Adding Third-party Scripts to Your Community (Google Analytics)

Has anyone here used this for Optimizely? 

Am I right in thinking this script is meant to make small changes to the page display? 

In another related question, is it possible to add two Google Analytics scripts?

Howdy!

You can indeed have multiple Google Analytics tags active if you wish @timcavey , but only with the new script - the legacy one will break if you try this. So…

 Don’t try it with this one!

<script type="text/javascript">

  var _gaq = _gaq || [];
  _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXX-X']);
  _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);

  (function() {
    var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
    ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
    var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
  })();

</script>

 Do try it with this one!

<!-- Google Analytics -->
<script>
(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
})(window,document,'script','https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');

ga('create', 'UA-XXXXX-Y', 'auto');
ga('send', 'pageview');
</script>
<!-- End Google Analytics -->

As for Optimizely, I’ve heard of it and it does indeed do what you think it does. However, it’s worth bearing in mind that we’ve got a mixture of content at play and even to this day, there’s still a few members who use BBCode formatting despite the new editor not officially supporting it - along with some other more complicated non-standard stuff. There is a risk that using Optimizely could break some of those things.As it’s a pretty powerful script, you’ll want to use it carefully too.

The other thing to watch out for, is that inSided changes things on a very rapid basis. Presumably tools like that can handle agile development flows from upstream, but be prepared to turn it off should something go bang. If it’s breaking things really badly, you’ll probably want to shut it down for a while.

Mind you… When I look at the details… I get the feeling it might work better as a direct integration between inSided and Optimizely, or as a native feature within inSided itself.

There is a bit of a Gotcha! however. In my personal experience with my somewhat slow internet connection, Optimizely has historically caused me quite a few headaches when it wasn’t configured properly.

I’ve also run some analysis, done a bit of research and had a think about this next one. As far as I can tell, inSided is very heavily cached for both Static and Dynamic content. While Optimizely can handle Static Caching, it’s not very good with handling Dynamic Caching, which may either prevent the script from working properly, or potentially completely break stuff.

I think it’s probably worth seeing if @tom.shaddock has any thoughts though. Having seen what Optimizely can do when it works well, I’d be curious to see if work with inSided - but only if it won’t break everything!

Thanks @Blastoise186 

<script type="text/javascript">

  var _gaq = _gaq || [];
  _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXX-X']);
  _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);

  (function() {
    var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
    ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
    var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
  })();

</script>

<!-- Google Analytics -->
<script>
(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
})(window,document,'script','https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');

ga('create', 'UA-XXXXX-Y', 'auto');
ga('send', 'pageview');
</script>
<!-- End Google Analytics -->

I can see that Google Tags Manager is a third-party script we have, not GA. Which tells me it’s in GTM that I need to add the second GA tags. @Kenneth R anyone over there have the keys to this?

@Frank what do we think about this? It’s listed as a supported service in the main topic...

Yes please Tom!