Difference between Stape Wordpress Plugin and GTM4WP?

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Whats the differences between Stape Wordpress Plugin and GTM4WP, and whats best practice?
Should I only use Stape, or is there any instances or situations where I should use both?

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GTM4WP has much more functionality in terms of data layer, event configuration, its options, etc.
In Stape plugin only stanadart ecommerce dataLayer events are available.

Usually if you need more than standard ecommerce events - you can use GTM4WP, and in Stape plugin just use ‘Update GTM snippet’ checkbox - in this case it will update GTM snippet that is added via GTM4WP with changes to your subdomain, custom loader and other options that you activate.

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@Alex
I know (from Dan) that the plugin is not one of your priorities, but I think (if my opinion is allowed) that in the near future you should improve it and be at least at the level of GTM4WP.

Personally I switched from GTM4WP to Stape’s plugin because GTM4WP had some console errors that I couldn’t get rid off.

Let me put it this way.
We need a very good data layer option in order to have a very good tracking solution.

Let me give just an exemple - right now there is no option for brand tracking. We don’t know (looking at the data) what brand has the most sales.

So, if you need at some point a beta tester for improving the plugin, ping me. :slight_smile:

Thanks!

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Hey Alin,

Yes, if you have a vision of what is currently missing in the WP plugin Stape for ecommerce tracking - it would be great to get that, I can add it to our devs backlog

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@Alex I am not an expert, in case you think that :slight_smile:
But I would start with what already have GTM4WP and I would try to replicate this as a first step.
As I said, just as an example, right now there is no info in datalayer regarding BRAND.
So this is quite important info to look at.

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We see no point in duplicating the functionality of an existing plugin at this time.

At the moment the main purpose of the Stape plugin is to use custom loader and cookie keeper. Data layer and Webhooks are minimal in their functionality to cover the needs of 80% of WP ecommerce, but in case of need nothing prevents to use another plugin for DL or WH, or use custom data layer pushes.

Good point with item_brand though, I’ve passed that on to backlog.

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Thanks, @Alex for your response.

So, do you think would be a good idea to use Stape plugin for custom loader and cookie keeper (but I think I had these already enabled/activated even before stape launched the plugin) and deactivate data layer so I can use data layer from GTM4WP?

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Completely, I don’t see any problem with this approach

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Hey, @Alex Alex,

What if for item_brand there is no data into data layer?
In gtm4wp there is an option to select taxonomies for product brands. Maybe this (not defining the taxonomy) could be the reason for not seeing any info regarding item_brand?

Thanks.

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Hey Alin,

Yes, as far as we’ve talked to developers - Woocommerce doesn’t have a standard place for the item brand parameter. We don’t want to complicate our application with additional settings for now, so if this parameter is important for you - you can use GTM4WP for data layer and Stape plugin only for GTM installation.

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Hey, @Alex

Thanks for your response.
Recently I switched from gtm4wp to stape DL since there are some issues related with ATC events. (I saw that on GitHub and I can confirm that with my setup)

Maybe in the future you wil consider improving your DL not only with item_brand (this will be the first on the list), but also with pushes for payment method and delivery options just to mention some of.

I’m just saying :slight_smile:

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  • is the custom loader script auto-updating using the Stape WP Plugin? (as far as I know it changes from time to time to keep up)

in Stape plugin just use ‘Update GTM snippet’ checkbox

  • how can I test, if the snippet did update?
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is the custom loader script auto-updating using the Stape WP Plugin? (as far as I know it changes from time to time to keep up)

Yes, of course.

how can I test, if the snippet did update?

The ‘update’ function in the GTM snippet settings was previously used to allow you to add a GTM snippet via the GTM4WP plugin and update it to custom loader format.

This was necessary because without installing the GTM snippet via GTM4WP the data layer that generates this application did not work.

Now we have removed this feature, it is no longer necessary, now it is no longer necessary to add GTM from there to GTM4WP for their data layer to work.

So you can add GTM via Stape app and use the data layer from GTM4WP if you need it.

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