{"id":72732,"date":"2025-02-07T02:40:54","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T02:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/analytics\/gtmtips-the-data-layer-picker-variable-template\/"},"modified":"2025-02-07T02:40:54","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T02:40:54","slug":"gtmtips-the-data-layer-picker-variable-template","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=72732","title":{"rendered":"#GTMTips: The Data Layer Picker Variable Template"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

There\u2019s a new custom variable template<\/a> in town! The Data Layer Picker<\/strong> template lets you create variables that have a singular, exceptional (in Google Tag Manager\u2019s<\/a> context, at least) purpose:<\/p>\n

You can access the keys and values that were in the object pushed into dataLayer<\/code> itself. And \u2026 that\u2019s it! Read on to understand why this might be useful.<\/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 123: Direct access to the dataLayer.push()<\/h2>\n
\n

<\/p>\n

\"data-layer-picker-template.jpg\"\/<\/p>\n

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

If you know your Data Layer Variable<\/a>, you\u2019ll know that it comes in two versions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Version 2<\/strong>, which is the default, lets you access any key pushed at any time into dataLayer<\/code> with dot notation<\/strong>. The catch? All the keys are merged into a single object (the data model<\/a>), and keys that store primitive, non-object values can overwrite each other.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s Version 1<\/strong>, which lets you access keys that were pushed into dataLayer<\/code>, but it ignores any merging, so you\u2019re only accessing the values for each key from the *most recent dataLayer.push()<\/code>. The catch? Well, you can\u2019t use dot notation<\/strong> to access nested structures.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s one thing missing from these access types. What if you want to access all and only<\/strong> the keys that were in the dataLayer.push()<\/code> that caused the variable to be evaluated?<\/p>\n

For example, imagine this scenario. First, there\u2019s a dataLayer.push()<\/code> like this:<\/p>\n

\n
window<\/span>.dataLayer.push({\n  event: 'user_login'<\/span>,\n  userId: '12345'<\/span>,\n  email: '[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>'<\/span>\n});\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
Then again on the same page, this:<\/p>\n
\n
window<\/span>.dataLayer.push({\n  event: 'user_login'<\/span>,\n  userId: '23456'<\/span>\n});\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
So the user logged in twice with different user IDs. Perhaps it was a shared computer or something. But the second push did not<\/em> have the email<\/code> key.<\/p>\n
Occasionally we might want to know whether or not a key was in the same object as the event<\/code> that triggered the current tag. And for this purpose, I\u2019ve created the Data Layer Picker<\/strong> variable template.<\/p>\n
Once you download it from the Community Template Gallery, you can create a new variable with it. The variable has just two<\/strong> configurable options.<\/p>\n
You can have it retrieve the entire object<\/strong>, which means the variable returns the object that contained the event<\/code> key that caused the variable to be evaluated.<\/p>\n
You can also have it retrieve the value for a specific property<\/strong>, which means the variable returns the value of the property, if found within the pushed object.<\/p>\n
\n
The property access understands dot notation, so first it will try to parse the object structure to find the value at the end of the dot notation path (e.g. {parent: {child: 'value'}}<\/code>). If no match is made, it tries to access the property directly using the dot notated string (e.g. {'parent.child': 'value'}<\/code>).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The template also works with objects pushed into dataLayer<\/code> by other custom templates.<\/p>\n
Summary<\/h2>\n
This is probably a niche variable for most, but it does have its uses.<\/p>\n
Google Tag Manager has built a wonderful abstraction with its data model and the Data Layer Variable, but occasionally you want atomic access to the dataLayer.push()<\/code> itself.<\/p>\n
This is particularly poignant in scenarios where the implementation is either broken or a work-in-progress, and \u201ckey leaks\u201d such as the one described in the example above are commonplace. In those cases it might be easier to just access the array directly rather than go through GTM\u2019s data model.<\/p>\n
Caveat: if you\u2019ve deleted<\/strong> the item from the dataLayer<\/code> array, it\u2019s not retrievable by this variable template. At that point the only way to access the deleted value is by utilizing the Data Layer Variable, as deleting the item from the dataLayer<\/code> array does not delete it from GTM\u2019s data model.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There\u2019s a new custom variable template in town! The Data Layer Picker template lets you create variables that have a singular, exceptional (in Google Tag Manager\u2019s context, at least) purpose: You can access the keys and values that were in the object pushed into dataLayer itself. And \u2026 that\u2019s it! Read on to understand why […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12033],"tags":[11603,14492,564,36304,4196,15112],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-72732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analytics","tag-data","tag-gtmtips","tag-layer","tag-picker","tag-template","tag-variable"],"yoast_head":"\n#GTMTips: The Data Layer Picker Variable Template - 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=72732\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"#GTMTips: The Data Layer Picker Variable Template - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There\u2019s a new custom variable template in town! 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Now, for the second push, if you used a DataLayer variable to check if email<\/code> has a value, it would return '[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>'<\/code> for both Version 1 and Version 2 of the Data Layer Variable, because the Data Layer Variable doesn\u2019t care about what was the composition of any particular push \u2013\u00a0instead, it cares about what keys and values were in<\/em> that push.<\/p>\n