One of my most popular plugins is my Google Analytics for WordPress plugin, having been downloaded almost 700,000 times. This post is to let you know that this plugin is going to be getting quite a few updates in the coming month, the first of which I’ve just submitted to WordPress.org.
There’s two reasons for the updates: the first is security, there is an XSS hole (mentioned here) in the latest version of my plugin, which is fixed by this newest update, so please, do update.
The second reason is a lot more fun: I’m going to be adding support for the new asynchronous tracking. It’s going to be optional, of course, which makes it a bit of work to implement, so please give me some time. You can expect an update in about a week for version 1, but as this is a new form of tracking, I can’t guarantee the new form will be entirely working, there might be bugs in there, etc.
So, thanks for using my Google Analytics plugin, and please share all your thoughts about it in the comments!
Awesome! I was hoping asynchronous tracking support would be implemented.
Hello Joost,
I currently use some of your other plugins like Robots Meta and The Wp-Contact form, both of them work exceptionally well!
I haven’t used this one as I wanted to check with you if the plugin data is stored in the database and does it get larger as the time goes by?
If that is so – is it possible to purge that data, or export it?
Thanks for the excellent development efforts!
Great news Joost! This is the reason I’m using your great plugins – they keep getting better (and stay up to date). With this analytics plugin, one of my favorites, some people don’t first understand why I’m not just copying the code directly to the theme but use a plugin instead. When I explain the outbound link tracking and other goodness, it all makes sense :)
As soon as I saw Google’s announcement that they would be doing a BETA on GA with asynchronous tracking, I knew you would be all over it.
Cannot wait!
Can I track events with this plugin? For example, click on play in a player or click on an image or a banner link?
Thanks!
some events, like outbound link clicks, are automatically tracked, others you’ll have to track manually. I’m thinking of a way of making this easier, for instance by allowing you to add
class="trackevent"to a link and that the plugin would then automatically replace that with an outbound link tracker, but that’s just plans so far, not real.Okay, thanks for your fast reply. I will keep ‘tracking’ your future plugin updates. ;)
For new users of your plugin i think it would be good to be explicit about whether to put ‘UA’ in the string or not. Maybe the new version could show an example to the left of the white box. With some analytics plugins you do include UA, and others not so it can be confusing.
Hiya – the security release doesn’t appear to have made it to the plugin directory properly. Although the ChangeLog lists
3.2.5
* Fix for XSS vulnerability
The latest stable version is still tagged as 3.2.4 so WordPress users won’t be seeing the updates in their dashboard (Looks like 3.2.5 is still tagged as 3.2.4 – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-analytics-for-wordpress/download/ ?)
Looking forward to the asynchronous stuff!
Cheers
This is totally weird… The download link on the plugin page gives you 3.2.5, yet the page lists 3.2.4 as the current version… I just tested on a blog that had version 3.2.2, it showed an update to 3.2.4, yet when I upgraded, it upgraded to 3.2.5…..
Yeah – unfortunately there’s no option to upgrade if you’re already on 3.2.4 :(
I’ve had problems publishing mine before – maybe just republish as 3.2.6?
I found the issue, and someone is looking at it, apparently, the code checks for the version number in different spots, see the wp-hackers archives for details :)
haha I knew this day would come. When I first saw the accouncement for asynch tracking, I immediately thought “yoast?”
I really wanted to implement asynch manually last week but I decided to search around and found some technical feedback from some of the users regarding bugs and whatnot.
1. http://googlecode.blogspot.com/2009/12/google-analytics-launches-asynchronous.html?showComment=1259754482162#c1081068359340197155
2. http://googlecode.blogspot.com/2009/12/google-analytics-launches-asynchronous.html?showComment=1259772703741#c7838511078534258521
Maybe you could take a look there and see if they are valid concerns.
Thanks for the awesome plugin, Joost!
More great enhancements to an invaluable plugin. Awesome!
This is great news and anything that Google can do to help the load times that are affected and slowed down by the Analytics code is greatly appreciated. Awesome! Thanks!
Hi, I am now using Google Analytics for WordPress Version 3.2.4. How do I manually upgrade to version 3.2.5? Can I just replace all the old files with new latest files? This is the first time I tried to upgrade the plugin. Thanks!
Why would you want to upgrade manually? You can indeed copy over all files, that’ll work fine!
Because before this I have been using automatic updates to upgrade wordpress and it failed. So, I am afraid that it will be the same if I use the automatic update to upgrade the plugin. :)
Hrmm, I didn’t know about the additional benefits of using this plugin (I didn’t see why anyone would not just add the code to their site). I’m definitely going to play with this one!
Thanks for all your hard work on this! I’m really looking forward to the asynchronous tracking. I’ve been seeing a lot of 404s from tracking errors and the new analytics code looks like it will eliminate that problem.
I like the plugin very much. Great job. All your plugins are exceptional. Keep up the good work.
Hi Joost, great plugin! Have been using it for a few weeks now and it love it!
Question: in a future release would it be possible to allow for TWO analytics Tracking Codes?
For example, I’m doing some SEO work for client and want to track some things on Google Analytics and my client would also like to see the reports in his browser.
Thanks!
You can give your client access to his unique tracking ID so he can see it too.
You should change requirement from 2.7 to 2.8 because you use things that weren’t available in 2.7 which are making problems.
A great plugin, I have been using this on all my blogs for quite sometime and the information really comes in handy. I will be looking forward to the new update.
Has the new upgrade come out yet. Looking forward to testing the beta.
I look at figures from compete and find that they give us higher traffic than google analytics. Any idea why that would happen, and what we might do to improve data from google analytics?
Thank you very much, Joost !!!
Awsome work indeed !!!
Joost always has good stuff out there. He is simply the best.
@Ingrid who gives more traffic than analytics? You mean to say yahoo?
I think I had the plugin installed incorrectly. I was looking at other analytics, like compete.com and the difference between google analytics compete was huge.
@Ingrid, Compete.com does not have exact data. They sample from their users then extrapolate statistically based on that. They will not likely ever line up exactly with your real data. I have tracked my numbers and theirs on one site for many months. Sometimes they are very close, but sometimes they are either over or under by huge amounts.
Hi,
where are the tracked downloads? Are they in my domain or in Google Analytics account?
I do not find the Prefix for tracked downloads. I do not find any Prefix…
Can anyone help me?
Thanks in advance.
Thanks Doug. That is just as I thought. Just needed confirmation.
Hi,
where are the tracked downloads?
Where is the right forum for my question?
Thanks in advance.
@ Giuseppe – All tracking is in your Google Analytics account.
I didn’t even knew, that there is a Google Analytics Plugin.
I will download and test it!
Thanks for this information..
@Tom the Google Analytics plugin is the same as a one you would have if you signed up for it with a Google account. The only difference is that the plugin mashes in with the WP Dashboard.
@Guiseppe all your data you need will be in your Google Analytics account.
@Ingrid there is nothing close to Google Analytics at this time I believe. Compete.com is not accurate as far as I can tell.
hihihihihi…i am
confuse….may be sometimes i'll tryfor understand about it...
Great news about updating to include support for asynchronous tracking. I’m quite curious about the speed improvements of this change in Google Analytics integration.
What exactly is different in asynch tracking than regular tracking?
Is it possible to search for custom time frames in Google Analytics? Say I wanted to see a day from last week or last month.
Thank you.
@Joost, off topic question: What is the name of the ‘Notify me of followup comments via e-mail’ plugin?
Subscribe to Comments
I thought it was this plugin, but was not sure after reading the plugin info on wp: Last Updated: 2007-12-14 and Compatible up to: 2.3.1.
Thanks for sharing.
@Arjen that means whenever a new comment appears they send you an email with a link to click on to see the comment.