ipproxy

Proxy to zero the last octet of the ip-address from Google Analytics client requests to /collect and then pass them along to Analytics using the Google Analytics Measurement Protocol.

Mainly useful if you prefer to do ip-address anonymization yourself (e.g. to conform with local legal requirements).

Testing/developing with ipproxy and receiverSim

Default inital setup is for ipproxy to send data to receiverSim to see that everything is working.

With this setup, nothing is sent to Google.

Step 1: run ipproxy

# Shell 1: ipproxy
# in cloned repository root
npm install
node server.js 

Console should end with a line similar to:

2015-03-04T13:03:22.630Z - ipproxy app listening at http://0.0.0.0:8080

Follow ipproxy.log and ipproxyAccess.log to see that things are working.

To access ipproxy (on localhost): http://localhost:8080

Step 2: run receiverSim (in place of Google)

# Shell 2: receiverSim
# in cloned repository root
cd test/receiverSim/
npm install
node server.js 

Console should end with a line similar to:

receiverSim app listening at http://0.0.0.0:9080

Follow receiverSim.log and receiverSimAccess.log to see that things are working.

To access receiverSim: http://localhost:9080

Step 3: Set up tracker to hit ipproxy instead of Google

Set up your Universal Analytics tracker to hit ipproxy instead of Google (e.g. http://localhost:8080/collect instead of http://www.google-analytics.com/collect ).

This can be done by replacing sendHitTask (based on documentation in https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/tasks).

Note that localhost as hostname will only work on with a browser on the same computer as where ipproxy is running.

ga('create', 'UA-XXXXX-Y', 'auto');

ga(function(tracker) {

  // Modifies sendHitTask to hit ipproxy instead of http://www.google-analytics.com directly
  tracker.set('sendHitTask', function(model) {
    payload = model.get('hitPayload');
    var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
    xhr.open('GET', 'http://localhost:8080/collect' +'?' + payload, true);
    xhr.send();
  });

ga('send', 'pageview');

Using ipproxy with Google Analytics

Step 1: run ipproxy with config set to pass data to Google

# Shell 1: ipproxy
# in cloned repository root
npm install
node server.js --configPath=config-8080-to-google.json

Note that you need to be running ipproxy on a public hostname:port so that users browsers can access it.

Step 2: Set up tracker to hit ipproxy instead of Google

Set up one tracker (default) and send pageview

Set up your Universal Analytics tracker to hit ipproxy instead of Google (e.g. http://ipproxy-hostname.yourdomain.somewhere:8080/collect instead of http://www.google-analytics.com/collect ).

This can be done by replacing sendHitTask (based on documentation in https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/tasks).

Note that there is a separate sendHitTask for each tracker, so this code only works for the default tracker.

ga('create', 'UA-XXXXX-Y', 'auto');

ga(function(tracker) {

  // Modifies sendHitTask to hit ipproxy instead of http://www.google-analytics.com directly
  tracker.set('sendHitTask', function(model) {
    payload = model.get('hitPayload');
    var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
    xhr.open('GET', 'http://ipproxy-hostname.yourdomain.somewhere:8080/collect' +'?' + payload, true);
    xhr.send();
  });

  ga('send', 'pageview');
});

Set up multiple trackers and send pageview to all of them

There is a separate sendHitTask for each tracker.

ga('create', 'UA-XXXXX-Y', 'auto',  {'name': 'testTracker1'});
ga('create', 'UA-XXXXX-Z', 'auto',  {'name': 'testTracker2'});

// Only execute when everything is set up (Asynchronous Synchronization)
ga(function () {
  var i;
  var trackers = ga.getAll();

  // Modify sendHitTask for all trackers
  for (i = 0; i < trackers.length; i++) {
    var tracker = trackers[i];

    // Set anonymizeIp as a fallback
    tracker.set('anonymizeIp', true); // with this, should get aip=1 for hits

    // Modifies sendHitTask for tracker to send the request to a local ipproxy server, which passes it on to
    // www.google-analytics.com/collect after ip anonymization
    tracker.set('sendHitTask', function (model) {
      var payload = model.get('hitPayload');
      var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
      xhr.open('GET', 'http://ipproxy-hostname.yourdomain.somewhere:8080/collect' + '?' + payload, true);
      xhr.send();
    });
  }

  // Send asynchronous 'pageview' for all trackers
  for (i=0; i < trackers.length; ++i) {
    tracker = trackers[i];
    ga(tracker.get('name') + '.send', 'pageview');
  }

});