Usage Analytics

[obulat]

ETA	Start Date	Project Lead	Actual Ship Date
2023-04-31	2023-03-01	@dhruvkb	2023-07-05

Description

Openverse contributors have very little insight into the behaviors and interests of our users. We do not have any means of observing if they actually use the features we build in the intended manner or at all.

This project will gather this information through analytics, specifically logging events performed by users.

The implementation plan for the first part of the project, the frontend event collection, is ready, and is planned to be implemented by the end of April.
The second part of the project, the analytics backend, still needs planning.

Documents

• Frontend Event Collection Implementation Plan
• RFC + POC: Add Plausible for analytics #804

Issues

• Add preferences for analytics #843
• Implement analytics in Nuxt #844
• Make analytics switchable in production #2173

Events

Events required for rollout:

• Analytics event: VIEW_PAGE #1069
• Analytics event: SUBMIT_SEARCH #1068 - Analytics event: SUBMIT_SEARCH #2120
• Analytics event: EXTERNAL_LINK_CLICK #1078 - Add analytics events for external links #2247
• Analytics event: GET_MEDIA #1080 - Analytics event: GET_MEDIA #1180
• Analytics event: COPY_ATTRIBUTION #1081 - Analytics event: COPY_ATTRIBUTION #1147
• Analytics event: REPORT_MEDIA #1082 - Analytics event: REPORT_MEDIA #1181

---

Events to be added gradually:

• Analytics event: APPLY_FILTER #1070 - Add APPLY_FILTER analytics event #2423
• Analytics event: CHANGE_CONTENT_TYPE #1071 - Analytics event: CHANGE_CONTENT_TYPE #1151
• Analytics event: REACH_RESULT_END #1072 - Analytics: Add REACH_RESULT_END event #2454
• Analytics event: INSUFFICIENT_RESULTS #1073 - Closed without PR
• Analytics event: LOAD_MORE_RESULTS #1074 - Analytics Event: LOAD_MORE_RESULTS #2449
• Analytics event: VIEW_EXTERNAL_SOURCES #1075 - Add VIEW_EXTERNAL_SOURCES event #2450
• Analytics event: SELECT_EXTERNAL_SOURCE #1076 - Analytics event: SELECT_EXTERNAL_SOURCE #1158
• Analytics event: OPEN_PAGES_MENU #1077 - Add OPEN_PAGES_MENU event #2398
• Analytics event: SELECT_SEARCH_RESULT #1079 - Analytics: Add SELECT_SEARCH_RESULT event #2373
• Analytics event: AUDIO_INTERACTION #1083 - Add AUDIO_INTERACTION event #2424
• Analytics event: VISIT_LICENSE_PAGE #1084 - Add analytics events for external links #2247
• Analytics event: VISIT_CREATOR_LINK #1085 - Add analytics events for external links #2247
• Analytics event: RIGHT_CLICK_IMAGE #1086 - Analytics event: RIGHT_CLICK_IMAGE #1156
• Analytics event: BACK_TO_SEARCH #1087 - Analytics event: BACK_TO_SEARCH #1118
• Analytics event: TOGGLE_FILTERS #1088 - Add TOGGLE_FILTER_SIDEBAR analytics event #2405

Prior Art

• Collect data on API usage #754

[dhruvkb]

Update 2023-03-08

• The RFC for using Plausible and the PR that sets up Plausible for local development is present in the PR RFC + POC: Add Plausible for analytics #804.
• Some groundwork for the analytics feature flag and preferences is in PR Add preferences for analytics #843.

These two are collectively blocking #844, which actually sets up analytics in Nuxt.

[dhruvkb]

Update 2023-03-30

Discussions for the optimal self-hosted Plausible setup are underway.

Meanwhile, since the development environment has a fully functional Plausible setup, issues have been created for recording individual events under the Analytics milestone. With the supporting architecture (composable and utilities) built previously, these issues are smaller, making them suitable for outside contributions.

[zackkrida]

@dhruvkb small update: we can go ahead with the cloud-hosted Plausible for now. When we launch analytics we can use a 30 day trial and move on to the full paid account.

[dhruvkb]

Update 2023-04-11

Done

• Sorted events by priority.
  • Split into the minimum viable set for a rollout.

Next

• Make a trial Plausible cloud account.
  • Add creds to the secret store.
  • Write a P2 post about this Plausible account's creation.
  • Set up payment information. @zackkrida
• Configure Plausible endpoint env vars inside the infra repo.

Blockers

None.

[zackkrida]

Update 2023-05-03

The analytics events required for launch have been assigned and are under active development. I've started a discussion with the goal of resolving our open design issues for the analytics opt-out in the frontend user interface:

#2013

[zackkrida]

Hi, @obulat if you are able I think it may make sense to focus on getting #1078 ready for review prior to other PRs, so we can make analytics live with the required events listed here.

[openverse-bot]

Hi @dhruvkb, this project has not received an update comment in 14 days. Please leave an update comment as soon as you can. See the documentation on project updates for more information.

[dhruvkb]

Update: Analytics are already live on Openverse. We can gradually add the remaining analytics event and close the project as done after that.

For clarity, I've linked the PRs to the closed issues in the main description.

[openverse-bot]

Hi @dhruvkb, this project has not received an update comment in 14 days. Please leave an update comment as soon as you can. See the documentation on project updates for more information.

[dhruvkb]

Not much to update here since all analytics events have associated PRs. This project will be concluded and closed when those PRs are undrafted, reviewed, approved and merged.

[zackkrida]

The final analytics event from the implementation plan was merged and deployed; this project can be considered a success!