The paradigm of a web site consisting of a group of static, interconnected pages is still strong. There are plenty of very effective web sites which simply send users from one page to another. But marketers are starting to add elements with asynchronous content that break this paradigm. This article discusses how to track such interactions.

A Group of Pages or an Interactive Experience?

An asynchronous interaction occurs when a user interacts with a web site in such a way that a new page doesn't load or appear. An excellent example of this occurs in Flash elements that the user interacts with, or forms that dynamically and seamlessly update as the user enters information.

When using such asynchronous content, from the outset it's important to consider how you'll track the user interactions that don't create a new page view. You might consider tracking a click from one frame of a Flash movie to the next, or tracking the appearance of a new menu in a form based on the setting of the previous menu—something like the user selecting "United States" from a "Country" menu and a new "States" menu appearing.

Capturing these events is not too difficult if you're using log-file based web analytics. And if you're using JavaScript to record page views, you can also record asynchronous activity, though a bit more programming is involved. I'll discuss both methods below.

Log-File Based Data Collection

When using log-file based analysis and tracking user interaction within a Flash element, you'll want to add some code each user interaction you want to track, causing the user action to request a file on the server. This request's only purpose is to record the interaction. For details on how to implement this, please see ClickTracks' Knowledgebase article, "Making a server call from Flash".

If you're using dynamically updated forms and are collecting data via log files, you're going to have to implement a little JavaScript code to request the files on your server that record user actions. Just like in the Flash server call situation, the files that are called do not need to have any functionality—they just need to be there so that the request is recorded in your logs.

One way that you could accomplish this is to have a separate file for each user interaction, with the filename used to describe the action; for example:

movie_1-clicked_to_picture_2.txt
movie_1-clicked_to_picture_3.txt

Another way would be to use one file and send different URL parameters depending on the user action, such as:

user_action.txt?movie=1&picture=2
user_action.txt?movie=1&picture=3

The same file is used ('user_action.txt'), but the URL parameters record what particular action the user took. The method you choose is totally up to you—both work equally well.

JavaScript Data Collection

If you're using JavaScript data collection, a variant of the technique I just described will work...it's just a little bit more complicated to implement. Instead of directly making a call to a file on the server, you'll need to mimic the JavaScript that your analytics tool provider gave you to place on each page of your site, so that these asynchronous server interactions are recorded as though they were page requests. Some knowledge of JavaScript programming and some experimentation/testing is necessary; ask your IT department or ClickTracks' professional services team for help.

Also, it's important to note that your web analytics tool vendor may occasionally provide an update to the JavaScript that goes on each page of your site. If that code is updated, then the code you created for your asynchronous server interaction will need to be updated as well.

As you can see, using the log file method of data collection for recording asynchronous interaction is easier to implement, but it is also possible with JavaScript data collection.

Grow With It

The range of possibilities for user interaction on the Web is growing - and while there's no need to use advanced, interactive functionality just for the 'cool factor,' if there are places where your site could benefit from some asynchronous interaction, go ahead and implement it. Just make sure to keep analytics in mind during development and testing, so you can find out just how these elements are being used, and how that affects the use of your site.

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