Page Tracking
Table of Contents ShowHide
Configure Page Tracking
The Page Tracking feature can record all activity by any user
accessing your AbleCommerce store or Merchant Administration.
The records are initially stored in the database and then
can be archived to disk when regular maintenance is performed
by AbleCommerce. When you enable tracking, you can see statistics
about what categories and products are being viewed, pages that
are referring to you, and some technical data like the user's
IP, browser, and operating system. When the log files are
archived, they are written to disk in extended
log file format. This means the log files are compatible
with most statistical reporting software programs that convert
the raw data into something meaningful.
Using the Page Tracking
feature will benefit your customer as well. If enabled,
you and your customers can see their recently viewed items and
other features.
The logs for user activity are stored in the database and can
be archived in extended log file format.
Go to Configure
> Store > Page Tracking using the menu.
In the top section, you will see the Page Tracking options.
To record all user activity, check the box
next to Enable Page Tracking.
For Maintain
History, enter the number of days to store records
in the database before they are archived or deleted.
Choose an Archive
Option.
Delete
- This option deletes any records older than the number
of days entered for history length. There
will be no backup of the data that is removed.
Save
to File - This option will write out any user activity
data, longer than the history length, to a file, and then
delete it from the database.
Click the SAVE
SETTINGS button when finished.
NOTE: The log is written to the App_Data/Logs/ folder
in extended log file format. You must have write permissions to
this location, and you are responsible for maintaining and/or
removing the log files.
View or Clear the Activity Log
You can view the page tracking log for the entire store here,
or you can view a single user's activity from the Edit User page
under People > Users
Go to Configure
> Store > Page Tracking using the menu.
Find the section named Page
Tracking and within it, there will be a sub-section
for activity logs.
The number of records in the current
log will be shown. You will see buttons to Clear or
View the activity log.
The Current Log shows the number of records
stored in the database at that time.
IMPORTANT NOTE: A
high traffic site should have adequate server and database
resources when this feature is enabled. If this is not
possible, or performance needs to be improved, we recommend
that merchants disable this feature. See the section
below to understand the impacts of enabling/disabling the
Page Tracking feature.
Click the View
Activity Log button to view the log as shown in the
example below.
This page displays all store activity from
newest to oldest. You can see the following information:
IP
- The user's originating IP.
Method
- click on URL (GET) or post to form (POST).
Page
- a partial URL to the page that was accessed.
Time
- the length of time on each page (in milliseconds)
Referrer
- If available, the page that referred to this one.
Browser
- the browser type and version, with computer's operating
system.
User
- the anonymous or registered user will be shown here
with a link to the Edit User page.
Item
- This is the name of the product or category that
the user looked at.
If you want to reset all page tracking statistics
and clear all records from the log. Click the Clear Log button.
Impacts of Page Tracking
The following features make use of the Page Tracking feature.
All features, but one, are available only to merchants.
If you not using the Recently Viewed control, then we recommend
that you disable the Page Tracking feature to improve performance.
Admin -> Dashboard
-> Activity by Hour (Admin/Dashboard/ActivityByHour.ascx)
Admin -> Dashboard
-> Popular Categories (Admin/Dashboard/PopularCategories.ascx)
Admin -> Dashboard
-> Popular Products (Admin/Dashboard/PopularProducts.ascx)
Admin > People
> Users > Edit User > Search history (Admin/People/Users/SearchHistoryDialog.ascx)
Admin > People
> Users > Edit User > Page View History (Admin/People/Users/ViewHistoryDialog.ascx)
Admin > Reports
> Customers > Page Views Over Time (Admin/Reports/CustomerHistory.aspx)
Admin > Reports
> Customers > Popular Browsers (Admin/Reports/PopularBrowsers.aspx)
Admin > Reports
> Products > Category Popularity (Admin/Reports/PopularCategories.aspx)
Admin > Reports
> Products > Product Popularity (Admin/Reports/PopularProducts.aspx)
Admin > Configure
> Store > Page Tracking > View Log (Admin/Store/PageTracking/ViewLog.aspx)
Configure Google Tag Manager
Google Tag Manager (GTM) helps make website tag management simple
with tools and solutions that allow small businesses to deploy
and edit tags all in one place. It is a free tool that enables
you to install, store, and manage marketing tags without modifying
website code. The purpose of this documentation is to explain
the process of configuring GTM within AbleCommerce. If you wish
to learn how to use Google Tag Manager, there are many resources
that you can use to do that.
Helpful Guide for Beginners: https://www.analyticsmania.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Ebook-Google-Tag-Manager-for-Beginners-with-GA4.pdf
Think of Google Tag Manager as a place to manage many tracking
codes. You can generally do this without the intervention of a
developer. Also, keep in mind that Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is
a separate feature in AbleCommerce that includes additional features
such as ecommerce tracking (see below). To keep, or use your ecommerce
tracking features, you should configure GA4 in AbleCommerce with
that option enabled.
To begin, login to tagmanager.google.com
using an existing Google account.
Use the option to create a new workspace.
Give the workspace a name, domain,
and description. Click Save.
Make sure you are viewing the workspace you have just
created, if you have multiple.
In the top bar, find the GTM
tracking number. It will begin with GTM-xxxxxxxx, followed
by 8 characters.
Next, login to the AbleCommerce admin and go to the
Configure > Store >
Page Tracking page.
Find the Google Tag Manager section as shown below:
NOTE: Google Analytics
(GA4) configuration tag is now the Google tag. GA4 configuration
tags in a web container will be automatically migrated starting
in September 2024. At the time of this writing, (April 2024),
GA4 with ecommerce tracking should be enabled separately within
AbleCommerce.
Copy the GTM tracking number and paste this into the
GTM Container ID field
as shown below.
Check the box "Enable
Google Tag Manager" to turn on the tracking code
feature.
Click the Save Settings
button in the admin footer.
NOTE: Upon save, the GTM tracking code will be added to the
base.layout file in the \website\views\shared\
folder.
Return to tagmanager.google.com to add your first tag
if you haven't done so already.
Tag Manager supports more than 50 tags with more available
in the Community Template Gallery.
A few examples: Google Ads, Floodlight, Conversion Linker,
Google Analytics, AdRoll, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, and
many more!
Configure Google Analytics 4
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the next generation of tracking
and measurement of your website traffic. Google Analytics
4 allows you to collect and analyze your user traffic from both
websites and apps.
GA4 is designed for the future of measurement:
Collects both website and app data to better understand
the customer journey
Uses event-based data instead of session-based
Includes privacy controls such as cookieless measurement,
and behavioral and conversion modeling
Predictive capabilities offer guidance without complex
models
Use Google Analytics to learn which online marketing initiatives
are cost effective and see how visitors actually interact with
your site. Make informed site design improvements, drive targeted
traffic, and increase your conversions and profits.
How to get started with Google Analytics 4
Option
1: Set up Analytics
data collection for the first time
Do this if you’re new to Analytics
and ready to collect data for your website and/or app.
Option
2: Add Google Analytics
4 to a site with Universal Analytics (Analytics “classic”)
The GA4 Setup Assistant will add
a Google Analytics 4 property alongside your existing Universal
Analytics property. Your Universal Analytics property will continue
to collect data. You can access both using the property selector in
the Admin area.
You need to use your GA4 Measurement ID. AbleCommerce
automatically inserts the tracking code into your pages.
Go to Configure
> Store > Page Tracking using the menu.
Find the section named Google
Analytics 4 as shown in the example below.
Enter your GA4
Measurement ID. (e.g. G-ABCDEFGH1)
If you do not know how to get this ID, then skip to the next
section.
Check the box next to Enable
GA4 Page Tracking. This option will
collect data about user's and where they've been.
Check the box next to Enable
GA4 E-Commerce Tracking. This option will track
additional sales data that can be used by Google Analytics
or Google Adwords. These Google tools allow you to setup
Online Campaigns to track advertising dollars spent, costs
per clicks, and conversion rates.
The Enable
Debug View is an option which will allow you to monitor
events in realtime, as they are triggered. To use the Debug
View report, go to Configure > Debug View within Google
Analytics.
Click the SAVE
SETTINGS button when finished.
Finding your GA4 Measurement ID
You will need to access your Google Analytics account.
Sign in
to Google Analytics: https://analytics.google.com/
Follow the instructions to setup a web stream.
In the Stream details section, there should
will be a Measurement ID.
Copy the Measurement ID to the AbleCommerce
Google Analytics 4 configuration page.
Click the SAVE
SETTINGS button when finished.
The tracking code will be inserted into the
AbleCommerce pages right away, but it can take up to 24 hours
for the data to appear in the Google Analytics reporting area.
Configure Google Universal Analytics
On July 1, 2023, standard Universal Analytics properties
were deprecated and this feature is no longer available.
User Activity
To improve performance, there is a User Activity setting which
can be used to limit the number of records created by a user who
is browsing the retail storefront.
Go to Configure
> Store > Page Tracking using the menu.
Find the section named User
Activity.
Enter the time between recorded activity in
the field for Update User's
Last Activity field. The default value is 60 seconds.
|