Hello!
I’ve installed the Google Analytics & Google Analytics (gtag.js) plugins, but when I run Google Tag Assistant on my webpage, it only detects the gtag. And of course on the G Analytics admin page, no visits are detected.
Does anyone know what I did wrong and/or what I need to do?
@plshelpme, I have no experience with any of the plugins and have only used the recommended ‘gtag.js’ snippet to observe page-views trends. Coincidentally, I’m ‘researching’ Google Tag Manager a bit last few days and hence got curious about your question…
TL;DR:
A few questions:
Some tests with notes and observations:
Hi @pamtbaau, thank you for your response.
Answering your questions:
I’m wondering, if the gtag is detected, why Tag Assistant says ‘Google Analytics tracking code’ has not been installed on the webpage. I see the tracking code in the HTML.
Question: Under your note for the google-analytics plugin, what did you mean when you said, “config variable ‘cookie_domain’ must be set to non-empty string”?
I just took on the task of updating the website and installing this plugin, so I’m almost completely new to this.
You wrote:
I installed both thinking it was necessary.
In Tag Assistant, I was expecting to see that Google Analytics is detected.
The snippet is inserted into the HTML when I use the second plugin (gtag.js)
Tag Assistant says ‘Google Analytics tracking code’ has not been installed on the webpage.
what did you mean when you said, “config variable ‘cookie_domain’ must be set to non-empty string”?
tracking_id: "UA-XXXXXXXX-X" <-- Use your own GA tracking code here
cookie_domain: "none" <-- Set to empty string "" when running on hosted website.
object_name: "gtag" <-- Needed to fix a bug in plugin
Hope this helps…
Thank you for your reply, @pamtbaau
If there is no reason to use the older version of the GA snippet, I would suggest to only install the ‘google-analytics’ plugin.
I am now only using the gtag.js plugin.
How would you know it is detected? What tells you it hasn’t been detected?
- Would you mind copying it here? You might want to remove your GA tracking ID.
Please use tripple backticks (```) on separate line before and after the copied text.
<head>
<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics --><script src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-XXXXXXXXX-X" async=""></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function (){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
('js', new Date());
('config', 'UA-XXXXXXXXX-X', {'anonymize_ip':true});
</script>
Okay, thank you. I understand.
Would you happen to know how I would access the code through grav so that I can edit it?
@plshelpme, I’m afraid you haven’t configured the plugin correctly. You have only given ‘tracking_id’ a value… Please set the configuration of the plugin as shown above.
If object_name is not set, javascript will throw an error in the browser, and the second tag will not be shown by Tag Assistant. That’s why you only see one tag 'Google site tag (gtag.js).
The error in your snippet is located on this line:
function (){dataLayer.push(arguments);} <-- missing function name
If cookie_domain is not set, Google Analytics will no receive any page views.
You should see something like:
The code should look like:
<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-12345678-9" async></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-12345678-9', {'cookie_domain':'none'});
</script>
The above configurations sends hits to Google Analytics and can be seen in the real-time report.
Would you happen to know how I would access the code through grav so that I can edit it?
Unfortunately, the google-analytics plugin generates the snippet hard-coded in PHP.
If you want to edit the snippet, you might be better of by copying the snippet from Google Analytics website and paste it in ‘/user/themes/your-theme/templates/partials/base-html.twig’.
Not sure what skills you have and what kind of edits you require, but if you need to analyze more dimensions/metrics than only page-views, you might want to have a look at Google Tag Manager.
@pamtbaau It works!!! It shows both tags and I can see views in real time now!
Thank you so much!
@plshelpme Well done!
Which solution have you opted for? The plugin, or manual copy/pasting the snippet into the themes template?
Since you are new on the forum:
@pamtbaau The plugin!
It was quite simple, but I just wasn’t understanding it for some reason. Your explanation with the html code helped a lot. I just needed to configure the plugin correctly.
@plshelpme, Don’t forget to unset the ‘cookie_domain’ once you go live on a hosted webserver…