How I Added Google Analytics Tracking Code instead of using a plugin

[ardhill]

How I put the Google Analytics in my ZenCart without A plugin


The Short Answer

Get your Google Analytics Code, open this file on your Zen Cart site:
\includes\templates\MY_Custom_Template\common\tpl_main_page.php

Scroll to the bottom of the file and just before the final line that is:
</body>

Paste in your code from google. Save the file, upload to your live site and that's it.


The Longer Answer

I wanted to add the Google Analytics code (GA code) direct to my site and not to use a plugin for my own reasons. But when I got the tracking code from Google, their instructions were to:

2. Paste this code on your site
Copy the following code, then paste it onto every page you want to track immediately before the closing </head> tag.

So, I did the sensible thing and created a new google-analytics.js file, and uploaded it to:
\includes\templates\MY_Custom_Template\jscript\

Then I couldn't figure out why it wasn't working.

I searched about on here, and found that some other had the same issue, and suggested adding it before the </body> tag instead. I was a bit concerned, because the post I read were from a while ago, and things change online so quickly.

But, I had a go at the method I mentioned above (see my short answer), and the new Real-Time beta reporting on GA showed results immediately :) So, all I know that this method works today 18 June 2012 on Zen Cart v 1.5.0

I wrote this to hopefully save others having to search through tons of posts in mixed threads to find the answer to this problem.

Should you want a Plugin instead, you could try this one: http://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=272
(I am not connected with this)

If you want a bit more help with the whole process of setting up a GA account, getting the code and integrating it, one of the contributors on here wrote an article on this: http://pro-webs.net/tutorials/settin...racking-basic/


I don't know if the way that I have outlined here is the 'proper' or 'recommended' way of doing this, but it appears to work.

I hope this helps to save some some time for some people.

Paul

[gjh42]

So, I did the sensible thing and created a new google-analytics.js file, and uploaded it to:
\includes\templates\MY_Custom_Template\jscript\

Then I couldn't figure out why it wasn't working.

If you named the file like that, it would not work in any case. You need to start filenames in /jscript/ folders with jscript_, so your file could be like jscript_google-analytics.js.

[ardhill]

If you named the file like that, it would not work in any case. You need to start filenames in /jscript/ folders with jscript_, so your file could be like jscript_google-analytics.js.

Sorry, yes you are quite right - my bad.
I was more concerned about writing the post, and by the time I had written it, I had done it the other way on Zen Cart and deleted the .js file.

Thanks for clearing up any confusion.

Paul

[JaspalX]

Hi ardhill, may be a silly question but when you created the jscript_google-analytics.js file, did you remove the <script></script> tags? I just tried it and it seems to work fine. FWIW, I used jscript_ga.js

[ardhill]

Hi ardhill, may be a silly question but when you created the jscript_google-analytics.js file, did you remove the <script></script> tags? I just tried it and it seems to work fine. FWIW, I used jscript_ga.js

Yes, you are correct.

These .js files are loaded and run as Javascript by Zen Cart, so you don't need to add the <script></script> tags.

In fact the ZenCart wiki states:

NOTE: jscript_*.js files must not contain any <script...> .... </script> tags. They should contain ONLY the contents that are to go "between" those tags.

http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.p...verride_How-To

[stickleback]

Hi there,

I'm trying to find a way to add Google -remarketing code to my pages - this seemed like a simple way to "hardwire" it into the page code - I tried, but it simply doesn't show up...

I'm a little lost - any help would be most appreciated....

Thanks

[ardhill]

I'm trying to find a way to add Google -remarketing code to my pages

Personally, I had to google - "Google remarketing code" to see what you were talking about

Sorry, but right now I personally just don't have time to read it up and play with the code. Maybe you could start a new thread on this as there aren't that may people involved in this thread. Others may be able to help that won't read this thread. There is bound to be other people who have done what you want, or are working on it and read the forums here.

BTW, do you have a short desription of what Google remarketing is?

Regards,

Paul

[marton_1]

Thanks for this; Google Analytics works now.
Reports are strange. Google analytics shows one visitor per day & google adwords show 30/40?

[Painted Hills NB]

How I put the Google Analytics in my ZenCart without A plugin


The Short Answer

Get your Google Analytics Code, open this file on your Zen Cart site:
\includes\templates\MY_Custom_Template\common\tpl_main_page.php

Scroll to the bottom of the file and just before the final line that is:
</body>

Paste in your code from google. Save the file, upload to your live site and that's it.


Paul

Thanks Paul. Worked perfectly!

[aestheticdesign]

I was previously referencing an external file and I can't figure out where I have the code that's referencing it. It stopped working because Google changed the code. I added the new script to the html_header.php file so it would be right before the </head> tag. But I need to delete the old script reference and I can't figure out where it's coded.

Here's a snippet of /includes/templates/mytemplate/common/html_header.php

<script>
  (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
  (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
  m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
  })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');

  ga('create', 'UA-43155911-1', 'oldsummit.com');
  ga('send', 'pageview');

</script>
</head>

But the view source shows up like this:

<script>
  (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
  (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
  m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
  })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');

  ga('create', 'UA-43155911-1', 'oldsummit.com');
  ga('send', 'pageview');

</script>
<script src='/google_analytics_auto.js'></script></head>

I can't find how the google_analytics_auto.js is being inserted. Searching for it using the Developers Tool Kit, or using BBEdit on a local version of the files comes up empty.

Any ideas what could be inserting it? The javascript file itself has been deleted so it's not autoloading it and anyways it is in the root directory, not one of the special javascript directories. It has be referenced somewhere and I can't find it. Using v. 1.5