Form Views: counting webpage loads even though popup feedback form has not been opened.

  • rpalla
    Asked on February 27, 2017 at 12:15 AM

    You sent me notice that my forms will be disabled in a day if I don't upgrade because my form views have reached 1000 this month. After reviewing my analytics, the numbers do not add up. Additionally, we just began using your forms in the past few weeks and the majority of form views are from my IP address for testing purposes.

    If you disable our forms, we will discontinue using any of your services and let it be known to our customers as to why we made the change.

    Badgering and mis-leading us is not be an acceptable reason for us to upgrade.

  • Boris
    Replied on February 27, 2017 at 4:19 AM

    We've just ran the re-calculation of all views made on your currently existing forms, and the total views are 959 for this month. (Note that form named IAAN FEEDBACK was deleted, so its views were not counted in this recalculation, and this is why your view count is now at only 959, down from the actual 1006 when that form had been counted as well.).

    Our servers have served your existing 4 forms exactly 959 times, and there is no misleading or badgering regarding this.

    I have also logged into your account and checked your Form Analytics for each of the 4 individual existing forms, and when selecting to see the views from "This Month", the combined number of views in your analytics for these 4 forms shows well beyond 1100 views. Some of these were your own views, as there were only 959 real views made on these 4 forms, and I cannot see why you would make a statement that your form analytics shows less views when it does not.

    Keep in mind that your own forms views and previews are not counted towards your usage limits if you are logged into your JotForm account while testing your forms. Please see the following guide for more details:

    https://www.jotform.com/help/355-Form-View-Limits-What-is-it-all-about

    The limits of your account are described clearly, and you can always check your current usage on the Usage tab of your My Account page:

    https://www.jotform.com/myaccount/usage

    The most accurate number for how many form views you have used will always be shown on the above linked Usage page, as that number is calculated from the number of times our servers had to serve your forms to people other than the logged in owner of the form.

    If you will be having users access your forms over 1.000 times per month, I would recommend that you please upgrade your account to the appropriate subscription plan that suits your usage needs. Thank you.

  • rpalla
    Replied on February 27, 2017 at 12:36 PM

    So, help me understand something. I have a form, "FEEDBACK" that is embedded as a hidden "pop-up" layer on all pages of my site. When you view each page, the form is not visible unless you click on the FEEDBACK button. If someone does not click on the button, does the page load still count the load instance as a form view?

    Is there a method I can use to eliminate the false count, because this is literally not a view unless the button is clicked?

    Thanks;
    r

  • Kiran Support Team Lead
    Replied on February 27, 2017 at 1:43 PM

    If the form is embedded on a web page as a pop-up, the form view will not be counted until the link is clicked and the form is opened. I have tested with the Pop-up embed method from the publish wizard. If you can provide us with the web page where the form is embedded so that we can take a look and provide you with necessary assistance.

    Thanks!

  • rpalla
    Replied on February 27, 2017 at 3:30 PM

    Please try http://INSONA.com. There are two links on the page. one for FEEDBACK and another at the top right for Subscribe.

     

    Thanks;

    r

  • David JotForm Support Manager
    Replied on February 27, 2017 at 5:23 PM

    I have loaded your site many times already, and it has not increased your form views count. As mentioned by my colleague, it only increases if the popup forms are opened.

    You may enable the JotForm footer to permanently lift the form views limit: https://www.jotform.com/help/355-Form-View-Limits-What-is-it-all-about 

    Let us know if you have more questions.

  • Ray Palla
    Replied on February 28, 2017 at 2:57 PM

    I hate to sound argumentative here, however page loads are being counted, even when they are from my own IP address and when the forms are not actually viewed (but just loaded as a hidden pop-up form).

    I opened my JotForms and logged in with Chrome. In a new tab I loaded my website URL, doing nothing more. When I refresh my JotForms tab, there are two new view counts. 

    I did not change my IP address and I clicked neither of the pop-up buttons which would have displayed a form if clicked.

    View counts are further proven to be inaccurate by by Google Analytics. The number of page views in Google this month is far less than the number of view counts reported by JotForms. 

    Additionally, when I view my JotForm analytics, the vast majority of view counts are coming from my own IP address. Even taking into account that my IP is dynamically assigned, it is clear that numerous counts from the same IP are reported in a row.

    These inaccuracies are contrary to what you have made in your previous statements. Am I the only one who finds these inaccuracies in my JotForm reports?

    Can you further explain your view count reporting feature and how you deem it to be accurate? The explanations I have received in this thread appear to be false.


    r

  • David JotForm Support Manager
    Replied on February 28, 2017 at 4:25 PM

    I have forwarded this to our back-end team for further inspection. You will be notified via this thread by one of our developers about any updates on this matter.

  • rpalla
    Replied on March 2, 2017 at 1:40 AM

    One other thing I've noticed since our last correspondence. My site has two variants, one PC display and one mobile display variant. When the HTML loads, both variants are counted as a JotForm view. Since neither of the JotForms are visible until a button is clicked and since only one variant can be viewed at once, the view count should not increment, but it does. Technically I understand that both variants have called the JotForm imbedded page, but physically, neither variant has displayed a form. So to sum-up, JotForm considers one of my website page loads to be two (2) form views, when in reality the user has seen no (0) views.

    This is especially disconcerting when the view count is used to determine if I need to upgrade my account.

    Can this be corrected? At this point I have to consider returning to Google forms or pay you a monthly fee for views that are not actually being seen.

    I like the new 4.0 interface and capabilities, but this issue is very unsatisfactory.

    Thanks;
    r

  • Kiran Support Team Lead
    Replied on March 2, 2017 at 2:44 AM

    Thank you for the additional information. I see that the issue has already been forwarded to our backend for further investigation. Rest assured, once we have any news in this regard we'll update you here.

    Since you say that the website is having two variants, could you let us know if the mobile variant is also accessible using the same URL http://insona.com/ or does it have a different URL?

    Thanks!

  • rpalla
    Replied on March 2, 2017 at 10:40 AM

    Mobile is the same URL.

    r

  • Kiran Support Team Lead
    Replied on March 2, 2017 at 11:51 AM

    Thanks for letting us know about the mobile web page URL. I have inspected the feedback button on your web page and found that the form is embedded using iframe embed code. The section where the form is embedded is just hidden by using the CSS styles. Please see the screenshot below:

    Form Views: counting webpage loads even though popup feedback form has not been opened Screenshot 20

    So, each time the web page is loaded, the form view is counted. If you want to open the form after clicking on the feedback button, please change the embed the form on your web page using the Feedback button embed script. Please take a look at the following guide that can help you with this.

    https://www.jotform.com/help/93-Creating-a-Feedback-Button

    By using this method, the form view will not be counted until the form is loaded after clicking on the button. 

    Hope this information helps! 

  • rpalla
    Replied on March 2, 2017 at 11:35 PM

    Ladies & Gentlemen;

    I am very pleased with this resolution. We have implemented the suggestion from Kiran and are now finding that the count for JotForm views is much more accurate. I can see that the JavaScript manages the click-through. It is my mistake that we (INSONA) embedded the basic "embed code" and not the "Feedback Button" code from your "Publish" options.

    I am still seeing an increment in the form-view count when I am logged-in on one browser tab and testing the site on another tab, however this new information provides us with a vast improvement when working with JotForms. I would still like to see my IP address removed from any count.

    V4.0 of JotForm is an exceptional value, when you consider the true customer support offered by its back-end team. My company was prepared to discontinue the use of all JotForms until we received clear and concise technical expertise from Kiran.


    Thanks, Kiran;

    r

  • Chriistian Jotform Support
    Replied on March 3, 2017 at 4:06 AM

    Thanks for letting us know that the solution suggested by my colleague, Kiran, helped to fix the issue. 

    If you encounter some other issues again in the future, let us know and we will be willing to help you.

    Regards