Statistics Modifications - Digital Point Better Analytics [Archive]

digitalpoint

09-14-2011, 10:00 PM

About
This allows you to utilize Google Analytics with some advanced options

Installation
Install the product-digitalpoint_analytics.xml product under AdminCP -> Plugins & Products -> Manage Products -> Add/Import Product
Go to AdminCP -> Settings -> Options -> Digital Point Better Analytics to set your Google Analytics Profile ID.
Important - In order for site search tracking to work, log into your Google Analytics account and edit your site profile. On the Profile Settings tab, set the Site Search Settings to track, with the query parameter set to "keywords" (without quotes).
Remove any other Google Analytics code you may already have.

Notes
Tracks across multiple sub-domains (in case your site is setup as such).
Utilizes Page Speed tracking/reporting.
Tracks social interactions for Facebook, Twitter and Google +1 buttons if you have them on your site.
Tracks site search (what people are searching for within your own site).
Requires no template edits or files to upload.
External JavaScript is compressed and utilizes Cache-Control headers to eliminate HTTP requests.

Screenshots
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/attachment.php?attachmentid=132994&d=1316079252
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/attachment.php?attachmentid=132995&d=1316079252
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/attachment.php?attachmentid=132992&d=1316079252
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/attachment.php?attachmentid=132993&d=1316079252
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/attachment.php?attachmentid=133345&d=1317422853

sigh

09-15-2011, 02:51 PM

Installed, but it's not inserting the GA code. Not sure why, but it looks like the plugin isn't firing.

digitalpoint

09-15-2011, 06:42 PM

What's the URL?

magmf

09-15-2011, 08:52 PM

just installed and will let you know how it goes in few days :)

digitalpoint

09-15-2011, 08:56 PM

Can you give me the URL where you have it installed by chance? Just want to double check that it's working since sigh said it's not for him.

my123world

09-15-2011, 09:10 PM

Just Installed It... :D Going To Be A Rocker Hopefully! :)

magmf

09-15-2011, 09:13 PM

Can you give me the URL where you have it installed by chance? Just want to double check that it's working since sigh said it's not for him.

I check and for now apparently it's working fine http://under-linux.org/

digitalpoint

09-15-2011, 09:42 PM

Yep... just confirmed, definitely appears to be working fine there.

Kaleem

09-15-2011, 11:34 PM

Works with vBSEO? As they have their own way of Google Analytics code too.

digitalpoint

09-16-2011, 01:41 AM

You don't need other Google Analytics code... don't know what would happen if you used two instances of Google Analytics code, but I wouldn't do it.

thecore762

09-16-2011, 03:05 AM

An awesome mod. will check it out!

Hostboard

09-16-2011, 01:04 PM

Do I need to go to my Google Analytics page to see this or some place on my site?

digitalpoint

09-16-2011, 03:47 PM

The stats will be in your Google Analytics account.

Hostboard

09-16-2011, 07:21 PM

As usual yet another high quality DP product :) Reminds me I need to go renew my subscription on your site...

Dr.osamA

09-16-2011, 09:27 PM

thank you bro

good work
installed and rated

pete_brady

09-17-2011, 08:39 AM

once installed, where does should the UA- code appear in the page source?

BlueCheri

09-17-2011, 12:24 PM

Hi,

How to check it is working properly?

Thanx in advance

joeychgo

09-17-2011, 06:45 PM

Do I remove my existing GA code??

digitalpoint

09-17-2011, 08:46 PM

once installed, where does should the UA- code appear in the page source?It doesn't... it will be in misc.php?do=analytics

Hi,

How to check it is working properly?

Thanx in advance
Easiest way is to just check to see if Google Analytics is receiving data for your profile.

Do I remove my existing GA code??
Yeah, this *is* the Google Analytics code, so if you already have GA code, you can remove that.

pete_brady

09-17-2011, 09:03 PM

It doesn't... it will be in misc.php?do=analytics

perfect, thanks

gezuvor

09-30-2011, 04:41 PM

I see my account in the misc.php?do=analytics page, but Google isn't getting tracking data... :-(

sigh

09-30-2011, 05:04 PM

What's the URL?

Can you give me the URL where you have it installed by chance? Just want to double check that it's working since sigh said it's not for him.

Could have been user-error here, but we got too busy to stay on it (and lost data for a couple days). We'll check into it again soon and let you know. Considering the source of the mod, I'm sure it's just something on our end.

digitalpoint

09-30-2011, 06:10 PM

There isn't a lot that can be mucked up. The only setting is your analytics tracking ID. The only thing I can think of would be if your site has fatal JavaScript errors from something else (if JS errors, all other JS on the page halts).

What's the URL?

digitalpoint

09-30-2011, 09:57 PM

A couple new things with the 1.10 version...

Utilizes "Site Search" tracking... which allows you to see what users are searching for ON your website.

JavaScript has been minified/compressed, so it's quite a bit smaller now.

gezuvor

10-01-2011, 12:35 AM

digitalpoint

10-01-2011, 12:54 AM

It shows as being tracked for me... it makes the expected call back to Google's servers for tracking. Are you sure you have your Google Analytics ID right?

Some of the network traffic while on your site... notably it gets the misc.php (the page this addon uses), then it pulls the normal ga.js tracking GS from Google, and then hits _utm.gif (which is the actual tracking call).

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2011/09/1.png

gezuvor

10-01-2011, 06:28 AM

Maybe I jumped the gun. It's working great now! Thanks!!

charlesr

10-06-2011, 03:14 PM

After enabling "do track site search" on GA profile and putting in "keywords", it also has:

Yes, strip query parameters out of URL
No, do not strip query parameters out of URL

Do you use categories for Site Search?
Yes No

Should both of these be set to No?
Thanks.

digitalpoint

10-06-2011, 05:32 PM

You can leave categories on "No" since they aren't used. Stripping query parameters is personal preference (I have mine set to strip).

charlesr

10-07-2011, 07:34 AM

Thanks for the swift response.
Any chance you could explain what the stripping does and how I would choose? I'm technical enough to get your sphinx implementation running on my site (yesterday, thanks), but don't understand what these query parameters are.
Your above answer and any extras you might reply to this post would be useful additions to the install instructions I think even if not entirely necessary

digitalpoint

10-07-2011, 07:42 AM

If you strip query parameters, you essentially are telling Google Analytics to strip the keywords from the URL (which really are virtual anyway). The way vBulletin search URLs work, it doesn't give any useful info either way really. But if you were drilling down to individual pages, if you strip keywords, it would look like so:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2011/10/69.png

Without stripping the keywords, those pages would instead look like:

/search.php?searchid=4771051&keywords=searching+for+something

Hopefully that makes more sense...

Either way, drilling down to searchid=1234 is rather useless imo since the searchid is unique only to a single user and a single search.

charlesr

10-08-2011, 12:20 PM

Thanks dude. Makes sense.

charlesr

10-11-2011, 07:27 PM

Where on GA do I see all the new options? I'm sure I'm being daft, but I can't find anything like the screenshots above - it all looks normal. I've checked and all previous GA code has been removed and hits are still being tracked so it's at least working that much. I've done the site search settings to track + keywords.

digitalpoint

10-11-2011, 08:19 PM

Make sure you are in the new version of the Analytics interface...

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2011/10/51.png

cwmateiuc

10-11-2011, 10:19 PM

okay, so I have mysite then I have forum.mysite, I have analytics installed on the site without a sub domain, if I install this version to the vbulletin forum.mysite will that interfere with the other analyrics?

digitalpoint

10-11-2011, 10:51 PM

It shouldn't interfere with anything on a different sub-domain (or root domain).

charlesr

10-12-2011, 08:16 AM

Ah thanks - hadn't spotted the new GA version option :)
All working great!

Devanand

11-13-2011, 10:43 AM

So if I am using GA with VBSeo, I should remove it?

digitalpoint

11-13-2011, 07:43 PM

You should not use other Google Analytics tracking code (at least not the base) if you use this.

OldSchoolDSL

12-19-2011, 12:23 AM

I always wondered (if you don't mind me asking)

How does this compare -vs- me simply putting Google's Script into the footer.

digitalpoint

12-19-2011, 04:19 AM

It depends on the exact script you place in the footer.

fishmaster

12-21-2011, 10:16 PM

This should be built into Vbulletin. Knowing what is being searched for is critical.

baileyjojoms

12-25-2011, 06:27 AM

How do I put the tracking code onto my site?

sybakaos

12-27-2011, 06:52 PM

It is affecting the location of the users on the "Currently Active Users" page (most show misc.php?do=analytics) and in turn affects the number of users that are viewing a particular forum. eg. "Helpdesk (9 viewing)" and is thus showing false values. Hope it's a fixable issue.

Other than that, the search tracking works particularly well. Nice work!

reteep

12-29-2011, 08:47 AM

Is it possible to include the following parameter optionally in your plugin? It's required for people in Germany :(

_gaq.push (['_gat._anonymizeIp']);

digitalpoint

12-30-2011, 08:52 PM

No, sorry.

Marv

01-17-2012, 08:41 AM

It is affecting the location of the users on the "Currently Active Users" page (most show misc.php?do=analytics) and in turn affects the number of users that are viewing a particular forum. eg. "Helpdesk (9 viewing)" and is thus showing false values.

Hi Shawn,

this is a reproduceable bug and occuring on my site, too. Any chance you could provide a fix for that?

digitalpoint

01-17-2012, 09:07 AM

Hopefully will have something workable soon.

Marv

01-24-2012, 01:53 PM

Weird Shawn, I stumbled over another issue today. GA provides some basic AdSense integration features to get an idea which particular site is performing better over others. Since about the time I´ve installed your mod those analysis show no new entries or statistics anymore. Could you do as a favor and keep an eye on that one and check if this is may be caused by your code?

digitalpoint

01-24-2012, 07:39 PM

Alan_SP

01-25-2012, 02:49 AM

Just to report, it stopped showing AdSense in my account too. Didn't connected it with installing your mod, but it could be what caused this.

digitalpoint

01-25-2012, 05:44 AM

Stopped showing AdSense in your actual AdSense account?

Alan_SP

01-25-2012, 06:56 AM

No, everything works fine with AdSense, but stopped showing info about AdSense in Analytics account, in new version. Old version didn't had it anyway (and I was mainly on old version). When I switched to new version, I noticed that I have widget for AdSense, I used it, but it worked only for a few days. To be honest, I'm not 100% sure when it stopped working, I didn't pay attention to this.

Anyway, it still doesn't show info.

Marv

01-25-2012, 07:22 AM

I'll have a look into it. Not sure why it would be affected by it though since there's nothing special you need to add/remove from the normal tracking code to integrate AdSense stuff.

That was my first thought after I went through your code. May second one was, that this could be caused by the last step of the installation instruction: Remove any other Google Analytics code you may already have. I?m running vbSEO and so I removed the GA code in it the same day. Would be helpful if others could confirm that for their sites to locate the source of the problem.

What date did it stop for you?
I?ve updated vB to 4.1.9 on Dec 29th, integrated your mod and removed the GA code from the vbSEO installation the same day. The analysis had stopped the day after, Dec 30th.

I'll do some digging...

Cheers man, thanks.

digitalpoint

01-25-2012, 07:24 AM

Doing some testing on my site, but it might be a day or so to get results since it's not realtime.

digitalpoint

02-06-2012, 09:17 PM

Update 1.11 fixes issue where user's location would be incorrect and addresses issue where some cases AdSense data would not show properly within your Analytics account (for those with linked accounts).

Alan_SP

02-18-2012, 01:16 PM

Just to report, now I again have AdSense data.

Thanks Shawn.

Mukashi

03-31-2012, 10:36 AM

pete_brady

03-31-2012, 10:23 PM

Probably one for the bleeding obvious file, but if you use Cloudflare (https://www.cloudflare.com), and you enable their Google Analytics app (which is supposed to remove the GA code from any pages it's already on), it can't automatically remove the DP analytics code inserted by this mod and you end up with 2 x your actual pageviews & a 1-2% bounce rate, followed by crushing disappointment when you realise your mistake.

Neal-UK

04-01-2012, 10:39 AM

For those who were using the vBSEO integration of Analytics before switching to this mod, could you provide a brief comparison? Is there anything I'd be giving up to switch to digitalpoint's version here?

Gravity Insights which is free to vBSEO customers is being closed down.

http://support.insights.gravity.com/index.php?p=/discussion/131/gravity-insights-permanently-shut-down-as-of-april-31st-2012

At 12:00 AM Pacific time on April 28th, 2012, Gravity Insights will be permanently shut down and you will no longer be able to log in to the service to view your forum analytics.

ahobilam

04-01-2012, 04:59 PM

Installed thanks
But where to check this result?
In the forum itself or in google analytics?

digitalpoint

04-01-2012, 06:16 PM

In Google Analytics.

Mukashi

04-07-2012, 02:04 AM

Gravity Insights which is free to vBSEO customers is being closed down.

http://support.insights.gravity.com/index.php?p=/discussion/131/gravity-insights-permanently-shut-down-as-of-april-31st-2012

The Gravity Insights data from vBSEO was separate and distinct however to their integration of Google Analytics code. I was interested to know what, if any, Google Analytics features were present in vBSEO that aren't in here. For instance, would my registration funnel (http://www.vbseo.com/f30/how-setting-up-vbseos-registration-funnel-google-analytics-6437/) still work?

Joe Chapline

04-09-2012, 06:03 PM

digitalpoint

04-09-2012, 06:37 PM

Does this or any other Google Analytics plugin for vBulletin allow more than one GA profile number? A parent organization wants to track the forum with their own account, in addition to the account I'm using.I really doubt anything would have such an option. It would slow down the pages being viewed for one... but also Google Analytics already has a mechanism for sharing a single profile in read-only mode. You can add them as a read-only user to that specific website profile.

mikeo9043

04-26-2012, 04:20 PM

This is probably going to be a super noob question but when you say "keywords" do we actually put the word "keyword" or keywords pertaining to our forum?

digitalpoint

04-26-2012, 05:36 PM

You actually put "keyword".

demojames

06-07-2012, 07:13 PM

Hey Shawn,

Great plugin!

Is there anyway to just have it run on our main style, as we have a separate GA code to track our mobile style?

Thanks!

digitalpoint

06-07-2012, 08:19 PM

No, there isn't a way to only apply it to certain styles. Although I suppose you could use the STYLEID constant within the plug-in to check if it's not equal to the style ID of your mobile style...

Dave-ahfb

06-08-2012, 01:40 PM

You actually put "keyword".

What if we have replaced our VB search with adsense search?

let me cllarify: the top search b ox is replaced with google, the advanced search is still default.

digitalpoint

06-08-2012, 02:54 PM

You wouldn't be able to track what people search for with Google since the results are technically on a different domain.

Tize.

06-27-2012, 06:42 PM

Installed!
Nominated!
5Stars!

Thanks bro, great work!

togotutor

07-02-2012, 04:07 PM

Good One DP.

Seductor

07-09-2012, 03:41 PM

One of the best mods I have ever seen, it should be included in vBulletin by default.

Hakan39

07-10-2012, 05:02 PM

Thank you.

grhawkins

07-12-2012, 01:21 PM

Installed and works great! Pretty new to VB and not sure if I'm missing it somewhere in the backend UI through all of the options, but is there an option to block certain usergroups?

I'd like to block anyone falling under the "Administrators" usergroup on my forum. If this is not an option, will there be an update in the future?

digitalpoint

07-12-2012, 04:45 PM

DaChief

07-21-2012, 02:00 PM

Hi,

I can't get this to work. I have installed the XML and inserted my Google Tracking ID and saved it.
Then I went to Profiles >> Profile Settings there I activated the Radio-Button "Do track Site Search" and entered "keywords" in Query parameter without quotes, I also tried "keyword" without success.
Also i activated "One domain with multiple subdomains" because I also want to track my subdomains.

Google Analytics only shows:
Tracking Status:
Tracking Not Installed
Last checked: Jul 21, 2012 7:59:24 AM PDT

The Google Analytics tracking code has not been detected on your website's home page. For Analytics to function, you or your web administrator must add the code to each page of your website.

digitalpoint

07-21-2012, 03:30 PM

How long have you had it running?

Mimi Slaughter

08-12-2012, 03:16 AM

First time installing a mod and am having trouble:
I did this part fine.
Install the product-digitalpoint_analytics.xml product under AdminCP -> Plugins & Products -> Manage Products -> Add/Import Product

But, when I did this step,
Go to AdminCP -> Settings -> Options -> Digital Point Better Analytics to set your Google Analytics Profile ID.
this did not show up in my Settings->Options. Is there some other part of this install that I am missing?

Thank you for your help!

------------------------------------------

Figured it out, my dumb mistake - I filled out 'Import Product' AND 'Add New Product'. Oops. When I only downloaded Import Product, the Settings->Options->Digital Point Better Analytics showed up fine.

Product is working great! Thank you.

Superorb

09-06-2012, 06:43 PM

How does this compare to Innovative Google Analytics - Asynchronous Version (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=259340&highlight=analytics)? Is it asynchronous also? Is it basically the same but with a few additional metrics?

digitalpoint

09-06-2012, 09:16 PM

Yes, this is async.

Superorb

09-12-2012, 04:01 PM

Any reason the code is inserted at the bottom of the page instead of the top like Google recommends?

Superorb

09-17-2012, 07:52 PM

Any reason the code is inserted at the bottom of the page instead of the top like Google recommends?
Can you help with this?

PattiOz

10-06-2012, 07:52 AM

Installed and working instantly. WOW. Well done!

tanzeelniazi

10-11-2012, 12:54 PM

Working Fine in VB 4.2.0
Thanks

moustafa

11-22-2012, 02:18 AM

I have installed this mod, added GA code and updated the profile to show search query as explained.

However, GA Status: Tracking Not Installed.

I can't find anything in the misc.php?do=analytics

Does it take long time for tracking to be installed or i should place the tracking code manually?

digitalpoint

11-22-2012, 02:56 AM

It should be instant. Are you sure you installed everything?

moustafa

11-22-2012, 05:08 AM

It should be instant. Are you sure you installed everything?

Yes, i am sure that i imported the file in plugins and updates the GA code in the VB options.

EliasAlucard

02-09-2013, 12:48 AM

Is there any way to keep the Google Analytics on while the forum is turned off? I noticed that when you turn off the forum, the Digital Point Better Analytics plugin also turns itself off. I don't want it like this and I think it should be optional.

vimarc

02-19-2013, 10:33 AM

Very impressive mod. installed thanks --- www.talkinwebfourm.com

final kaoss

04-22-2013, 05:06 PM

Thanks, using it.

JohnnieOO

05-11-2013, 12:47 AM

bzcomputers

05-11-2013, 03:37 AM

I'm not seeing how to do this :

- In order for site search tracking to work, log into your Google Analytics account and edit your site profile. On the Profile Settings tab, set the Site Search Settings to track, with the query parameter set to "keywords" (without quotes).

Can anyone share some step by step on this? I don't see how to edit the profile in GA homepage.

Johnnie

In Google Analytics

1) Click on "Admin" button (top of page on the right)
2) Select the profile you want to add the setting to (should be a numbered list with name hyperlinked, click hyperlink)
3) Select the the "Profile Settings" Tab
4) At the bottom of the page you will see the "Site Search Settings", select "Do track Site Search" and enter "keywords" into the "Query Parameter" and click apply.

Thats it.

DaChief

07-18-2013, 06:50 AM

It worked for a while now suddenly my analytcs says that the code is missing, but i looked in the sourcecode and it is there, what is the problem?

DaChief

07-19-2013, 08:03 AM

This Plugin is not working, since it doesn't insert the code in the sourcecode, only in some ajax stuff.

"Google Analytics Script" is working much better with more options.

But of course maybe i'm doing something wrong...

jluerken

05-05-2014, 10:05 AM

bzcomputers

05-05-2014, 11:47 AM

I see version 1.1.2 on "https://marketplace.digitalpoint.com/better-analytics.887/item"
Would you mind updating the attachment here and tell us what the changes are?
I have issues with the product in version 1.1.1 using vbulletin 4.2.2.
On 4.2.0 it was working fine but after the update this product gives me error messages.
I hope that 1.1.2 is fixing my issues.

You may want to look at getting rid of this mod all together. It is currently incompatible with the new improved Google Universal Analytics (https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/3450662?hl=en&ref_topic=6010376) code. You are better off just placing the new universal analytics code directly in the "header" template.

P.S. The ONLY change from 1.1.1 to 1.1.2 was the product url (the one that links from the Mod Name in the vBulletin Product Manager back to their website).

Jah-Hools

08-17-2015, 03:01 PM

Yes, what is the status on this sort of tracking and these new functions in GA?

Active UsersBETA
Cohort AnalysisBETA

We are looking at putting the (hash of) our forum-username to GA User ID for every page load:
https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/user-id

And after that figuring out if we want certain events (posting, reading, abandoning half-typed comments etc.) to be tracked and include those as events.

Are there any plug ins for doing this level of measurement?

Or is this 'roll your own' territory?