Know Your Version

I received a question via Twitter the other day:

@jexnerADBE Hello Jan, can you tell from looking at the source code for SC which version of SC a site is on?…Thank you!

That is a really good question! Sounds simple but there are a couple of ways to get to the version. And as an added bonus, some of those ways are good, while others aren’t.

So let’s look at some ways, starting with the bad.

(tl;dr — best way is to look at the URL)

Unsafe — Look at Javascript on Page

When you (or one of your predecessors) first implemented SiteCatalyst or Adobe Analytics, you received some “page code”, either via Adobe consulting or by downloading it from the Admin Tools.

This snippet of Javascript code contains a version!

I would bet that when (if) you updated at some stage, you probably didn’t touch this code, so the version here is more likely to tell you what version was current when you implemented than anything else.

In my case, I can see H.21, which dates back to early 2008. Yup, sounds reasonable.

Ok — Look at s_code.js File

There’s a version at the top of the s_code.js file.

Just like the version on the page, this is probably not reliable. If you update your s_code.js file the way most people do (i.e. replace only the core Javascript code), the comment at the top will soon be hopelessly outdated.

But!

Open the file in your favourite editor and search for s.version= and you will find it.

If you are already using the AppMeasurement for Javascript, it’ll look like this:

Unless someone in your organisation messed with the s_code.js file, this is the actual version of your tracking code.

Best — Look at Tracking URL

If you go to the website in question and look at the tracking URL in your favourite tool, you can also see the version:

You should know by now that I am a big fan of Charles…

The version you see here is the same as the one in the s.version= we mentioned in the section above. It is therefore equally reliable.

So why is this the best option?

1. It shows you the correct version
2. No need to find the s_code.js file
3. Works for all tracking, Javascript, AppMeasurement libraries, even hard-coded pixels (if they were hard-coded correctly, of course)
4. Can easily be checked within the browser, using “Inspect”, “Firebug”, “Developer Console” or whatever it is called.

14 or 15?

Ha!

Now that is a totally different question!

Whether you are on SiteCatalyst 14 (unlikely) or SiteCatalyst 15 / Adobe Analytics is something that you can only see when you log in.

So please do!

A tool is only good when people use it.

I am almost 100% sure though that you will be on SiteCatalyst 15 / Adobe Analytics.