using google analytics to log ajax errors

Question

I have the following code which is supposed to send a notification on ajax error to the user, and as a snap-solution, I decided to use google analytics to log those errors, however it doesn't work, does anyone have an idea/lead or must I implement a different solution?

showNotification(title, message) is a custom dialog box invoker.

$(document).ajaxError(function(e, xhr, settings) {
    $(".modal").modal('hide');
    showNotification('Something went wrong...', 'Whoa there! Something happened which we didn\'t predict, we sent ourselves a notification. ');
    _gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'AjaxError', xhr.status, settings.url]);
});

it works in the sense that it shows the notification, but it doesn't send an event to analytics. any leads?

Answer 1

The problem is that xhr.status is an integer, and typically 0. The second argument to trackEvent is supposed to be a string, and apparently if it's integer 0, Google ignores the call. So using statusText fixes it:

$(document).ajaxError(function(e, xhr, settings) {
    // Generic Google error logging
    _gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'AjaxError', xhr.statusText, settings.url]);

    // Application-specific UI code
    $(".modal").modal('hide');
    showNotification('Something went wrong...', 'Whoa there! Something happened which we didn\'t predict, we sent ourselves a notification. ');
});

Also, I'd recommend putting the GA call before your code since (no offense) Google's code is less likely to error out.

Great idea, BTW!