Segment plugin for analytics
Integration with segment for analytics
For more information see the docs.
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Installation
npm install analytics
npm install @analytics/segment
How to use
The @analytics/segment package works in the browser and server-side in Node.js. To use, install the package, include in your project and initialize the plugin with analytics.
Below is an example of how to use the browser plugin.
import Analytics from 'analytics'
import segmentPlugin from '@analytics/segment'
const analytics = Analytics({
app: 'awesome-app',
plugins: [
segmentPlugin({
writeKey: '123-xyz'
})
]
})
/* Track a page view */
analytics.page()
/* Track a custom event */
analytics.track('cartCheckout', {
item: 'pink socks',
price: 20
})
/* Identify a visitor */
analytics.identify('user-id-xyz', {
firstName: 'bill',
lastName: 'murray'
})
After initializing analytics with the segmentPlugin plugin, data will be sent into Segment whenever analytics.page, analytics.track, or analytics.identify are called.
See additional implementation examples for more details on using in your project.
Platforms Supported
The @analytics/segment package works in the browser and server-side in Node.js
Browser usage
The Segment client side browser plugin works with these analytic api methods:
- analytics.page - Sends page views into Segment
- analytics.track - Track custom events and send to Segment
- analytics.identify - Identify visitors and send details to Segment
- analytics.reset - Reset browser storage cookies & localstorage for Segment values
Browser API
import Analytics from 'analytics'
import segmentPlugin from '@analytics/segment'
const analytics = Analytics({
app: 'awesome-app',
plugins: [
segmentPlugin({
writeKey: '123-xyz'
})
]
})
Configuration options for browser
| Option | description |
|---|---|
writeKey required - string | Your segment writeKey |
disableAnonymousTraffic optional - boolean | Disable loading segment for anonymous visitors |
customScriptSrc optional - boolean | Override the Segment snippet url, for loading via custom CDN proxy |
integrations optional - object | Enable/disable segment destinations https://bit.ly/38nRBj3 |
Server-side usage
The Segment server-side node.js plugin works with these analytic api methods:
- analytics.page - Sends page views into Segment
- analytics.track - Track custom events and send to Segment
- analytics.identify - Identify visitors and send details to Segment
Server-side API
import Analytics from 'analytics'
import segmentPlugin from '@analytics/segment'
const analytics = Analytics({
app: 'awesome-app',
plugins: [
segmentPlugin({
writeKey: '123-xyz'
})
]
})
Configuration options for server-side
| Option | description |
|---|---|
writeKey required - string | Key that corresponds to your Segment.io project |
disableAnonymousTraffic optional - boolean | Disable loading segment for anonymous visitors |
host optional - string | The base URL of the API. Default: "https://api.segment.io" |
path optional - string | The API path route. Default: "/v1/batch" |
maxRetries optional - number | The number of times to retry flushing a batch. Default: 3 |
maxEventsInBatch optional - number | The number of messages to enqueue before flushing. Default: 15 |
flushInterval optional - number | The number of milliseconds to wait before flushing the queue automatically. Default: 10000 |
httpRequestTimeout optional - number | The maximum number of milliseconds to wait for an http request. Default: 10000 |
disable optional - boolean | Disable the analytics library. All calls will be a noop. Default: false. |
httpClient optional - HTTPFetchFn | Supply a default http client implementation |
Additional examples
Below are additional implementation examples.
Server-side ES6
import Analytics from 'analytics'
import segmentPlugin from '@analytics/segment'
const analytics = Analytics({
app: 'awesome-app',
plugins: [
segmentPlugin({
writeKey: '123-xyz'
})
// ...other plugins
]
})
/* Track a page view */
analytics.page()
/* Track a custom event */
analytics.track('cartCheckout', {
item: 'pink socks',
price: 20
})
/* Identify a visitor */
analytics.identify('user-id-xyz', {
firstName: 'bill',
lastName: 'murray'
})
Server-side Node.js with common JS
If using node, you will want to import the .default
const analyticsLib = require('analytics').default
const segmentPlugin = require('@analytics/segment').default
const analytics = analyticsLib({
app: 'my-app-name',
plugins: [
segmentPlugin({
writeKey: '123-xyz'
})
]
})
/* Track a page view */
analytics.page()
/* Track a custom event */
analytics.track('cartCheckout', {
item: 'pink socks',
price: 20
})
/* Identify a visitor */
analytics.identify('user-id-xyz', {
firstName: 'bill',
lastName: 'murray'
})
Using in HTML
Below is an example of importing via the unpkg CDN. Please note this will pull in the latest version of the package.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Using @analytics/segment in HTML</title>
<script src="https://unpkg.com/analytics/dist/analytics.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://unpkg.com/@analytics/segment/dist/@analytics/segment.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
/* Initialize analytics */
var Analytics = _analytics.init({
app: 'my-app-name',
plugins: [
analyticsSegment({
writeKey: '123-xyz'
})
]
})
/* Track a page view */
analytics.page()
/* Track a custom event */
analytics.track('cartCheckout', {
item: 'pink socks',
price: 20
})
/* Identify a visitor */
analytics.identify('user-id-xyz', {
firstName: 'bill',
lastName: 'murray'
})
</script>
</head>
<body>
....
</body>
</html>
Using in HTML via ES Modules
Using @analytics/segment in ESM modules.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Using @analytics/segment in HTML via ESModules</title>
<script>
// Polyfill process.
// **Note**: Because `import`s are hoisted, we need a separate, prior <script> block.
window.process = window.process || { env: { NODE_ENV: 'production' } }
</script>
<script type="module">
import analytics from 'https://unpkg.com/analytics/lib/analytics.browser.es.js?module'
import analyticsSegment from 'https://unpkg.com/@analytics/segment/lib/analytics-plugin-segment.browser.es.js?module'
/* Initialize analytics */
const Analytics = analytics({
app: 'analytics-html-demo',
debug: true,
plugins: [
analyticsSegment({
writeKey: '123-xyz'
})
// ... add any other third party analytics plugins
]
})
/* Track a page view */
analytics.page()
/* Track a custom event */
analytics.track('cartCheckout', {
item: 'pink socks',
price: 20
})
/* Identify a visitor */
analytics.identify('user-id-xyz', {
firstName: 'bill',
lastName: 'murray'
})
</script>
</head>
<body>
....
</body>
</html>
Customing the page name field
By default the page name is the document.title value.
To have shorter names call page like so:
analytics.page({
name: 'HomePage'
})
This can quickly become tricky to manage and we'd advise against this approach.
Loading script from custom proxy
In specific scenarios, you might want to load your own version of segment's analytics from a different URL.
To do this, you can add the customScriptSrc option pointing to your custom segment script.
import Analytics from 'analytics'
import segmentPlugin from '@analytics/segment'
const analytics = Analytics({
app: 'awesome-app',
plugins: [
segmentPlugin({
writeKey: '123-xyz',
// Load segment's analytics.js from somewhere else
customScriptSrc: 'https://yoursite.com/my-custom-loader.js'
})
]
})
Making group calls
The .group call is specific to Segment and the analytics lib doesn't expose this by default. But you are in luck 😃 thanks to custom methods on plugins!
To send a group call to Segment run the analytics.plugins.segment.group() custom method.
The analytics.plugins.segment.group function has the following signature:
analytics.group(groupId, [traits], [options], [callback]);
Browser Example
import Analytics from 'analytics'
import segmentPlugin from '@analytics/segment'
// Initialize analytics instance with plugins
const analytics = Analytics({
app: 'your-app-name',
plugins: [
segmentPlugin({
writeKey: '123-xyz'
}),
]
})
// Usage:
// Now you can call segment.group in your app like so
analytics.plugins.segment.group('Group ID XYZ', {
principles: ['Bill', 'Bob'],
site: 'Apple co',
statedGoals: 'Do awesome stuff',
industry: 'Technology'
})
Server side Example
const analyticsLib = require('analytics').default
const segmentPlugin = require('@analytics/segment')
// Initialize analytics instance with plugins
const analytics = Analytics({
app: 'your-app-name',
plugins: [
segmentPlugin({
writeKey: '123-xyz'
}),
]
})
analytics.plugins.segment.group('Group ID XYZ', {
principles: ['Bill', 'Bob'],
site: 'Apple co',
statedGoals: 'Do awesome stuff',
industry: 'Technology'
})