This is basically abandonware, but I will accept patches and do basic stuff.
= Introduction =
JGoogleAnalyticsTracker is a lightweight Java library for tracking your Java application with [http://www.google.com/analytics/ Google Analytics]. It was made so I could use Google’s fantastic analytics software on java gui applications, as Google never made a java implementation for sending tracking data.
Currently the library supports page view tracking (which can have a referrer from a page or a search engine) and event tracking. See the usage section for a basic setup (It’s very simple). JGoogleAnalyticsTracker will also gracefully ignore requests when there is no internet connection, and logs errors with [http://www.slf4j.org/ SLF4J]. Please feel free to post any feature requests or contact me about questions.
Current maintainers:
- Rob Blake
- Daniel Murphy
= Usage =
This utility is fairly straightforward. First, you make your config data. AnayticsConfigData automatically populates most of the user information from the client’s system, the only thing it can’t figure out is the Flash version.
{{{ AnalyticsConfigData config = new AnalyticsConfigData("MyTrackingCode"); // if you want to set your own config parameters: config.setFlashVesion("9.0 r24"); // etc }}}
You set up the JGoogleAnalyticsTracker with the config and a version (right now only 4.7.2, but it’s there for future analytics versions):
{{{
JGoogleAnalyticsTracker tracker = new JGoogleAnalyticsTracker(config, GoogleAnalyticsVersion.V_4_7_2);
}}}
and then you can send tracking data with the trackPageView and trackEvent methods, or make your own request the makeCustomRequest(AnalyticsRequestData) method. You can track referrals or searches by calling the trackPageViewFromReferrer or trackPageViewFromSearch methods.
For complete documentation, see the [http://www.dmurph.com/jgoogleanalyticstracker/index.html javadocs], or just view the source, it’s very straightforward. For more information on the tracking parameters take a look at Google’s [http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/tracking/gaTrackingTroubleshooting.html Troubleshooting Guide] (although I don't think it's fully updated...)
== Other Features ==
- The tracker can be enabled/disabled by calling
setEnabled(boolean). - The cookie data can be reset by calling
resetSession(). - Logging with [http://www.slf4j.org/ SLF4J]
- Proxy support
- The tracker can dispatch requests in three different modes:
- Synchronous mode, where each tracking call waits till the http request finishes before returning
- Multi-thread mode, where each call spawns a new thread to make the http request
- Single-thread mode, where each call is added to a queue and a single background thread then makes the http requests from the queue. This mode is default.
- Deployed in Maven
== Thanks ==
Special thanks to Stefan for helping polish off the project, by adding the proxy support, dispatch modes, and logging. Thanks! :D
== Comparison == So I recently discovered someone made a similar tool, [http://code.google.com/p/jgoogleanalytics/ JGoogleAnalytics]. The differences are (as of 1/11): My library:
- Sends event tracking
- Correctly gives referrer information
- Sends search tracking data\keyword data
- Correctly encodes all info (It has to be encoded with URI encoding, not URL)
- Collects basic info about the host machine
- Built/deployed with Maven 2 My library doesnt:
Have a logging adapter. I think it's unneeded, but if you want it I can put it in there.
== Implementations == I made this library to use in my [http://code.google.com/p/java-simple-mvc/ Java MVC library], which I then use to develop java application like:
- [http://www.tridas.org/tricycle/ TRiCYCLE] and
- [http://dendro.cornell.edu/corina/index.php Corina].
Other users:
- [http://my-flow.github.com/importlist/ Import List for Moneydance]
If you use this library in your application, let me know, I'd love to add you to the list!
I maintain this project on my own time, so any [http://www.dmurph.com/projects.php donations] would be appreciated :)