Event Tracking is a technique obtainable in the ga.js tracking code that you can use to record user interaction with website rudiments, such as a Flash-driven menu system. This is talented by attach the method call to the exacting UI constituent you want to track. When used this way, all user action on such elements is calculated and displayed as Events in the Analytics reporting border. Additionally, pageview calculations are unchanged by user movement tracked using the Event Tracking method. Finally, Event Tracking employs an object-oriented model that you can use to gather and categorize dissimilar types of communication with your web page substance.
By contrast, tracking web page substance by means of the urchin.js tracking code requires virtual URL creation and provides no object hierarchy. With the legacy urchin.js code, consumer communication with page substance is calculated and displayed as part of total page views to your site, and no difference is made between real and virtual pageviews.
With ga.js, you would usually be relevant Event Tracking to:
- Any Flash-driven element, like a Flash website, or a Flash Movie player
- Embedded AJAX page elements
- Page gadgets
- File downloads
- Load times for data
This text assumes knowledge with Google Analytics Tracking Code (GATC) configuration. As well, you must have the ga.js tracking code install on those pages where you configure Event Tracking as described here. For more information on tracking your site using the GATC, see the Tracking Sites guide as well as the certification in the Analytics Concepts section of this site.
Design Philosophy
The design model for Event Tracking is extremely supple, and its use can be comprehensive well beyond the ordinary model of user-triggered events—the design decision is up to you. For this reason, useful Event Tracking information requires teamwork with your report users and good report planning.
- Determine in go forward all elements for which you want to track data: Yet if you originally track only a single object on your website, having an overall sense of the a variety of objects/events you want to track will help you set up a report structure that scales well with an add to in the number and type of Event Tracking.
- Work with your report user to plan your Event Tracking reports: Knowing in advance how the reports be supposed to look will direct the arrangement of your Event Tracking implementation. For example, if the information only needs to show video UI interaction, your category structure will be fairly different than if the reports need to track other Flash UIs like menus, embedded gadgets, and load times. In addition, you can notify the report user about the dissimilar tracking possibilities available with Event Tracking to get the most out of your implementation. For example, the report user might be interested in tracking user behavior on a Flash video interface, but might also be interested in latency tracking for the load time of the video. In that case, you can plan ahead to have meaningful names in your event calls.
- Adopt a consistent and clear naming convention: In the process of implementing Event Tracking, every name you offer for categories, actions, and labels appear in the reporting interface. In addition, a category/action pair is treated as a unique element in the report statistics, so consider first how you want your metrics to be calculated for all objects belonging to a alike category.
The rest of this guide describes the data model in detail and how to apply Event Tracking for your website.