{"id":70459,"date":"2025-02-05T23:57:44","date_gmt":"2025-02-05T23:57:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/analytics\/gtmtips-the-url-parser-variable-template-for-server-containers\/"},"modified":"2025-02-05T23:57:44","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T23:57:44","slug":"gtmtips-the-url-parser-variable-template-for-server-containers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=70459","title":{"rendered":"#GTMTips: The URL Parser Variable Template For Server Containers"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

With server-side tagging<\/a>, you can send any types of HTTP requests to the Server container. The Server container parses these, fires up container instances, and sends the data onwards to first-party data stores and third-party vendors alike.<\/p>\n

Often these requests contain URL strings encoded in query parameters. A prime example is the document location<\/a> parameter in Universal Analytics requests.<\/p>\n

Server-side Clients<\/strong> would parse these URL strings and convert them into the format required by the event data object<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of the fields in the event data object is page_location<\/code>, which typically encodes the URL of the page where the request originated from. Parsing this field is difficult without a dedicated variable template, which led me to create the URL Parser<\/a> variable template for Server containers.<\/p>\n

The user interface of the variable template is almost exactly the same as with the URL variable<\/strong> built into GTM\u2019s web containers. The main difference is that you need to choose the URL Source<\/strong> from the get-go. It defaults to the page_location<\/code> field in the event data object, but you can provide a valid URL string from any source (e.g. some other parameter of the incoming HTTP request).<\/p>\n


\n X<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n The Simmer Newsletter<\/strong>\n <\/p>\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

Tip 125: The URL Parser variable template for Server containers<\/h2>\n
\n

<\/p>\n

\"URL<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

You can find the template in the Community Template Gallery<\/a>. To download it in your Server container<\/strong>, follow these steps.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Go to Templates<\/strong> in the Google Tag Manager Server container to which you want to add the URL Parser variable template.<\/li>\n
  2. Click Search Gallery<\/strong> next to the Variable Templates<\/strong> box.<\/li>\n
  3. Search for URL Parser<\/strong> template from the gallery.<\/li>\n
  4. Click Add to workspace<\/strong> to add it to your container.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \n

    <\/p>\n

    \"Add<\/p>\n

    <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    Once you\u2019ve successfully added it to the workspace, you can go to Variables<\/strong> in the container and click to create a new variable. For the variable type, choose URL Parser<\/strong>, which should be listed among the custom templates available to you.<\/p>\n

    The variable itself works similarly to the URL<\/strong> variable in web containers.<\/p>\n

    For example, if the page_location<\/code> event data field is set to this URL string, the following table shows the possible return values of the variable, depending on what you selected in the options:<\/p>\n

    https:\/\/www.mydomain.com\/some-path\/file.html?queryParameter=parameter_value#some-hash-fragment<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
    Component Type<\/th>\nSetting<\/th>\nReturns<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
    Filename Extension<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\nhtml<\/code><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Fragment<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\nsome-hash-fragment<\/code><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Full URL<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\nhttps:\/\/www.mydomain.com\/some-path\/file.html?queryParameter=parameter_value#some-hash-fragment<\/code><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Host Name<\/td>\nStrip \u2018www.’<\/em> unchecked<\/td>\nwww.mydomain.com<\/code><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Host Name<\/td>\nStrip \u2018www.’<\/em> checked<\/td>\nmydomain.com<\/code><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Path<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n\/some-path\/file.html<\/code><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Port<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Protocol<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\nhttps<\/code><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Query<\/td>\nQuery Key<\/em> unset<\/td>\nqueryParameter=parameter_value<\/code><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Query<\/td>\nQuery Key<\/em> set to queryParameter<\/code><\/td>\nparameter_value<\/code><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    I hope you find the template useful! A prime use case for it is to extract query parameters such as advertising click IDs (think fbclid<\/code>, gclid<\/code>) and decorate your tags\u2019 outgoing payloads with this metadata.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    With server-side tagging, you can send any types of HTTP requests to the Server container. The Server container parses these, fires up container instances, and sends the data onwards to first-party data stores and third-party vendors alike. Often these requests contain URL strings encoded in query parameters. A prime example is the document location parameter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":70460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12033],"tags":[10541,14492,37028,11062,4196,19135,15112],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-70459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analytics","tag-containers","tag-gtmtips","tag-parser","tag-server","tag-template","tag-url","tag-variable"],"yoast_head":"\n#GTMTips: The URL Parser Variable Template For Server Containers - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=70459\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"#GTMTips: The URL Parser Variable Template For Server Containers - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With server-side tagging, you can send any types of HTTP requests to the Server container. 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