Communication / TRAC / Piwik and Google Instant

Support & Bugs
1

Some time ago I filed a ticket (Google Instant Search Keywords may be wrong · Issue #2634 · matomo-org/matomo · GitHub) in the system wich was closed with “expected behavior”. So I did a little research to prove this wrong.

I would be very happy to have some explanation on how you test this, so I can eventually provide a patch for piwik.js

In addition I did not sync my keepass on notebook and PC I had the wrong Password in my file and while trying to log in on my notebook, I tried to reset my password. This was the time from wich on I have no access to TRAC logged in, so I can’t put any comments in any ticket, so I put the Google Instant Research stuff in my wiki:

The result of the research is online on: Piwik and Google Instant Referrals - wiki.campino2k.de

Please: fix TRAC or at least configure that password resets do not need a instant password change after login, this causes a redirect loop.

Please: Look at the research since having wrong keywords is some serious isse.

All of this together I tried to resolve via twitter and IRC with no real response which was in any way helpful. there is a huge lack of communication from an outside point of view.

2

Now it’s a month later and I still can’t login (to TRAC).

This is a shame

3

I can’t fix the Trac problem, but I will apologize for the terse response in the ticket.

piwik.js looks in a few places for the referrer in case the page is being framed; but if the page isn’t framed, it is using document.referrer. Looking at the URLs you posted in your research, confirms there are no additional query parameters, so it is parsing the URL correctly.

Since piwik.js is loaded on the target page, it has no access to the referring page (i.e., the Google search page results). So, it’s not possible for Piwik to determine that the referrer was wrong. This could skew results, but unless it happens often enough, it falls in the category of outliers.

Now, the question is, how could the referrer be wrong? Google Instant uses JavaScript to rewrite anchor links. It’s conceivable that there’s a race condition where someone can click on a link before its href attribute has been updated.

Long story short. It’s not a Piwik bug.

4

The referring URLs in section c) from Google Instant was being read by typing “document.referer” in the JS -Console of the target page (the steps are explained there), so this thing should be readable, wether the has-URL has been set yet.

So I’m sorry for being rude but I think this will be a major problem since Google seems to force instant search.

I’d be also interested on how this JS can be tested and developed, since I’m a developer and I do JS as well. I’d love to eventually work this out and try it, since beside this little “accident” I really love Piwik and try to get People use Piwik over GA or something.

5

I’d be also interested on how this JS can be tested and developed, since I’m a developer and I do JS as well. I’d love to eventually work this out and try it, since beside this little “accident” I really love Piwik and try to get People use Piwik over GA or something.

Thanks. It would be nice if you could look at the code and maybe propose a patch. See all info about the JS file in: http://dev.piwik.org/trac/browser/trunk/js/README

and how to submit a patch in: http://piwik.org/participate/development-process/#toc-how-to-submit-a-patch

6

We have finally upgraded Trac to the latest version and now Login + Reset password should work for all users. Please let us know if you have any problem with http://dev.piwik.org