Tracking Site Hits

monkeyArms

I was given this 'tracking code' to stick in a website the other day (account #s, domains & code comments removed).

wtfs include:

using a client-generated "random" number (to prevent caching, maybe?)
"random" number converted to string, string multiplied back into a number, then coerced back into a string, for no apparent purpose
Capitalizing "HTTP" - Case does not matter, but...
using document.write()
not using google analytics
what year is this?

(edit: is there a trick to having an un(ordered)? list directly above a code block without some text below it ? Fuck.)

    <script type='text/javascript'>
    var ebRand = Math.random()+'';
    ebRand = ebRand * 1000000;
    //<![CDATA[ 
    document.write('<scr'+'ipt src="HTTP://subdomain.domain.com/Serving/ActivityServer.bs?cn=as&amp;ActivityID=XXXXXX&amp;rnd=' + ebRand + '"></scr' + 'ipt>');
    //]]>
    </script>
    <noscript>
    <img width="1" height="1" style="border:0" src="HTTP://subdomain.domain.com/Serving/ActivityServer.bs?cn=as&amp;ActivityID=XXXXXX&amp;ns=1"/>
    </noscript>

edit by a to add code block and formatting

abarker

@monkeyArms said:

(edit: is there a trick to having an un(ordered)? list directly above a code block without some text below it ? Fuck.)

Did
You
Try

A blank line between the list and the code block?

Raw: http://what.thedailywtf.com/raw/5168/2

monkeyArms

Yessir, I tried 3 blank lines. Maybe I was doing something crazy.

abarker

Looking at your original raw code, you weren't marking the code block as such. The forum software was just flagging it seperately, probably because of the script tags. To learn how to properly flag a code block, please read through the FAQ topics (not the one you can get to through the menu). I've corrected it in your post for you this time.

chubertdev

But Google Analytics is NIH™!

monkeyArms

I typed some text. Then I copied/pasted the js code block. Then I used the discourse wysiwyg options to mark the javascript as code. Then I attempted to put dashes in front of the list items to make it a list.

What did I not do correctly?

monkeyArms

True, Google probably has a 27,000 server farm to generate REALLY random numbers.

Yamikuronue

@monkeyArms said:

What did I not do correctly?

@monkeyArms said:

I used the discourse

Answer is self-evident

monkeyArms

the discourse is bad. the discourse must learn.

PleegWat

Why do you even need a random number. Just do an AJAX POST request for the actual tag; I don't know why you'd want your analytics JS to not be cached.

chubertdev

It's obviously version Math.random()

Kuro

Clearly now that you learned how to handle Discourse, the next step of action is to redirect the page-tracker to Discourse so it creates a topic for every user that is being handled.
Once that is done you can use the handly SQL-tools to find out how many visits exist and who of those is trustlevel2!

Filed Under: After being a BugTracker and a Forum, Discourse can be used for pretty much everything!

chubertdev

Discomorphism!

PJH

@monkeyArms said:

What did I not do correctly?

Of the 300 methods of marking a code block, you used the wrong one ;)

(You used the 4-space indent - the ~~correct~~ less incorrect way is to use the 3-backtick code-fence - the latter doesn't involve messing around with the UI buttons, messing around with your code and - as we've now seen - messing around with lists preceding the block.)

Edit: I know the general FAQ category was linked to earlier by @abarker, but this is the particular topic relevant here.

monkeyArms

@PJH said:

Of the 300 methods of marking a code block, you used the wrong one

That sounds about right - story of my life :-)

ben_lubar

Isn't the 4-spaces thing doubled in the case of being inside a list element? Why would it need to be doubled after a list?

PJH

Yes, and no idea.

chubertdev

"Our 300 methods of marking code are too stable, let's add another one that involves whitespace."

ben_lubar

@discobutt

ben_lubar

Originally posted by @Lorne_Kates:

http://sevenseventeen.ca/disqus.html

chubertdev

Ahh, my company hates Canada.

Reason:
High Security Risk: Not allowed to browse the NONE category

ben_lubar

High Security Risk: contains animation of leaky car battery

Polygeekery

@chubertdev said:

"Our 300 methods of marking code are too stable, let's add another one that involves whitespace."

Discourse or Python? :)

dkf

@Intercourse said:

Discourse or Python? :)

Or? Just use Discourse as your Python development system.

abarker

Can't be any worse than using it to track bugs and feature requests.

Groaner

@monkeyArms said:

'<scr'+'ipt

Is there a legitimate reason to do this apart from getting around a naïve filter?

ben_lubar

If you have this HTML:

<script>
document.write('</script>');
</script>

the script ends after the first ' because HTML doesn't have its own JavaScript parser. It just passes the contents of the tag to the JavaScript parser.

Edit: but if you use <![CDATA[ ]]> and you do that then you're just a moron.

Groaner

I suppose that makes sense, although I admit ignorance was bliss. Literals not being treated as such seems like a WTF, even if it's outside HTML's purview.

ben_lubar

It'd be the same as this not doing what the author expected:

var paragraph = "I asked, "How are you doing?"";

Languages generally don't know other languages' syntax. When the HTML parser sees the </script>, it has no idea it's in a string literal.

chubertdev

@Intercourse said:

Discourse or Python? :)

Python stopped after 5...

accalia

yeah. if only BDFL Guido had stepped in four methods earlier....