Google Analytics Module
 

A little history on this one :wink:

In XC 5.2.* it was basically not much use. See this post: https://forum.x-cart.com/showthread.php?t=74263

In XC 5.3 it's much better, many bugs were cured and it actually works, quite well. However, no gain without pain 8O In this image ( TEST )you can see the difference this module makes in terms of home page times when comparing a dev store without the module being live, to a live store with the module being live. Notes when looking at the image:

a) Both the stores were identical in this test with the exception of this module being live / not live
b) The numerical difference in requests (6) is 100% attributable to this module.
c) These additional requests are shown at the bottom of the image for reference.
d) The difference in Cached Static Content score A degraded to B is purely due to these items, all of which are part of this module:

Leverage browser caching of static assets:
FAILED - (No max-age or expires) - https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Open Sans> Edited Out Details <
FAILED - (No max-age or expires) - https://www.google.com/ads/ga-audiences?v=1> Edited Out Details <
WARNING - (60.0 minutes) - https://www.google-analytics.com/plugins/ua/ec.js
WARNING - (2.0 hours) - https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics_debug.js

We are NOT big Google fans anyway but regardless, a couple of questions for the XC Team on this module please, are....

1) Can we expect a module upgrade (pretty soon...) that corrects all these issues and thus the time penalty suffered for using it?
2) Does the module setting "Debug mode" actually need to be switched to "on" for a live store? If the answer is yes, can some body explain why?

Issues with Google fonts have come up in other posts anyway, but that aside, it would be very handy to see this module upgrade soon, especially as (unlike ourselves) many XC5 users are Google Fans!

Edit: We currently don't use CDN by choice

Re: Google Analytics Module
 

I think this is normal for any website and it won't affect your rankings. It's how GA works.

I don't why debug is on though.. I just noticed this on our site and switched it off.

Re: Google Analytics Module
 

To be honest, it's not rankings we're interested in. It's numbers of processes aka load/speed. The image (via the link in our first post) shows the difference. Yep. we're not big fans, especially of this area www.google.com/ads Us neither. Just waiting for an official XC Answer to this question :wink:

Re: Google Analytics Module
 

Any news from X-Cart and/or this Module's Development Team? It's a fair question! :D/

Re: Google Analytics Module
 

I didn't consult with the XC5 dev team, but I'm not sure what can be done there. As far as I know Google Analytics was integrated as per Google's instructions. And scripts are loaded from their servers, so we can't control the cache parameters on our side.


It should be switched off for a live store.
I've checked the installation script and it is "off" there (at least in recent module versions).

Re: Google Analytics Module
 

Famous last words :mrgreen: but if that's the final technical decision okay. The module can always be disabled if XC store owners are frustrated by this. Unfortunately, Google are only really interested in Google...One reason why we're not big fans. Extract: ...in 2014, Google had moved around 10.7 billion euros (roughly $12 billion) from its Dutch arm to a Bermuda-based, Irish-registered affiliate called Google Ireland Holdings. (The money was received as royalty payments from its Irish affiliate Google Irish Limited, where most non-U.S. revenues are apparently channeled.) That tax strategy, cleverly known as a "double Irish, Dutch sandwich," reportedly helped its parent company Alphabet enjoy an effective tax rate of just 6% on its non-U.S. profits, since it passes through a comparatively lower Irish corporate tax rate of 12.5% and a Bermudan tax rate of zero. Revenues at its Irish affiliate were a reported 18 billion euros in 2014. Wording & Source: Reuters Thank you. Like others that have already posted, we have already done this, but for new users of this module, there's no reference to this anywhere. This could / really should be added in at the next module upgrade?

Re: Google Analytics Module
 

About debug mode.

As soon as the "debug mode" is enabled all the request logs in the file and GA starts working in debagging mode - https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/debugging


About performance and caching. It is a little bit funny. Google requires loading scripts from their servers to guarantee that it is up to date. And Google does not like to cache his scripts. Even Google requires to do it ))

"https://www.google-analytics.com/plugins/ua/ec.js" and " https://www.google.com/ads/ga-audiences" are loaded by Google in JS file, we cannot control it at all

For "https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Open Sans" we implemented async param in the next version to eliminate "FAILED" error. However, Google probably mark it with "Warning"

Re: Google Analytics Module
 

It generates its own XC log in /var/log as well, the content of which may be helpful if a store owner has any issues with the module or process, but good luck asking Google themselves for any help with that one!This must be very frustrating for ANY Dev Team anywhere. It's a coded version of "...it's our way or no way" :wink: This is clearer now. Thank you.

Re: Google Analytics Module
 

After re-testing in XC 5.3.2.9 which includes an update of this module, this is still marked as "Failed". but you may have been referring to XC 5.3.3.* though when you said "next version'.

Re: Google Analytics Module
 

will be corrected in 533