topic Re: We're looking to track analytics on our open data site: opendata.dc.gov. in ArcGIS Hub Questions

We're looking to track analytics on our open data site: opendata.dc.gov.

MattCrossett — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 14:52:53 GMT

What are some of our options?

Re: We're looking to track analytics on our open data site: opendata.dc.gov.

NataliyaLys — Fri, 19 Sep 2014 19:28:56 GMT

We are interested in that as well. We would really like to know what is getting downloaded the most?

Re: We're looking to track analytics on our open data site: opendata.dc.gov.

TimMinter — Mon, 22 Sep 2014 16:18:02 GMT

When I request your open data site, Esri's code calls Google Analytics, which suggests that they are tracking and have access to the information you want. You may be able to pursue via a support request for your open data site.

tim

Re: We're looking to track analytics on our open data site: opendata.dc.gov.

PaulCrickard1 — Mon, 22 Sep 2014 16:25:02 GMT

If you have access to your web server you should be able to view the logs(write a script to parse out unique IPs and what they requested). Or sign up for Google Anlaytics, put the code on the bottom of your page and you can log in and see whatever you want.

If you are interested in tracking map usage, this is cool - you can track most frequent zoom levels and all kinds of awesomeness:

Tracking Slippy Map Analytics — Dustin Sampson on Vimeo

Re: We're looking to track analytics on our open data site: opendata.dc.gov.

DanielFenton1 — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 21:03:50 GMT

Hi Matt,

One option is to set up Google Analytics and place the tracking code in your header html section. You will have to make sure it is configured as a second tracker so as not to interfere analytics the Open Data team is running across all sites.

Here is some helpful documentation about that:

Advanced Configuration - Web Tracking (analytics.js) - Google Analytics — Google Developers

Please let me know if you run into any issues if you try that.

Re: We're looking to track analytics on our open data site: opendata.dc.gov.

CameronMcCormick — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 19:46:37 GMT

Thanks for sharing that, very helpful

Re: We're looking to track analytics on our open data site: opendata.dc.gov.

MalcolmJ — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 02:03:57 GMT

Hi Daniel.

I've tried to set up google analytics on our open data site, using the link you supplied above.

It sort of worked in that its recording hits, but apparently these are all referral spam, and its not recording any legitimate hits.

Are there any 'Open Data' specific guides to how to get google analytics working???

Basically I've posted the attached code into the Header HTML section and amended the code to account for it being the second tracker but not totally sure I've done it right.

Thanks

Re: We're looking to track analytics on our open data site: opendata.dc.gov.

DanielFenton1 — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 18:39:22 GMT

Hey Malcolm, I'm not sure what you mean by referral spam. Can you share some screenshots or reports from your Google Analytics?

Re: We're looking to track analytics on our open data site: opendata.dc.gov.

MalcolmJ — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 21:00:25 GMT

This article gives a quick explanation of referral spam as well as a list of some of the offending sites: http://viget.com/advance/removing-referral-spam-from-google-analytics. My colleague has been researching solutions for this as it has become an increasing issue in the past few weeks with the potential to skew our reporting. When we analysed where the traffic was coming from on our open data site the only hits recorded are what this article refers to as ‘ghost referral traffic’ meaning traffic that has spoofed Google Analytics servers, not actually visited our site. While we know there have been genuine visits to our site, none, not even web crawler spam, are showing in our GA results, meaning the tracking code isn’t functioning as it should.

Re: We're looking to track analytics on our open data site: opendata.dc.gov.

DanielFenton1 — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 21:03:48 GMT

Which site is yours?

Re: We're looking to track analytics on our open data site: opendata.dc.gov.

MalcolmJ — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 01:47:34 GMT

http://data.marlborough.opendata.arcgis.com/

Re: We're looking to track analytics on our open data site: opendata.dc.gov.

DanielFenton1 — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 12:14:28 GMT

Hi Malcolm, sorry for the delay on this. I've taken a look at the site and it appears that the tracking calls to Google Analytics are being made correctly. I am not sure what else I can do from my end to resolve your problem. Can you post some screenshots of your analytics dashboard that shows the referral spam?

Daniel

Re: We're looking to track analytics on our open data site: opendata.dc.gov.

MalcolmJ — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 01:50:35 GMT

Do you know if any other ESRI Open Data sites have been able to use Google analytics successfully?

It just seems strange that it will not record legitimate hits, but will record the spam ones. I assume legitimate hits are being recorded successfully on ESRI's google analytics?

Re: We're looking to track analytics on our open data site: opendata.dc.gov.

DanielFenton1 — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 00:15:36 GMT

I don't know of any others off-hand, but I don't think you're the only one.

I agree, very strange. We do see only legitimate hits. Furthermore when I looked at your site, it appeared that the tracking calls for your profile were working.

We've discussed allowing users enter a google analytics tracker in the admin interface. We would then handle all the code. Is that something you or others would find useful?

Re: We're looking to track analytics on our open data site: opendata.dc.gov.

MalcolmJ — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 00:30:32 GMT

Yes! That would be incredibly useful!

It would be much easier from my point of view if you could handle the code and I just have to put in the tracker ID. I think that would resolve all my problems with this. It would also be good for users with basic code skills (like myself...) who have to try follow the google developers guide...

Yes I would say many users would find this useful if they want to use google analytics to track their stats.

Re: We're looking to track analytics on our open data site: opendata.dc.gov.

MalcolmJ — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 22:26:28 GMT

Any idea if/when this might become available? Currently, we are unable to record the number of hits on our open data site and don't really have any idea if its being used or not...

Re: We're looking to track analytics on our open data site: opendata.dc.gov.

DanielFenton1 — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 19:42:51 GMT

Hi Malcolm, I'm happy to report that we are currently working on adding deeper support for your Google Analytics. I don't have a release date yet, but I will update you when we have one.

Re: We're looking to track analytics on our open data site: opendata.dc.gov.

MalcolmJ — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 20:14:36 GMT

Awesome! Thanks for the update

Re: We're looking to track analytics on our open data site: opendata.dc.gov.

DanielFenton1 — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 13:47:45 GMT

Hi Malcolm, this feature has been released! Check out the site configuration tab in the Open Data admin. You can enter a Google Analytics key there. Make sure to remove your old script from your site or you'll get duplicate page views.

Here's some documentation about the feature: Configure your Open Data site—ArcGIS Open Data | ArcGIS

Let us know what you think!

Re: We're looking to track analytics on our open data site: opendata.dc.gov.

MalcolmJ — Fri, 25 Sep 2015 02:10:37 GMT

Excellent, thanks!

I'll give it a go and see how I get on.