When I started at Omniture nearly five years ago, one of the first
basic tools I got to know was the JavaScript Debugger—you know, that
bookmarklet you install among your browser bookmarks so that you can
quickly and easily see exactly what is being captured in SiteCatalyst
any web page. Over the years, I have moved on to more advanced (and
complex) debugging tools, such as packet monitors and Google Chrome’s
developer console. But when I just need to see the variables and values
that a page is passing into SiteCatalyst, I still click the little entry
in my bookmark toolbar.
I am pleased to share with you the latest version of this nifty
little utility: the DigitalPulse Debugger. We’ve given it the name
"DigitalPulse Debugger” because it fits in nicely with Adobe
DigitalPulse, our implementation/site auditing product which will
automatically crawl your site and detect places where SiteCatalyst
and/or Test&Target code has not been placed, or where it may have
been placed with errors of various kinds (variables receiving the wrong
values, variables that are too long, image requests that are too long,
etc.). It seemed like a natural fit. We’ve also changed the location of
the Debugger, which does mean that you’ll need to update your
bookmarklets. We did this for a few reasons, but most importantly the
new location allows the DigitalPulse team to add amazing new features
much more quickly. We think you’ll agree that it’s worth updating your
bookmarklets for that.
So, how do you install the DigitalPulse Debugger? If you don’t
already have the JavaScript Debugger installed, just create a simple
bookmark or favorite in your browser of choice (we’ve tested in IE,
Firefox, Safari, and—your developer’s favorite—Chrome). Then, replace
the URL of the bookmark with the following code (and make sure you get all
of the code!):
javascript:void(window.open(%22%22,%22dp_debugger%22,%22width=600,height=600,location=0,menubar=0,status=1,toolbar=0,resizable=1,scrollbars=1%22).document.write(%22%3Cscript%20language=\%22JavaScript\%22%20id=dbg%20src=\%22http://www.digitalpulse.omniture.com/dp/debugger.js\%22%3E%3C/%22+%22script%3E%22));
If you do have the Debugger already, just replace the URL
with the code above. (You can also download the Debugger and additional
information from Knowledge Base ID 534.)
Then just go to any page on your site that has been tagged Adobe
Online Marketing Suite code and click the bookmark. You should see a
small pop-up window looking something like this:
You’ll notice that the DigitalPulse Debugger still does everything
you have come to expect from the JavaScript Debugger, but now offers
some helpful new features:
- Reports on Test&Target, Recommendations, and Survey in addition
to SiteCatalyst data collection
- Provides the total length of the SiteCatalyst request on the page
- Shows the "friendly names” for image request elements (e.g. "eVar7″
instead of "v7,” and "Current URL” instead of "g”)
- Gives additional request information, such as whether the the
implementation uses first-party cookies
- Allows you to change and save settings based on the products and
features you wish to use
One important thing to note is that, due to a change in data
collection code beginning with H.21, the old version of the Debugger may not
correctly decode multi-byte characters in variable values if your site
is using this (or a newer) code version. The new DigitalPulse Debugger
does display these variable values correctly for international character
sets, so you can get a clearer sense of the data being collected from
pages that use multi-byte characters.
The DigitalPulse Debugger will refresh as you move from page to page,
showing you the data collected across your entire site, but it still
requires you to walk through your site manually. If you’d like a more
powerful debugging tool that will scan your site for you, saving you
time and uncovering a wide variety of potential issues with your data before
these issues rear their ugly heads, check out Adobe DigitalPulse.
Huge shout-out to Adam Egbert of Adobe Consulting for his hard work
on this project, as well as to everyone else who contributed to the
improvement of this handy little tool.
| 
