Google Analytics Tracking Code and Document.write causing requests to localhost?

Question

Google Analytics recommends that the code below be inserted before the </body> tag on all web pages on our website to enable visitor tracking.

<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>

<script type="text/javascript">
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-xxxx-xxxx");
pageTracker._trackPageview();
</script>

The problem is that I am getting this error in my WebObjects 4.01 error log:

Couldn't locate direct action class named "google-analytics.com".

This means that there is a request for http://www.mysite.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/mysite.woa/wa/google-analytics.com. I think the cause of this is that the variable gaJsHost in the javascript is not getting set, which would result in document.write writing out:

<script src='google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'></script>

I've seen this brought up by non-WebObjects developers using Google Analytics (who see the problem as a 404 error), but no one has a good explanation of how/why the gaJsHost variable is not being set. I was hoping that someone on here could shed some light on the issue.

Answer 1

I also get that same error a dozen times per day on one of our site, if I ever find a way to replicate and fix it, I will let you know.