You can proxy the google analytics script via your own server, save it locally and auto update the file every hour to make sure it's always latest version from google.
I've done this on a couple of sites now and all is working fine.
Google Analytics Proxy Route in NodeJS / MEAN Stack
This is how I implemented it on my blog that's built with the MEAN stack.
router.get('/analytics.js', function (req, res, next) {
var fileUrl = 'http://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js';
var filePath = path.resolve('/content/analytics.js');
// ensure file exists and is less than 1 hour old
fs.stat(filePath, function (err, stats) {
if (err) {
// file doesn't exist so download and create it
updateFileAndReturn();
} else {
// file exists so ensure it's not stale
if (moment().diff(stats.mtime, 'minutes') > 60) {
updateFileAndReturn();
} else {
returnFile();
}
}
});
// update file from remote url then send to client
function updateFileAndReturn() {
request(fileUrl, function (error, response, body) {
fs.writeFileSync(filePath, body);
returnFile();
});
}
// send file to client
function returnFile() {
res.set('Cache-Control', 'public, max-age=' + oneWeekSeconds);
res.sendFile(filePath);
}
});
Google Analytics Proxy Action Method in ASP.NET MVC
This is how I implemented it on other sites built with ASP.NET MVC.
public class ProxyController : BaseController
{
[Compress]
public ActionResult GoogleAnalytics()
{
var fileUrl = "https://ssl.google-analytics.com/ga.js";
var filePath = Server.MapPath("~/scripts/analytics.js");
// ensure file exists
if (!System.IO.File.Exists(filePath))
UpdateFile(fileUrl, filePath);
// ensure file is less than 1 hour old
var lastModified = System.IO.File.GetLastWriteTime(filePath);
if((DateTime.Now - lastModified).TotalMinutes > 60)
UpdateFile(fileUrl, filePath);
// enable caching for 1 week for page speed score
Response.AddHeader("Cache-Control", "max-age=604800");
return JavaScript(System.IO.File.ReadAllText(filePath));
}
private void UpdateFile(string fileUrl, string filePath)
{
using (var response = WebRequest.Create(fileUrl).GetResponse())
using (var dataStream = response.GetResponseStream())
using (var reader = new StreamReader(dataStream))
{
var body = reader.ReadToEnd();
System.IO.File.WriteAllText(filePath, body);
}
}
}
This is the CompressAttribute used by the MVC ProxyController for Gzip compression
public class CompressAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute
{
public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
{
var encodingsAccepted = filterContext.HttpContext.Request.Headers["Accept-Encoding"];
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(encodingsAccepted)) return;
encodingsAccepted = encodingsAccepted.ToLowerInvariant();
var response = filterContext.HttpContext.Response;
if (encodingsAccepted.Contains("gzip"))
{
response.AppendHeader("Content-encoding", "gzip");
response.Filter = new GZipStream(response.Filter, CompressionMode.Compress);
}
else if (encodingsAccepted.Contains("deflate"))
{
response.AppendHeader("Content-encoding", "deflate");
response.Filter = new DeflateStream(response.Filter, CompressionMode.Compress);
}
}
}
Updated Google Analytics Script
On the client side I append the analytics path with the current date up to the hour so the browser won't use a cached version more than an hour old.
<!-- analytics -->
<script>
(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', '/analytics.js?d=' + new Date().toISOString().slice(0, 13), 'ga');
</script>
