VBA Analytics

Way of tracking code analytics and metrics. Useful when multiple users are running code within a shared network.

---

Other Helpful Resources

• www.roberttodar.com About me and my background and some of my other projects.
• Style Guide A guide for writing clean VBA code. Notes on how to take notes =)
• Boilerplate A Boilerplate that contains a bunch of helper libraries such as JSON tools, Code Analytics, LocalStorage, Unit Testing, version control and local network distribution, userform events, and more!
• Arrays An Array function library, functions that mimic JavaScript Arrays.
• Strings String function library. ToString, Inject, StringSimilarity, and more.
• Userform EventListener Listen to events such as mouseover, mouseout, focus, blur, and more.

---

Required

Import AnalyticsTracker.cls and JSON.cls into your project.

Set a reference to the Microsoft Scripting Runtime as both of these classes use Scripting.Dictionary and Scripting.FileSystemObject.

---

Usage

Initialize a new instance of AnalyticsTracker and call the method TrackStats to start tracking. Place this near the top of your code or from the point you want to start tracking.

To complete the tracking you can call FinalizeStats. Note that this is optional as you can let the Class_Terminate event fire that method itself.

Optionaly you can add stats to the main thread using AddStat or even add your own custom events using LogEvent.

'/**
' * Sample of how to track and use Analytics class.
' *
' * @ref {Class Module} AnalyticsTracker
' */
Private Sub howToTrackAnalytics()
    ' This tracks to a JSON file and the immediate window.
    ' To be effecent this appends to the text file.
    ' Because of this the JSON file is missing the outer array
    ' brackets []. Also includes a comma after each object {},
    ' So to use this as JSON you must edit those two things.
    Dim analytics As New AnalyticsTracker

    ' You can track standard stats for code use!
    ' This collects codeName, username, date, time, timesaved, runtime
    analytics.TrackStats "test", 5

    ' You can also optionally add custom stats to the main thread.
    analytics.AddStat "customStat", "I'm custom!"

    ' You also have the ability to log your own custom events. This by default
    ' still adds standard stats date, time, username.
    analytics.LogEvent "onCustom", "name", "Robert", "age", 31

    ' Optional! You can either call this function or let the
    ' terminate event in the class to run it. Really the only
    ' function that needs to be called in order to collect stats
    ' is `TrackStats` or `AddStat`. Put that at the top of a function
    ' and it will log all the basic stats.
    analytics.FinalizeStats
End Sub

Here is an example showing the minimum amount of code needed to track basic stats.

Private Sub minimumNeededToTrackAnalytics()
    Dim analytics As New AnalyticsTracker
    analytics.TrackStats "test"
    ' Do Something...
End Sub

---

The data

Immediate Window dislays a formatted version of the JSON.

Tracking Analitics For test
{
  "event": "onUse",
  "id": "E7846A245BC04750813A47B3020EB84A",
  "codeName": "test",
  "username": "rtoda02",
  "date": "11/6/2019",
  "time": "1:37:53 PM",
  "runtimeSeconds": 0
}

Analytics.json file is appended. This means the outer brackets [] are missing from the JSON file and the last added record has a comma that needs to be removed.

{
  "event": "onUse",
  "id": "E7846A245BC04750813A47B3020EB84A",
  "codeName": "test",
  "username": "rtoda02",
  "date": "11/6/2019",
  "time": "1:37:53 PM",
  "runtimeSeconds": 0
},

To use this JSON add the array brackets [] and remove the last record comma.

[
  {
    "event": "onUse",
    "id": "E7846A245BC04750813A47B3020EB84A",
    "codeName": "test",
    "username": "rtoda02",
    "date": "11/6/2019",
    "time": "1:37:53 PM",
    "runtimeSeconds": 0
  }
]