Configure a Google Analytics Integration

In order to easily track and report on book usage statistics as described in the SimplyE Circulation Analytics page, you can configure your SimplyE Circulation Manager to connect to your Google Analytics instance. Currently, Google Analytics is the only analytics engine supported for this function.

There are three components required to use Google Analytics to capture usage from your SimplyE service:

• A Google Analytics Account so you can establish tracking properties via its collector API
• A Google Analytics web (not app+web) property in your Google Analytics account to so you can create unique tracking ID for circulation and book-related events from Circulation Manager
  • NOTE: SimplyE does not use app-related Google tracking. All events are sent into the circulation manager database before being sent on to Google, in order to preserve patron privacy.
• Custom dimensions configured for the respective Google Analytics account and tracking property code for registering event metadata

Before getting started

The circulation manager can be used for 3 specific uses cases that may affect how you want to configure your Google Analytics integration.

1. Single system / Single Tenant - in this uses case you will only need one tracking code for your library.
2. Consortia - in this use case you may only need on tracking code, but need to leverage the "library" dimension measure individual member library circulation events
3. Multi-tenant - in this use case, you may be hosting multiple libraries in a circulation manager that are of no relationship to one another in terms of ebook service so you will want a single Google Analytics tracking code for the specific library.

Create a Property for SimplyE in your Google Analytics account

Creating the correct property on Google Analytics requires you to:

1. Click the gear icon/the "Admin" menu item on the bottom left
2. Click the blue "Create Property" button in the top of the middle column
3. Choose "Web" at the top of the screen, not Apps or Apps + Web
4. Scroll down and click "Continue"
5. For "Website Name" type "SimplyE" or a variant that will indicate to your team the data you'll be collecting
6. For "Website URL" it should be the URL of your circulation manager, which you can get from your hosting provider
7. Click "Create"
8. Click on back arrow next to Property Settings (closes that area)
9. In the right column (View), click on View Settings
10. Scroll down until you see a check box under "Bot Filtering". 
    Uncheck this (Google sets it by default to checked, but it can filter events from your cric manager)then click "Save"

Under the Property you can click on either "Properties" or "Tracking" to see the Tracking ID.  It should start with UA- and look something like UA-123456789-12. 

Record the Tracking ID and either send it to your hosting provider or follow the instructions below to add it to the Circulation Manager under Systems Configurations > Analytics

You can ignore the Global Site Tag content; we don't tag anything in order to preserve patron privacy

Configure Google Analytics Dimensions for SimplyE

To capture dimension data from the SimplyE Circulation Manager in your Google Analytics account, you must set up a "Web Property" in Google Analytics for the SimplyE Circulation Manager.

Reminder: we do not use "Google Tags" to track any elements in the mobile app itself; everything is captured by the Circulation Manager and exported to Google Analytics through the Measurement Protocol API v1 (learn more  the Google Measurement Protocol)

In your Google Analytics account, on the administration page (the gear icon in the lower left corner) for the property (middle column), go to:

• Custom Definitions
   > Custom Dimensions

Add the following dimensions, in this order:

1. time
2. identifier
3. identifier_type
4. title
5. author
6. fiction
7. audience
8. target_age
9. publisher
10. language
11. genre
12. open_access
13. distributor
14. medium
15. library

Each dimension should have the scope set to Hit and the Active box checked.

Add the Google Analytics Tracking ID to your Circulation Manager

In order to send circulation-related analytics events to your Google Analytics account, follow the instructions below to create a Google Analytics integration for your library in the Circulation Manager.

Step-by-step guide

1. Login to your Circulation Manager's administration site.
2. Click the Configuration or the System Configuration link in the top menu bar.
3. Click the Analytics sidebar item.
4. Click the Create new analytics service item.
5. Enter a name for the library/consortia-specific service; for example, ABC Public Library Google Analytics.
6. Leave the Protocol setting at Google Analytics.
7. The URL setting should also be correct and can be accepted as is.
8. Click the Add Library drop-down list.
9. Select the library for which this Google Analytics account applies.
10. In the new Tracking ID field which appears, enter the library/consortia's Google Analytics account ID.
11. Click the Add Library button.
12. Click the Submit button to save the new integration.

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SimplyE Circulation Analytics