Analytical¶ ↑

Gem for managing multiple analytics services in your rails app.

Service implementations include:

Google Analytics
Google Adwords (conversion tracking)
Clicky
KISSMetrics
Hubspot
CrazyEgg
Chartbeat
ComScore Direct
Optimizely
Loopfuse
Clicktale
Google Website Optimizer
Performancing
Quantcast
MixPanel

Usage¶ ↑

Add the following to your controllers:

analytical

Add a configuration file (config/analytical.yml) to declare your API keys, like so:

production:
  google:
    key: UA-5555555-5
  clicky:
    key: 55555
development:
test:

You can add different configurations for different environments.

By default, all the declared analytics modules are loaded. You can override this behavior in the controller.

analytical :modules=>[:console, :google, :clicky]

Then, in your template files, you’ll want to add the analytical helper methods for initializing the tracking javascript:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <%= raw analytical.head_prepend_javascript %>
    <title>Example</title>
    <%= stylesheet_link_tag :all %>
    <%= javascript_include_tag :defaults %>
    <%= csrf_meta_tag %>
    <% analytical.identify '5', :email=>'josh@transfs.com' %>
    <%= raw analytical.head_append_javascript %>
  </head>
  <body>
    <%= raw analytical.body_prepend_javascript %>
    <%= yield %>
    <%= raw analytical.body_append_javascript %>
  </body>
</html>

Note the example above also includes an identify() command that will apply to every page. More likely, you’ll want to make this identify() command conditional so that it only applies when you have a logged-in user:

<% analytical.identify(current_user.id, :email=>current_user.email) if current_user %>

You can sprinkle the track() and event() tracking methods throughout your views & controllers as needed.

analytical.track '/a/really/nice/url'
analytical.event 'Some Awesome Event', :with=>:data

It’s possible to conditionally disable analytics by specifying a ‘disable_if` method.

analytical :disable_if => lambda{ |controller| controller.i_can_haz_tracking? }

Analytical also provides the ability to filter your active modules dynamically:

analytical :filter_modules => lambda{ |controller, modules|
  controller.use_google_analytics? ? modules : modules - [:google]
}

This can be useful for enabling the console logger optionally in your app, based on a request parameter:

:filter_modules => lambda { |controller, modules|
  controller.use_console_logger? ? [:console] : modules
}

Adding new modules¶ ↑

New modules should be fairly easy to add. Follow the structure that I’ve used in the Clicky, Google, and KISSMetrics modules… and you should be fine. All modules should include the Analytical::Base::Api module, so that they have some default behavior for methods that they don’t support or need.

Session-based command queues¶ ↑

By default, any Analytical commands that are queued in a controller that subsequently redirects won’t be emitted to the client. This is because the redirect triggers a new request, and everything is cleared out at the beginning of each request.

However, if you would like to be able to queue commands between requests… there’s a new option that supports this behavior:

analytical :modules=>[:console, :google], :use_session_store=>true

This will store the queued commands in the user session, clearing them out when they are emitted to the client, but allowing you to make calls like:

analytical.track 'something'

… in your controller. After a redirect, the corresponding track() call will be emitted in the next request made by the client. NOTE: This is new and somewhat experimental, and could cause problems if you store large amounts of data in the session. (there is a 4k limit to session data)

Javascript tracking/event commands¶ ↑

Sometimes you want to trigger an analytics track/event via javascript. Analytical now provides a solution for this by default. Appended to your <head> is a simple javascript object that will contain “instantaneous” versions of the tracking commands for each of your modules.

You call these analytical commands like this:

<script type="text/javascript">Analytical.track('/some/url');</script>
<script type="text/javascript">Analytical.event('A javascript event', {with: 'data'});</script>

When you call these commands, it will pass the track/event name & data on to each of the modules. (Take a look at the simple javascript helpers in your <head> for more information.)

To disable this functionality, use

analytical :javascript_helpers => false

Note on Patches/Pull Requests¶ ↑

I would be extremely happy to accept contributions to this project! If you think something should work differently, send me a message and I’d love to discuss your ideas. Even better:

Fork the project.
Make your feature addition or bug fix.
Add specs for it. This is important so I don’t break it in a future version unintentionally.
Commit, do not mess with rakefile, version, or history. (if you want to have your own version, that is fine but bump version in a commit by itself I can ignore when I pull)
Send me a pull request. Bonus points for topic branches.

Current Contributors¶ ↑

These fine folks have contributed patches and new features to this project:

Thanks guys!

zkhan/analytical