I'm building a single page ad-free portfolio-type website using jquery Isotope. I would like to track how often each project (Isotope element - div with text and a slideshow in it) will be clicked to be able to compare project popularity. Can this be done with Google Analytics? Is that the best tool for that purpose or are there simpler/better/other ones? The provider provides a tool called Webalizer, but that does not allow me to hook up each project element. Google Analytics gives me only information regarding the entire site, not its parts. Thanks for any advice...
EDIT I'm reasonably good with jquery, maybe there's a simple programmatic solution?
This works, placed in the click function assigned to all items (in my case a click function assigned to a div inside the items); now, one can Google track which Isotope .item (e.g. project, image or slideshow, etc.) is more popular than others. Maybe this helps others...
var clicked = $(this).parent().data('item');
//console.log(clicked); to see if an item's data attribute gets read
_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'Item', 'Viewed', clicked, null, false]);
//_trackEvent(category (Event Name), action (Event Type), opt_label (Event Label), opt_value, opt_noninteraction) synopsis differs in google's guide and Google Analytics Tracking Code Debugger console output
Related
Okay I do not know how to explain this to you, It may be just my internet, or maybe my site is slower, or they really have a technique for doing this.
If you visit Facebook, Reddit, Youtube, Twitter, and if you click on links or any actions on those websites, the url changes but the browser tab doesn't show any loading circle.
How do they do that?
I am pretty sure my website is fast enought and at times it loads even faster than the bigger sites, but mine shows the loading circle on the browser tab.
Okay so I found the answer. Here is the technique for changing the url without reloading the page.
Updating address bar with new URL without hash or reloading the page
How do I modify the URL without reloading the page?
I am still trying to figure out though how to redirect the actual page without reloading the entire page. I am guessing they are loading it via ajax or something similar upon url change. I'll update this once I figure it out.
Edit: I am currently working on this feature for my site. The technique is to use ajax to load the content based on the url. I'll update this thread more as I update my site with this feature.
Edit 2: Damn, you will probably face the same problem I had trying to detect the url change without using onhashchange. If so, here you go:
How to detect URL change in JavaScript
This literally took me 4 hours just to figure that one out.....
Edit 3: I have now integrated this feature on my site. You can check it at
Grandweb
It is quite simple, but lots of work in appending the content once retrieved via ajax. So here is the process:
I am using pushState(); to change the url without reloading the page.
var url = $(this).attr('href');
var split_url = url.split('/');
var new_url = url.replace('https://grandweb.net/','');
window.history.pushState("object or string", "Title", "/write");
Using 'mouseup' was a bad idea, I changed my mind.
I then have to trigger the first function using 'mouseup' to retreieve the content via ajax, and then listen to succeeding onpopstate() for the next ones, because some mouse actions such as Mouse 4 or Mouse 5 are bound to the browser's Back and Forward button, and does not trigger via 'mouseup'.
$(window).on('mouseup', function(evt) {
get_content();
}
window.onpopstate = function(event) {
get_content();
}
The first one is responsible for triggering the function on first try because onpopstate only listens only when the browser's history API is populated.
Using mouseup was a bad idea, basically, don't use it unless you really want to detect mouse action from anywhere on the document.
I instead use the anchor tags/links to trigger the first function for retrieveng content.
example:
<a class="dynamic_btn" href="website.com/post">Home</a>
then
$(document).on('click','.dynamic_btn',function(e){
e.preventDefault();
get_content();
});
Using onhashchange is possible IF you have hashes on your url. I do not use hashes on my url so basically onhashchange is useless in my use case, unless I do not know something.
After retrieving the contents, I append them via creating DOM elements to existing containers from the page.
This is much easier to do if you are planning to change few elements or containers in your pages. If you plan on doing this to change a full page layout, goodluck. It's doable, but it's a really pain in tha *ss.
Upon observing Facebook, I learned that they do not implement this technique in all of their links/features. It makes sense because this is harder to maintain most especially because most of the work here is being done client side. It is very nice though because the page doesn't load.
I have implemented it on a few 'essential' functions of my website such as the viewing of posts and returning to the homepage. I can implement it on the whole site, but I am still deciding on that. That is all, thank you very much for reading internet stranger.
I've inherited a project that uses a lot of click-triggered JS to change page content instead of linking to different actual HTML pages. I'm being asked to make JAWS read the page title when this happens, as if a new page is being loaded.
From my observations and a bit of light testing, reading the page title (meaning the contents of the <title> tag) is standard behavior for JAWS when linking to a new, separate page (as in a foo.html file), but not what happens when a same-page link or button is clicked.
How can I cause JAWS to read a page's title after a link or button is clicked that changes the existing page's content in a way that seems like a new page to the user but is actually the same file under the hood?
For this question, please assume that refactoring what I have to use an actual new page instead of JS content replacement is not an option. And if something is wrong with my initial assumptions, please let me know that as well.
It sounds like you have a single page app (SPA). You can't force the <title> element itself to be read but if you also put the same text into an aria-live="polite" container (a visually hidden <div> or <span> (*)), it'll be read.
You still want to update the title, even if it's not read, because the screen reader user can use a shortcut key (INS+T with jaws) to read the page title. And when the user switches between the browser and another app and then back again, they'll hear the title, so it's still important to update the title.
There are some decent blogs regarding accessible SPAs:
Accessible page titles in a Single Page App talks specifically
about the page title in SPAs
Building Accessible Single Page
Apps talks about general principles but doesn't really have any
code examples
Single page applications, Angular.js and accessibility talks specifically about using angular but the concepts and code examples can be applied generically.
(*) Note, when visually hiding the aria-live region, don't use CSS display:none because that'll hide it from the screen reader too. Use a sr-only type class. See What is sr-only in Bootstrap 3?
There's good info in slugolicious's answer. The specific issue has a simpler solution, though: <title> elements can be ARIA-ified.
<title role="banner" aria-live="polite">Default title here</title>
in conjunction with
$(function() {
// existing logic here
$(title).html("New title here");
});
being called when the new content loads.
I have a shopping cart I want to embed in a widget/iframe on other users sites, I see three ways of doing this each with drawbacks. Here are options from estimated most to least work.
Recreate interactive shopping cart UI in javascript widget then pass values to server script with AJAX, variables are passed to the main site, when user clicks "checkout" the user is then redirected to main shopping cart site with variables populated from what the entered in the widget.
pros: complete experience
cons: most work to complete creating UI and AJAX request.
Somehow detect if user is coming to shopping cart via iframe, if this is the case have alternate code that opens new window when user clicks "checkout" redirecting user to secure page and getting variables from cart via AJAX to populate final checkout.
pros: mid amount of work, must do AJAX request to get variables from shopping cart to populate final checkout
cons: can we easily detect if site is being accessed from a user within an iframe on another site?
complete entire checkout process inside iframe/widget.
pros: least ammount of work, just embed cart in iframe
cons: will not show https in browser user may be reluctant to purchase
What is the best option?
If you could provide a bit more information, maybe I could offer you an even better option. For starters, what have you built this application with (languages/framework)? Also, would you say your application's functionality is similar to Shopify's in that you allow users to host e-commerce sites through your service? If not, tell us a bit more about your application.
Here's a quick response to the options you provided.
option 1: the only real option as I see it. Whether you're embedding the shopping cart in specifically an iframe or rendering it onto the user's page as part of a template, you should be navigating the customer away to your main site to complete the checkout process. Or at least give them a lot of screen real-estate to work with (a sizable modal for example).
option 2: is messy. You can tell if a request is coming from a remote form (like an iframe) by appending url parameters. But taking the approach you're suggesting with this doesn't make too much sense.
option 3: too heavy unless you take a modal-approach like what I mentioned in response to option 1.
That being said, if you are building an application like Shopify, you should be able to build a template for each user's website that has a section dedicated to displaying a shopping cart pertaining to the current customer's session. No iframes or widgets necessary with this approach. But again, it all depends on the use cases of your application.
If your only concern with Option 2 is detecting if your content is being loaded within an iframe, you can do that with JavaScript by using "top.frames.length" or "top === self."
For example, you could show or hide different conditional form content, or a different submit button, using the following:
if (top.frames.length == 0) {
// Show content if not embedded in an iframe.
document.getElementById('embedded-content').style.display = "none";
document.getElementById('unembedded-content').style.display = "block";
}
else {
// Show content if embedded in an iframe.
document.getElementById('embedded-content').style.display = "block";
document.getElementById('unembedded-content').style.display = "none";
}
As you've stated, the first option is the best in terms of user experience and the most likely to achieve the highest possible conversions. How much better the conversion is compared to the next best solution cannot be objectively measured, as it involves recurring customers, your own brand name, the kind of products, etc. Since the conversion rates will directly affect you (and your company), it's wise to make an estimate first to see if your efforts spent will be worth it in the short and long term.
The second option is the sweet middle ground; you still get brand recognition and customers will have some security reassurance (via address bar); (i)frame detection is easily done by a simple JavaScript comparison: top === window. However, you're losing the continuity and hence likely lose some conversion. If this risk is manageable, I'd go for this option in the short term.
Not being able to see the security certificate directly via the green lock makes the third option the least desirable. However, not all is lost; by clever use of imagery you can still gain some trust with your end-user, as outlined in this image, which is part of a great article from Smashing Magazine.
Your decision should be based on:
what can be done in the short term
what should be done in the long term
how important is secure visual cues to my potential customer
time / money spent on either solution versus revenues (break-even analysis)
I want to design a web album with every image in the album having it's own title, and description. So, at a time only one set of image, title and description would be visible. And on clicking next button, the next set of image, title and description would appear,and so on.
So am wondering, what would be the best way to design with? HTML or AJAX?
I don't want to use the ready to use tools such as lightbox.
Do you want the browser's back button to work? If so, then you should make your life simple
and use html (since you will only be displaying one image at a time either way).
Ajax implies using html. On the other hand, using html does not necessarily imply that you need to use AJAX to load content dynamically.
What is the purpose of this project? If you are doing it for the learning experience you should go on with AJAX (from scratch). If you want speed and quality use an existing web image gallery. If you need to write it yourself use plain html (or an ajax framework such as dojo, jquery, etc. this will save you a lot of pain solving cross-browser quirks).
In addition, if you want to be able to click a button to take you to the next (previous) image
and you don't know how many images you will have beforehand, then you are looking for dynamic behavior. You can code dynamic logic either on the client side (javascript), or on the server side (let's say "php" to start with).
Also, how do you plan to keep the corresponding (image, title, description) together?
If you only have a 3 images, say you could hard code each of this into its corresponding html file. eg. 1.html, 2.html, 3.html. Then you would have to point the forward button from a.html to point to b.html. etc...
If you didn't want this boring static behavior and wanted something smarter, say you decided for AJAX. Then you would only have 1.html file and from there (using javascript) you would ask your server for the (image, title, description) and load all that (dynamically, without refreshing the browser) into the same page. The easiest way to get this from the sever is by just reading a a static (XML, or JSON) file which contains all the info (image urls, titles, descriptions). Then with javascript and using DOM manipulation you would remove the old image, and add the new one.
However, this would all be a lot simpler with server-side processing (and it's worth learning). In this case you could have a url which takes a parameter with the image number. eg. http://example.com/gallery/index.php?image=X
then before the server responds to the client with the html, it would realize that you want to load image X so it would get it's corresponding description, title, and url. and "embed" those into the file. Of course, depending on the number, it would also add the right links for the previous and next buttons. Eg. If the currently displaying image was 9 then forward button would "dynamically" be determined to link to (X+1) : http://example.com/gallery/index.php?image=10
My designer thought it was a good idea to create a transition between different pages. Essentially only the content part will reload (header and footer stay intact), and only the content div should have a transitional effect (fade or some sort). To create this sort of effect isn't really the problem, to make google (analytics) happy is...
Solutions I didn't like and why;
Load only the content div with ajax: google won't see any content, meaning the site will never be found, or only the parts which are retrieved by ajax, which arent't full pages at all
show the transitional effect, then after that 'redirect' the user to the designated page (capture the click event of a elements): effect is pretty much the same as just linking to another page, eg. user will still see a page being reloaded
I thought of one possible solution:
When a visitor clicks a link, capture the event, load the target with ajax, show the transitional effect in the meantime, then just rewrite the entire document with the content fetched with the ajax request.
At least this will work and has some advantages; the page reload will look seamless, no matter how slow your internet connection is, google won't really mind because the ajax content is a full html page itself, and can be crawled as is, even non-javascript browsers (mobile phones et al.) won't mind, they just reload the page.
My hesitation to implement this method is that i would reload an entire page using ajax. I'm wondering if this is what ajax is meant to do, if it would slow things down. Most of all, is there a better solution, eg. my first 'bad' solution but slightly different so google would like it (analytics too)?
Thanks for your thoughts on this!
Short answer: I would not recommend loading an entire page in this manner.
Long answer: Not recommended. whilst possible, this is not really the intent of XHR/Ajax. Essentially what you're doing is replicating the native behaviour of the browser. Some of the problems you'll encounter:
Support for the Back/Forward
button. You'll need a URI # scheme
to solve.
The Browser must parse
the entire page through AJAX.
This'll slow things down. E.g. if
you load a block of HTML into the
browser, then replace the DOM with
it, only then will any scripts, CSS
or images contained therein begin
downloading.
Memory - the
browser's not changing pages. Over
time (depending on the browser), I'd
expect the memory usage to increase.
Accessibility. Screen readers
will need to be notified whenever
the page content is updated. Might
not be a concern for you but worth
mentioning.
Caching. Browser
would not know which page to cache
(beyond the initial load).
Separation of concerns - your View
is essentially broken into
server-side pieces to render the
page's content along with the static
HTML for the page framework and
lastly the JS to combined the server
piece with the browser piece.
This'll make maintenance over time
problematic and complex.
Integration with other components -
you're already seeing problems with
Google Analytics. You may encounter
issues with other components related
to the timing of when the DOM is
constructed.
Whether it's worth it for the page transition effect is your call but I hope I've answered your question.
you can have AJAX and SEO: Google's proposal .
i think you can learn something from Gmail's design.
This may be a bit strange, but I have an idea for this.
Prepare your pages to load with an 'ifarme' GET parameter.
When there is 'iframe' load it with some javascript to trigger the parent show_iframe_content()
When there is no 'iframe' just load the page, with a hidden iframe element called 'preloader'
Your goal is to make sure every of your links are opened in the 'preloader' with an additional 'iframe' get parameter, and when the loading of the iframe finishes, and it calls the show_iframe_content() you copy the content to your parent page.
Like this: Link clicked -> transition to loading phase -> iframe loaded -> show_iframe_content() called -> iframe content copied back to parent -> transition back to normal phase
The whole thing is good since, if a crawler visit ary of your pages, it will do it without the 'iframe' get parameter, so it can go through all your pages like normal, but when you use it in a browser, you make your links do the magic above.
This is just a sketch of it, but I'm sure it can be made right.
EDIT: Actually you can do it with simple ajax, without iframe, the thing is you have to modify the page after it has been loaded in the browser, to load the linked content with ajax. Also crawlers should see the links.
Example script:
$.fn.initLinks = function() {
$("a",this).click(function() {
var url = $(this).attr("href");
// transition to loading phase ...
// Ajax post parameter tells the site lo load only the content without header/footer
$.post(href,"ajax=1",function(data) {
$("#content").html(data).initLinks();
// transition to normal phase ...
});
return false;
});
};
$(function() {
$("body").initLinks();
});
Google analytics can track javascript events as if they are pageviews- check here for implementation:
http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&answer=55521