Google Analytics Management

Adding Google Analytics to the OntoPortal Virtual Appliance

BioPortal uses the Google API to process our website data.

If you want to use Google Analytics on your OntoPortal site, you will need a Google developer account to use the Google API, and a Google Analytics account to see the analytics. The Google API is used to process the website’s data.

Google Developer Account

You can create an account at https://console.developers.google.com/project. Use the following steps to do so.

• Create an account
• Generate credentials (p12 key & email) and save it for later
  • API Manager > Credentials > Add credentials > Service account
  • Note: default password of the p12 keys is notasecret
• Enable Analytics API
  • API Manager > Overview > Advertising APIs > Analytics API
• Copy the p12 keys to the appliance (in the /srv directory, for example)
  • Example: scp myontoportal-analytics.p12 {my_appliance_hostname}:/srv/ontoportal/virtual_appliance/config/ncbo_cron

Google Analytics Account

You use Google Analytics to get your website’s data.

• Create an account at https://www.google.com/analytics/web
• Add the “tracking ID” of this account in /srv/ontoportal/virtual_appliance/appliance_config/site_config.rb
  • Example: $ANALYTICS_ID = "UA-12345678-1"
• Give permission to your developer credential (previously generated in the Google Developer Account step) to be able to retrieve the data
  • Admin tab > Property (typically, the website you are doing analytics on) > User Management
  • Add permissions for the Google developer credential email (also generated in the previous section)

Google Analytics Configuration

• Modify /srv/ontoportal/virtual_appliance/appliance_config/ncbo_cron/config/config.rb
  • Set up configuration for Google Analytics Data (GA4)

    # Google Analytics CRON config
    config.enable_ontology_analytics         = true
    config.cron_ontology_analytics           = '30 */4 * * *'
    # GA4 Key file used for authentication with Google
    config.analytics_path_to_key_file        = "config/myontoportal_analytics_key.json"
    # your GA4 property ID
    config.analytics_property_id             = "111111111"
    # path to the file that stores your Universal Analytics (UA) data (if it exists)
    config.analytics_path_to_ua_data_file    = "data/op_ua_data.json"
    # path to the file that will store your entire Google Analytics Data
    # it's a backup copy of your data in addition to storing it in Redis
    # this file will be auto-created if it doesn't exist already
    config.analytics_path_to_ga_data_file    = "data/op_ga_data.json"
    

• Perform deployment of UI, API and ncbo_cron, which will copy configuration files to the appropriate application directories:

  sudo su - op-admin
  cd /opt/ontoportal/virtual_appliance/deployment
  ./setup_deploy_env.sh
  ./deploy_ui.sh
  ./deploy_ncbo_cron.sh
  

Enabling the Analytics Cron Job

The Analytics data is stored in the Redis data store and is scheduled to be refreshed weekly. The refresh is done via an automatically scheduled Cron job. By default, that Cron job is disabled in the OntoPortal Appliance. Below are the steps to enable the Analytics refresh job:

• Restart ncbo_cron services:

  sudo systemctl stop ncbo_cron
  sudo systemctl start ncbo_cron
  

By default, the Analytics refresh job is scheduled to run on Mondays at 12:15am. If you need to change the frequency or the run time, you can add the parameter config.cron_ontology_analytics = "your cron expression" to the NcboCron.config do |config| block:

config.cron_ontology_analytics = "15 0 * * 1"

If you modify this setting, be sure to restart ncbo_cron services (see previous step).

If you need to manually refresh the Analytics data without having to wait for the Cron job to execute, you can run the ncbo_ontology_analytics_rebuild script, located in the ncbo_cron/bin folder:

sudo su - op-admin
cd /opt/ontoportal/ncbo_cron
./bin/ncbo_ontology_analytics_rebuild

The script does not require any arguments; simply execute it, and your Analytics data will be pulled from Google Analytics into the Redis datastore and will be immediately picked up by your OntoPortal services. Note that this step is optional. It should be used only when you need the absolute latest Analytics data and you don’t want to wait until the Analytics Cron job gets executed.

Removing Analytics from the OntoPortal UI

In /opt/ontoportal/bioportal_web_ui/current/app/views/home/index.html.haml add:

 display: none;
 %fieldset{style: "display: none;"}
  %legend
   Ontology Visits #{"in full #{$SITE} " if at_slice?} (#{@analytics.date.strftime("%B %Y")})

In /opt/ontoportal/bioportal_web_ui/current/app/views/ontologies/_visits.html.haml add:

 display:none;
 #visits_content{:style => "margin: 2em 1em 0;"}