ClickTale Support Forums

I am looking at a heatmap report for a page at a given URL. The content of this page changes depending upon whether the user is logged in or logged out. If the user is logged out, there is a huge 200 pixel high banner that pushes all other content on this page further down. Clicktale seems to display the logged out state of the page with the heatmap superimposed on top of it.

So, my question is this:

When I'm looking at a Mouse Click heatmap for this URL over a date range, are the Mouse Clicks tied to the elements on the page or the coordinates? That is, would the coordinates/locations of these aggregate clicks be skewed by the existence of the banner mentioned above. Or is Clicktale able to map those clicks to specific elements in the DOM (a search field, a link, etc. for a specific xpath or selector?

Hi jm44,

ClickTale uses a sophisticated algorithm to map actions to their location on the report. We first tie the actions to relevant dom elements, then to their locations in the element.
The elements are identified by an addressing scheme which is similar to xpath (it is a function of element type and position but not element id). As a result, if the banner shifts the dom in such a way that the xpath expression of other elements changes, then you are aggregating two versions which are not meant to be aggregated together. If the banner doesn't change the xpath of other elements then it is ok.

A schematic example where other elements are not dependent on whether the banner element exists:

<div />
<div id=wrapper><div id=banner/></div>
<div id=a/>
<div id=b/>

A schematic example where other elements are dependent on whether the banner element exists:

<div />
<div id=banner/>
<div id=a/>
<div id=b/>

Let us know if you have further questions.
Arik.

I am not an expart. So first of all sorry for my silly question. The second example is not clear to me. Can you please make some explanation of this. "Elements are not dependent on the location of the banner" what did you mean by that?

Hi timadamer,



I meant that, in the first example, the position of elements A and B doesn't change if the banner element is removed.
In the second example, the position will change if the banner element is removed (A and B get shifted one position up).

Arik.

Thanks Arik!