", "event", "video", "resume", "My video");

When the video has ended or has been stopped:

aa("send", "event", "video", "stop", "My video");

Capturing the playback of a YouTube video with Autotrack and datasets.¶

As mentioned above, the play action can be used as an alternative to the start action.

<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cnBtRh08ShQ?rel=0" frameborder="0" 
 data-aa-category="video" 
 data-aa-action="play" 
 data-aa-label="AFS Analytics video"
</iframe>

Alert events¶

Alert events are used to send custom alert messages to AFS Analytics. Many global companies use a dedicated AFS Analytics account to capture bugs occuring on their properties. This option, used by web agencies to ensure the reliability of the sites they have developed, allows, each time an alert is received, to check the origin of an error as well as the profil of the visitor who generated it.

Event action	Description
Post	Always true, the alert appears in the report grouping the alerts
Email	Alert will be sent to the email address defined in AFS Analytics
SMS	Alert is transmitted by SMS
EmailandSms	Alert will be sent by both SMS and EMAIL

Alert type should be set to warning, debug, error or fatal.

aa("send", "event", "alert", "post", "JavaScript routine error", "fatal");

Campaign events¶

Campaign events are automatically generated by analytics.js using the utm parameters appearing in a request query string.

Please refer to the Measuring online marketing campaign performance guide for more information.

ECommerce events¶

Capture of sales and transactions events related to eCommerce are described in the guide E-commerce Tracking

Predefined options accepted by AFS Analytics.¶

AFS Analytics only accepts predefined categories, actions and types. Here is a non-exhaustive list of accepted values:

Type	Accepted values
Events Categories	click, download, form, video, window, alert, and navigation
Actions	None, Open, Close, Outbound, Inside, Send, Submit, Cancel, Canceledclose, Successful, Failed, Start, End, Proceed, View, Post, Email, SMS, EmailAndSMS, Play, Pause, Resume
Types	None, Button, Link, Div, iframe, Page, Information, Alert, Setting, Signup, Login, Warning, Fatal, Debug, Error, Contact, Logout, Menu

Event Tracking with AFS Analytics¶

Capturing events with the SEND command¶

Autotrack option and datasets¶

Setting the the datasets¶

Tags detected by autotrack¶

Click events¶

Click detection using Autotrack and dataset¶

Download events¶

Detection of downloads via Autotrack and dataset¶

Form events¶

values of the type field associated with the form¶

Capturing forms with Autotrack¶

Window related events¶

Video events¶

Capturing the playback of a YouTube video with Autotrack and datasets.¶

Alert events¶

Campaign events¶

ECommerce events¶

Predefined options accepted by AFS Analytics.¶