Google analytics with rails 5 not working

Question

I am trying to implement Google analytics with rails 5. Since i wanted to keep my turbolinks, i am following http://railsapps.github.io/rails-google-analytics.html this method. Added app/assets/javascripts/google_analytics.js.coffee:

class @GoogleAnalytics

  @load: ->
    # Google Analytics depends on a global _gaq array. window is the global 
     scope.
    window._gaq = []
    window._gaq.push ["_setAccount", GoogleAnalytics.analyticsId()]

    # Create a script element and insert it in the DOM
    ga = document.createElement("script")
    ga.type = "text/javascript"
    ga.async = true
    ga.src = ((if "https:" is document.location.protocol then 
    "https://ssl" else "http://www")) + ".google-analytics.com/ga.js"
    firstScript = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]
    firstScript.parentNode.insertBefore ga, firstScript

    # If Turbolinks is supported, set up a callback to track pageviews 
     on page:change.
    # If it isn't supported, just track the pageview now.
    if typeof Turbolinks isnt 'undefined' and Turbolinks.supported
      document.addEventListener "page:change", (->
      GoogleAnalytics.trackPageview()
      ), true
    else
      GoogleAnalytics.trackPageview()

  @trackPageview: (url) ->
  unless GoogleAnalytics.isLocalRequest()
    if url
      window._gaq.push ["_trackPageview", url]
    else
      window._gaq.push ["_trackPageview"]
      window._gaq.push ["_trackPageLoadTime"]

  @isLocalRequest: ->
    GoogleAnalytics.documentDomainIncludes "local"

  @documentDomainIncludes: (str) ->
    document.domain.indexOf(str) isnt -1

  @analyticsId: ->
    # your google analytics ID(s) here...
    'UA-XXXXXXX-XX'

GoogleAnalytics.load()

This doesnt work. I tried to debug it using Google analytics debugger.but its only showing

_gaq.push processing "_setAccount" for args: "[UA-XXXXXXX-XX]": 

this in the console. When i tried calling directly

GoogleAnalytics.trackPageview()

I am getting data in my analytics account. But throwing this

Method _trackPageLoadTime is deprecated. _trackPageLoadTime is deprecated. Site Speed tracking is enabled by default with trackPageview call at 1% sampling. Use _setSiteSpeedSampleRate for changing sample rate.

error in my console. What is the issue? Please help.

Answer 1

The article you are referring to is quite old (in Rails Land). Did you try

https://gist.github.com/esBeee/545653241530f8f2c2e16371bec56f20

?

In application.html.erb:

    <script type="text/javascript">
      (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-XXXXXXXX-X', 'auto');
    </script>
  <% end %>

Put this file into your assets/javascripts/ folder and assure it gets loaded by checking or editing your assets/javascripts/application.js file as appropriate

document.addEventListener 'turbolinks:load', (event) ->
  if typeof ga is 'function'
    ga('set', 'location', event.data.url)
    ga('send', 'pageview')

Answer 2

I tried the following on Rails 6 with Turbolinks and Webpacker and it works, I hope it helps someone.

Add this to the layout file's head:

<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=YY-XXXXXXXXX-Z"></script>
<script>
  window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
  function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
  gtag('js', new Date());
</script>

And then add this to your application.js file:

$(document).on("turbolinks:load", function() {
  gtag('config', 'YY-XXXXXXXXX-Z', {'page_location': event.data.url});
})

Replace YY-XXXXXXXXX-Z with your own tag and you are done.