Google Tag Manager - How to avoid data loss

Question

I am using Google Tag Manager to register events with Google Analytic. At one plance I am changing url on the changeof a dropdown. I want to track the same event on Google Analytics. I am worried what would happen if page is changed before event is registered with GA. Could you please let me know if there is a feature in GTM that can ensure that page is not changed before event is registered with GA. Here is the code that will execute on the change of the dropdown ``` var targetCityChangedEventName = "TargetCityChanged"; $("#location", topHeader).bind({ "change": function(ev, obj) { dataLayer.push({event : targetCityChangedEventName }); var url = "http://" + window.location.host + "/" + $(this).val(); window.location = url; } }); ```

Accepted Answer

If you are using ga.js (asynchronous Analytics) you can set an hit callback (a macro that returns a function) in the tag template under "advanced configuration and do the redirect there (possibly you'd need a separate analytics tag just the change event).

If you use Universal Analytics there was a discussion at the Tag Manager Google Group a while ago where Googles Brian Kuhn suggested the following way ( I have not tested this):

In the meantime, have you tried this?

```
dataLayer.push({callback:
 function() {
     alert(123);   
});
```

Then, create a dataLayer macro that reads the "callback" key. Then, use that macro as the value of a "fields to set" pair on your UA tag, under the field name "hitCallback".

Instead of the alert you'd do the redirect.

In case that's not clear, a hit callback is a function that can be passed to the tracking calls and is executed after the tracking call has executed.

Google Tag Manager - How to avoid data loss

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