How to track usage on a node.js RESTful service with Google Analytics?

Question

I've written a RESTful node.js service as a backend for http://www.cross-copy.net and would like to not only track usage of the web-client but also other clients (like commandline or Apps) which use the service for inter-device copy/paste. Is it possible to embed the Google Analytics JavaScript API into a node.js application and do server-side tracking?

Violation

Answer 1

As Brad rightfully sad, there was nothing for Node... So I wrote a nodejs module tailored for this these last few days and just published it on NPM: node-ga

The module is still really new (barely trying it in production on a pet project), so don't hesitate to give your input :)

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Aerostation

This is really amusing... I was just putting the touches on a module that does the exact same thing this weekend! I've been using a version of it in production, but figured I would clean up the code a bit before throwing it out there. – Swagsman

@Brad: The more modules, the merrier the user :) – Aerostation

Ha, maybe. For now though, I think yours fills the need just fine. Nice work! – Swagsman

@JoshLeaves nice library, can you also track events with this somewhere in a route (not as middleware)? I tried something like ga(...)(req, res, function() {}); which fires a request indeed, but it doesn't appear in GA – Magaretmagas

@forste: You can call it from within a single route, here is an example: gist.github.com/joshleaves/5669653 – Aerostation

That library uses Google Analytics for Mobile Websites, which has been deprecated in 2014 – Bala

Answer 2

Since all of the answers are really old, I will mention a new npm package: https://www.npmjs.com/package/universal-analytics

It's really great and incredible easy to use.

Maryalice

upvoted! how do you prevent from double tracking meaning if the event runs on the browser, how will you prevent from sending the same event on server side – Anther

@Anther Not quite sure what you mean; I'd only run it either on the browser OR on the server and not both – Maryalice

what I was saying is that i pasted the browser side script and i have the server side page() method on as well, when i open the website, i see 2 users under real time which is understandable as it sends the event once from the client and once from my server also, my question or doubt was how do I prevent this duplication, would post another question if needed , cannot find any tag for universal-analytics though, stackoverflow has the wrong tag currently – Anther

Answer 3

Install universal analytics

npm install universal-analytics --save

In your routes file, require the module. (Replace process.env.GA_ACCOUNT with string like 'UA-12345678-1')

// Init GA client
var ua = require('universal-analytics');
var visitor = ua(process.env.GA_ACCOUNT);

Now inside your endpoint functions, you can track a pageview. (Replace request.url with the current url string like '/api/users/1')

// Track pageview
visitor.pageview(request.url).send();

Read the documentation on UA for more info on this module.

Unipod

Answer 4

You won't be able to just drop ga.js into your Node project. It has to be loaded in a browser to function correctly.

I don't believe there is anything out there for Node yet (correct me if I'm wrong!), but you should be able to easily adapt the existing PHP classes for doing logging server-side:

https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/other/mobileWebsites

You can see how the URL to request the tracking GIF is constructed within ga.php. Translate ga.php to JS and you're set.

$utmGifLocation = "http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif";

// Construct the gif hit url.
$utmUrl = $utmGifLocation . "?" .
    "utmwv=" . VERSION .
    "&utmn=" . getRandomNumber() .
    "&utmhn=" . urlencode($domainName) .
    "&utmr=" . urlencode($documentReferer) .
    "&utmp=" . urlencode($documentPath) .
    "&utmac=" . $account .
    "&utmcc=__utma%3D999.999.999.999.999.1%3B" .
    "&utmvid=" . $visitorId .
    "&utmip=" . getIP($_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"]);

Swagsman

Answer 5

I tried out node-ga, but didn't get event tracking to work. nodealytics did the job.

Magaretmagas

Answer 6

See Core Reporting API Client Libraries & Sample Code (v3).

There is also the following version: Google APIs Client Library for Node.js (alpha).

Hyperemia

Answer 7

I wrote a script to query data with Node.js from Googles Analytics Core Reporting API (v3). The script and a detailed setup description is available here.

Here is the script part:

'use strict';
var googleapi = require('googleapis');
var ApiKeyFile = require('mywebsiteGAapi-6116b1dg49a1.json');
var viewID = 'ga:123456700';

var google = getdefaultObj(googleapi);
var Key = getdefaultObj(ApiKeyFile);

function getdefaultObj(obj) { return obj && obj.__esModule ? obj : { default: obj }; }

var jwtClient = new google.default.auth.JWT(Key.default.client_email, null, Key.default.private_key, ['https://www.googleapis.com/auth/analytics.readonly'], null);
jwtClient.authorize(function (err, tokens) {
  if (err) {
    console.log(err);
    return;
  }
  var analytics = google.default.analytics('v3');
  queryData(analytics);
});

function queryData(analytics) {
  analytics.data.ga.get({
    'auth': jwtClient,
    'ids': viewID,
    'metrics': 'ga:users,ga:pageviews',
    'start-date': 'yesterday',
    'end-date': 'today',
  }, function (err, response) {
    if (err) {
      console.log(err);
      return;
    }
    console.log(JSON.stringify(response, null, 4));
  });
}

Rosewood