Troubleshooting GA4 Debug View and Network Tab Payload for Missing gtag Event Firing

Google Analytics 4

Troubleshooting GA4 Debug View and Network Tab Payload for Missing gtag Event Firing

Posted by Jayden on 10 July 2022 at 3:11 pm
Hey there! So, I was messing around with the GA4 view_item Event in BigCommerce and thought everything went smoothly. The info is popping up just fine in the source code, but when I went to check the event over in the GA4 Debug View, it was like it had vanished – no event to be seen.

I thought, okay, weird, let’s play detective. So, I pulled up Chrome Dev Tools and dove into the Network Tab payload. But guess what? Still no event – nada, zilch.

For clarity, here’s what the output was looking like straight from the page source, but I’m kinda stumped. Any ideas what’s going on?
```
    <script>
gtag("event", "view_item", {
            currency: "USD",
            value: parseFloat(2.4),
            items: [ {
                    item_id: "9781645072485",
                    item_name: "Alongside Jesus: Devotions for Teenagers",
                    currency: "USD",
                    discount: parseFloat(16.99),
                    item_brand: "Drew Hill",
                    price: parseFloat(2.4),
                    quantity: 1,
                    item_category:"Teen/Teen Books"
                }
            ]
        });
    </script>
```
Abdul replied 1 year, 5 months ago 3 Members · 2 Replies
2 Replies

Morgan

Member
17 July 2022 at 11:43 pm

Based on your description, it seems like your view_item event is not being fired, hence isn’t showing up in GA4 Debug View or in the Chrome Dev Tools network tab.

If your script is correctly placed and there’s no error in the console, it might be a timing issue. Sometimes, the gtag function you’re calling isn’t fully loaded when you’re trying to send the view_item event.

You might consider using the function window.dataLayer.push() instead of gtag(). The dataLayer.push() function will queue your events and commands until gtag.js is completely loaded and ready to send them. Here’s how you could modify your script to utilize this function:

`javascript
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
window.dataLayer.push({
event: “view_item”,
ecommerce: {
currency: “USD”,
value: parseFloat(2.4),
items: [{
item_id: “9781645072485”,
item_name: “Alongside Jesus: Devotions for Teenagers”,
currency: “USD”,
discount: parseFloat(16.99),
item_brand: “Drew Hill”,
price: parseFloat(2.4),
quantity: 1,
item_category: “Teen/Teen Books”
}]
}
});
`
If you’re still encountering issues after this, there might be other aspects of your setup that need to be reviewed. You may want to check to ensure that your tracking ID is correctly configured or that there isn’t something else in your overall tag setup preventing the event from being sent.
Abdul

Member
21 October 2022 at 12:44 pm

Sometimes, difficulties with Google Analytics 4 (GA4) events like “view_item” can occur even when everything seems to be correctly set in the code of your BigCommerce page. It’s strange that despite the event data appearing fine in the source code, you’re not seeing any related data in the GA4 Debug View, nor in the Network tab in Chrome Dev Tools.

One possibility could be that there might be an underlying issue in the way your events are being logged or communicated to GA4. It’s also possible that some sort of caching issue or a problem with the GA4 Debug View is preventing you from seeing the event. Other than these, it might be harder to pinpoint the problem without more detailed debugging or deeper analysis of your GA4 setup.

Remember, despite being a little frustrating, such bumps are quite common when setting up or modifying tracking events, be patient and methodically work it out.

Troubleshooting GA4 Debug View and Network Tab Payload for Missing gtag Event Firing

Morgan

Abdul