Tellback
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Session Tracking

Understand the session tracking lifecycle, captured telemetry events, and how active Feedback Modes shape data collection.

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TellBack can capture configured interaction and diagnostic events such as clicks, rage clicks, dead clicks, scroll depth, route changes, visibility changes, console errors, network errors, form metadata, and widget/feedback lifecycle events. By gathering visitor activity, logs, and network behavior, TellBack generates comprehensive records of events leading up to a user-submitted issue.

How Sessions Start

A TellBack session begins automatically when the client script loads on a whitelisted page. On load, the client:

  1. Validates that the current domain is whitelisted in your Site's Allowed Origins.
  2. Queries the TellBack backend to ensure that the workspace's monthly session quota has not been exceeded.
  3. Initializes a secure session token and caches it in the browser's sessionStorage.

If your workspace has run out of allocated monthly sessions, the backend will return a 402 Payment Required (QUOTA_EXCEEDED error code), and session telemetry tracking will remain inactive.

How Feedback Modes Affect Tracking

Your Site's active Feedback Mode dictates how sessions behave and what data is collected:

  • Off (collect_nothing):
    No feedback session tracking is created. If the Request Demo feature is enabled, the booking widget runs in a completely sessionless mode.
  • Feedback Links + pageviews (pageviews_only):
    Logs standard pageview metadata only (URLs, paths, referrers, device specifications). Background visitor events and interactions are ignored.
  • Silent context + Feedback Links (sessions_hidden_widget):
    A silent background session is generated, tracking detailed user events and page context. The public feedback tab is kept hidden unless the visitor enters via a secure Feedback Link.
  • Public feedback widget (full_feedback_mode):
    Full telemetry sessions are captured, and the floating public feedback tab is visible to all visitors.

Captured Telemetry Events

When event tracking is active, the script records the following interactions:

  • Navigation: page_view (inital path specs), route_change (SPA client routing), and repeated_navigation (rapid loops warning).
  • Console Logs: console_error (catches uncaught Javascript errors and console.error invocations).
  • Network Logs: network_error (captures failed XMLHttpRequests, Fetch API exceptions, and failed static asset loads).
  • Mouse Interactions: click (clicks containing coordinates and target element structures), rage_click (rapid repeated clicking on a single element), and dead_click (clicking on an element that yields no DOM mutations).
  • Scroll Context: scroll_depth (tracks maximum scroll depth percentage).
  • Form telemetry: form_focus and form_blur (field focus changes), repeated_submit_failure (sequential submission warnings), and form_abandon (leaving a partially filled form).
  • Field Metadata (input_metadata_change): Tracks character counts, field names, and whether the field is dirty. TellBack never collects or transmits raw text typed into inputs.
  • State & Life Cycle: heartbeat (regular activity verification), session_end / session_visibility (tab focus switches), long_pause (inactivity indicator), and widget status triggers (widget_open, widget_close, voice_record_start, voice_record_end, feedback_submit, demo_booking_submit).

Session Timeout & Rollover

To keep session timelines logical and prevent single stale sessions from spans of multiple days, TellBack implements an automatic inactivity rollover:

  • Inactivity Timeout (30 Minutes): If no user activity is detected for 30 minutes, the client automatically resets the session.
  • Rollover Mechanics: The old session storage token is destroyed, the local event queue is wiped, and the script requests a brand new session ID from the backend. This happens transparently to the visitor without visual indicators.

Maximum Recording Duration

Replay recording is capped by the configured maximum recording duration (which defaults to 15 minutes). When the cap is reached, replay recording stops, while broader session behavior follows the normal session lifecycle.

Privacy Responsibility
Site owners are responsible for providing appropriate visitor notices and obtaining any required consent for feedback collection, pageview tracking, session context, replay, audio, screenshots, and AI processing.