Not too long ago Google released Google Analytics for Flash. My first reaction was one of happiness; finally some attention would be put into Flash analytics. But after looking into it a bit more I found out that Google Analytics for Flash wasn’t such a big deal.
On Google Analytics side, nothing changed; no specific stats just for Flash, just the good old interface we all know. On the Flash side, nothing changed much there either; instead of doing this:
1 2 | ExternalInterface.call("pageTracker._trackPageview('/somepage');"); |
You now do this:
1 2 | tracker = new GATracker( this, "window.PageTracker", "Bridge", false ); tracker.trackPageview( "/somepage"); |
From the look of it, it’s actually more code than before.
The cool thing about GA for Flash is the ActionScript 3 mode. In that mode, you can call the tracker even if the JavaScript code wasn’t imported in the HTML page the Flash file is embedded. Now that is a possibility that we didn’t have before. So in a context where you do not have control over the HTML you flash will be embedded, this will enable you to do analytics just the same. I have also seen in the road map for the project that they want to implement it for Adobe AIR also; this will be very useful.
What will you be using Google Analytics for Flash for?
#1 by Daniel Rodriguez - December 10th, 2008 at 21:30
You can use SWF Address and the normal Google Analytics and works perfectly.
#2 by JesterXL - December 10th, 2008 at 23:16
Response here:
http://jessewarden.com/2008/12/why-google-analytics-for-flash.html
#3 by Wally - December 10th, 2008 at 23:55
the big issue is it make your swf file size bigger than before, if import google analytics for flash.
about 40k.
#4 by zedia.net - December 11th, 2008 at 10:42
@Daniel
Using SWFAddress is fine, but if you want to track more custom stuff than changing pages you still have to use ExternalInterface
@JesterXL
I responded on your blog
@Wally
I agree it’s an issue, but I can see a lot of case where it won’t matter that much, like if your application is of sufficient size already. But yeah, forget using that in a banner ad.
#5 by azriq - December 16th, 2008 at 22:44
Does the google analytics for flash compatible with actionscript 2.0 ?
#6 by zedia.net - December 16th, 2008 at 23:28
I am pretty sure that Google Analytics for FLash is Actionscript 3 only, but if you want to use GA in an AS2 context it is fairly easy to use ExternalInterface to call the javascript pageTracker.
#7 by Professional Software Developer - March 18th, 2010 at 06:21
Digging up an old post here…
I am busy completing a site in Actionscript 2 that will need Google Analytics and will probably have to go the ExternalInterface route to get the job done.