topic Re: Google Analytics and FlexViewer 2.1 in ArcGIS Viewer for Flex Questions

Google Analytics and FlexViewer 2.1

MicheleDunham — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 17:49:47 GMT

Does anyone have experience with integrating Google Analytics into FlexViewer 2.1?

Re: Google Analytics and FlexViewer 2.1

GadyPitaru — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 18:20:23 GMT

Not specifically for FlexViewer (not sure any docs exist), but this is for general integration of Google Analytics into a Flash/Flex app: http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/tracking/flashTrackingSetupFlex.html

Re: Google Analytics and FlexViewer 2.1

RobertScheitlin__GISP — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 07:30:32 GMT

Michele,

Yep, I have it on my site all you need to do is add this block replacing your UA-xxxxxxx-x number
and paste this into the index.template.html inside of the body element

     <script type="text/javascript">
   var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
   document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
  </script>
  <script type="text/javascript">
   try {
    var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-xxxxxxx-x");
    pageTracker._trackPageview();
   } catch(err) {}
  </script>

Re: Google Analytics and FlexViewer 2.1

MicheleDunham — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 20:57:44 GMT

Thanks, Robert!

Does this work okay with a Reverse Proxy?

Re: Google Analytics and FlexViewer 2.1

RobertScheitlin__GISP — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 21:15:55 GMT

Michele,

Yep I use reverse proxy as well.

Re: Google Analytics and FlexViewer 2.1

MarkHoyland — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 02:43:00 GMT

I use it on my site directly from within flex. (not flexviewer though)
Like the link that Gady provided.

This allows you to log flex events as "pages" in google analytics.
eg Each time a user clicks on the print button, it is logged as a "page" in google analytics.

To use in flexviewer you would have to set the "tracker" as a global variable.
Then each event you want to log as a page, you would use tracker.trackPageview( "/PrintButton")
Where the argument is the page name logged in Analytics.

This is useful to find out what functionality is being used on our site, what is not being used.
Then you can ask questions like why is it not being used, hard to find, too many clicks, not user friendly etc.

Very useful tool. We have been using it for over 12 months.
See attached for an example of the output I get.

Re: Google Analytics and FlexViewer 2.1

RobertScheitlin__GISP — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 11:09:19 GMT

Mark,

I am not sure what you mean by this

I use it on my site directly from within flex. (not flexviewer though)

If you are not putting it into your index.template.html that where are you putting it?

Re: Google Analytics and FlexViewer 2.1

GadyPitaru — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 16:06:55 GMT

@Robert

The code you posted just tells Google Analytics when the HTML wrapper is accessed, correct? The link I posted integrates Analytics inside the Flex app, so as you "navigate" around in the app, statistics are sent to Google, not just on the HTML wrapper load.

Re: Google Analytics and FlexViewer 2.1

RobertScheitlin__GISP — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 16:22:20 GMT

Gady,

Thanks I will start figuring out how to put this into FlexViewer. It will be good to know which widgets people are using the most.

Re: Google Analytics and FlexViewer 2.1

MarkHoyland — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 07:30:35 GMT

Hi Robert,
Sorry, I re read my previous post and its not very clear at all.

The method you are using is the Google Analytics Javascript api, that can be put in html pages.

There is also a Google Analytics Action Script 3 api available, analytics.swc, that can be put in the libs folder of a flex project. The calls to Google analytics can be made from within the flex application's actionscript code.

You can see in my sample report that I am logging a lot of things. The base layers that are being used, the buttons that are being used, the searches that are being used etc.
Each out to there own analytics page.
Well worth the effort to see how the site is being used or how it could potentially be better. (and managers love reports with graphs 😄 )

Here is the concept of what you could do in FlexViewer. Within each widget you could use tracker.trackPageview( "/pagename").

The simple code below would create 4 "pages" in the google analytics report.

Pages:
Initial,
Widget1_load,
Widget1_table,
Widget2_load

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" 
    minWidth="955" minHeight="600"
    addedToStage="onComplete()">
 
 <mx:Script>
  <![CDATA[
   import com.google.analytics.GATracker;
   import com.google.analytics.AnalyticsTracker;
   
   public var tracker:AnalyticsTracker;
   
   private function onComplete():void
   {
    tracker = new GATracker( this, "UA-111-222", "AS3", false );
    tracker.trackPageview( "/Initial");
   }
   
   protected function b1_clickHandler(event:MouseEvent):void
   {
    tracker.trackPageview( "/Widget1_load");
   }

   protected function b2_clickHandler(event:MouseEvent):void
   {
    tracker.trackPageview( "/Widget1_table");
   }

   protected function b3_clickHandler(event:MouseEvent):void
   {
    tracker.trackPageview( "/Widget2_load");
   }
  ]]>
 </mx:Script>
 <mx:Panel id="p1">
  <mx:Button id="W1_load" click="b1_clickHandler(event)"/>
  <mx:Button id="W1_table" click="b2_clickHandler(event)"/>
  <mx:Button id="W2_load" click="b3_clickHandler(event)"/>
 </mx:Panel>
 
</mx:Application>

Re: Google Analytics and FlexViewer 2.1

JoshCalhoun1 — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 16:02:29 GMT

I am having trouble using it. When I first tried to set it up, I received an error (See the attachment) saying that the URL was not correct. Below is the URL to my mapping application.

http://74.116.50.125/agcmap/index.html

thanks,

Without Flex code you miss most of the action and QUESTIONS. Re: GA and FV 2.1

DavidWheelock — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:23:12 GMT

I will definitely be implementing the Google Analytics Flex Code Snippets in the near future.

I've been using the code in the HTML wrapper for some time and have been very frustrated that much/most of the apparent traffic on my site is not caught by Google Analytics! I know this because the Reverse Proxy log shows many long visits that don't even appear in the Google Analytics logs or which show up as a visit of 00:00:01, when the RP logs show them on the site for 5-10 minutes.

At this point I'm just trying to find out how much time people are spending on the site.

QUESTIONS:
Is there a "best place" to put the Flex code snippet to catch most of the action or do I need to put it in all of the widgets, too?
Can I just put it in the Config.xml to get most things?
I'm still at Flex View 1.3. Is that a problem?

Thanks,
David

Re: Google Analytics and FlexViewer 2.1

ValerieHanson — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 21:11:16 GMT

I loaded the compiled version in our Flex 2.5 version ... and when i open the viewer the hour glass runs endlessly. Any suggestions? Thanks much.

Re: Google Analytics and FlexViewer 2.1

Anonymous User — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 13:56:46 GMT

I loaded the compiled version in our Flex 2.5 version ... and when i open the viewer the hour glass runs endlessly. Any suggestions? Thanks much.

I'm in the same boat ... I've tried loading the compiled widget in both the 2.3 an 3.0 versions. Same thing, the hour glass runs endlessly. Additionally the mapswitcher widget, the navigation widget, and all the widget buttons at the top at the top fail to load.

The issue seems to be related to the compiled version ... but I have no clue how to remedy this.

Re: Google Analytics and FlexViewer 2.1

Anonymous User — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 18:09:45 GMT

Bumping this because I still cannot get this to cooperate.

Even tried it on Flex Viewer 2.5 for good measure ... and the same results, the top banner hangs and the clock just spins. I have noted that the "hanging" seems to occur whenever I add the following

<widget config="widgets/GoogleAnalytics/GoogleAnalyticsWidget.xml" url="widgets/GoogleAnalytics/GoogleAnalyticsWidget.swf"/>

under the  section of the config.xml file.