jQuery strip port # from e.currentTarget.host

[seancho]

Hi. Web developer, JS newbie. I am setting up outbound link tracking in Google Analytics and I want to use a short jquery script to test every clicked link to see if it is outbound or not. I have the following script:

$("a").on('click',function(e){
    var url = $(this).attr("href");
    if (e.currentTarget.host != window.location.host) {
        _gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'Outbound Links', e.currentTarget.host, url, 0]);
        if (e.metaKey || e.ctrlKey) {
             var newtab = true;
        }
        if (!newtab) {
             e.preventDefault();
             setTimeout('document.location = "' + url + '"', 100);
        }
    }
});

The script works, and pushes outbound link events to GA, but it is also catching many local links as well, throwing off my outbound link stats. They show up in GA as myhost.com:80. Since myhost.com:80 != myhost.com, the script incorrectly pushes the outbound link event when the link is actually local.

I'm not sure why some local links have the port appended, but I need to modify the above code to strip that port number from e.currentTarget.host before it is compared to window.location.host. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how to do it. Very grateful for any pointers.. Sean

[xelawho]

you may have to convert it to a string first, but you could try

if (e.currentTarget.host.replace(/[\d:]/g,"") != window.location.host) {

[seancho]

Originally Posted by xelawho

if (e.currentTarget.host.replace(/[\d:]/g,"") != window.location.host) {

It's still early, but I think this is working! Thank you! Now, if I wanted to go the convert-to-string route, how would that look? I'm thinking it would be good to strip out the port from e.currentTarget.host on the actual event push as well, since I sometimes get port numbers on real outbound links. If I had a de-ported string, I could use it both places. But I don't get how to make variable declarations in jquery..

[xelawho]

it looks to me like it is already a string. you can check by doing this:

alert(typeof(e.currentTarget.host))

but if it isn't then you could do this:

var mystring=e.currentTarget.host.toString()

[seancho]

Originally Posted by xelawho

it looks to me like it is already a string. you can check by doing this:

alert(typeof(e.currentTarget.host))

but if it isn't then you could do this:

var mystring=e.currentTarget.host.toString()

But I would have to add the 'replace' as well. So something like

var mystring=e.currentTarget.host.replace(/[\d:]/g,"").toString()

Can I do that?

And then the whole thing would be something like

$("a").on('click',function(e){
    var url = $(this).attr("href");
    var linkclick=e.currentTarget.host.replace(/[\d:]/g,"").toString();
    if (linkclick != window.location.host) {
        _gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'Outbound Links', linkclick, url, 0]);
        if (e.metaKey || e.ctrlKey) {
             var newtab = true;
        }
        if (!newtab) {
             e.preventDefault();
             setTimeout('document.location = "' + url + '"', 100);
        }
    }
});

How about that?

[xelawho]

probably. for some reason I prefer it like this

var linkclick=e.currentTarget.host.toString().replace(/[\d:]/g,"");

but I don't guess it will make much difference

obviously you don't have this problem, but for future reference, that regex just replaces all numbers and colons, which would be problematic if your host were say my3host.com. A better one I think would be

.replace(/:[^:]+\d/g,"");

which says replace all the numbers after the colon and the colon