State of Analytics

Scripture App Builder
1

Hi,

What is the state of Analytics?

It seems that Google Analytics has turned into Firebase which will require including libraries and such.
Can’t find any information online about FBCH analytics. Is it still a work in progress?

So at this moment, is the only thing that is workable Amazon Mobile Analytics (now Pinpoint)?

Thanks
Ray

2

Hello,

I am currently working an update to Analytics for the next release of SAB. Details are not complete yet about what is changing. I will include documentation about the different options (sorry that there isn’t any right now). I could use help with working on the documentation for the current and future Analytics (anyone, please reply if you are interested – thanks in advance!).

Chris
SIL Mobile Software Developer

3

@ChrisHubbard - thanks for this note. Can you say approximately when the next release of SAB is targeted for? Are you talking like weeks, month, or multiple months away? Thanks

Depending on what is involved in “helping work on the documentation,” I could potentially provide assistance.

If you have even a short answer to my question posted about “Offline Usage Analytics,” that would be super helpful as well. Thanks!

4

@O_Dev I’m not a developer but I’ve read/heard in a presentation that you can still use Google Analytics…just create a new Website Property rather than a Mobile App property (which now requires Firebase and including libraries). I have 10 apps that are using this basic version of Google Analytics though the data that’s provided is minimal because I think most of the use is offline…which is why I just posted the question about Offline Usage Analytics because I heard that using either Amazon or FCBH analytics will allow for some offline usage data.

5

@lasnider,

  1. We are targeting the next release for early February.
  2. I can share a Google Drive folder with you to collaborate on the documentation.
  3. I am working on a response to your message about Offline Usage Analytics. :slight_smile:

Chris

6

@ChrisHubbard

Sure, go ahead and share the Google Drive folder with me. I’ll see how much I can help.

Looking forward to the next release and to your response about Offline Usage Analytics.

Luke

7

I’m guessing the changes to Analytics was pushed to the next release as I don’t see any changes in the SAB 4.3 release from last week.

@ChrisHubbard let me know if/when you need help with the documentation related to Analytics. Also, when you have more info about offline analytics to share, I’m eager to hear it. Thanks for all your efforts on this project!

8

Hello Luke,

Updates to analytics didn’t make it into 4.3. I have started working on it for 4.4. I hope to get it updated for that release.

Chris

9

Thanks Chris, does it mean that if we add the google analytics using 4.3, it will actually not work?

Cheers,

Aure

10

Also Chris, do you think you could add the Facebook for SDK so we can do analysis and app engagement with Facebook. This would help with marketing app using Facebook.

https://developers.facebook.com/docs/app-ads

Cheers,

Au

11

I believe Google Analytics still works fine. This discussion is more related to getting analytics when users use the apps while NOT connected to the internet. Google Analytics works but in my experience of using with SAB, Google Analytics doesn’t really capture any information if the user is offline while using the app.

I’m hoping there is a way with Amazon Analytics or FCBH analytics to capture some information of what/how users used the apps while offline that is reported when the user occasionally connects to the internet.

12

When is SAB v4.4 scheduled to be released with the analytics fixes?

13

Hello @nazukeoya - SAB 4.4 is released on March 15 and available for download from
https://software.sil.org/scriptureappbuilder/download/

14

Yes, SAB v4.4 was released. With any of the analytics packages, the network connection has to be active while the app is in the foreground for events to be transmitted. We don’t have a way to send events when the network connection becomes available and the scripture app in not foreground.

It includes the following Analytics packages:

  • Firebase Analytics (new)
    • Events older than 72 hours are ignored by the server
  • Amazon Mobile Analytics (now called Pinpoint)
  • Amplitude (new)
    • Will keep the latest 1000 events and send them when online
  • Google Analytics
  • FCBH Digest Analytics
    • Summary of events is sent once a day with small payload. FCBH hosts software that processes payloads and shows result on a dashboard.
  • S3 Digest Analytics (new)
    • Same implementation as FCBH Digest Analytics, but allows the app-builder to have data sent to their own S3 Bucket. They will need software to process the digest payloads.

See the Building Apps document for details on configuring these different analytics packages. Please provide feedback to me if these instructions are not clear.

Thanks,
Chris Hubbard

15

Thank you very much! I really just wanted to say “thank you” but apparently I have to write 20 characters.

16

Thanks for this detailed post @ChrisHubbard. I have a/some follow up questions related to offline usage.

  • Scenario: Many users of our apps have intermittent access to internet and/or limited access to internet. If, for example, many users were only to connect to the internet (and be using our SAB-built apps with analytics turned on) once every 4 days or even once per week, which analytics package that you’ve listed above is the best one to capture the most events logged via analytics for these types of users?

  • This sentence I highlighted below from your post is important for understanding how analytics works. I understand what you are saying but here is my follow-up question: is the limitation regarding sending analytics only when app is in the foreground and network connection is active the case for any app that has analytics built-in or specifically a limitation within the SAB platform? Just wondering as this seems like a huge limitation for the analytics world as a whole but maybe that’s just way it is and most people expecting to benefit from analytics also assume a network connection will always be available when their users are using their app and the app tries to send an analytics package.

“the network connection has to be active while the app is in the foreground for events to be transmitted. We don’t have a way to send events when the network connection becomes available and the scripture app in not foreground.”

17

@ChrisHubbard or anyone else have any thoughts/feedback about my scenario and question that I posted here?

I imagine that there are multiple user bases where because of limited internet, many users will be using the SAB app and be online at the same time less often than 1-3 days. I’d be interested in anyone’s recommendations/thoughts about which analytics platform may work best in these scenarios.

Or is analytics in general not designed with such user scenarios in mind?

18

[Note: I had started this message and realized I hadn’t posted it. Thankfully the website kept the draft.]

Hello @lasnider,

I would recommend trying it out for yourself. Make an app with multiple analytics in it (creating the accounts are free) and have some friends use it and see what you get.

If you want real-time analytics of individual events, I would recommend Amplitude (I prefer their dashboard).
If you want push notifications in the future, it looks like we might be working on this with Firebase so give Firebase Analytics a try.
If daily summaries are fine, then use FCBH Digest Analytics. The other advantage is that analytics will be stored until the app is running when the device is connected to the internet and the sent information is very small (less than 300 bytes per daily summary).

Also, If you are using FCBH audio (especially when not streamed from their Digital Bible Platform), then you really should really consider using FCBH Analytics so they a get report of it (and they donate to the text holders when audio associated with the text is used).

Thanks,
Chris

19

Thanks for the response @ChrisHubbard, trying out multiple analytics is a good idea!

Just one more follow up question. Regarding using the FCBH Digest Analytics, in your understanding are you saying

  • that multiple daily summaries would be stored until the device is connected to the internet while using the app (thus if a user used the app daily but only connected to the internet 1x/week, 7 daily summaries would be sent?)
    OR
  • that only the most recent daily summary would be sent?
20

All 7 daily summaries would be sent.

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