Google Analytics Server Side

Server Side Google Analytics Tracking in PHP

Project maintained by chappy84 Hosted on GitHub Pages — Theme by mattgraham

Google Analytics Server Side

Archived Repo

This is an archived project, simply here for posterity. It is no longer supported or updated, and should be considered End of Life.
If you wish to continue to develop this code yourself, we recommend you fork it.

The project was reverse engineered from the ga.js Universal Analytics code, which Google has now marked as “End Of Life”. This package WILL NOT work with the latest version of Google Analytics (GA4 at time or writing).
We recommend you follow Google’s recommendation, and migrate to GA4, at which point you can then use the Google Analytics 4 Measurement Protocol to record analytics from the server side.
There are various existing PHP implementations of this protocol, which we won’t recommend one. If switching, do your research, and pick a good one, or be bold, and create a new one.

About

Google Analytics Server Side is an implementation of the Google Analytics web tracking ECMAScript in PHP.
It provides server side Google Analytics tracking with a small easy to use PHP 5.3+ package.
Implemented are the parts of the interface that would be available without ECMAScript in a browser to detect certain features such as screen resolution / colour, flash / java plugin version etc.

CODE: git clone git://github.com/chappy84/google-analytics-server-side.git
HOME: http://github.com/chappy84/google-analytics-server-side
BUGS: http://github.com/chappy84/google-analytics-server-side/issues

Google Analytics was developed by Google.
This PHP adaptation is maintained by Tom Chapman.

Build Status Master Code Coverage Status SensioLabsInsight Latest Stable Version Total Downloads License

Installation

The package is available to install using composer from the packagist repository since v0.8.6-beta. Simply require chappy84/google-analytics-server-side and it’ll be installed, checking the requirements.

Alternatively if you don’t want to use composer, the package, without tests, can be included by using the following:

require_once '<base_dir>' . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'Gass' . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'Bootstrap.php';

where <base_dir> is the base directory of Google Analytics Server Side on your filesystem.

Usage

Google Analytics Server Side can be used simply in the following manner:

$gass = new \Gass\GoogleAnalyticsServerSide;
$gass->setAccount('UA-XXXXXXX-X')
    ->trackPageView();

The class constructor accepts an optional associative array parameter of available configuration options. Basically if there’s a public method to set the variable then it can be passed as part of the array to the class.

e.g.

$gass = new \Gass\GoogleAnalyticsServerSide;
$gass->setAccount('UA-XXXXXXX-X')
    ->setBotInfo(true);

could also be done like this:

$gass = new \Gass\GoogleAnalyticsServerSide(
    array(
        'account' => 'UA-XXXXXXX-X',
        'botInfo' => true
    )
);

These options can also be set individually by the method setOption, or in one go with the method setOptions

Most of the current basic methods available in the ga.js tracking code have been implemented.
The methods implemented are:

The methods not implemented yet are:

Extra methods are also available for the information which would normally be pre-determined in the javascript or http request object from the browser. The User Agent, Server Name, Remote Address, Document Path, Document Referer, Google Analytics Version, Accepted Language, Cookies and Search Engines are all set automatically without any method calls being required by the developer. However, the following methods are available to set these variables and should be called before the trackPageView / trackEvent method to save the tracking information:

On top of this there are also set methods to alter the default values for the the page title and document character set. These are available via the following methods:

Get methods are also provided for all of the above.
All methods but get methods allow chaining for ease of use.

Event Tracking

Event tracking is implemented using the same functionality as in the ga.js tracking code

\Gass\GoogleAnalyticsServerSide::trackEvent(
     string $category, 
     string $action, 
    [string $label = null, 
    [int    $value = null, 
    [bool   $nonInteraction = false]]] 
);

N.B. trackEvent() does not require trackPageView() to be called first.
However if you do not call trackPageView first or set nonInteraction to true then your pages/visit metric may become less than 1.

BotInfo

You must enable BotInfo for it to ignore any search/trawler bots.
To do this you need to pass one of true, and associative array, or an instance of the adapter you want to use into the class. The code will default to the BrowsCap adapter. Setting this to true will use the default. If you pass an associative array, this will be passed to BotInfo and through to the Adapter. When providing an associative array you can also pass the element 'adapter' which will tell BotInfo which class to use as the adapter. You can also pass an instance of a Gass\BotInfo\BotInfoInterface adapter which will be used by the Gass\BotInfo class.

Adapters

There are two adapters available in the GASS package

BrowsCap

There are five options as part of the array configuration parameter:

N/B: OPT_BROWSCAP will be ignored if you have set either OPT_SAVE_PATH or OPT_INI_FILE. OPT_SAVE_PATH or OPT_INI_FILE will also override any value derived from OPT_BROWSCAP. This is as OPT_BROWSCAP is intended as a fallback for the browscap ini setting, and backwards compatibility with previous versions of this package.

e.g.

$gass = new \Gass\GoogleAnalyticsServerSide(
    array(
        'botInfo' => true,
        'account' => 'UA-XXXXXXX-X',
    )
);

or

$gass = new \Gass\GoogleAnalyticsServerSide(
    array(
        'botInfo' => array(
            'adapter' => 'BrowsCap',
            \Gass\BotInfo\BrowsCap::OPT_SAVE_PATH => '/var/lib/browscap',
            \Gass\BotInfo\BrowsCap::OPT_INI_FILE => 'full_php_browscap.ini',
        ),
        'account' => 'UA-XXXXXXX-X'
    )
);

or

$gass = new \Gass\GoogleAnalyticsServerSide(array('account' => 'UA-XXXXXXX-X'));
$browsCapAdapter = new \Gass\BotInfo\BrowsCap;
$gass->setBotInfo($browsCapAdapter);
Updating the ini file

When an update for the browscap ini file is available on the server the code will automatically download the file into the location provided.
This functionality can be disabled by setting the \Gass\BotInfo\BrowsCap::OPT_DISABLE_AUTO_UPDATE configuration option to true.

With this disabled, this package provides another method to allow you to update the ini file automatically.
The script bin/gass-browscap-updater can be setup to run with a scheduler. This uses the same code from the auto-update feature, checking the cache file, and the latest update date stored on browscap.org, then downloads a new version if one is available.

Ths script has the following command line options:

See the help provided by the script for further information on usage.

Notes

UserAgentStringInfo

DEPRECATED - until udger.com (or a comparable service) implements csvs (or another data source) to replace user agent string info’s csv, as user-agent-string.info has now shut down

This downloaded a csv list of search engine crawlers from user-agent-string.info.
There are three options as part of the array configuration parameter:

This can be implemented in the same way as the BrowsCap adapter.

Http

This is a singleton class which provides http functionality across all sections of the GASS package.
This will default to using the Curl adapter if the php curl extension is available, otherwise it’ll fall back to the Stream adapter. It requires no options. All options should be passed as a configuration option to GoogleAnalyticsServerSide, either via the configuration parameter in the 'http' element or via the setHttp method’s parameter. This can either be an associative array or an instance of the required adapter.

e.g.

$gass = new \Gass\GoogleAnalyticsServerSide(
    array(
        'account' => 'UA-XXXXXXX-X',
        'http' => array(
            'adapter' => 'Curl',
            CURLOPT_PROXY => 'http://exampleproxy.local:8080'
        )
    )
);

or

$gass = new \Gass\GoogleAnalyticsServerSide(array('account' => 'UA-XXXXXXX-X'));
$httpAdapter = new \Gass\Http\Stream;
$gass->setHttp($httpAdapter);

Adapters

There are two Adapters available in Gass\Http, these are:

Stream

Stream creates a stream context and utilises this stream with file_get_contents. See php’s example. Any available options provided to this class will go into the 'http' array for the stream context, thus you may pass any headers or proxy information etc. into this to use in the connection when made.

Curl

This utilises the php extension cURL. cURL is recommended, however as it’s not always available the code falls back to stream to allow all servers make http requests in the correct way.
Any options provided to this class must be passed using the curl constants as identifiers (associative array keys or option names).

End User Location

The End User’s Location will be reported as the location of the server if you use the GA Account number in the format UA-XXXXXXX-X as provided by Google. If you alter this to the format MO-XXXXXXX-X then the location will be tracked correctly and appear on the location map as it does with the normal ECMAScript tracking.

Cookies

Cookies are automatically set when either trackPageView or trackEvent are called.
They are however only sent as headers to the browser once, thus if you call either function more than once, or call both functions, then they will only be included in the headers when the first call is made.

You do have the option to turn off the sending of the cookie headers to the browser which can be done by calling disableCookieHeaders before calling trackPageView / trackEvent for the first time.

Test Suite & CI

This package uses PHPUnit, along with TravisCI, to test functionality on the supported PHP minor versions 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 7.0, and 7.1, with unofficial support for 7.2, 7.3, and 7.4. This is done by default on the latest bug fix point release of that minor point version to ensure it works.

If you’re submitting a pull request, please ensure you’ve run the test suite with PHPUnit, installed via composer. Please see the instructions here on how to install it. After which you can install phpunit, and the other required dev dependencies using composer install.

PHP Version

The minimum supported version is PHP 5.3.23

Un-supported versions of PHP

I’ve left the following branches of versions which worked with the now un-supported versions of PHP:

Please feel free to use, fork etc. any of these branches. Any issues which arise in them won’t have fixes attempted I’m afraid. However if you’ve attempted a fix yourself, please lodge a pull-request and It’ll be considered.

LICENSE

This software uses the BSD 3-Clause license:

Copyright (c) 2011-2020, Tom Chapman (http://tom-chapman.uk) All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

  1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

  2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

  3. Neither the name of the copyright holder nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE

N/B: This code is nether written or endorsed by Google or any of it’s employees.
“Google” and “Google Analytics” are trademarks of Google Inc. and it’s respective subsidiaries.