Single-Page Application Relay for Google Analytics

Are you a Spargan?

You can be if you need to relay hits from your single-page application to Google Analytics.

Index

• Installation
• Examples
  • Quick Start
  • Automatic click-streaming
  • Custom dimensions
  • Custom metrics
  • Multiple Tracking Ids (i.e. multiple named trackers)
  • Native GA Settings (e.g. custom tracker)
• Default GA Settings
• Other Helper Functions

Installation

npm install --save sparga

Examples

Quick Start

// for ES6 clients
import Sparga from 'sparga'
// for non-ES6 clients
const Sparga = require('sparga').default

const sparga = new Sparga()

sparga.init('UA-123456-7')

//
// Now all page views in your SPA will
// automatically be tracked in GA.
//
// Additionally, all unhandled JavaScript
// exceptions will also be tracked.
//
// NOTE: Automatic tracking of page views
// and JavaScript exceptions can be turned
// off by setting respective flags to false
// on the options object. See the API docs
// for specifics.
//

Automatic click-stream handling

const sparga = new Sparga()

sparga.init({
   gaSettings: 'UA-123456-7',
   autoCaptureClickEvents: true
})

//
// Now all mouse clicks in your SPA will
// automatically be tracked in GA.
//

Setting custom dimensions using developer friendly logical names

For more info, refer to the GA Field Reference

const sparga = new Sparga()

sparga.init({
   gaSettings: 'UA-123456-7',
   //
   // your dimension map will likely be governed
   // by a central team as GA only allows a limited
   // number of custom dimensions, depending on your
   // account type...as such, this map is usually
   // defined once and used many times for an organization
   //
   dimensionMap: {
      variantTestName: 'dimension1',
      variantTestSampling: 'dimension9',
      userRole: 'dimension17'
   }
})

sparga.setDimension('variantTestName', 'Variant Testing for Our Exciting New Feature')
sparga.setDimension('variantTestSampling', 'Customers in US having more than 100 users.')
sparga.setDimension('userRole', 'non-admin')

Setting custom metrics using developer friendly logical names

For more info, refer to the GA Field Reference

const sparga = new Sparga()

sparga.init({
   gaSettings: 'UA-123456-7',
   //
   // your metric map will likely be governed
   // by a central team as GA only allows a limited
   // number of custom metrics, depending on your
   // account type...as such, this map is usually
   // defined once and used many times for an organization
   //
   metricMap: {
      isNewUser: 'metric6',
      isUserAdmin: 'metric8',
      isViewSetAsPersistent: 'metric14'
   }
})

sparga.setMetric('isNewUser', 1)
sparga.setMetric('isUserAdmin', 0)
sparga.setMetric('isViewSetAsPersistent', 1)

Using multiple tracking IDs (i.e. multiple named trackers)

Sometimes a site/page needs to report to multiple tracking IDs, which is only possible if named trackers are used.

const sparga = new Sparga()

// NOTE: If a trackerMap is provided, then the
// gaSetting.trackingId will be ignored.

sparga.init({
   gaSettings: {
      trackingId: 'THIS WILL NOW BE IGNORED!'
   },
   trackerMap: {
      myTracker1: 'UA-123456-7',
      myTracker2: 'UA-123456-8',
      myTracker3: 'UA-123456-9'
   }
})

//
// Now all of the above tracking IDs will be sent pageview
// and exception events.
//
// Additionally, all of the Sparga helper methods will also
// use the above tracking IDs--or a subset of them, if specified
//

// send a custom event to ALL trackers (i.e. all tracking IDs)
sparga.sendEvent(
   'MyCategory-1', 'MyAction-1', 'MyLabel-1', 'MyValue-1'
)

// send a custom event to only TWO of the three trackers
sparga.sendEvent(
   'MyCategory-2', 'MyAction-2', 'MyLabel-2', 'MyValue-2',
   [ 'myTracker1', 'myTracker3']
)

Using native GA settings

All native options for creating a GA tracking session are exposed via the gaSettings property on Sparga's intitialization object. The following example shows how to create a custom tracker by initializing with a gaSettings object.

const sparga = new Sparga()

sparga.init({
   gaSettings: {
      trackingId: 'UA-123456-7',
      userId: 'user123',
      sessionControl: 'start',
      cookieExpires: 86400
   }
})

Default GA Settings

Sparga sets the following GA settings by default, which are different than the defaults that GA applies. As with all settings, these are overridable by passing in the respective key-value pairs on the gaSettings property of the options object.

• allowAnchor: false
• alwaysSendReferrer: true
• forceSSL: true
• cookieDomain: 'auto'
• siteSpeedSampleRate: 100
• storeGac: false

Other Helper Functions

• sendEvent
• sendPageView
• sendException
• sendSocial
• sendTiming

Refer to the API.doc for more details.