GoogleAnalyticsHandler

Google Analytics Handler for ASP

An ASP handler that reports request information to Google Analytics.

Since Google Analytics is operated by the client, embedded as JavaScript in HTML, it will only track HTML requests. By adding this Handler in front of non-HTML files, you can send the request information directly from the server, as part of delivering the content.

This allows you to use Google Analytics to track other requests, like media downloads (audio and video), plain text files, or XML (including RSS and Atom).

You can configure this handler in an on-premises IIS installation, or inside an Azure Web App.

Instructions

1. Add the handler to your web application. Simply add the GoogleAnalyticsHandler.dll to the bin directory of your web app.

2. Add your Google Analytics Property ID as an appSetting for your web app. You can configure this in your Web.config:

   You can also set this as a connection string, which is useful in case your appSettings are not inherited in a way that you would like, particularly if you are using the location-based redirect appSetting configuration described below.

   For Azure Web Apps, you can configure this in the Azure Portal.

3. Configure the handler for whatever path(s) you want to report to Google Analytics. For example, to configure all rss.xml requests to be recorded to Google Analytics, add this to your Web.config:

   You can also use wildcards here: for example, setting path="old/*" will send all requests beneath the old/ directory to this handler.

4. (Optional) If you do not want to deliver a local file, but want to perform a redirect (while delivering request information to Google Analytics), then configure the redirect path as an application setting. You can configure this in your Web.config:

   Now any request for /old/foo.html will be redirected to https://www.example.com/foo.html and Google Analytics will be notified about the request for /old/foo.html.

5. (Optional) If you want to redirect an entire directory, such that any request within a directory is redirected to a different directory, you can configure this in your Web.config:

   Now any request for /old/bar.html will be redirected to https://www.example.com/bar.html and Google Analytics will be notified about the request for /old/bar.html. Similarly, any request beneath the old/ directory will be handled in the same manner.