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Re: Moving on from Google Universal Analytics

That's certainly a viable solution. I'll take care of that this evening.

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Re: Moving on from Google Universal Analytics

I was thinking along the lines of using the existing UA field and having it do some double duty. Do nothing and we assume, based on the format of the tag, that it's for UA. If you have switched to GA4, include the G- at the beginning of the tag and we'll load the proper snippet.

Using the preloads is a good idea - I think we should go that route for this round. The next phase will be to find a better way to insert and manage them from the control panel.

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Re: Moving on from Google Universal Analytics

Short term : can't we simply add an extra field to the ACP where users can put their GA4 number? That would allow both Universal Analytics and GA4 to coexist for the time being.

The idea of custom tags it not bad, but configuration of these features should always be kept limited to the ACP, so even if you define a custom tag to include GA4 or Fathom or any other service, we will need to figure out a way to define these identifiers freely in the ACP as well.



Re: Moving on from Google Universal Analytics

I was thinking - Custom Tags already provides a lot of the flexibility to add other snippets anywhere. What it still requires is a way to insert your tag without having to manually edit a template, if you want something to be in the header of your pages. If it can go in the body, you're set.



Re: Moving on from Google Universal Analytics

I think turning this into module would be a great idea.

Yes, many use Google but not everyone. Sometimes other analytics tools are better.



Re: Moving on from Google Universal Analytics

As I mentioned in another thread, this is something we need to address sooner rather than later. This is a bit tricky for us, because we have no way of determining if a site has gone through the migration from UA to GA4. All we store is the site code and if it is enabled, we pass the code to the core and it inserts the javascript on every page.

This could turn into a whole lot of different scenarios and options to handle through the core admin UI. Or, we can add documentation on how to add preloads that each admin would need to customize before deploying on their sites. Even now, I think of a preload generator that would allow an admin to paste in the code snippet from the other provider, select where it loads, and be able to manage it that way. That's for a later release.

For immediate consideration is what do we put into the new 2.0 release? My first reaction is to keep it simple - provide a GA4 preload template that admins can customize with their tag and include on their sites. The UA portion would remain and not interact with the GA4 plugin. Admins would need to determine the impact of having both active on a site. We deprecate the UA code with this release and move towards a more easily customized solution, removing the UA portions in a later release this year.



Moving on from Google Universal Analytics

Universal Analytics will be deactivated in a few months. If your site uses it, you will have received already quite a few reminders about moving to Google Analytics 4. But keep in mind that the data cannot be transferred.

Sunsetting a product is always a risk to retain users, as at that moment you force them to think about their needs, and perhaps they arrive at the conclusion that their needs are better met elsewhere.

ImpressCMS has been solely supporting UA in the past (we even come from the predecessor, but that's a long time ago). Perhaps in the future we should look into opening up this interface and making it possible to easily add new analytics products, and to have multiple analytics options simultaneously active.

I've played with a first version of a GA4 preload and it works more or less how it should : activating the plugin adds the GA4 javascript on the right location in the page. Future improvements will be:

  • make it possible to have multiple Analytics products active simultaneously on your page
  • Make it possible to customize the functionality with preload-specific configuration items

But for now, let's make it so that users are supported in migration from UA to GA4



Re: new 2.0 release

I agree with the Google UA towards Google Analytics 4 migration need. In the current stage, we can easily work with preloads. The issue should be discussed further though.



Re: new 2.0 release

Perhaps we also include a warning in the admin panel for the upcoming deactivation of UA and instructions on how to switch their ImpressCMS site once they have made the switch with Google.



Re: new 2.0 release

I was also thinking this release should address Google Analytics 4 over Universal Analytics - UA will stop working/reporting in 4 months (July 1).

This is kind of tricky, since we can't determine if a site has been converted, or if the new GA4 property tag has been created. Going through this for myself, the ID is different, so both the code and the ID need to be updated for a site.

I see you have implemented this as a plugin on this site, @fiammybe, and removed the section cf the core code that inserts the ga snippet into every page. Maybe we do that for both options - create preload plugins and have the administrator activate the one they use. Assume they are using UA (since that is what the core is injecting) and move that to preloads with the upgrade. Provide an alternative for GA4.



Re: new 2.0 release

My list:

Required -

  • New install completes successfully on PHP 7+
  • Works without error at minimum version - PHP 7.x
  • Works (may have warnings) on PHP 8.x. PHP 8.0 at a minimum
  • Module updates work
  • Module installs work
  • Able to save preferences
  • Editors work
  • User registration, profile updates, group memberships work
  • Upgrade works from previous versions (will need clear steps for PHP version change)
  • Other prerequisites clearly defined for what needs to be changed in configuration and settings (using PDO, for example)

Recommended -

  • How to determine if your modules are compatible - and a list of modules we've tested

Things we can't verify -

  • If a site is using a custom block or custom tag with PHP content, we can't validate it will work on PHP 7+
  • The same is true of extra plugins and preloads not distributed with the core



Re: New designation for our old 2.0 branch

That sounds like a great OpenAI idea. Didn't they have a generator for this type of images? Show me my photo how i'd look like captain picard?

I'll have a look, sounds like a fun project.



Re: new 2.0 release

Of course, I forgot that valentine's day is more of less the black Friday for the flower business.

I will update the estimated date on the Github milestone.

Just to make sure, what are precisely the situations to test? Php 7.0 until php 8.0?

Upgrade from 1.4.4?



Re: A new milestone has been reached!

And that is just on GitHub. That doesn't count what was done on SourceForge and Assembla,



Re: new 2.0 release

I have limited time in the next few days for much of anything besides flowers. We are at a point to start the final testing and validation to move us on to the final release, though.



Re: New designation for our old 2.0 branch

Could also choose from the 3 characters of The Original Series that made appearances on TNG: Spock, McCoy, Scottie. Growing up, I thought Spock was the best.



Re: New designation for our old 2.0 branch

I guess the whole discussion will be : who wants to be Data?



new 2.0 release

Hi,

Valentine's day is coming around the corner, and although I don't see myself as a flying cupid that shoots arrows everywhere, it is a special day to perhaps latch onto for the 2.0 release.

When I look in Github for the new 2.0 milestone, there are still some things to be verified, next to the discussion about the csstidy ticket. I estimate we might be ready to release a quick RC on monday, just to get the scope finalised and do some more non-regression tests. And after that release on tuesday, just in time for Valentine's Day - Because we love our users so much

Would that be a reasonable (if short) timeline?



Re: Updates and upgrades for 2.0

I hadn't considered all those points when going for the news module. At the time, Madfish was still actively developing his modules, and his modules were based on the last version of IPF, so it seemed like a given to integrate modules that were built on the most recent best practices.



Re: A new milestone has been reached!

That is a momentous occasion! Thank you for putting this into the spotlight.

With the new 2.0 coming around the corner and also some movement in our newly-minted ImpressTNG branch, that number of PRs is certainly going to rise even more!