With the release<\/a> of the latest Google Tag Manager API<\/a> version, it\u2019s time to release the new version of GTM Tools<\/a>. Most of the changes have been done under the hood, with the entire codebase refactored for improved stability.<\/p>\n I released the first toolset<\/a> in October 2014, and quickly released an updated UI<\/a> a few months later. Aside from a few bug fixes and stability improvements, the tools have remained largely unchanged since then. Now with the new API version, it was time to update the tools again.<\/p>\n Thus this current version is actually the third iteration of the tools. The changes might not seem that dramatic, but trust me when I say this is the best version of the tools so far. The added features should make it easier to use the tools, the stability upgrades should prevent the tools from bugging out as often as before, and there are plenty of improvements that make it easier for me to manage and release new versions of the tools.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n This article will be the closest thing to a \u201cuser guide\u201d the tools can have, so I\u2019ll jump straight to the subject matter right after this disclaimer:<\/p>\n GTM Tools is not a commercial product.<\/strong><\/p>\n This toolset is my own, personal, intellectual property, with no purpose of making money out of it or making it the best possible product out there. It\u2019s got bugs, the code is still pretty convoluted in places, and I haven\u2019t done nearly enough testing. It\u2019s a toolset that you might find useful or then you might not.<\/p>\n When you use GTM Tools you need to accept this.<\/strong><\/p>\n Note also that when you use the Library<\/strong> feature, the assets you save into the library will be viewable by me, as I need to access this information for debugging and management purposes. I will, under no circumstances, use or copy your data. I will only read the data in situations where I deem it necessary to keep GTM Tools functional.<\/p>\n I would also appreciate if you sent me email (simo(at)simoahava.com<\/strong>) when encountering any bugs, errors, or freezes. Just remember to check the Known Issues part of this guide first.<\/p>\n The tool is located in this URL:<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.gtmtools.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n \n \n Subscribe to the Simmer newsletter<\/a> to get the latest news and content from Simo Ahava into your email inbox!\n <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Added an option in Workspace mode<\/strong> where you can show a list of all links to the selected item.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n If no links are found, a Delete<\/strong> button appears in the item row.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n If the button is clicked, the item is marked for deletion.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Once the workspace is updated, the item is deleted.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n The purpose of this feature is to let users easily delete items that are not used in the container in any way.<\/p>\n Added support for Custom Templates<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Custom Templates are included when cloning an entire container.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n If cloning a tag from cart that is based on a Custom Template, the clone will fail unless the template is included in the cart OR the target container already has the exact required template.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Templates are included in Workspace mode and in Visualizations.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Added the option to choose container version when cloning a container.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Change all progress indicators to follow the pattern of Workspace mode, i.e. list all assets and show a green checkmark next to each when it\u2019s cloned.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Added better error handling – now an error will simply skip the item that caused the error rather than cause the whole process to abort.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Prevent closing of a modal if a cloning process is in progress.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Added the possibility to flush the cart from anywhere, not just the cart page.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Force reload of the page after a cloning process is complete – this is necessary so that the user doesn\u2019t return to the main page and work with outdated data.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Improve support for Tag Sequencing in Inspect mode (sequences are preserved as long as all sequenced tags are in the cart).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Add button to clear cart directly from the nav bar.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n List folders in Inspect view.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Clicking a folder row highlights all items in the folder.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n You can add all items in a folder into the cart.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Added Expand\/collapse all toggle to item list in Inspect view.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Added Slack integration to container pages.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Fixed \u201cLast Modified\u201d when viewing version details to match the last modified of the version and not the container.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Here are the main changes to this latest version of GTM Tools:<\/p>\n You can now revoke<\/strong> GTM Tools\u2019 access to your data via the profile drop-down (Revoke access).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Click Show container type<\/strong> in any container list to see what type each container is.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n You can only Save to cart<\/strong> an asset if it matches the container type already saved in cart. In other words, you can\u2019t combine assets of different container types (e.g. Web and Firebase) in the cart.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n You can only Clone cart contents to container<\/strong> if the cart type matches the container type. Thus you can\u2019t clone Web assets to a Firebase container, for example.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n This means that you can only Save to library<\/strong> a cart of a single type. And this, in turn, means that if you want to clone a saved container to an existing container, they must have the same type.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n You can now Display notes<\/strong> in any Inspect container view.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n You can export a Container overview<\/strong> as CSV in any Inspect container view.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n You can select the Container version<\/strong> you want to inspect.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n You can\u2019t have multiple assets with the same name<\/strong> in the cart. If you do, these conflicting assets are flagged in the cart page.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Added Workspaces<\/strong> to all clone operations. Basically, you need to select a Workspace you are cloning into. You can also create a new Workspace as the target, if you wish.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Improved stability and error handling.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n I rewrote almost the entire codebase, so stability and performance should have improved. This doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s error-free (far from it).<\/p>\n GTM Tools uses your Google Account for authentication. This means that when you first open the tool website, you will need to Sign in<\/strong> with your Google credentials. Note that GTM Tools has no sign in of its own<\/strong>. The tools use your Google sign-in to access your data. The only data that is permanently stored is your Asset Library data.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Once you\u2019ve signed in, you will need to authorize GTM Tools for access to Google Tag Manager and your Google profile. Specifically, here are the authorization scopes you allow access to:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n If you refuse to allow access, you will not be able to use the toolset.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019re in the actual tool interface, you can see the profile you\u2019ve logged in with in the upper right corner of the page. You can click this link and select Revoke access<\/strong> to revoke<\/strong> the tool\u2019s access to your data at any time. This will not sign you out of your Google account<\/strong>. You can click My Account<\/strong> to access your Google Account settings.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The first page you\u2019ll see in the tools is the home page. This page is a placeholder, and you should use the navigation bar in the top of the page to move on in the site.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The navigation has the following selections in the home page:<\/p>\n Home<\/strong> \u2013 Takes you back to the home page<\/p>\n<\/li>\n GTM Account<\/strong> \u2013 This lists all the GTM accounts you have access to with the signed in Google Account.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Library<\/strong> \u2013 Takes you to the Asset Library where you can find your stored containers<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Cart<\/strong> \u2013 Shows you how many items you have in your cart, and by clicking the button you will be taken to the Cart page<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Your Profile<\/strong> \u2013 Clicking this shows a drop-down menu, where you can choose to access your Google Account settings and\/or revoke GTM Tools\u2019 access to your data.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n When you choose a GTM account in the Accounts navigation, you will be taken to a page that lists all the containers in the selected GTM account. If you click a container name, you will be taken to the respective Container page.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n If you click the small down arrow next to a container name, you\u2019ll see quick links for the following container actions:<\/p>\n Inspect<\/strong> – Takes you to the Inspect Container page, where you can view information about the container, and where you can add \/ remove assets from the container into the cart<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Visualize<\/strong> – Takes you to the Visualize Container page, where you can view a visualization of the Latest Version<\/strong> of the container<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Clone<\/strong> – Opens a modal dialog that lets you clone the Latest Version<\/strong> of the container<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Note that only Inspect<\/strong> supports accessing other versions than the Latest Version. This is something I intend to fix in a future release. Until then, Clone<\/strong> and Visualize<\/strong> only access the latest container version.<\/p>\n If you click Show container type<\/strong>, you\u2019ll see a label indicating what type each container is. This is relevant for cart interactions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Read more about these actions in the following sections of this guide.<\/p>\n The container page is here more for navigational reasons than to add any extra value. You can move through it to the individual actions (Inspect, Visualize, Clone), which you can also do from the account page, as you just learned.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The following chapters will include details about the various actions you can take.<\/p>\n On the Inspect Container page, you can see a list of all tags, triggers, and variables in a container. You will also see information about the selected version by clicking the Version Information panel.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The number on the right-hand-side of a panel title tells you how many assets are in each respective category.<\/p>\n By expanding an asset category, you\u2019ll see a list of all the assets under that category.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n If you click Display notes<\/strong>, an additional column is added, where you can see the notes added for each asset (if any).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n You will also see two selections:<\/p>\n Green plus +<\/strong> for adding the asset to your cart (if not added yet)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Red minus –<\/strong> for removing the asset from your cart (if already added)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Icon in the Links column if there are dependencies (i.e. linked assets) that you should probably add to your cart as well<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n The green plus or red minus will appear depending on if the asset is in the cart or not. If there are no dependencies, you will only see a dash in the \u201cLinks\u201d column.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you click on the Links icon for dependencies, a modal dialog will open up which lists all the dependencies of the current asset. This means that these dependencies are linked to directly from the asset itself, or from one of its<\/em> linked assets (it\u2019s a recursive check). It\u2019s strongly recommended that you include all linked dependencies when adding an asset to the Cart.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n You can add a dependency to the cart by clicking the Add<\/strong> link, after which you\u2019ll see the text Added<\/em> next to the dependency.<\/p>\n You can change the version you are inspecting from the drop-down in the header of the page<\/strong>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n By clicking Export overview as CSV<\/strong>, you can export a CSV file that has the current container information in CSV format.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Folders<\/strong> panel lists all the folders you have created in the container.<\/p>\n Here you can highlight all the items in any given folder (by clicking a folder row in the list<\/strong>).<\/p>\n You can also add all items in a folder to the cart<\/strong> by clicking the respective button.<\/p>\n The Visualize Container page first shows you a brief description of what the tool does. Once you click the Start visualization<\/strong> button, a full-screen modal dialog will open, and you will be able to see a visualization of all the assets in the container as well as any links between them.<\/p>\n The asset colors are:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n If you hover your mouse over an asset, any links to or from that asset will be highlighted. The path color is red if the link is from<\/strong> the selected asset, and the path color is green if the link is to<\/strong> the selected asset.<\/p>\n Hovering over the asset will also show information about it in the small box that appears in the center of the visualization.<\/p>\n Clicking an asset name freezes the paths, so that it\u2019s easier for you to navigate to the other end of the path.<\/p>\n Clicking Select Hermit Nodes<\/strong> will highlight all the assets that have no links to or from other assets.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n You can use the search box to find assets. Start typing, and the assets that match whatever you\u2019ve typed will be highlighted as you type.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n There are two<\/strong> ways to clone a container in GTM Tools. Due to architectural reasons, they are a bit different.<\/p>\n The first way is through the Account page and the Container page. So either you choose Clone<\/strong> from the drop-down menu next to the container name in the account page, or you click the Clone<\/strong> button on the container page itself.<\/p>\n![\"GTM](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2014\/10\/gtm-tools-1.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
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\n X<\/span><\/p>\n
\n The Simmer Newsletter<\/strong>\n <\/p>\nLatest releases<\/h2>\n
21 Feb 2020<\/h3>\n
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27 Aug 2019<\/h3>\n
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26 Jun 2019<\/h3>\n
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9 Jun 2019<\/h3>\n
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16 Oct 2018<\/h3>\n
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2 Oct 2018<\/h3>\n
30 Sept 2018<\/h3>\n
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6 Sept 2018<\/h3>\n
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5 Sept 2018<\/h3>\n
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11 Jan 2018<\/h3>\n
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29 Dec 2017<\/h3>\n
3 Apr 2017<\/h3>\n
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1. What\u2019s changed?<\/h2>\n
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2. Login And Authentication<\/h2>\n
![\"Sign](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2017\/04\/gtm-tools-sign-in.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n![\"GTM](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2017\/04\/gtm-tools-permissions.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n![\"GTM](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2017\/04\/gtm-tools-menu.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n3. Home Page<\/h2>\n
![\"GTM](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2017\/04\/main-page.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n\n
4. Account Page<\/h2>\n
![\"GTM](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2017\/04\/account-page.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n\n
![\"Show](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2017\/04\/show-container-type.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n5. Container Page<\/h2>\n
![\"Container](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2017\/04\/container-page.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\nInspect Container<\/h3>\n
![\"Inspect](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2017\/04\/inspect-container.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n![\"Expand](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2017\/04\/expand-tags.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n![\"Display](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2017\/04\/display-notes.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n\n
![\"Add,](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2017\/04\/add-remove-links.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n![\"Dependencies\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2017\/04\/dependencies.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n![\"Version](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2017\/04\/version-dropdown.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n![\"CSV](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2017\/04\/csv-export.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\nFolders<\/h4>\n
Visualize Container<\/h3>\n
![\"GTM](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2017\/04\/gtm-tools-visualization.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n![\"Hermit](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2017\/04\/hermit-nodes.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n![\"Visualization](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2017\/04\/visualization-search.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\nClone Container<\/h3>\n
![\"Clone](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2017\/04\/clone-container.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n![\"Clone](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2017\/04\/clone-modal.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n![\"Clone](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2017\/04\/library-cart.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n![\"Clone](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2017\/04\/clone-cart.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
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