Track usage in Lotus Connections with Google Analytics

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Lately, I've been working with many customers that are deploying Lotus Connections in the extranet. One of their common interests is being able to see and report on usage, page views, unique users, etc.

One easy, and free, way to do this is by using Google Analytics. And, as it turns out, it's very easy to add Google Analytics tracking to Lotus Connections. To do so, follow these instructions:

1. Open an account with Google Analytics
2. Get the code to add to your site. Typically, it looks something like this:
   
   

   <script type="text/javascript"> var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); </script> <script type="text/javascript"> try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("XX-YYYYYYY-Z"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}</script>

   
   
   
3. Create a common footer file as explained here: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/ltscnnct/v2r0/topic/com.ibm.connections.25.help/t_admin_common_add_footer_section.html
4. In the footer.html, add the tracking code from step 2 above to the very bottom of the file. Make sure you replace the code in red with your own 'page id' that you get from Google Analytics
5. Save footer.html
6. Restart Connections.

That's it! Enjoy!