Today I pushed a new update to RIAForge.org, and it's something I think that even non-RIAForge users may be interested in. A few weeks ago, Todd Sharp released ColdFusion Google API, a set of packages to integrate with Google. I've played a bit in this area as well, and Todd made use of a bit of my code as well (the benefits of sharing code, everyone wins). Part of his package is the ability to integrate with Google Analytics.
I've long used Google Analytics to monitor RIAForge, and it occurred to me that I could use his code to provide information about projects. Since every project has a unique base URL (something.riaforge.org), it made it easy to filter the data. Since I'm a lazy jerk, I asked Todd if he would mind whipping up a quick demo for me to use within RIAForge. He went way beyond that and basically wrote 90% of the code. All I had to do was cut, paste, and create the view page.
Currently these stats are secured, but here are a few screen shots to give you an idea. As much as I love Google Analytics, it isn't always the most simple interface to use. It also requires you to login to another site to view the reports. Todd work allows you to integrate all of this within your application itself. (In fact, I'm hoping to add this support to a little project of my own.) Huge kudos to Todd for doing this. Anyway, enough praise, here are some simple screen shots from the BlogCFC project. (And yes, I realize the tables are a bit... meh... but I'm going to worry about that later. I think RIAForge is due for a facelift anyway.)
Archived Comments
Ok, that looks really sexy!
Infact, it is so cool i think that is what I will be doing this weekend!
Is there any way that you can share Todd's code??
Yep, I cam share it. Todd wrote it all and I don't think he will mind. Will do it tomorow though.
Feel free to share, but I'd like to see a link here if it's used somewhere I can see it :)
This is awesome. Thanks Todd and Ray!
Just returned from a cool CF9 preso by Claude Engelbert in Amsterdam - thanx Claude! Saw some nice CFGoogle-stuff - will this be in there as well? With this I mean all the wrappers presented here?
What do you mean? The analytics stuff _is_ in the package. What Todd did for me was to wrap up some common _calls_ with his code. Ie, I didn't have to read the docs. So afaik, nothing I (RIAForge) has is not available to the public (if I'm reading you right). There seems to be interest, so I'll follow up this post with a code post so folks can see a bit more.
What I mean is do the new CF9 google-tags superseed this package, or is it to be used next to these new tags?
What new Google tags? Do you mean the CFMAP tag? That's the only Google-related CF9 thing there is, and it certainly does not do analytics.
Oh..., then I've misunderstood Claude, he was talking about several new Google integration tags, of which one was the CFMAP tag. I presumed GMail and Analytics would be other integration tags - my bad.