Analytics

You can take advantage of search and click analytics when using Appbase.io as a backend with ReactiveSearch. Search analytics work out of the box with analytics prop in ReactiveBase. This recipe explains how to implement click analytics for your app.

Click Analytics

Click analytics have to be wired into the result components. Its supported in ReactiveList.When using ReactiveList, the renderItem or render slot receives an extra property to make click analytics work which you have to invoke with onClick. This method also supports the document id(optional) as the second param. If document id is not set then ReactiveSearch will calculate it based on the click position.

<reactive-list>
    <template #renderItem="{ item,  triggerClickAnalytics}">
        <div @click="triggerClickAnalytics">{{ item.title }}</div>
    </template>
</reactive-list>

When rendering your component using render you have to call the triggerClickAnalytics function by using the _click_id property of the result items as an argument. This method also supports the document id(optional) as the second param. If document id is not set then ReactiveSearch will calculate it based on the click position. Example:

<reactive-list>
    <template #render="{ data, triggerClickAnalytics }">
        <div
            v-for="(item, index) in data"
            @click="triggerClickAnalytics(item._click_id)"
        >
            {{ item.title }}
        </div>
    </template>
</reactive-list>

Track Impressions for Search Results

Impressions tracking is tied to the result components. You may have to do some extra setup in the ReactiveList component to track the impressions. Please follow the following instructions for different kind of use-cases.

1. If you're using the render or renderItem slot for the results UI then you have to define the id property for each result element. The value of id property must be the _id value from the elasticsearch hit object.

For an example, the following example uses the renderItem slot

<reactive-list>
    <template #renderItem="{ item }">
        <div :id="hit._id" :key="hit._id">{{ item.title }}</div>
    </template>
</reactive-list>

Check this example with the render slot

<reactive-list>
    <template #render="{ data }">
        <div
            v-for="(hit, index) in data"
            :id="hit._id"
            :key="hit._id"
        >
            {{ hit.title }}
        </div>
    </template>
</reactive-list>

2. If you're using render slot with ResultCard or ResultList components then you have to define the id prop for those components.

For an example,

<reactive-list componentId="SearchResult">
    <template #render="{ data }">
        <result-cards-wrapper>
            <result-card
                v-for="(hit, index) in data"
                :id="hit._id"
                :key="hit._id"
            >
                <result-card-title>{{ item.original_title }}</result-card-title>
                <result-card-description>by {{ item.authors }}</result-card-description>
            </result-card>
        </result-cards-wrapper>
    </template>
</reactive-list>

Configure with inject API

We can use the @appbaseio/analytics library without installing it or any configuration by using the inject API. When used, it returns an instance of the analytics library. It uses the url and credentials provided to the parent ReactiveBase component.

For example, if we want to track conversions when a user clicks on "Visit Store" button then we can make a button as shown in snippet below.

We make a new file VisitStoreButton.vue using the SFC format from Vue. The analytics instance is provided as $analytics prop. Note queryID is required property and we can populate it automatically by calling a method on the same instance.

<template>
	<button class="visit-store-btn" @click="handleVisitStore">Visit Store</button>
</template>
<script>
export default {
    name: 'VisitStoreButton',
    inject: {
		$analytics: {
			default: null
        }
	},
    methods: {
        handleVisitStore() {
            this.$analytics.conversion({
                queryID: this.$analytics.getQueryID(),
                objects: ['Harry Potter', 'Frankenstein'],
            })
		}
	}
}
</script>

You can also view the complete demo as a codesandbox example below.

Configure the analytics experience

You can define the reactivesearchAPIConfig prop in the ReactiveBase component to customize the analytics experience when appbase.io is used as a backend. It accepts an object which has the following properties:

• recordAnalytics Boolean allows recording search analytics (and click analytics) when set to true and appbase.io is used as a backend. Defaults to false.
• emptyQuery Boolean If false, then appbase.io will not record the analytics for the empty queries i.e match_all queries. Defaults to true.
• enableQueryRules Boolean If false, then appbase.io will not apply the query rules on the search requests. Defaults to true.
• enableSearchRelevancy Boolean defaults to true. It allows you to configure whether to apply the search relevancy or not.
• suggestionAnalytics Boolean If false, then appbase.io will not record the click analytics for the suggestions. Defaults to true.
• userId String It allows you to define the user id to be used to record the appbase.io analytics. Defaults to the client's IP address.
• useCache Boolean This property when set allows you to cache the current search query. The useCache property takes precedence irrespective of whether caching is enabled or disabled via the dashboard.
• customEvents Object It allows you to set the custom events which can be used to build your own analytics on top of appbase.io analytics. Further, these events can be used to filter the analytics stats from the appbase.io dashboard.

<template>
	<reactive-base :reactivesearchAPIConfig="reactivesearchAPIConfig" />
</template>
<script>
	export default {
		name: 'app',
		methods: {
			computed: {
				reactivesearchAPIConfig() {
					return {
						customEvents: {
							platform: 'ios',
							device: 'iphoneX',
						},
					};
				},
			},
		},
	};
</script>

• enableTelemetry Boolean When set to false, disables recording of appbase.io telemetry. Defaults to true.

• queryParams Object Query params in the object format to be passed to ReactiveSearch API (or search endpoint if using pipeline).

<template>
	<reactive-base :reactivesearchAPIConfig="reactivesearchAPIConfig" />
</template>
<script>
	export default {
		name: 'app',
		methods: {
			computed: {
				reactivesearchAPIConfig() {
					return {
						queryParams: {
                            preference: "local",
                        }
					};
				},
			},
		},
	};
</script>