Check for Google Analytics Using MooTools 1.2
When I launched my new design last week, I used PHP to comment out Google Analytics because I didn't want to skew the stats. Well, I did skew my stats that day because I forgot to uncomment the damn GA code. Rook move, I know. With that in mind, I've created a MooTools script that checks to make sure Google Analytics is loaded. If not, you get a friendly JavaScript alert() reminder.
The MooTools 1.2 Code
window.addEvent('load', function() {
if(typeof(eval(window)['_ufsc']) == 'undefined') {
alert('David, turn on GA!');
}
});
Not having 10 hours worth of stats is a big deal. This code will (hopefully) prevent this from happening again in the future.
![Welcome to My New Office]()
My first professional web development was at a small print shop where I sat in a windowless cubical all day. I suffered that boxed in environment for almost five years before I was able to find a remote job where I worked from home. The first...
![CSS vs. JS Animation: Which is Faster?]()
How is it possible that JavaScript-based animation has secretly always been as fast — or faster — than CSS transitions? And, how is it possible that Adobe and Google consistently release media-rich mobile sites that rival the performance of native apps?
This article serves as a point-by-point...
![Dress Up Your Select Elements with FauxSelect]()
I received an email from Ben Delaney a few weeks back about an interesting MooTools script he had written. His script was called FauxSelect and took a list of elements (UL / LI) and transformed it into a beautiful Mac-like SELECT element.
![SmoothScroll Using MooTools 1.2]()
Why aren’t you using the same if statement as you do for your config file as mentioned in a previous post?
http://davidwalsh.name/knowing-website-state-php
As a matter of fact, you commented on your own post saying you use it for Google Analytics!
@Jeff: Because I wasn’t developing locally, per say. I was dragging each file to my desktop, and then reuploading as I changed it. Again, not the best way of doing things.
I do, however, use my “website state” strategy at work.
@Jeff: Simply put….I was lazy with my own site and paid the price for it.
Works great unless you are the type to upload something and not confirm the changes (and then have all your visitors get the popup). Hey, if you can make one lazy mistake you can make another, haha.
@Sameer: Very true!
A much simpler and easier to manage solution is to set up a filter in google analytics itself.
For example, “exclude all traffic from user agents marked ‘website-tester.'” Then simply use Firefox’s user-agent switcher extension to use ‘website-tester’ whilst testing.
This also allows more flexibility than the “website state” strategy as PHP, Google Analytics etc… can be clever about your own use of the site for testing purposes even on a website that is live and working for everybody else.
Obviously the website state idea still has validity when when you have two near identical sites, one for production and the other live. As an example my platform generates a robots.txt automatically and on the staging site adds the “Disallow: /” directive to prevent the staging site from being indexed and all those duplicate content issues.
Hey David, this post is a few years old now and it still works! :D but have you come across any new ways of detecting Google Analytics?