PASI Analytics Overview

Software analytics is the process of collecting information about the way a piece of software is used. PASI has incorporated tracking of how the users use the application to allow the PASI team to better understand:

  • Which browser versions are being used to access PASIprep
  • myPass usage volumes
  • Peak periods of usage over time

Privacy Concerns

The information that is used for tracking does not contain any information that is of a private nature. As an example, the myPass URLs that are being tracked have any ASN information removed prior to being sent to Google for tracking.

Countries that Block Google

If the user is in China, it is hard to access PASIprep due to google being blocked in the country.

This is addressed by an option that can be used on the query string in the ULR that would disable google analytics for the user. Using this query string option should disable any integration to google analytics for that users session.

[Implementation Details]

  • When “noTrack” parameter is used, google analytics tracking is disabled:
    PASIPrep?noTrack. Example: https://extranet.education.alberta.ca/PASI.IntSyst/PASIprep?noTrack
  • If tracking is disabled, the noTrack is added to the login link on the Logged Out page and log out link
  • If tracking is disabled and use is redirected to the user agreement page, accepting or declining will retain the tracking state
  • On the Logged Out page and User aggreement pages, dependecies on external google material css was removed and instead use the same one as the application. This means that the pages are using a newer version
  • The material icons are no longer an external dependency and instead are hosted within PASI, this is true when tracking and not tracking.
  • When the user is authenticated and then logged out, the noTrack will still be in the url. But the user must access the url with noTrack at the end when the user first logs into PASIprep.

When testing can open up the network tab in the browser and filter for google. When noTracking, should not see any network activity. When tracking is enabled should only see analytics.

Google Analytics

From Wikipedia:

Google Analytics is a service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about a website's traffic and traffic sources and measures conversions and sales. It's the most widely used website statistics service.

The basic service is free of charge and a premium version is available for a fee.

Google Analytics can track visitors from all referrers, including search engines and social networks, direct visits and referring sites. It also tracks display advertising, pay-per-click networks, email marketing, and digital collateral such as links within PDF documents.

Each environment has a custom setup for Google Analytics to keep the metrics separated by environment.

PASIprep Analytics

See the PASIprep Analytics page for full detail of analytics implemented.

See PASIprep Analytics Guidelines for guidelines on implementing analytics in PASIprep screens.

myPass Analytics

See the myPass Analytics page for full detail of analytics implemented.