ServerOwl™ How do the tracking pixels work?

Last modified: June 21, 2019

ServerOwl implements two types of pixels, one is a dynamic JavaScript version that enables the system to collect data from the user's browser, such as screen size, loading times and compatibility statistics. The second is a static version used for situations where JavaScript is not available and can collect data such as the browser's IP address, load time and frequency.

ServerOwl uses the pixel to make sure that your visitors are actually able to visit your website. There are lots of different problems that we are able to detect, such as DNS issues, or general networking availability issues that means your website can still handle HTML requests, but none of those requests are actually reaching your webserver. The pixel will detect these situations and start exploring your website for problems.

The Dynamic Pixel

The dynamic pixel implemented by ServerOwl is a fairly easy process to embed into your website or HTML5 online ad, by simply adding the following code to your HTML or JavaScript. In the code block below you'll need to change '<insert your url safe account code>' with your account code for it to work correctly. You can access the correctly formatted code from inside the Account or Campaign Settings that has the correct code for your account.

<script type='text/javascript'>(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['ServerOwlObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','//www.serverowl.net/javascripts/pixel.js','sat'); sat('ta','<insert your url safe account code>');</script>

The Static Pixel

The static pixel is used in situation where you are unable to use JavaScript because it either turned off, or not supported by the browser, or the online advertiser will only allow you to load basic HTML, or is in emails which do not support JavaScript. The HTML block below show you how to embed the pixel into your EDMs or online ads.

<img height='1' width='1' style='display:none' src='//www.serverowl.net/index.php/pixel.png?v=0&ta=<insert your url safe account code>&source=<insert your source label>'/>

You can also add a ServerOwl URL source parameter to the pixel parameter list, to give you some method of differentiation between your EDMs or online ads without creating a new Campaign for each.

Worked Examples

You can find examples for installing ServerOwl pixel on Magento and Wordpress.

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