DTM: _satellite not defined

Question

I'm using a Non-Sequential HTML Javascript/Third Party tag, where I'm using the following script to pass data to a 3rd party tag.

<script>
   x = _satellite.getVar('Sub-Total');
</script>

The problem that I have is that no data is passed to "x".

I have also tried the following:

<script>
   var x = $('td[data-hook="order_item_total"]').text().substring(1);
</script>

In this case I'm getting $ is undefined. Note, both methods work when I test it in the Javascript console and if I use a Non-Sequential Javascript tag. What do I need to add to make either of these work? Your help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Ridder

Answer 1

The issue is when you configure your tag to be Non-Sequential HTML, the code is output dynamically in an iframe. Since the iframe doesn't include the _satellite object, attempting to reference it results in an undefined error.

If your tag contains a blend of html and javascript that needs to be output and you need _satellite exposed, you need to instead use a Sequential HTML tag.

Alternatively, if the code in your tag is really purely javascript and just happens to be wrapped in <script> tags, then simply remove the <script> tag wrapper and put the code in a Javacript style tag (It doesn't matter if it's sequential or non-sequential; both will have _satellite exposed to it) .

Note: I could find no mention of this in the DTM documentation (though I could be blind!), but If you open your browser's developer console and look at the live/rendered DOM, you can verify this yourself. I feel like at a minimum this caveat should at least be mentioned in the documentation.