Goal does not trigger when visitor clicks on a link to an external website

Support & Bugs
1

Hello,
we try your Funnels extension and can not set up the goal with a funnel, which will be triggered when a visitor clicks on a link to an external website. Can anybody help us ?

Steps

  1. Import tracking data to Matomo
  2. Create Goal and Funnel
  3. Archive data
    1. Drop all archive_* tables from Matomo database
    2. Truncate table log_funnel
    3. Run Matomo archiving

      ./console -vvv -n core:archive --concurrent-requests-per-website=1 --concurrent-archivers=1 --php-cli-options=‘-d memory_limit=2500M’ --force-idsites=1 --force-date-range 2019-05-01,2019-05-15

Actual result
Click on the link is tracked, as you can see in the following screenshot:
%20Visitor%20log%20with%20click%20on%20the%20link
but the Goal does not trigger, as you can see in the following screenshot:

%20Funnel%20report
%20Funnel%20report594×921 52.4 KB

Expected result
The goal was triggered.

The goal settings

%20Goal%20settings
%20Goal%20settings1109×891 63.3 KB

The funnel steps

%20Funnel%20steps
%20Funnel%20steps872×419 29.7 KB

Matomo version
3.9.1

Plugins

./console plugin:list
±----------------------------------±------------------±----------+
| Plugin | Core or optional? | Status |
±----------------------------------±------------------±----------+
| Diagnostics | Core | Activated |
| Annotations | Core | Activated |
| Login | Core | Activated |
| ExampleAPI | Core | Activated |
| RssWidget | Core | Activated |
| Feedback | Core | Activated |
| TwoFactorAuth | Core | Activated |
| CoreUpdater | Core | Activated |
| CoreConsole | Core | Activated |
| ScheduledReports | Core | Activated |
| UserCountryMap | Core | Activated |
| Live | Core | Activated |
| CustomVariables | Core | Activated |
| PrivacyManager | Core | Activated |
| ImageGraph | Core | Activated |
| MobileMessaging | Core | Activated |
| VisitFrequency | Core | Activated |
| Overlay | Core | Activated |
| SegmentEditor | Core | Activated |
| Insights | Core | Activated |
| Morpheus | Core | Activated |
| Contents | Core | Activated |
| BulkTracking | Core | Activated |
| Resolution | Core | Activated |
| DevicePlugins | Core | Activated |
| Heartbeat | Core | Activated |
| Marketplace | Core | Activated |
| ProfessionalServices | Core | Activated |
| UserId | Core | Activated |
| CustomPiwikJs | Core | Activated |
| VisitTime | Core | Activated |
| VisitorInterest | Core | Activated |
| VisitsSummary | Core | Activated |
| ExamplePlugin | Core | Activated |
| CoreAdminHome | Core | Activated |
| UsersManager | Core | Activated |
| SitesManager | Core | Activated |
| Installation | Core | Activated |
| Monolog | Core | Activated |
| Intl | Core | Activated |
| CorePluginsAdmin | Core | Activated |
| CoreHome | Core | Activated |
| WebsiteMeasurable | Core | Activated |
| IntranetMeasurable | Core | Activated |
| CoreVisualizations | Core | Activated |
| GeoIp2 | Core | Activated |
| API | Core | Activated |
| Proxy | Core | Activated |
| Widgetize | Core | Activated |
| DevicesDetection | Core | Activated |
| UserCountry | Core | Activated |
| Events | Core | Activated |
| SEO | Core | Activated |
| Transitions | Core | Activated |
| Goals | Core | Activated |
| Ecommerce | Core | Activated |
| UserLanguage | Core | Activated |
| Referrers | Core | Activated |
| MultiSites | Core | Activated |
| Dashboard | Core | Activated |
| Actions | Core | Activated |
| LanguagesManager | Core | Activated |
| EnvironmentVariables | Optional | Activated |
| TrackingCLI | Optional | Activated |
| CustomDimensions | Optional | Activated |
| Funnels | Optional | Activated |
| MultiChannelConversionAttribution | Optional | Activated |
| UsersFlow | Optional | Activated |
| AnonymousPiwikUsageMeasurement | Optional | Activated |
±----------------------------------±------------------±----------+

Optional plugins versions

  • EnvironmentVariables: 3.0.0
  • TrackingCLI: 1.0.1
  • CustomDimensions: 3.1.8
  • Funnels: 3.1.13
  • MultiChannelConversionAttribution: 3.0.4
  • UsersFlow: 3.1.9
  • AnonymousPiwikUsageMeasurement: 3.1.0
2

I have found the answer in https://matomo.org/docs/tracking-goals-web-analytics/:

Note that Goal tracking is not retroactive:

  • when you create a Goal, you will see the Conversion data only for future visit data (your historical analytics reports before you created the goal will not be contain the goal data).
  • when you update a Goal definition (or a funnel), the historical reports for this goal (with the old definition) and the historical reports for the Funnels will not be updated. They will still show reports for the old goal (and funnel) definition. The updated Goal (and any associated funnel) will be converted (tracked) according to the updated definition only for data going forward (after you have updated the goal or funnel definition).

So, the Matomo Goals and Funnels do not suit us as they are. We need retroactive Goals.