Ignore visits to Active Storage endpoints

[joemasilotti]

Is it possible to ignore Ahoy visits to the Active Storage endpoints, e.g. /rails/active_storage/blobs/:id? There doesn't seem to be any hooks available from Active Storage.

[joemasilotti]

P.S. This doesn't seem to work, a visit to /rails/active_storage/disk/eyJfcm...mugshot.jpeg is still being tracked.

# config/initializers/ahoy.rb:8

Ahoy.exclude_method = lambda do |controller, request|
  request.path.starts_with?("/rails")
end

[ankane]

Hey @joemasilotti, I believe that should work. I'd try adding debugging to see what's going on.

[joemasilotti]

FWIW, I was able to get this working by monkey patching ActiveStorage::BaseController. I strongly prefer to not do this, but figured I would share if anyone is desperate!

# app/controllers/active_storage/base_controller.rb

# frozen_string_literal: true

# The base class for all Active Storage controllers.
class ActiveStorage::BaseController < ActionController::Base
  include ActiveStorage::SetCurrent

  skip_before_action :track_ahoy_visit

  protect_from_forgery with: :exception

  self.etag_with_template_digest = false

  private
    def stream(blob)
      blob.download do |chunk|
        response.stream.write chunk
      end
    ensure
      response.stream.close
    end
end

# spec/requests/ahoy_spec.rb

require "rails_helper"

describe "Ahoy tracking" do
  it "tracks an Ahoy visit for the homepage" do
    expect { get "/" }.to change { Ahoy::Visit.count }.by(1)
  end

  it "doesn't track an Ahoy visit for Active Storage routes" do
    path = "/rails/active_storage/disk/efX0=--bb4/mugshot.jpeg"
    expect { get path }.to_not change { Ahoy::Visit.count }
  end
end

# spec/rails_helper.rb

Ahoy.track_bots = true

[ankane]

Thanks for sharing. I'd encourage people to try the exclude_method route first to see if it works for them.

[joemasilotti]

But exclude_method doesn’t work. Were you able to narrow in on anything via your debugging? I’d love to use that instead of the risky monkey patching.

If it helps I could throw together two test cases tomorrow.

[mjbellantoni]

Howdy, Folks. I can confirm that exclude_method doesn't work here. Here's what's going on:

    def track_ahoy_visit
      defer = Ahoy.server_side_visits != true

      if defer && !Ahoy.cookies
        # avoid calling new_visit?, which triggers a database call
      elsif ahoy.new_visit?
        ahoy.track_visit(defer: defer)
      end
    end

The call to exclude? happens inside of track_visit. By the time we get there, new_visit? has already hit the database. It seems like the solution is to add a call to exclude? somewhere in this method?

[lukel97]

Could this issue be reopened? I can confirm that Ahoy.exclude_method is still hitting the DB

[brunoprietog]

Hey @ankane, any news on this? Thanks!

[schpet]

anyone come across a way of getting this working without monkey patching? with the following configuration:

# config/initializers/ahoy.rb

class Ahoy::Store < Ahoy::DatabaseStore
end

Ahoy.api = false
Ahoy.geocode = false

Ahoy.exclude_method = lambda do |controller, request|
  request.path.starts_with?("/rails")
end

cookies are still being set by ahoy:

❯ curl -s -I "http://localhost:3000/rails/active_storage/representations/proxy/eyJ….webp" | grep -i set-cookie
set-cookie: ahoy_visitor=731bf61c-7047-4c3b-84ad-e9b46471ca65; path=/; expires=Thu, 18 Dec 2025 20:52:20 GMT; SameSite=Lax
set-cookie: ahoy_visit=2f72ab22-365c-4b5b-9193-dbc6a156576e; path=/; expires=Tue, 19 Dec 2023 00:52:20 GMT; SameSite=Lax
set-cookie: ahoy_visitor=731bf61c-7047-4c3b-84ad-e9b46471ca65; path=/; expires=Thu, 18 Dec 2025 20:52:20 GMT; SameSite=Lax
set-cookie: ahoy_visit=2f72ab22-365c-4b5b-9193-dbc6a156576e; path=/; expires=Tue, 19 Dec 2023 00:52:20 GMT; SameSite=Lax

this prevents me from being able to cache images on a CDN using active storage's proxy mode.

[schpet]

for anyone else running into this, a workaround that worked for me is rack-strip-cookies with the following config:

# config/application.rb
config.middleware.insert_before(ActionDispatch::Cookies, Rack::StripCookies, paths: %w[/rails/active_storage/representations/proxy])

[silva96]

@schpet Brilliant, I would add /rails/active_storage/blobs/proxy to the array too, your solution only helps with variant urls, not with original blobs