@schibsted/niche-tracking
v4.11.1
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Package containing tracking logic reused between multiple Schibsted niche sites
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Niche Tracking
Description
This repository contains code we use for tracking. The goal of niche-tracking is to be used in all of our products. Currently it's used by tek-web, godt-web and pent-web.
Local development
Nothing fancy here. First install dependencies clone repository, open terminal and run.
npm i
Next start transpiling the source code:
npm run transpile:watch
Linking
Note: order of command execution is important.
In order to make your project available as package locally:
npm link
And in project you need:
npm link @schibsted/niche-tracking
And now you are all good. Your project will now use the local version of niche-tracking instead of the one in node_modules.
Unlinking
After you end working on the package you need to unlink it.
First, in the project where the package was used:
npm unlink --no-save @schibsted/niche-tracking
Second, in the niche-tracking package:
npm unlink
Supported trackers
Currently pulse, google analytics and mbl trackers are implemented.
How to use it and how it works
Package exports Tracker
class and all implemented tracker objects. You can import it like this:
import { Tracker, pulse, googleAnalytics, mbl } from '@schibsted/niche-tracking';
Next you need to create tracker instance with proper parameters
const tracker = new Tracker({
pageViewTrackerMappers,
eventTrackerMappers,
pageLeaveTrackerMappers,
enabled,
trackers: [pulse, googleAnalytics, mbl],
});
When you have the tracker instance you will have to initialize it with proper config. Calling this method will download all tracking scripts and actually make them work. Don't worry, you can call
tracker.pageView
and tracker.event
methods before calling tracker.initialize
as all build in trackers have event queue that will be unloaded after initialization.
tracker.initialize
methods takes config with tracker specific options. You can see them here:
Let's discuss Tracker constructor parameters
trackers
Array with trackers you want to use. You can import those from package or provide your own. They must be objects with three methods:
- pageView
- event
- initialize
- navigationEvent (optional)
- addPageLeaveTracking
- trackActivePageLeave
pageViewTrackerMappers, eventTrackerMappers, pageLeaveTrackerMappers
These are objects with following format:
{
[TYPE]: {
[TRACKERNAME]: optionTransormFunction
}
}
enabled
This flag lets you disable the tracking. Please keep in mind that even if you set enabled: false
mappers will still be called to keep the behaviour as close to production as it can be.
Where TYPE
is unique name of event type you want to track (defined by you), TRACKERNAME
is (who would have guessed?) tracker name and optionTransformFunction
is function that transforms data from option
object to data that specific tracker needs for that event.
For example it could look like this:
const pageViewTrackerMappers = {
[SCREENS.SECTION]: {
pulse: (options) => ({
object: {
name: window.document.title,
id: options.category,
type: 'Listing',
category: options.category,
filters: {
query: options.location.search,
},
},
}),
googleAnalytics: (options) => ({
page_path: options.location.pathname,
}),
mbl: (options) => ({
url: window.location.toString(),
title: window.document.title,
image: options.image.url,
referrer: document.referrer,
}),
},
};
Remember out tracker instance? Just to remind you:
const tracker = new Tracker({
pageViewTrackerMappers,
eventTrackerMappers,
pageLeaveTrackerMappers,
enabled,
trackers: [pulse, googleAnalytics, mbl],
});
Now each time you call tracker.pageView(SCREENS.SECTION, options)
the tracker will create:
- pulseSpecificOptions,
- googleAnalyticsSpecificOptions
- mblSpecificOptions
according to transform functions you provided in pageViewTrackerMappers
.
Next it will call pulse.pagewiew(pulseSpecificOptions)
, googleAnalytics.pageView(googleAnalyticsSpecificOptions)
, mbl.pagewiew(mblSpecificOptions)
.
As you can see it enables you to implement most of the tracking in declarative way. All you need is choose which trackers you need and provide proper options mapping.
As a recommendation I suggest providing redux state as options and using selectors in option transorm function.
Experiments
Experiments is a field used for A/B tests tracking. It should be passed during tracker
initalization and contain list of all A/B tests that user is part of.
For example it could look like this:
const tracker = new Tracker({
pageViewTrackerMappers,
eventTrackerMappers,
enabled,
trackers: [pulse],
});
const experiments = [
{
id: 'experimentId', // unique identifier of A/B test
variant: 'variant-b', // identifier of a variant which will be served to user
},
{
id: 'anotherExperimentId',
variant: 'another-variant-a',
},
];
tracker.initalize({
...trackersConfig,
clientId,
experiments,
});
In the case of the pulse
tracker, this list will be added to every page view and engagement event.
NavigationEvent
NOTE:
Use this method for internal navigation only.
It can fire only ONE (latest)
navigationEvent
perpageView
invocation.
What this method does is:
- it creates an event like it would normally do,
- postpones sending this event until next
pageView
invocation, - once
pageView
is invoked the pending event will havetracker
property value set to whatever theobject
property of currentpageView
event is.
In short: it will remove necessity of manual creation of target
property of an event in case of internal navigation.
Deployment
Deployment is done using Travis CI
The new version of the package is deployed by Travis after you push a semver tag (e.g. v1.0.1
to Github).
The make the process as smooth as possible we're using release-it package.
To make the release work you need to do the following:
- Generate a Github personal token with
repo
credentials. - Set the token as
GITHUB_TOKEN
environment variable. - Run
npm run release
and follow the wizard there (mostly pick the patch/minor/major release type and confirm everything else).
Release-it does the following:
- makes sure you have your workspace clean and
GITHUB_TOKEN
set - bumps the version in
package.json
andpackage-lock.json
- commits the changes
- tags the commit with the version number
- pushes the changes and tag
- creates a Github Release with the changelog since the last release
Polyfills
This package requires only one polyfill: Promise.
Useful links
To get more general idea of how tracking works check our team docs