- In DTM, can I control when the st function is run? You can specify the download on the "top" or "bottom" page (see the diagram you linked).
- Is the st function launched regardless of the page loading rules in Google Analytics? (using native code)? The DTM launches the st call when the tool loads, placing the st call at the top or bottom, depending on what you set in config. This will happen with or without a page load rule. However, the page loading rules depend on where the st call is made. For example, if you set Adobe Analytics to "top", but set the page load rule to "bottom", the window loaded, it was ready to work, etc. (Sometimes after the "top"), then whatever varnas you set in the page load rule will NOT happen when st is invoked, as this has already happened.
- Have any of you used a callback system to make sure that a specific page load rule is loaded before running an Adobe Analytics request? This is currently not possible in the DTM using Adobe Analytics integration. There is no way to tell the DTM to NOT start a call to st or otherwise manually call it. Even if you specify "bottom" and then delete
_satellite.pageBottom and put this call into some callback function, the DTM code is written as the last measure that clicks it on dom, if it has not already been called. The only way around this is NOT to use the DTM built into Adobe Analytics integration, and instead treat it as a random third-party script (load everything, including the library, into the page load rule in the Javascript section. D often want to do this in a direct call rule instead of a rule pages in this case).
Update: question asked below
Thanks! Therefore, my assumption that the st function is waiting for the page load rules to load was incorrect.
Good, yes and no. If you install Adobe Analytics to run at the "bottom of the page" and you set the rule to load the page to run at the "top of the page", then in many cases this is normal. But in your case, you need to install it on dom ready, the page loading rule will not work by itself.
One thing I forgot to mention is that you can suppress an Adobe Analytics request using s.abort . In short, you can use s.abort to suppress the initial call to st , and then call it at your own leisure. But there are reservations about this, namely
- It only suppresses the next actual request; it does NOT suppress everything that works before it (e.g.
s_doPlugins ) - This is a specific function of Adobe Analytics, for example, if you have a GA implemented as a tool in the DTM interface, it will have the same behavior with a call to GA
_trackPageview (or UA equiv), and AFAIK GA does not have s.abort equiv. IOW is specific to a specific tool, not a specific rule.
Then I don’t understand what is the use of case for page loading rules? We need to set vars based on the data level (onDomReady is required) and include them in the initial request called by st funtion. Does all this need to be done in s_code?
Well, keep in mind that the DTM is the general tag manager, not the Adobe Analytics tag manager, so there are many options for using page loading rules if everything is done using the rules, which was the case for random scripts that are not integrated into the DTM ( where you can add as a tool).
Also keep in mind that Adobe did not create a DTM; they bought it from a third party and have since been working on integrating their products into it. I hope (hopefully) over time that they will add more functionality to satisfy scripts like yours. When Adobe started launching the DTM, it was a mess, and I avoided recommending it to customers. A lot of time has passed since then, and now at least I will say that everything is in order, it is useful enough to use esp, since it is mostly free (with Adobe Marketing subscription). But the fact is that they are progressing, even if the DTM is still behind many other tag managers.
And on that note .. this, of course, is not the first time your script has appeared. I heard a lot of people mention this, most often for sites using frameworks such as a trunk or node, where not everything is actually loaded dom ready, but loaded via modules, etc. It is even referred to as the idea of ideas.omniture.com to provide exactly what you want (better control the st-call).
I think the lack of control over when the DTM displays tools when loading the start page is a huge fundamental flaw in the tag manager, especially when so many pages just don't work as they do in the real (virtual) world, so I hope (I hope ) Adobe will address this (hopefully sooner rather than later).