GOOGLE TAG MANAGER

Data Layer

The data layer contains built-in variables that collect basic information about the page being tracked. These variables include cookies, standard DOM variables from the page, and Tealium-specific variables about the loaded configuration.

Learn more about the types of data layer variables available.

Standard Page Data

The following variables are generated from the standard JavaScript properties available for the web page.

The example values shown are based on the following page URL:

http://www.example.com/path/file.html?param1=value1#hash=fragment

Variable Description Example
dom.domain The full domain of the URL. Source: location.hostname www.example.com
dom.hash The hash fragment of the URL (excluding the # character). Source: location.hash hash=fragment
dom.pathname The path of the URL, excluding the query parameters and domain. Source: location.pathname "/path/file.html"
dom.query_string The full query string of the URL. Source: location.search param1=value1
dom.referrer URL of previous page. Source: document.referrer
dom.title Text in the <title> tag. Source: document.title "Page Title"
dom.url The full URL of the page. Source: document.URL http://www.example.com/ PATH/FILE.html?param1=VALUE#hash=FRAGMENT
dom.viewport_height The height of the browser view port. Source: window.innerHeight or document.documentElement.clientHeight 1320
dom.viewport_width The width of the browser view port. Source: window.innerWidth or document.documentElement.clientWidth 1278

Cookies

The following variables are stored and maintained in a single cookie named TEAL. Each is a variable in the TEAL object.

Variable Description Example
tealium)_session_event_number The number of events in the current session. 2
tealium_session_number The number of sessions for this unique visitor. 1
tealium_session_id The unique identifier for the session. 1628542077230
tealium_visitor_id A unique identifier for the visitor. May be 40 characters or more. 016297481...

The following is an example of the document.cookie format of the TEAL cookie, which shows the variable values separated by $ characters.

TEAL=v:927b2ebc092a70110329356772472215264145f9fa1$t:1628543914615$s:1628542077230%3Bexp-sess$sn:1$en:3

Tealium Data

Variable Name Example
tealium_account Account Name sandbox
tealium_datasource Data Source Key abc123
tealium_environment Publish Environment prod
tealium_event Tealium Event Name my_event
tealium_library_name Library Name tealium.js
tealium_library_version Library Version 5.0.3
tealium_profile Account Profile main
tealium_random Random Number 7782219645308327
tealium_timestamp_epoch Current Unix timestamp in seconds 1522956509
tealium_timestamp_local Local Timestamp 2018-04-05T12:28:29.019
tealium_timestamp_utc UTC Timestamp 2018-04-05T19:28:29.019z
tealium_cookie_domain Domain where TEAL cookie is set example.com
tealium_domain Domain of website example.com

Example Data

The following is an example of the built-in data layer that is automatically available.

{
        "cp._ga": "GA1.2.1370368844.1628542067",
        "cp._gid": "GA1.2.73283117.1628542067",
        "tealium_session_number": 1,
        "tealium_session_event_number": 3,
        "tealium_session_id": "1628542077230",
        "tealium_visitor_id": "927b2ebc092a70110329356772472215264145f9fa1",
        "dom.referrer": "",
        "dom.title": "Example dot com",
        "dom.domain": "example.com",
        "dom.query_string": "",
        "dom.hash": "",
        "dom.url": "https://example.com/",
        "dom.pathname": "/",
        "dom.viewport_height": 936,
        "dom.viewport_width": 1517,
        "meta.description": "View",
        "meta.viewport": "width=device-width, initial-scale=1",
        "meta.theme-color": "#13B0E9",
        "tealium_cookie_domain": "example.com",
        "tealium_domain": "example.com",
        "tealium_event": "test event",
        "tealium_account": "xxxxxxxxxxxx",
        "tealium_profile": "main",
        "tealium_environment": "prod",
        "tealium_datasource": "test1234",
        "tealium_random": "9870188345895229",
        "tealium_library_name": "tealium.js",
        "tealium_library_version": "5.0.3",
        "tealium_timestamp_epoch": 1628542114,
        "tealium_timestamp_utc": "2021-08-09T20:48:34.616Z",
        "tealium_timestamp_local": "2021-08-09T13:48:34.616",
        "timing.domain": "example.com",
        "timing.pathname": "/",
        "timing.query_string": "",
        "timing.timestamp": 1628542085435,
        "timing.dns": 1,
        "timing.connect": 99,
        "timing.response": 0,
        "timing.dom_loading_to_interactive": 7,
        "timing.dom_interactive_to_complete": 129,
        "timing.load": 0,
        "timing.time_to_first_byte": 95,
        "timing.front_end": 163,
        "timing.fetch_to_response": 210,
        "timing.fetch_to_complete": 373,
        "timing.fetch_to_interactive": 244
}

How Data Layer Variables are Flattened

Google Tag Manager events are flattened to Tealium attribute names in order to meet the Tealium Customer Data Hub specifications. The event data is received by Tealium EventStream.

The value of tealium_event is the value of the event in the dataLayer.push call. Google Tag Manager sets the default page view value to gtm.js as the name of the event. To override the default, set the Tealium Event config setting to a variable that contains the event name.

Attributes are not automatically added. You must add these attributes in Tealium EventStream.

E-Commerce

The following purchase event example shows how the client-side e-commerce events get flattened.

dataLayer.push({
  'ecommerce': {
    'purchase': {
      'actionField': {
        'id': 'T12345',    // Transaction ID. Required for purchases and refunds.
        'affiliation': 'Online Store',
        'revenue': '35.43',
        'tax':'4.90',
        'shipping': '5.99',
        'coupon': 'SUMMER_SALE'
      },
      'products': [{
        'name': 'Triblend Android T-Shirt',     // Name or ID is required.
        'id': '12345',
        'price': '15.25',
        'brand': 'Google',
        'category': 'Apparel',
        'variant': 'Gray',
        'quantity': 1,
        'coupon': ''
       },
       {
        'name': 'Donut Friday Scented T-Shirt',
        'id': '67890',
        'price': '33.75',
        'brand': 'Google',
        'category': 'Apparel',
        'variant': 'Black',
        'quantity': 1
       }]
    }
  }
});

After flattening, the purchase event becomes:

"ecommerce.purchase.actionField.affiliation": "Online Store"
"ecommerce.purchase.actionField.coupon": "SUMMER_SALE"
"ecommerce.purchase.actionField.id": "T12345"
"ecommerce.purchase.actionField.revenue": "35.43"
"ecommerce.purchase.actionField.shipping": "5.99"
"ecommerce.purchase.actionField.tax": "4.90"
"ecommerce.purchase.products.brand": [ "Google", "Google" ]
"ecommerce.purchase.products.category": [ "Apparel", "Apparel" ]
"ecommerce.purchase.products.coupon": [ "", "" ]
"ecommerce.purchase.products.id": [ "12345", "67890" ]
"ecommerce.purchase.products.name": [ "Triblend Android T-Shirt", "Donut Friday Scented T-Shirt" ]
"ecommerce.purchase.products.price": [ "15.25", "33.75" ]
"ecommerce.purchase.products.variant": [ "Gray", "Black" ]
"ecommerce.purchase.products.quantity": [ "1", "1" ]

The flattener uses dot notation to create the key, and the value is set to an array of all values from the purchase event.

Events

The following dataLayer.push command fires when “event” is included in the data layer:

window.dataLayer.push({
  event: "test_number",
  type_number: 5,
  type_string: 'hello',
  type_object: { someKey: 'someValue' },
  type_array: [1,2,3,4],
  type_function: function() { return 'hello'; },
  type_boolean: true
});

The data layer that arrives in Tealium EventStream looks as follows. Only the type_object is flattened and the function is removed.

{
    "event": "test_number",
    "type_number": 5,
    "type_string": "hello",
    "type_object.someKey": "someValue",
    "type_array": [1, 2, 3, 4],
    "type_boolean": true
}
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