Webtrends Analytics
Webtrends Visitor Data Mart
Webtrends Explore
Webtrends SmartSource Data Collector

Most modern browsers are periodically canceling click event triggered JavaScript.  In the case of Firefox, you can see this behavior by seeing a status of "NS BINDING ABORTED" when using HTTP monitoring tools like Fiddler or HTTP Fox for example.

This behavior affects all script on the page, including Webtrends' dcsMultiTrack data collection feature, which helps capture end user behavior such as downloads, offsite links, and link clicks to other pages on the web site. In the case of SharePoint click event tracking, this means that some actions (like some document edit options or ribbon bar clicks) aren’t executing the Webtrends event 100% of the time.

The technical details are that the JavaScript function attached to an onclick listener may be canceled by some browser versions when the click action redirects to a new piece of content. i.e. the Webtrends JS hasn’t yet fired but the user is already moving on to the next page.

For example, using Firefox 3.x, you may encounter data collection issues with click events. You can see this behavior by seeing a status of "NS BINDING ABORTED" when using HTTP monitoring tools like Fiddler or HTTP Fox for example.
This behavior affects all script on the page, including Webtrends' MultiTrack data collection feature, which helps capture end user behavior such as downloads, offsite links, and link clicks to other pages on the web site.

Webtrends suggests a couple of workaround options to ensure more accurate tracking.

Option 1

The first option is to introduce a slight delay before the next page is loaded, thus avoiding the cancel command from the browser. This change to the MultiTrack script allows the Webtrends JavaScript to complete its request to the Webtrends data collection server and, consequently, capture the “click” event.

The delay is slight and can be configured as desired but we have tried a half second (500 milliseconds) to good success. This slight transition can't be detected by the human eye. Webtrends customers who are testing the solution have reported no noticeable impact to web site performance or user experience.

Please note that Webtrends’ JavaScript is asynchronous so that doesn’t mean we are adding time to your page load, only the time before the JavaScript executes.

This solution is generally effective but has a caveat: it doesn’t work with Safari browsers which may contribute an average of 3.6% of the traffic to your site.

Option 2

Some customers are using a plugin to our JavaScript tag known as the “preserve” plugin.  The preserve plugin uses a callback to check if the Webtrends image transfer took place (Webtrends’ zero pixel dcs.gif that is requested when our JavaScript executes).  If the image transfer failed it stores the image request in local browser storage or cookie and when the next page loads the plugin checks for this request in storage and re-sends if it exists.

While this avoids the delay introduced in option 1, it isn’t perfect since it requires another Webtrends event to load for it to re-send naturally.  If the canceled click action is the very last event the user performs, then this plugin won’t help capture the events.

If you are interested in the Preserve plugin, please contact your account manager to discuss a services engagement to implement this type of solution.