Setup Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

[chalin]

The benchmark site has a Universal Analytics (UA) property defined for it -- namely UA-163836834-6 -- but it isn't being used.

We're in the process of migrating websites to use Google Analytics 4. For details, see:

• Migrate CNCF websites to GA4 cncf/techdocs#108

Would you like for me to upgrade the benchmark site too? If so, I'd suggest retiring the UA site tag (since it doesn't appear to have ever been used), and activating a new GA4 tag.

If you agree, then assign this issue to me -- unless you prefer migrating to GA4 yourself.

[chalin]

Another thought: we could reuse the Vitess.io GA4 site tag, since the main website is being migrated:

• Migrate to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) website#1098

/cc @nate-double-u

[frouioui]

Hello @chalin, it does have a UA, but it hasn't been implemented on our website. I would love to migrate to GA4 as it will become the new standard.

Reusing the GA4 site tag of vitess.io would mean that we would share the metrics and the UI, right? If so, I would prefer to keep them separate to ease the metrics navigation.

[chalin]

The recommended GA4 account structure differs from that for UA. For Vitess, it would imply that we reuse the same web data stream. But no worries, I'll setup reports that are specific to benchmarking. Would that be ok?

[chalin]

Is the site hosted on Netlify? If so, can you grant me access to the account?

[frouioui]

The recommended GA4 account structure differs from that for UA. For Vitess, it would imply that we reuse the same web data stream. But no worries, I'll setup reports that are specific to benchmarking. Would that be ok?

Okay! Sounds good to me, thank you!

Is the site hosted on Netlify? If so, can you grant me access to the account?

Not yet, we are in the middle of moving the UI away from simple Go templates to React JS so that it can be hosted on Netlify easily.

[chalin]

Oh, nice! When do you expect that to be completed (just so I have an idea). In that case; can you ping me once it gets hosted on Netlify? Probably best to wait until then before enabling analytics.

[chalin]

Hello @chalin, it does have a UA, but it hasn't been implemented on our website.

@frouioui - given that the UA property was never used, I'd like to delete it. Would that be ok with you?

[frouioui]

Oh, nice! When do you expect that to be completed (just so I have an idea). In that case; can you ping me once it gets hosted on Netlify? Probably best to wait until then before enabling analytics.

@chalin, the goal is to finish before the next major release of Vitess (RC1 is scheduled on February 7th). So probably around December/January.

given that the UA property was never used, I'd like to delete it. Would that be ok with you?

Totally!

[chalin]

@frouioui - the unused UA property has been scheduled for deletion.

[chalin]

Any progress updates on this @frouioui?

[frouioui]

Any progress updates on this @frouioui?

Hello @chalin, unfortunately there is not a lot of progress. I had to face other priorities in vitessio/vitess instead, I should be able to dedicate more time to this project soon.

[chalin]

No worries, I totally understand. Thanks for the update @frouioui.

[frouioui]

Hello @chalin! I hope you are doing well. I am just getting back to this issue now. We are in the process of adding Google Analytics to our benchmarking website (https://benchmark.vitess.io).

@Camillemtd is an LFX intern working on the arewefastyet project for Vitess and he will be working on adding Google Analytics to our new frontend UI.

Earlier we talked about reusing the same GA4 site tag as the one used by https://vitess.io. I am a little bit worried this would imply merging the live usage stats of https://vitess.io and https://benchmark.vitess.io. Or would we still be able to distinguish both websites in the GA UI?

Thank you.

[frouioui]

Hello @chalin, do you have any update on this?

[chalin]

Hi! Thanks for your patience in getting a response. Yes we can still distinguish between events based on the host that they originate from. It's you call whether you want to reuse the same ID or not. Given that it's a separate SPA, maybe a distinct ID would be a good idea. I've tried creating a separate web-stream ID, but GA4 warns that that is discouraged. I'm not sure that using an app ID will work with a SPA website, but we can try. (FYI, I'm OOO next week.)