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From Black Hole to Gold Mine - Putting Analytics in the Portal

mmorrey
June 04, 2013

From Black Hole to Gold Mine - Putting Analytics in the Portal

Presentation on adding Google Analytics to uPortal using client coding. For OpenApereo2013

mmorrey

June 04, 2013
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  1. From Black Hole to Goldmine Putting Analytics in the Portal

    Martin Morrey, University of Edinburgh
  2. Our Trajectory • In a Perfect Universe • Inside The

    Black Hole • To The Event Horizon • GOLD! • Lets Go Mining • What Next • Summary
  3. Acknowledgements • Bill Brown, University of Chicago • Laura McCord

    • Yale University, for YaleInfo video • Anne-Marie Scott, University of Edinburgh • Rest of UoE Web Integration Team
  4. WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT YOUR PORTAL? • From your

    perfect analytics report… • Please share ONE: – metric – dimension – way to segment users • By… – Tweeting with #apereo13 #52 – Writing on a card • Can we build a report from the most popular requests?
  5. What we had… • Server-side logging • We could find

    out: – How many users logged-in – Some idea of roles (student, staff…) – What customisations are made • BUT that was about it!
  6. “Black Holes Ain’t So Black” Go client side: • It’s

    where the users are! Google Analytics: • Quick • Familiar • Free!
  7. Escaping the Page Singularity • The default unit of tracking

    in GA is…? – …the page • BUT Page Views are little use: – In uPortal, pages ≡ tabs • We are most interested in channels – A tab contains multiple channels
  8. Google Analytics Events • Code attached to a user interaction

    – Link click – Button click… • Use to record interactions with our channels • University of Chicago have boldly gone… – Documented addition to uPortal, using GA – Adds properties to view layer (XSL) – Changes to XSL for portal and channels
  9. Clouds on the Event Horizon • Proxy channels not directly

    covered • At Edinburgh L: – Mostly proxy channels – ~200 channels, to be coded separately – Range of technologies • Estimates varied, but all too expensive, £ $ € ¥
  10. jQuery - Client2 • Use jQuery to: – Add click

    event to every link and button displayed – After page has rendered • $.(document).ready() • Covers everything user sees: – Portal interface – Portlets – Proxied content… J
  11. REMINDER • Have you Tweeted? • or Have you completed

    your card? – Please pass to out to Paul
  12. UoE Nuggets… • WHAT is used? – Channel use: name,

    clicks – Navigation • WHO is using it? – Applicants, staff, students… – Organisational unit – Degree Programme • MORE – Errors, performance, geographic…
  13. GA Events (WHAT) Google Analytics Events have 3 key properties:

    • Category – "Navigation", "Channel-Use", "Error",… • Action – Name of the tab, channel… • Label – Text / URL of link
  14. What About the “WHO”? Custom Variables: • Attach persistent variables

    to user • Key-Value pair, recorded with event • Maximum of 5 - in our case: 1. MyEdRole 2. MyEdOrgUnit 3. MyEdDistanceLearner 4. MyEdProgramme1 5. MyEdProgramme2 • Used to segment our results
  15. Populate from Data in Page Source • "Meta" tags inserted

    into <head> <meta content="staff" name="roles" /> <meta content="D779" name="unit" /> <meta content="" name="course-codes" /> <meta content="no" name="distance- learner" /> • Read by jQuery and used to set Custom Variables
  16. What Have We Got? • Tweets for #apereo13 #52 •

    Card results • Build a report? – www.google.com/analytics
  17. What We're Doing With It • Now – Input into

    a portal restructuring exercise – Priorities for mobile – Reports to channel owners, projects – GA “Intelligence” for early warnings • Potential for: – Dashboards for channel/tab owners • Library, Careers, Alumni services
  18. Further Development • Separate JavaScript from uPortal application • Track

    drag-and-drop events • Generalise to other applications? • Dual… code other analytics tools
  19. More Analytics Solutions • Pwik – Open source – Access

    to raw data ->deeper analysis – Better real-time reporting • Google "Universal Analytics" – Custom dimensions and metrics (20!) – Tracking configured from web console
  20. Escape Complete • Using a client-side application of Google Analytics

    we can: – Track any link or button displayed to the user – Segment by up to 5 attributes of user/context – Keep analytics logic independent of portal build • Portal analytics provides invaluable info for: – Service management and improvement – Owners of individual portal channels