rack tracker

Tracking made easy: Don’t fool around with adding tracking and analytics partials to your app and concentrate on the things that matter.

railslove
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Ruby

Rack::Tracker

Code Climate Build Status

Rationale

Most of the applications we’re working on are using some sort of tracking/analytics service,
Google Analytics comes first but its likely that more are added as the project grows.
Normally you’d go ahead and add some partials to your application that will render out the
needed tracking codes. As time passes by you’ll find yourself with lots of tracking
snippets, that will clutter your codebase 😃 When just looking at Analytics there are
solutions like rack-google-analytics but they just soley tackle the existence of one
service.

We wanted a solution that ties all services together in one place and offers
an easy interface to drop in new services. This is why we created rack-tracker, a
rack middleware that can be hooked up to multiple services and exposing them in a unified
fashion. It comes in two parts, the first one is the actual middleware that you can add
to the middleware stack the second part are the service-handlers that you’re going to use
in your application. It’s easy to add your own custom handlers,
but to get you started we’re shipping support for the services mentioned below
out of the box:

Respecting the Do Not Track (DNT) HTTP header

The Do Not Track (DNT) HTTP header is a HTTP header that requests the server to disable its tracking of the individual user.
This is an opt-out option supported by most browsers. This option is disabled by default and has to be explicitly enabled to indicate the user’s request to opt-out.
We believe evey application should respect the user’s choice to opt-out and respect this HTTP header.

Since version 2.0.0 rack-tracker respects that request header by default. That means NO tracker is injected IF the DNT header is set to “1”.

This option can be overwriten using the DO_NOT_RESPECT_DNT_HEADER => true option which must be set on any handler that should ignore the DNT header. (but please think twice before doing that)

Example on how to not respect the DNT header

use Rack::Tracker do
  # this tracker will be injected EVEN IF the DNT header is set to 1
  handler :maybe_a_friendly_tracker, { tracker: 'U-XXXXX-Y', DO_NOT_RESPECT_DNT_HEADER: true }
  # this tracker will NOT be injected if the DNT header is set to 1
  handler :google_analytics, { tracker: 'U-XXXXX-Y' }
end

Further reading on the DNT header:

Installation

Add this line to your application’s Gemfile:

gem 'rack-tracker'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install rack-tracker

Usage

Add it to your middleware stack

config.middleware.use(Rack::Tracker) do
  handler :google_analytics, { tracker: 'U-XXXXX-Y' }
end

This will add Google Analytics as a tracking handler.

Sinatra / Rack

You can even use Rack::Tracker with Sinatra or respectively with every Rack application

Just insert the Tracker in your Rack stack:

web = Rack::Builder.new do
  use Rack::Tracker do
    handler :google_analytics, { tracker: 'U-XXXXX-Y' }
  end
  run Sinatra::Web
end

run web

Although you cannot use the Rails controller extensions for obvious reasons, its easy
to inject arbitrary events into the request environment.

request.env['tracker'] = {
  'google_analytics' => [
    { 'class_name' => 'Send', 'category' => 'Users', 'action' => 'Login', 'label' => 'Standard' }
  ]
}

Services

Google Global Site Tag (gtag.js)

Trackers

Google Global Site tag allows configuring multiple trackers. Use the tracker option to configure the ids:

config.middleware.use(Rack::Tracker) do
  handler :google_global, { trackers: [ { id: 'U-XXXXX-Y' }, { id: 'U-WWWWWW-Z'} ] }
end

Google Analytics

Events

To issue Events from the server side just call the tracker method in your controller.

  def show
    tracker do |t|
      t.google_analytics :send, { type: 'event', category: 'button', action: 'click', label: 'nav-buttons', value: 'X' }
    end
  end

It will render the following to the site source:

  ga('send', { 'hitType': 'event', 'eventCategory': 'button', 'eventAction': 'click', 'eventLabel': 'nav-buttons', 'value': 'X' })

Parameters

You can set parameters in your controller too:

  def show
    tracker do |t|
      t.google_analytics :parameter, { dimension1: 'pink' }
    end
  end

Will render this:

  ga('set', 'dimension1', 'pink');

Enhanced Ecommerce

You can set parameters in your controller:

  def show
    tracker do |t|
      t.google_analytics :enhanced_ecommerce, {
        type: 'addItem',
        id: '1234',
        name: 'Fluffy Pink Bunnies',
        sku: 'DD23444',
        category: 'Party Toys',
        price: '11.99',
        quantity: '1'
      }
    end
  end

Will render this:

  ga("ec:addItem", {"id": "1234", "name": "Fluffy Pink Bunnies", "sku": "DD23444", "category": "Party Toys", "price": "11.99", "quantity": "1"});

Ecommerce

You can even trigger ecommerce directly from within your controller:

  def show
    tracker do |t|
      t.google_analytics :ecommerce, { type: 'addItem', id: '1234', affiliation: 'Acme Clothing', revenue: '11.99', shipping: '5', tax: '1.29' }
    end
  end

Will give you this:

  ga('ecommerce:addItem', { 'id': '1234', 'affiliation': 'Acme Clothing', 'revenue': '11.99', 'shipping': '5', 'tax': '1.29'  })

To load the ecommerce-plugin, add some configuration to the middleware initialization.
This is not needed for the above to work, but recommened, so you don’t have to
take care of the plugin on your own.

  config.middleware.use(Rack::Tracker) do
    handler :google_analytics, { tracker: 'U-XXXXX-Y', ecommerce: true }
  end

Google Adwords Conversion

You can configure the handler with default options:

config.middleware.use(Rack::Tracker) do
  handler :google_adwords_conversion, { id: 123456,
                                        language: "en",
                                        format: "3",
                                        color: "ffffff",
                                        label: "Conversion label",
                                        currency: "USD" }
end

To track adwords conversion from the server side just call the tracker method in your controller.

  def show
    tracker do |t|
      t.google_adwords_conversion :conversion, { value: 10.0 }
    end
  end

You can also specify a different value from default options:

  def show
    tracker do |t|
      t.google_adwords_conversion :conversion, { id: 123456,
                                                 language: 'en',
                                                 format: '3',
                                                 color: 'ffffff',
                                                 label: 'Conversion Label',
                                                 value: 10.0 }
    end
  end

Google Tag Manager

Google Tag manager code snippet supports the container id

  config.middleware.use(Rack::Tracker) do
    handler :google_tag_manager, { container: 'GTM-XXXXXX' }
  end

You can also use an experimental feature to track pageviews under turbolinks, which adds a pageView event with a virtualUrl of the current url.

  config.middleware.use(Rack::Tracker) do
    handler :google_tag_manager, { container: 'GTM-XXXXXX', turbolinks: true }
  end

Data Layer

GTM supports a dataLayer for pushing events as well as variables.

To add events or variables to the dataLayer from the server side, just call the tracker method in your controller.

  def show
    tracker do |t|
      t.google_tag_manager :push, { price: 'X', another_variable: ['array', 'values'] }
    end
  end

Facebook

Use in conjunction with the Facebook Helper to confirm your event fires correctly.

First, add the following to your config:

  config.middleware.use(Rack::Tracker) do
    handler :facebook_pixel, { id: 'PIXEL_ID' }
  end

Dynamic Pixel Configuration

If you need to have different pixel ids e.g. based on the request or serving pages for different accounts, you have the possibility to achieve this by passing a lambda:

  config.middleware.use(Rack::Tracker) do
    handler :facebook_pixel, { id: lambda { |env| env['PIXEL_ID'] } }
  end

and set the pixel id within the request env variable. Here an example on how it can be done in a rails action:

  class MyController < ApplicationController
    def show
      request.env['PIXEL_ID'] = 'DYNAMIC_PIXEL_ID'
    end
  end

Standard Events

To track Standard Events from the server side just call the tracker method in your controller.

  def show
    tracker do |t|
      t.facebook_pixel :track, { type: 'Purchase', options: { value: 100, currency: 'USD' } }
    end
  end

Will result in the following:

  fbq("track", "Purchase", {"value":"100.0","currency":"USD"});

You can also use non-standard (custom) event names for audience building when you do not need to track or optimize for conversions.

  tracker do |t|
    t.facebook_pixel :track_custom, { type: 'FrequentShopper', options: { purchases: 24, category: 'Sport' } }
  end

Visual website Optimizer (VWO)

Just integrate the handler with your matching account_id and you will be ready to go

  use Rack::Tracker do
    handler :vwo, { account_id: 'YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID' }
  end

GoSquared

To enable GoSquared tracking:

config.middleware.use(Rack::Tracker) do
  handler :go_squared, { tracker: 'ABCDEFGH' }
end

This will add the tracker to the page like so:

  _gs('ABCDEFGH');

You can also set multiple named trackers if need be:

config.middleware.use(Rack::Tracker) do
  handler :go_squared, {
    trackers: {
      primaryTracker: 'ABCDEFGH',
      secondaryTracker: '1234567',
    }
  }
end

This will add the specified trackers to the page like so:

  _gs('ABCDEFGH', 'primaryTracker');
  _gs('1234567', 'secondaryTracker');

You can set a variety of options by passing the following settings. If you don’t set any of the following options, they will be omitted from the rendered code.

  • :anonymize_ip
  • :cookie_domain
  • :use_cookies
  • :track_hash
  • :track_local
  • :track_params

Visitor Name

To track the visitor name from the server side, just call the tracker method in your controller.

  def show
    tracker do |t|
      t.go_squared :visitor_name, { name: 'John Doe' }
    end
  end

It will render the following to the site source:

  _gs("set", "visitorName", "John Doe");

Visitor Properties

To track visitor properties from the server side, just call the tracker method in your controller.

  def show
    tracker do |t|
      t.go_squared :visitor_info, { age: 35, favorite_food: 'pizza' }
    end
  end

It will render the following to the site source:

  _gs("set", "visitor", { "age": 35, "favorite_food": "pizza" });

Criteo

Criteo retargeting service.

Basic configuration

config.middleware.use(Rack::Tracker) do
  handler :criteo, { set_account: '1234' }
end

Other global criteo handler options are:

  • set_customer_id: 'x'
  • set_site_type: 'd' - possible values are m (mobile), t (tablet), d (desktop)
  • set_email: 'email'

Option values can be either static or dynamic by providing a lambda being reevaluated for each request, e.g. set_customer_id: lambda { |env| env['rack.session']['user_id'] }

Tracking events

This will track a basic event:

def show
  tracker do |t|
    t.criteo :view_item, { item: 'P0001' }
  end
end

This will render to the follwing code in the JS:

window.criteo_q.push({"event": "viewItem", "item": "P001" });

The first argument for t.criteo is always the criteo event (e.g. :view_item, :view_list, :track_transaction, :view_basket) and the second argument are additional properties for the event.

Another example

t.criteo :track_transaction, { id: 'id', item: { id: "P0038", price: "6.54", quantity: 1 } }

Zanox

Zanox

Basic Configuration

config.middleware.use(Rack::Tracker) do
  handler :zanox, { account_id: '1234' }
end

Mastertag

This is an example of a mastertag:

def show
  tracker do |t|
    t.zanox :mastertag, { id: "25GHTE9A07DF67DFG90T", category: 'Swimming', amount: '3.50' }
  end
end

This will render to the follwing code in the JS:

window._zx.push({"id": "25GHTE9A07DF67DFG90T"});

and the following variables:

zx_category = 'Swimming';
zx_amount = '3.50';

Conversion tracking

This is an example of a lead event:

def show
  tracker do |t|
    t.zanox :lead, { order_i_d: 'DEFC-4321' }
  end
end

This is an example of a sale event:

def show
  tracker do |t|
    t.zanox :sale, { customer_i_d: '123456', order_i_d: 'DEFC-4321', currency_symbol: 'EUR', total_price: '150.00' }
  end
end

Hotjar

Hotjar

config.middleware.use(Rack::Tracker) do
  handler :hotjar, { site_id: '1234' }
end

Bing

Bing

To add the tracking snippet:

config.middleware.use(Rack::Tracker) do
  handler :bing, { tracker: '12345678' }
end

To send conversion events:

tracker do |t|
  t.bing :conversion, {
    type: 'event',
    category: 'Users',
    action: 'Login',
    label: 'Standard',
    value: 10
  }
end

Hubspot

Hubspot

config.middleware.use(Rack::Tracker) do
  handler :hubspot, { site_id: '1234' }
end

Drift

Drift

config.middleware.use(Rack::Tracker) do
  handler :drift, account_id: 'DRIFT_ID'
end

Heap

Heap. Heap has Projects (e.g. “Main”) which have multiple
Environments (e.g. “Production” or “Development”). env_id is therefore the numerical ID
that represents the Environment. See Settings -> Projects -> Environments in your dashboard.

config.middleware.use(Rack::Tracker) do
  handler :heap, env_id: 'HEAP_ID'
end

Custom Handlers

Tough we give you handlers for a few tracking services right out of the box, you might
be interested adding support for your custom tracking/analytics service.

Writing a handler is straight forward 😉 and there are just a couple of methods that
your class needs to implement.

Start with a plain ruby class that inherits from Rack::Tracker::Handler

class MyHandler < Rack::Tracker::Handler
  ...
end

If you want to customize the rendering of your template, you can overwrite the handlers #render method:

def render
  Tilt.new( File.join( File.dirname(__FILE__), 'template', 'my_handler.erb') ).render(self)
end

There might be cases where you need to modify the response at multiple places. To do so you
can overwrite the #inject-method in your handler. For an example please have a look at the
Google Tag Manager implementation.

This will render the template/my_handler.erb and inject the result into the source. You
can be creative about where the template is stored, but we tend to have them around
our actual handler code.

<script>
  console.log('my tracker: ' + <%= options.to_json %>)
</script>

Lets give it a try! We need to mount our new handler in the Rack::Tracker middleware

  config.middleware.use(Rack::Tracker) do
    handler MyHandler, { awesome: true }
  end

Everything you’re passing to the handler will be available as #options in your
template, so you’ll also gain access to the env-hash belonging to the current request.

Run your application and make a request, the result of the above template can be
found right before </head>. You can change the position in your handler-code:

class MyHandler < Rack::Tracker::Handler
  self.position = :body

  ...
end

The snippit will then be rendered right before </body>.

To enable the tracker dsl functionality in your controllers
you need to implement the track class method on your handler:

def self.track(name, *event)
  # do something with the event(s) to prepare them for your template
  # and return a hash with a signature like { name => event }
end

Checkout the existing handlers in lib/rack/tracker for some inspiration. 😃

Please note

Most tracking is done using some kind of Javascript and any tracking data is simply passed on.
Using unvalidated user input in the tracking might result in XSS issues. Do only use secure data.

Contributing

First of all, thank you for your help! 💚

If you want a feature implemented, the best way to get it done
is to submit a pull request that implements it.
Tests, readme and changelog entries would be nice.

  1. Fork it ( http://github.com/railslove/rack-tracker/fork )
  2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
  3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
  4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
  5. Create new Pull Request