google analytics in nginx

nginx_google_analytics

# send logs for all traffic (including non-html) to google analytics
#
# in server block:
#  set $google_analytics_id "UA-THECORRECT-ID";
#  include            /srv/nginx/google_analytics;
#
# in location blocks:
#  post_action @ga;
#
# notes: post_action has been referred to by nginx devs as a "dirty hack" and this approach may stop working one day.
#        if so, can fall back to the js injection method
#
# refs:
# https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/protocol/v1/
# http://developers-club.com/posts/260553/
# https://qzaidi.github.io/2014/04/19/google-universal-analytics/

userid on;
userid_name cid;
userid_expires 2y;

set $ga_dp $uri;
set $ga_host $host;

#userid is contained in uid_got or uid_set, depending on if it's already been set
#also the cookie variable name is included (e.g. cid=ASDF), so no need to specify it in the query params
set $cid $uid_got$uid_set;

location @ga {
  internal;

  #don't track web asset file requests
  if ($request_filename ~* .(gif|jpe?g|png|ico|js|css)$ ) {
    return 200;
    break;
  }

  #don't track robots.txt
  if ($request_filename ~* robots.txt$ ) {
    return 200;
    break;
  }
  
  #don't track internal requests
  #NOTE: this requires a geo section in the http block listing CIDRs for internal addresses,
  #usually in nginx.conf
  #example:
  #geo $internal_request {
  #  default 0;
  #    123.44.15.122/24 1;
  #    109.34.13.98/32 1;
  #}

  if ($internal_request) {
    return 200;
    break;
  }

  #NOTE: this does *not* currently try to exclude requests from bots.
  #known bots can be excluded from Google Analytics in the Admin settings under
  #View/View Settings/Exclude all hits from known bots and spiders
  #if its desirable to exclude specific user agents here, define a map:
  #
  #map $http_user_agent $bot_request {
  #   default 0;
  #   ~*(ahrefsbot|dotbot|semrush) 1;
  #   ~*(yandex|baidu) 1;
  #}
  #
  #then exclude these requests from being sent to Google Analytics
  #note: these requests would still be allowed, they just wouldn't be tracked in GA

  resolver 8.8.8.8 ipv6=off;
  proxy_ignore_client_abort on;
  proxy_next_upstream timeout;
  proxy_connect_timeout 1s;

  set $ga_api "https://www.google-analytics.com";
  #set $ga_api "https://www.google-analytics.com/debug"; #use for debugging

  #TESTING
  #Route request to a local target to debug the constructed Measurement API url
  #vanilla nginx will do:
  #docker run --rm -p 8888:80 nginx:1.12
  #or something more thorough:
  #docker run --rm -p 8888:80 mendhak/http-https-echo
  #set $ga_api "http://192.168.0.45:8888"; #for local testing

  #NOTE: DOWNLOAD SIZE TRACKING
  #Google Analytics doesn't track download sizes out of the box.
  #Here we are using a custom metric (cm1) and sending the value of nginx's body_bytes_sent
  #The custom metric has to be set up in Google Analytics (Admin/Property/Custom Definitions/Custom Metrics)
  #and then added to a custom report (Customization/Custom Reports) before it can be visualized in Google Analytics.

  proxy_set_header Host "www.google-analytics.com";
  proxy_pass $ga_api/collect?v=1&dp=/$ga_host$ga_dp&dh=$ga_host&tid=$google_analytics_id&$cid&uip=$remote_addr&t=pageview&cm1=$body_bytes_sent;
}

nginx_google_analytics_example_usage

server {
  listen              80;
  server_name         erddap.yoursite.org;

  #set $google_analytics_id and include the google_analytics file below
  set $google_analytics_id "UA-12345678-9";
  include            /etc/nginx/google_analytics;

  location /erddap/ {
    #your normal config goes here...

    #call the @ga location as a post_action
    post_action        @ga;
  }
}

Hey there, are you still using this?

This has served me very well the past couple years, but now that Google is going to deprecate the old analytics for the new Analytics 4, I haven't been able to properly replicate this with the new tagging system
Though more specifically I'm not even sure if this type of usage is still even possible with the new Analytics 4