New feature: Tracking with Endpoints

And now about tracking with an Endpoint

When switching to Burst 1.2 the method of tracking has automatically switched to “Endpoint” instead of REST API. If this switch was not possible, you will get feedback in the dashboard about how to fix this. If you didn’t, you’re now using a beacon to send data to an endpoint.

Without explaining the full technical implementation; when the tracking javascript has been loaded, a request will be made to add the initial statistic. Pageview data will be send when a user closes or leaves the page. The previous tracking method would update the hit multiple times per pageview, because we were not able to send data on page exit without impacting performance.

This means tracking will sent a request on entry, and will sent a non blocking request on exit. There’s no hindrance of any responses, or unloads during the session which positively affects performance during a session.

The previous method of tracking, the REST API is still used as a fallback. The difference in time spend sending the request is immense.  The REST API would average around 300 ms per request on this website. Now tracking with an endpoint averages about 30ms. 

An important disclaimer is that using the REST API has no negative side effects for tracking. It just uses more resources, which might impact performance. 

Using Turbo Mode with the REST API is also possible. If you have any questions, please let us know on the WordPress forums.