UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

This project is currently for demonstration purposes only. Do not use this on real sites (yet).

Data Layer Helper Library

This library provides the ability to process messages passed onto a dataLayer queue.

A dataLayer queue is simply a JavaScript array that lives on a webpage. Page authors can append messages onto the queue in order to emit information about the page and its state. These messages are simply JavaScript objects containing a hierarchy of key/value pairs. They can be metadata about the page content, information about the visitor, or data about events happening on the page. This system allows tools like analytics libraries and tag management systems to access this data in a standard way, so page authors can avoid using a bunch of proprietary, repetitive APIs.

This library provides the ability to listen for dataLayer messages and to read the key/value pairs that have been set by all the previous messages. It can be used by the tools/vendors mentioned above, or by page authors that need to read back the data they've emitted.

TODO(bkuhn): Add example of using the dataLayer and the helper once the API is a bit more stable.

For more background on what a "dataLayer" is, please see:

1. Justin Cutroni's Original Blog Post
2. Google Tag Manager Docs

Build and Test

A few prerequisites:

1. Install Node.js and npm
2. Install Git

Clone a copy of the project repo by running:

git clone git://github.com/google/data-layer-helper.git

Install the grunt-cli package if you haven't before. This should be done as global install:

npm install -g grunt-cli

Enter the data-layer-helper directory and install the Node dependencies, this time without specifying a global install:

cd data-layer-helper
npm install

Enter the third_party/closure-linter directory and install the Closure linter:

cd third_party/closure-linter
python setup.py install

Make sure you have grunt installed. From the root directory of the project, run:

grunt -version

That should be everything. You can try running the build, which will run the linter, compile/minify the JavaScript and run the tests.

grunt

The built version (data-layer-helper.js) will be in the dist/ subdirectory.

License

Copyright 2012 Google Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.