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https://github.com/CardinalPath/gas

Google Analytics on Steroids. A Google Analytics implementation with more power features.
https://github.com/CardinalPath/gas

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Google Analytics on Steroids. A Google Analytics implementation with more power features.

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README 

        
# GAS - Google Analytics on Steroids



## Overview



GAS is a wrapper around the Google Analytics Tracking API from Google. It tries

to add new functionality while keeping the same API.



GAS is not an official Google library and GAS developers are not affiliated 

with Google.



## Installation



To install GAS download the script from [download page][download] and put it somewhere on

your website. Also install the basic snippet on every page of your website. Be

sure to change the Account Number (UA) and the correct gas.js file location.



You can also use gas hosted on [cdnjs].



[download]: https://github.com/CardinalPath/gas/releases

[cdnjs]: http://cdnjs.com/index.html#gas



The basic snippet looks like this:



``` html



var _gas = _gas || [];

_gas.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-YYYYYY-Y']); // REPLACE WITH YOUR GA NUMBER

_gas.push(['_setDomainName', '.mydomain.com']); // REPLACE WITH YOUR DOMAIN

_gas.push(['_trackPageview']);

_gas.push(['_gasTrackForms']);

_gas.push(['_gasTrackOutboundLinks']);

_gas.push(['_gasTrackMaxScroll']);

_gas.push(['_gasTrackDownloads']);

_gas.push(['_gasTrackVideo']);

_gas.push(['_gasTrackAudio']);

_gas.push(['_gasTrackYoutube', {force: true}]);

_gas.push(['_gasTrackVimeo', {force: true}]);

_gas.push(['_gasTrackMailto']);



(function() {

var ga = document.createElement('script');

ga.id = 'gas-script';

ga.setAttribute('data-use-dcjs', 'false'); // CHANGE TO TRUE FOR DC.JS SUPPORT

ga.type = 'text/javascript';

ga.async = true;

ga.src = '//cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/gas/1.11.0/gas.min.js';

var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];

s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);

})();

 

```

    



There's no need to include the ga.js file. GAS will load that file for you.

That snippet will enable the common features of GAS.



## API



GAS is based on `_gaq` from Google and as such supports all methods it supports. 

So go check [official documentation][gajs] for the GA Tracker.



[gajs]: http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/gaJS/gaJSApi.html



Additionally GAS support a couple more features.



### \_gasTrackForms

`_gas.push(['_gasTrackForms', opts])`



Form Tracking will trigger events every time a user submits a form or changes a

form field.



**parameters**



- _String_ _opts.category_ : The event category (default value is: "Form Tracking")



### \_gasTrackMaxScroll

`_gas.push(['_gasTrackMaxScroll', opts])`



Fire events with the Max-Scroll percentage value for every page the

user views.



**parameters**



- _String_ _opts.category_ : The event category (default value is: "MaxScroll")



### _gasTrackOutboundLinks

`_gas.push(['_gasTrackOutboundLinks', opts])`



This function will look for any outbound links on the current page and will

trigger an event when the link is clicked. It bounds to the `mousedown` 

javascript event



**parameters**



- _String_ _opts.category_ : The event category (default value is: "Outbound")



### _gasTrackDownloads

`_gas.push(['_gasTrackDownloads', opts])`



GAS will track the following extensions by default:

'xls,xlsx,doc,docx,ppt,pptx,pdf,txt,zip,rar,7z,exe,wma,mov,avi,wmv,mp3,csv,tsv'



**parameters**



- _String_ _opts.category_ : The event category (default value is: "Download")

- _String_ _opts.extensions_ : Comma separated list of additional extensions to track.



eg:



``` javascript

_gas.push(['_gasTrackDownloads', {

    category: 'File Downloads',

    extensions: 'torrent,gz,mp4,wav'

}]);

```



### _gasTrackMailto

`_gas.push(['_gasTrackMailto', opts]);`



Tracks clicks on links with `href="mailto:..."`.



**parameters**



- _String_ _opts.category_ : The event category (default value is: "Mailto")



### _gasTrackVideo

`_gas.push(['_gasTrackVideo'])`



Tracks [HTML5 Video][] element events: 'play', 'pause' and 'ended'



[HTML5 Video]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Using_HTML5_audio_and_video



### _gasTrackAudio

`_gas.push(['_gasTrackAudio'])`



Tracks [HTML5 Audio][] element events: 'play', 'pause' and 'ended'



[HTML5 Audio]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Using_HTML5_audio_and_video



### _gasTrackVimeo

`_gas.push(['_gasTrackVimeo', opts])`



You can track [Vimeo][] video events. You must be using the iframe method 

of embedding videos. 



[Vimeo]: http://www.vimeo.com/



The browser must support HTML5 postMessage. That means it won't work on ie6 

and ie7.



After you enable it the following events will be tracked. 'play', 'pause' and 'finish'.



You should append to the video URL the parameter `api=1`. 

The embedding code should look like this:



``` html

 

```



If you don't provide the `api` parameter than GAS will *force* a reload on the 

iframe adding this parameter. 



**parameters**



- _String_ _opts.category_ : The event category (default value is: "Vimeo Video")

- _boolean_ _opts.force_ : Add required parameters to video "src" causing the video iframe to reload. (default value is: true)



### _gasTrackYoutube

`_gas.push(['_gasTrackYoutube', opts])`



You can track [Youtube][] video events. You must be using the iframe method 

of embedding videos. 



[Youtube]: http://www.youtube.com/



The browser must support HTML5 postMessage. That means it won't work on ie6 

and ie7.



After you enable it the following events will be tracked: 'play', 'pause', 'finish' and 'error'.



You should append to the video URL the parameter `enablejsapi=1`. 

The embedding code should look like this:



``` html



```



If you don't provide the `enablejsapi` parameter than GAS will *force* a 

reload on the iframe adding this parameter. 



**parameters**



- _String_ _opts.category_ : The event category (default value is: "Youtube Video")

- _boolean_ _opts.force_ : Add required parameters to video "src" causing the video iframe to reload. (default value is: true)

- _Array_ _opts.percentages_ : Percentages to track in addition to the default events.



eg: 



``` javascript

_gas.push(['_gasTrackYoutube', {

    percentages: [25, 50, 75, 90]

}]);

```



This will setup Youtube Video Tracking so that events will be fired at 25%, 50%, 75% and 90% in addition to the other standard events, 'play', 'pause', 'finish'.



### _gasMeta

`_gas.push(['_gasMeta']);`



This function should be called before `_trackPageview`. It will look for

Custom Variables as meta elements with `name="ga_custom_var"`. It will also

look for metas with `name="ga_vpv"` to be used as virtual pagepaths for

`_trackPageview`. Note that ga_vpv will only be aplied when `_trackPageview` is

called with no parameters.



For metas to control customVars the parameters are the same as calling

`_setCustomVar` but they are delimeted by a caret (^).



eg:



``` html



```



### _gasMetaEcommerce

`_gas.push(['_gasMetaEcommerce']);`



Will look for ecommerce transactions as meta elements. The parameters are the

same as calling the javascript functions but must be separated by a caret (^).



eg:



``` html



```



### _gasHTMLMarkup

`_gas.push(['_gasHTMLMarkup']);`



Will enable HTML markup to define events and social hits. It uses attributes

for setting events and social actions.



For events the required attributes are `x-ga-event-categoy` and

`x-ga-event-action`.



eg:



``` html



        Play Video



```



For Social Actions the required attributes are `x-ga-social-network` and

`x-ga-social-action`.



eg:



``` html



        Pin It



```



## Other GAS Features



GAS changes the behaiour of some functions that are defined on the [official documentation][gajs] to make it easier to implement some very common cases.



### Cross-domain 



This feature help you implementing cross-domain setups. It will find and tag

all links to other domains and mark them with the `_link` or `_linkByPost`

function. You just need to push all domain names with `_setDomainName` and then

call `_gasMultiDomain`



``` javascript

_gas.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXX-1']);

_gas.push(['_setAllowLinker', true]);

_gas.push(['_setDomainName', 'mysite.com']);

_gas.push(['_setDomainName', 'myothersite.com']);

_gas.push(['_gasMultiDomain', 'click']);

```



The above snippet can be used in either `mysite.com` or `myothersite.com`. 

It will know the right one to use for each case and all other domains pushed to

`_setDomainName` will be used to discover links between the sites. 

The nice side effect is that you can have the same snippet for both websites.



Note that calling `_setDomainName` multiple times is not supported by _gaq. 



GAS respects the settings for `_setAllowAnchor` that you set. 

So if you set it to true all future calls to `_getLinkerUrl`, `_link` and 

`_linkByPost` used by gas will include the boolean `true` for the 

`opt_useAnchor` parameter.



```javascript

_gas.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXX-1']);

_gas.push(['_setAllowLinker', true]);

_gas.push(['_setAllowAnchor', true]);

_gas.push(['_setDomainName', 'mysite.com']);

_gas.push(['_setDomainName', 'myothersite.com']);

_gas.push(['_gasMultiDomain', 'click']);



```



### Multi-Account Tracking



Easier handling of multi-account setups. You can fire an event to all accounts

or just to one of the accounts you configured,



``` javascript

_gas.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXX-1']);

_gas.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXX-2']);

_gas.push(['custom._setAccount', 'UA-XXXXX-3']);



// This will be sent to all 3 accounts

_gas.push(['_trackPageview']);



// This pageview goes only to account UA-XXXXX-3

_gas.push(['custom._trackPageview']);

```



### Changing the Page Title



GAS support changing the page title.



``` javascript

_gas.push(['_trackPageview', {

    page: '/my_page', 

    title: 'My Page Title'

}]);

```



### Hooks for \_gaq Functions



Hooks are a handy feature if you want to monitor or change values of a call to

one of the function from _gaq. You can use it as a filter to lowercase values,

or to trigger events to another tool every time a pageView is fired. You can

assign multiple Hooks.



``` javascript

_gas.push(['_addHook', '_trackPageview', function(page){

    console.log(page);

    if(page.toLowerCase){

        page = page.toLowerCase();

    }

    return [page]

}]);

_gas.push(['_trackPageview', '/Home.aspx']);

```



The above Hook will print the pushed page to the browser console and will

return the page lowercased. So the actual value sent to GA is the lowercased

page. This may be helpful for sites in asp, where lowercase and uppercase

don't matter and will save you the work for creating a GA profile Filter.



Here's another handy Hook for Events. Event values must always be integer

values. The Hook bellow will try to round floats or convert strings to integers

when possible. This should avoid a bad value from canceling the Event.



``` javascript

_gas.push(['_addHook', '_trackEvent', function(cat,act,lab,val){

    if(typeof val == 'string'){

        val = parseInt(val, 10);

    }

    val = Math.round(val);

    return [cat, act, lab, val]

}]);

```



You can also cancel a call returning `false` from a Hook.



``` javascript

_gas.push(['_addHook', '_setVar', function(val){

    _gas.push(['_setCustomVar', 1, 'userType', val, 1]);

    return false;

}]);

```



The above Hook will intercept and cancel any call to the, now deprecated, 

`_setVar`. It will then trigger a call to `_setCustomVar` with an

equivalent value.



### In Page Analytics / Enhanced Link Attribution



Add the following snippet before your `_gas.push(['_trackPageView])` call. Read Google's [In Page Analytics / Enhanced Link Attribution documentation][ela] for more information.



```javascript

_gas.push(['_require', 'inpage_linkid', 

    '//www.google-analytics.com/plugins/ga/inpage_linkid.js']);

```



[ela]: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2558867?hl=en&hlrm=nl



### Display Advertising Support



Available in versions 1.11.0+, you can include dc.js instead of ga.js through GAS by changing the setAttribute line of the default snippet to



```

ga.setAttribute('data-use-dcjs', 'true');

```