New Google Analytics.js Snippet Tips

Once again the Google Analytics snippet is changing (evolving) into something bigger and better… Let’s take a look…

Default New Analytics.js Script

This is currently in beta.

(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
})(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');

ga('create', 'UA-XXXX-Y');  // Creates a tracker.
ga('send', 'pageview');     // Sends a pageview.

I saw HTML5 Boilerplate have been clever and renamed the vars.. it now reads b,o,i,l,e,r … hehe..

    (function(b,o,i,l,e,r){b.GoogleAnalyticsObject=l;b[l]||(b[l]=
    function(){(b[l].q=b[l].q||[]).push(arguments)});b[l].l=+new Date;
    e=o.createElement(i);r=o.getElementsByTagName(i)[0];
    e.src='//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js';
    r.parentNode.insertBefore(e,r)}(window,document,'script','ga'));
    ga('create','UA-XXXXX-X');ga('send','pageview');

Don’t break you current tracking objects, simply rename the ga to whatever you’ve been using such as __gaTracker.

(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
})(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','__gaTracker');
__gaTracker('create', 'UA-XXXX-Y');
__gaTracker('send', 'pageview');

Testing on localhost

In some cases you might want to test analytics.js from a webserver running on localhost. To set analytics.js cookies, you need to disable the default cookie domain using:

ga('create', 'UA-XXXX-Y', {
  'cookieDomain': 'none'
});

Tracking your hash urls on your web apps. you can set the page url like this. Add that to your page templates.

  ga('set', 'page', '/splash');
  ga('send', 'pageview');

OR

  ga('set', 'page', '/#login');
  ga('send', 'pageview');

Don’t forget to remove the send from your main snippet. So it now looks like this:

  (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
  (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
  m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
  })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');

  ga('create', 'UA-XXXX-Y', 'domain.com');

To capture a new event simply add this when you want the event tracked

ga('send', 'event', 'category', 'action', 'label', value);

Where label and value are optional.

For example,

ga('send', 'event', 'register', 'currentUser');

GA Basic Config: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/

GA Advanced Config: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/advanced?hl=es