Have you ever tried to use a new plug-in and found it did not work? You were probably missing a utility function. Utility functions are designed to work with SiteCatalyst plug-ins. There are 6 utility functions that are commonly used. They are apl, p_c, p_gh, split, replace, and join.

These functions do things like join elements of an array into a string delimiter by a string, replaces characters in a string, splits a string on a specific character, append a value to any delimited lists, and more. THese utility functions are referenced by several standard plug-ins.

Here’s how I do it. I take all these utility functions and wrap them all up in one neat package, and include this as one of my standard plug-ins to add when creating a s_code file. This way not thing is missed, nothing is forgotten and all of my plug-ins will work no problem.

Here’s what it looks like:

/*
 * Utility Functions: apl, p_c, p_gh, split, replace, join
 */
s.apl=new Function("L","v","d","u",""
+"var s=this,m=0;if(!L)L='';if(u){var i,n,a=s.split(L,d);for(i=0;i<a."
+"length;i++){n=a[i];m=m||(u==1?(n==v):(n.toLowerCase()==v.toLowerCas"
+"e()));}}if(!m)L=L?L+d+v:v;return L");
s.p_c=new Function("v","c",""
+"var x=v.indexOf('=');return c.toLowerCase()==v.substring(0,x<0?v.le"
+"ngth:x).toLowerCase()?v:0");
s.p_gh=new Function(""
+"var s=this;if(!s.eo&&!s.lnk)return '';var o=s.eo?s.eo:s.lnk,y=s.ot("
+"o),n=s.oid(o),x=o.s_oidt;if(s.eo&&o==s.eo){while(o&&!n&&y!='BODY'){"
+"o=o.parentElement?o.parentElement:o.parentNode;if(!o)return '';y=s."
+"ot(o);n=s.oid(o);x=o.s_oidt}}return o.href?o.href:'';");
s.split=new Function("l","d",""
+"var i,x=0,a=new Array;while(l){i=l.indexOf(d);i=i>-1?i:l.length;a[x"
+"++]=l.substring(0,i);l=l.substring(i+d.length);}return a");
s.repl=new Function("x","o","n",""
+"var i=x.indexOf(o),l=n.length;while(x&&i>=0){x=x.substring(0,i)+n+x."
+"substring(i+o.length);i=x.indexOf(o,i+l)}return x");
s.join = new Function("v","p",""
+"var s = this;var f,b,d,w;if(p){f=p.front?p.front:'';b=p.back?p.back"
+":'';d=p.delim?p.delim:'';w=p.wrap?p.wrap:'';}var str='';for(var x=0"
+";x<v.length;x++){if(typeof(v[x])=='object' )str+=s.join( v[x],p);el"
+"se str+=w+v[x]+w;if(x<v.length-1)str+=d;}return f+str+b;");

I just make sure that is block is included in every s_code file. Then I am assured that every plug-in I use can find the correct utility function it needs to work properly.

Enjoy!

The Time Parting Plug-in is one of the more popular SiteCatalyst plug-ins available. A standard implementation of the Time Parting plug-in will consume 3 variables. One for Time of Day, one for the Day of Week, and one for Weekday/Weekend. How can we improve this to get more information, and more importantly use less variables? Here is how I have been doing it.

I use a combination of stacking the variables and SAINT uploads. For those of you who are not familiar with SAINT, Omniture describes it as, “…an acronym for SiteCatalyst Attribute Importing and Naming Tool. This tool enables you to download the classifications template, apply attributes to it, and then upload the data, thereby enhancing your SiteCatalyst reports with the new attributes.” This will allow us to upload a lot of detail about any variable you record.

Here’s how I’m doing it on this site. First I am using the 2.0 version of the plug-in and not the 1.4 version that I describe in a previous post. The 2.0 version includes support for Daylight Savings time and globalizes the year. You can find the 2.0 version from the SiteCatalyst Knowledge Base. If you prefer to use the 1.4 version, you can find it on this site.

/* Set Time Parting Variables */
s_hour=s.getTimeParting('h','-5');
s_day=s.getTimeParting('d','-5');
s_timepart=s_day+"|"+s_hour;
s.prop16=s_timepart.toLowerCase();
if (s.visEvent) s.eVar16=s.prop16;

Ok, let me explain whats going on here. As I said before the Time Parting plug-in captures 3 variables. If you notice in my code I am only using two of them. I don’t need to capture Weekday/Weekend anymore. I will take care of that later. The other two, I capture in two blank variables I created, s_day and s_hour. Next I combine the two of them in a single variable I call s_timepart, separated by a pipe. Then to ensure everything is consistent I copy the variable in all lower case to the prop that I am going to use. This next part is a little different. In the eVar I only want capture this value once per visit. Typically a simple getValOnce will be enough to get it done. Well then what happens when the visit extends from one time part into another? In that situation the Time Parting value will be different and therefore getValOnce will capture this as a new value since it has changed. I don’t want that to happen, I only want it once per visit. So this is when I tie in using the get Visit Start plug-in. This guarantees I will only capture the value only one time per visit.

This will return a report that looks like this:

We now have a total of 672 possible options in this report. The next thing we want to do is to classify these using SAINT. I set up 5 different categories to use. Weekday/Weekend (this is why we don’t need to capture it in the code, Day of Week, Hour of Day, Hour Part and AM/PM.

I then created the template to use that contains all of these values.

You can download a copy of the template that I use here.
Upload the template and that’s all there is to it. Do you have more conversions in the bottom of the hour or the top of the hour? How about morning vs afternoon? Which whole hour is the most profitable? Now you have an easy way to break down your time parting with finer granularity, at the sime time saving your self a couple of variables.

Enjoy!

To me Web Analytics is the science of analyzing visitor behavior in order to improve the Web Site for the purpose of increasing conversion. Anytime I can use web analytics to help the visitor find what they are looking for, I feel I’m doing my job. But lets say your visitors are finding what they are looking for, but it is just not as easy as it could be? How would I know?

One thing I have been playing with is to monitor what content my visitors are selecting and copying from the site. If I see a lot of visitors copying my email address, maybe I should make the contact form a little easier to be found. If I see a lot of copying of some sample code, maybe I should make it easier to download it, or include a pdf copy. But how do I find out how to capture what my visitors copy? Here you go.

This is all done by adding a plug-in and a bit of code to the s_code file. This code looks for any time some text is copied and sets it in a prop and fires an event. This will work if the visitor highlights text and goes the right click/copy route, or by hitting Control/Command + C. You will need either 1 eVar and 1 event, or a 1 prop to use. If you want to go the eVar and event route, take this code and place it some where BEFORE the function s_doPlugins(s) call:

var eventAttached=false;
if(!eventAttached){eventAttached = true;
function trackCopy(){
var overrides = {'events':'event8','eVar18':getCopiedText()};
	s.templtv=s.linkTrackVars;
	s.templte=s.linkTrackEvents;
   	s.linkTrackVars='eVar18,events';
	s.linkTrackEvents=s.events='event8';
	s.tl(true, 'o', 'Text Copied', overrides);
	if(s.templtv) s.linkTrackVars=s.templtv;
	if(s.templte) s.linkTrackEvents=s.templte;
}

Insert the eVar and event you are going to use where you see them in the code. If you decide to just use a single prop instead, then use this bit of code, again before the function s_doPlugins(s) call:

var eventAttached=false;
if(!eventAttached){eventAttached = true;
function trackCopy(){
var overrides = {'prop49':getCopiedText()};
	s.templtv=s.linkTrackVars;
   	s.linkTrackVars='prop49';
	s.tl(true, 'o', 'Text Copied', overrides);
	if(s.templtv) s.linkTrackVars=s.templtv;
}

Insert the prop you want to use where you see it set. Next take this code and put it in the plug-in’s section of the s_code file:

function getCopiedText() {
if (document.selection){return document.selection.createRange().text;}
else if (window.getSelection){return window.getSelection();}return '';}
if(document.body && document.body.attachEvent){
document.body.attachEvent("oncopy", trackCopy);}
else if (document.body && document.body.addEventListener){
document.body.addEventListener('copy',trackCopy, false);}}

What are we going to end up with? You will get a report that looks like this:

It’s pretty interesting to see what your visitors are choosing to copy. Now do I expect to find huge some game changing incite that will lead me to make a change to the Web Site that will increase my conversion rate 100% with this report? Probably not. Do I expect to find one more place that allows me to make another 1% improvement? I sure do. Remember, all those 1% improvements add up.

Big thanks to kgs/ksmith in the Omniture Developer Connection for the original idea to do this.

Enjoy!

Recently there was a great article on the Omniture Blog all about Capturing Time Spent on . . . well, just about anything. It’s a great post and definitely worth checking out. After reading it I was wondering if there was another way to do it? Of course there is! I present the Time To Complete Plug-in.

The getTimeToComplete plug-in will track the time it takes a user to complete some process on your site. The “clock” begins when you call the plug-in with the value “start” and stops when the plug-in with the value “stop”. The plug-in can be used to track the time to complete a checkout process, to track the time to complete an application process, to track the time a user spends viewing/using Rich Internet Applications (RIA), or to track the time between a download and a purchase.

s.getTimeToComplete( v, cn, e )

v is the Value – ‘start’ or ‘stop’
cn is the Cookie Name – example: ‘ttc’
e is the Expiration – days to expiration of the cookie, 0 for session
This function will return an empty string ” or a value in days, hours, minutes or seconds

There is a bunch of different ways to use this plug-in. I like this first method because you do not have to add a single of code to the page to make it work (I have found it is much easier to get a development team to simply upload a new s_code file as opposed to adding additional code to the site.) Lets say you want to track a form on your site. Lets say the form is at /my-form.php. Once the visitor fills out the form, they are taken to the thank you page which lets say is at /my-form-thanks.php. I would add this bit of code to the s_code file:

if (window.location.pathname=='/my-form.php') s.ttc='start';
if (window.location.pathname=='/my-form-thanks.php') s.ttc='stop';
s.prop1=s.getTimeToComplete(s.ttc,'ttc',0);

What this does is looks for the path in the URL for /my-form.php and sets start in s.ttc. When the plug-in see’s this it set’s the cookie ttc with a start time Then when the URL path is /my-form-thanks.php stop is set. When the plug-in see’s stop, it then reads the ttc plug-in and records the time difference in s.prop1. The time value that you will get will have days and hours rounded to .2 (e.g. 1.4 days), minutes to .5 (e.g. 2.5 minutes), and seconds to 5 (e.g. 15 seconds).

NOTE:When this is implemented, if you check the debugger you will not see any value for s.prop1 until you have reached the stop point of the process.

Here is another way to use the code. Let’s say you have some events set right on the pages of your site. We want to know how long it takes to get from when event1 is set to when event2 is set. I would add this code into the s_code file:

if(s.events.indexOf('event1')>-1) s.ttc='start';
if(s.events.indexOf('event2')>-1) s.ttc='stop';
s.prop1=s.getTimeToComplete(s.ttc,'ttc',0);

What this does is look for when event1 happens, then set start in s.ttc. When event2 happens stop is set, and the time value is set in s.prop1.

NOTE: Another thing to remember is this can be used to record the time of many different processes or paths on your site. If you do that I suggest using a different cookie name and variable value in each one so there are no issues.

Here is the actual plug-in code:
The getTimeToComplete plug-in returns the time to complete a task. When v is ‘start’ a cookie is written with the timestamp. When v is ‘stop’ the cookie is read and the expired time is returned in days, hours, minutes, or seconds.

/*
 * Plugin: getTimeToComplete
 */
s.getTimeToComplete=new Function("v","cn","e",""
+"var s=this,d=new Date,x=d,k;if(!s.ttcr){e=e?e:0;if(v=='start'||v=='"
+"stop')s.ttcr=1;x.setTime(x.getTime()+e*86400000);if(v=='start'){s.c"
+"_w(cn,d.getTime(),e?x:0);return '';}if(v=='stop'){k=s.c_r(cn);if(!s"
+".c_w(cn,'',d)||!k)return '';v=(d.getTime()-k)/1000;var td=86400,th="
+"3600,tm=60,r=5,u,un;if(v>td){u=td;un='days';}else if(v>th){u=th;un="
+"'hours';}else if(v>tm){r=2;u=tm;un='minutes';}else{r=.2;u=1;un='sec"
+"onds';}v=v*r/u;return (Math.round(v)/r)+' '+un;}}return '';");

I really like this plug-in because you end up with a report that is completely dedicated to the time it takes to complete that exact action.

Enjoy!

ClickMap. Pretty useful tool. It gives you a neat overlay that shows you what links are clicked on a page and the associated traffic. I wonder how we can make it better? Knock knock. Oh who is that at the door? Why its the Dynamic Object IDs Plugin. Please step right in.

The Dynamic Object IDs Plug-in dynamically adds an object ID to the click thru URL. You can see it using the debugger. It is designed to improve the function of the Clickmap.

Let’s take a look at an example. From the home page of this site, there are 3 links that take you to the Contact page. I click the last one on the page, then open the debugger on the page I land on. Here you can see that the click thru URL has been appended with the number of the order that it happened to appear in on the page. So now when I have multiple links on a single page each one is easily spotted in the debugger, even though they all have the same anchor text and click thru URL.

Now what do we get? If you look at the clickmap report, Site Content>Links>ClickMap, you will now see a number attached to each URL.

Now you know exactly which link was clicked.

Here is how I have it implemented on this site. Before the function s_doPlugins(s) I include the code:

/* DynamicObjectIDs config */
function s_getObjectID(o) {
	var ID=o.href;
	return ID;
}
s.getObjectID=s_getObjectID

Then within the s_doPlugins(s) function, I include:

/* To setup Dynamic Object IDs */
s.setupDynamicObjectIDs();

And finally in the Plug-ins section I have the plug-in code itself.

/*
 * DynamicObjectIDs
 */
s.setupDynamicObjectIDs=new Function(""
+"var s=this;if(!s.doi){s.doi=1;if(s.apv>3&&(!s.isie||!s.ismac||s.apv"
+">=5)){if(s.wd.attachEvent)s.wd.attachEvent('onload',s.setOIDs);else"
+" if(s.wd.addEventListener)s.wd.addEventListener('load',s.setOIDs,fa"
+"lse);else{s.doiol=s.wd.onload;s.wd.onload=s.setOIDs}}s.wd.s_semapho"
+"re=1}");
s.setOIDs=new Function("e",""
+"var s=s_c_il["+s._in+"],b=s.eh(s.wd,'onload'),o='onclick',x,l,u,c,i"
+",a=new Array;if(s.doiol){if(b)s[b]=s.wd[b];s.doiol(e)}if(s.d.links)"
+"{for(i=0;i<s.d.links.length;i++){l=s.d.links[i];c=l[o]?''+l[o]:'';b"
+"=s.eh(l,o);z=l[b]?''+l[b]:'';u=s.getObjectID(l);if(u&&c.indexOf('s_"
+"objectID')<0&&z.indexOf('s_objectID')<0){u=s.repl(u,'\"','');u=s.re"
+"pl(u,'\\n','').substring(0,97);l.s_oc=l[o];a[u]=a[u]?a[u]+1:1;x='';"
+"if(c.indexOf('.t(')>=0||c.indexOf('.tl(')>=0||c.indexOf('s_gs(')>=0"
+")x='var x=\".tl(\";';x+='s_objectID=\"'+u+'_'+a[u]+'\";return this."
+"s_oc?this.s_oc(e):true';if(s.isns&&s.apv>=5)l.setAttribute(o,x);l[o"
+"]=new Function('e',x)}}}s.wd.s_semaphore=0;return true");

To see this code in the s_code file running this site, you can check it out here.

Ok great. Now what else can we do with this plug-in? Lets say I want to track how many contact form submissions I received from clicking the third Contact link that appears on the Home Page? Well I could add a custom onclick function. I could add a tracking code on the end of the click thru URL. But how can I use this new plug-in to track this?

Recently there was a post on the Omniture blog about using Dynamic Variables. Using these variables we can now grab the value of oid, which is the click thru URL with the new object id added to it, and you can get the pid which is the page the click happened on. I have it set up on this site:

s.prop20=s.eVar20="D=oid";
s.prop22=s.eVar22="D=pid";

Now with a simple subrelation I can get what link was clicked on what page and what events occurred, all without adding any additional code to the page.

Enjoy!

In our quest to make our SiteCatalyst implementation more powerful and lighten the load on the developers and programmers (who for some reason always have more important things to do then add more Omniture code to the site), there are a couple of plug-ins I like to use to help to set the scOpen event.

The scOpen event is used to populate the Carts Report and metric with the number of times visitors view a new shopping cart during an eCommerce process. The scAdd event should be used when adding items into a shopping cart. But what if every time you add an item to the shopping cart, you are taken to the shopping cart? Well then you should set both events the first time. But only first time the shopping cart is opened, the scOpen event should be set. If the shopping cart has already been opened, the scOpen event should not be set again during that visit. So how do we make sure that the scOpen event is only set on that very first instance of the cart being viewed?

What we have here are the getCartOpen and resetGetCartOpen SiteCatalyst plug-ins. What the getCartOpen plug-in does is looks for the very first instance of the scAdd event being set and adds the scOpen event at that same time. Each time after that the scAdd event is set, the scOpen event will not be set again. But what if the visitor completes an order and wants to place another during the same visit? That’s where the resetGetCartOpen plug-in comes in. It looks for an instance of the purchase event and then allows the scOpen event to be set again if a new shopping cart is created.

This first line which goes in the calls to plugins section of the s_code.js file, calls the getCartOpen plugin and returns the events string with scOpen added the first time scAdd occurs during a visit.

/*Get Cart Open*/
s.events=s.getCartOpen("s_scOpen");

And here is the getCartOpen plug-in code that should be added to the plug-in code section.

/*
 * Plugin: getCartOpen
 */
s.getCartOpen=new Function("c",""
+"var s=this,t=new Date,e=s.events?s.events:'',i=0;t.setTime(t.getTim"
+"e()+1800000);if(s.c_r(c)||e.indexOf('scOpen')>-1){if(!s.c_w(c,1,t))"
+"{s.c_w(c,1,0)}}else{if(e.indexOf('scAdd')>-1){if(s.c_w(c,1,t)){i=1}"
+"else if(s.c_w(c,1,0)){i=1}}}if(i){e=e+',scOpen'}return e");

This line which goes in the calls to plug-ins section of the s_code.js file, calls the resetGetCartOpen plug-in and resets the scOpen event after a purchase takes place, allowing the scOpen event to be set again if the visitor decides to make another purchase during the same visit.

/*Reset Get Cart Open*/
s.events=s.resetGetCartOpen();

And here is the resetGetCartOpen plug-in code that should be added to the plug-in code section.

/*
 * Plugin: resetGetCartOpen
 */
s.resetGetCartOpen=new Function(""
+"var s=this,t=new Date,e=s.events?s.events:'';t.setTime(t.getTime()+"
+"10000);if(e.indexOf('purchase')>-1){if(s.c_r('s_scOpen')||e.indexOf"
+"('scOpen')>-1){if(!s.c_w('s_scOpen','',t)){s.c_w('s_scOpen','',0);}"
+"}}return e");

For more information on when to use the scOpen and scAdd events, check out the Omniture Knowledge base Answer ID 440.

Enjoy!

Tracking your visitor’s Flash version is nothing new. I wrote about it a while ago in the Plugin To Detect Flash in SiteCatalyst post. What I have here is a little more powerful. This is the Rich Internet Application tracking plug-in.

RIA development is becoming more and more popular. Do your Visitors have Flash? What version? How about SilverLight? What version of that? Do they have both? Now you will know. What this SiteCatalyst plug-in does is detects the Silverlight version, and the Flash version. If you want to see it in action, fire up your Omniture JavaScript debugger on this page. You will see s.prop10 and s.prop11 (c10 and c11) populated with the Flash version and Silverlight versions your browser has installed. You will also see the Flash version populated in s.prop9 (c9). This is done using the original flash detection plug-in mentioned above.

Here is how to use it. First in the s_code.js file call the plug-in along with the variables you want to use to store the visitors rich application versions. Here I am using s.prop10 and s.prop11:

s.detectRIA('s_ria','prop10','prop11');

Then in the plug-in’s section add the plug-in code:

/*
 * Plugin: detectRIA v0.1 - detect and set Flash, Silverlight versions
 */
s.detectRIA=new Function("cn", "fp", "sp", "mfv", "msv", "sf", ""
+"cn=cn?cn:'s_ria';msv=msv?msv:2;mfv=mfv?mfv:10;var s=this,sv='',fv=-"
+"1,dwi=0,fr='',sr='',w,mt=s.n.mimeTypes,uk=s.c_r(cn),k=s.c_w('s_cc',"
+"'true',0)?'Y':'N';fk=uk.substring(0,uk.indexOf('|'));sk=uk.substrin"
+"g(uk.indexOf('|')+1,uk.length);if(k=='Y'&&s.p_fo('detectRIA')){if(u"
+"k&&!sf){if(fp){s[fp]=fk;}if(sp){s[sp]=sk;}return false;}if(!fk&&fp)"
+"{if(s.pl&&s.pl.length){if(s.pl['Shockwave Flash 2.0'])fv=2;x=s.pl['"
+"Shockwave Flash'];if(x){fv=0;z=x.description;if(z)fv=z.substring(16"
+",z.indexOf('.'));}}else if(navigator.plugins&&navigator.plugins.len"
+"gth){x=navigator.plugins['Shockwave Flash'];if(x){fv=0;z=x.descript"
+"ion;if(z)fv=z.substring(16,z.indexOf('.'));}}else if(mt&&mt.length)"
+"{x=mt['application/x-shockwave-flash'];if(x&&x.enabledPlugin)fv=0;}"
+"if(fv<=0)dwi=1;w=s.u.indexOf('Win')!=-1?1:0;if(dwi&&s.isie&&w&&exec"
+"Script){result=false;for(var i=mfv;i>=3&&result!=true;i--){execScri"
+"pt('on error resume next: result = IsObject(CreateObject(\"Shockwav"
+"eFlash.ShockwaveFlash.'+i+'\"))','VBScript');fv=i;}}fr=fv==-1?'flas"
+"h not detected':fv==0?'flash enabled (no version)':'flash '+fv;}if("
+"!sk&&sp&&s.apv>=4.1){var tc='try{x=new ActiveXObject(\"AgControl.A'"
+"+'gControl\");for(var i=msv;i>0;i--){for(var j=9;j>=0;j--){if(x.is'"
+"+'VersionSupported(i+\".\"+j)){sv=i+\".\"+j;break;}}if(sv){break;}'"
+"+'}}catch(e){try{x=navigator.plugins[\"Silverlight Plug-In\"];sv=x'"
+"+'.description.substring(0,x.description.indexOf(\".\")+2);}catch('"
+"+'e){}}';eval(tc);sr=sv==''?'silverlight not detected':'silverlight"
+" '+sv;}if((fr&&fp)||(sr&&sp)){s.c_w(cn,fr+'|'+sr,0);if(fr)s[fp]=fr;"
+"if(sr)s[sp]=sr;}}");
s.p_fo=new Function("n",""
+"var s=this;if(!s.__fo){s.__fo=new Object;}if(!s.__fo[n]){s.__fo[n]="
+"new Object;return 1;}else {return 0;}");

“We are considering developing some Silverlight applications. What percentage of our visitors have Silverlight, and if so what version?” Now you will have no problems answering that question.

If you would like more information about using SiteCatalyst with Silverlight, check out the white paper Using SiteCatalyst and Silverlight, available in the Omniture Knowledge Base.

Enjoy!

Here is a simple way to add Page Views and Visits to all of your eVar reports (see the update below). While Client Care has the ability to turn on a few things, flip some switches here and there to add visits to some reports, I like having full control over it as much as possible myself (and I’m not really in the mood to wait on hold to get it done). To make this happen we are going to have to use 2 events and a pair of plug-ins. Hopefully you should have a couple of events available to use, and you can find the plug-in code on the SiteCatalyst Plugins page. Here’s how to do it.

First lets get Page Views. To do this we are going to use the Append List plug-in. The Append List (or apl) plug-in utility provides a simple mechanism to append a value to any delimited lists, with the option of a case sensitive or case-insensitive check to insure the value doesn’t already exist in the list. The apl plug-in is referenced by several standard plug-ins but can be used directly in a variety of situations. This is an Omniture supported plug-in and you can find more information about it by accessing the Knowledge Base.

s.apl(L,v,d,u)

L = source list, empty list is accepted
v = value to append
d = list delimiter
u (optional, defaults to 0) Unique value check. 0=no unique check, value is always appended. 1=case insensitive check, append only if value isn’t in list. 2=case sensitive check, append only if value isn’t in list.

What we are going to do is in the s_code.js file, set up this plug-in to fire off an event on every single page view of the site, exactly mimicking the standard Page View metric.

/* Set Page View Event */
s.events=s.apl(s.events,'event1',',',1);

Here is the plug-in code:

/*
* Plugin Utility: apl v1.1
*/
s.apl=new Function("L","v","d","u",""
+"var s=this,m=0;if(!L)L='';if(u){var i,n,a=s.split(L,d);for(i=0;i<a."
+"length;i++){n=a[i];m=m||(u==1?(n==v):(n.toLowerCase()==v.toLowerCas"
+"e()));}}if(!m)L=L?L+d+v:v;return L");

UPDATE: In my eagerness to share this with everyone I skipped the testing process I usually do. Upon testing I realized I a critical, basic error in my logic. By doing it this way, you are setting an event prior to any of the eVars, so they would not be associated with each other, and there for show up as “None” in your report. It is such a simple oversight that I am actually embarrassed that I missed. So now I throw it out to you, the Omniture community, how do you guys think we should try to figure this one out? Or is it even possible to do? Let me know what you think!

Just to be super clear, this will work if you want to add visits to some of your Traffic Sources reports. For example if you want visits from the original referring domains, this will work perfectly for that.

Now lets get Visits. I thought a lot about how to get this. One method you could use would be do the exact same thing we did to get the Page Views event. Set it up on a different event, then call up Omniture Client Care to have them set that event to only record once per visit. Again I wanted to try to avoid using Client Care. I also did not want to go that route since I want this to mimic the Visits metric as close as possible, so I want it to be cookie based. Here I decided to use the Get Visit Start plug-in.

What the Get Visit Start plug-in was designed to do is to determine first page of a visit. It returns 1 on the first plug-in call of the visit, otherwise returns nothing. It uses a 30 minute cookie if possible, otherwise reverts to a session cookie. Always returns nothing if 30 minute or session cookie can’t be set, so it functions very much like the standard Visit’s metric. What I have done is set the plug-in up to populate a variable, then use basic JavaScript to determine if there is a value to the variable that was just set, and if so fire off the Append List plug-in. The theory behind this is the Get Visit Start plug-in will only return a value one time per visit, on the first page view, and at that one and only time fire off a single event.

s.getVisitStart(c)

c=cookie name for tracking (“s_visit” is standard)

Here is how I have it set up. I made up a variable s.visEvent to hold the value of the Get Visit Start Plugin, then fire off event6 if it has a value.

/* Set Visit Event */
s.visEvent=s.getVisitStart("s_visit");
if (s.visEvent) s.events=s.apl(s.events,'event6',',',1);

Here is the plug-in code:

/*
 * Get Visit Start
 */
s.getVisitStart=new Function("c",""
+"var s=this,v=1,t=new Date;t.setTime(t.getTime()+1800000);if(s.c_r(c"
+")){v=0}if(!s.c_w(c,1,t)){s.c_w(c,1,0)}if(!s.c_r(c)){v=0}return v;");

Pretty simple. Typically I would have just used the Get Val Once plug-in when I want to get a value of a variable only once per visit, but it didn’t want to work well with the s.events variable.

Enjoy!

A little while ago I wrote about how A Robust SiteCatalyst Implementation Could Fail In Internet Explorer. In the article I point out that IE does not like any URL’s that are over 2083 characters. Recently I have had some issues with a few sites where I think they may have been running into this problem again. I would always use Firebug or Tamper Data to look at the actual image request, copy that and drop it into one of the various free ‘character counting’ tools that are pretty abundant all over the web to make sure that the Omniture image request URL is not over 2083 characters. This can get pretty time consuming. I figured there has to be an easier way to do it. Behold the Omniture Image Request Counter.

Omniture Image Request Counter is just a simple JavaScript bookmark, very similar to the Omniture Debugger tool. What this does is takes a look at the image request and counts how many characters are there. Very quick, very simple.

Download a copy of the code here
or
View a copy of the code here

Here is how to use it:
1. Take any web page and create a bookmark (or favorite depending on what you call it).
2. Right-click the favorite you just created.
3. Click Properties.
4. Delete all text from the URL field of the Properties window.
5. Paste the following code into the URL field of the Properties window.

javascript:var%20j=document.styleSheets,i=document.images,r='';for(var%20x=0;x<j.length;x++)if(j[x].imports)for(var%20y=0;y<j[x].imports.length;y++)if(j[x].imports[y].href.toLowerCase().indexOf('/b/ss/')>=0)r+=j[x].imports[y].href+"\n\n";for(var%20x=0;x<i.length;x++)if(i[x].src.toLowerCase().indexOf('/b/ss/')>=0)r+=i[x].src+"\n\n";for(w_m%20in%20window)if(w_m.substring(0,4)=='s_i_'&&window[w_m].src)if(window[w_m].src.indexOf('/b/ss/')>=0)r+=window[w_m].src;void(alert('The%20Omniture%20image%20request%20contains%20'+r.length+'%20characters.'))

6. Click OK

Now navigate to any page that has Omniture SiteCatalyst code and click this new bookmark that you just created. You will get a pop up that tells you how many characters are in the Omniture image request. If you are using Internet Explorer and the image request is over 2083 characters then you need to review your web analytics code and make some changes to your SiteCatalyst implementation.