Web Analytics by ostr.io

ostr.io provides lightweight, privacy-respectful, real-time web analytics for modern SPAs and MPAs. The tracker works out-of-the-box with all websites and webpages, including: WordPress, WebFlow, React, Next.js, Vue, Nuxt, Svelte, Angular, Meteor/Blaze, Backbone, Ember, and vanilla JS.

Table of Contents

• Why ostr.io analytics?
• What is tracked
• Installation
  • <script> tag
  • NPM/YARN
  • Meteor.js
  • Minified version
• Usage
  • Constructor: new Analytics()
  • All Methods
  • Events via .pushEvent()
  • Manual Tracking via .track()
  • Event Callbacks via .onPushEvent()
  • Tracking Callbacks via .onTrack()
  • Stop tracking via .destroy()
• Advanced
  • Transports
  • Ignoring paths
  • Ignoring queries / search params
  • Hash & query tracking controls
• Examples
  • Google Analytics integration
  • Google Tag Manager integration
• Opt-out for end-users

Why ostr.io analytics?

• 👐 Open-source tracking code
• 📦 Lightweight
• 🚀 Real-time metrics
• 😎 No DOM mutations; no heavy CPU tasks; no extra script chains
• 📡 Supports various transports: fetch, img, beacon; falls back gracefully
• 🤝 SPA-friendly: HTML5 History API and navigation events support out-of-the-box
• ⚡️ AMP tracking
• 🛑 AdBlock detection
• 🔍 Transparent data collection; GDPR/CCPA-aligned controls
• 🙆 Easy, hosted opt-out for end-users
• 🐞 Global runtime error reporting (including unhandled Promise rejections)

What is tracked

• Real-time users, sessions, unique users.
• Pageviews
  • Page title
  • Page URL (sanitized per your config)
• Demographics
  • Country
  • City
• System
  • Device (mobile/desktop)
  • Browser
  • OS
• Behavior
  • Custom events (see pushEvent)
  • Referrers
• Global script errors & exceptions
  • Error message and source
  • Browser and OS
  • Device data
  • File name and line/column

Installation

To get your trackingId, open the Analytics section in your ostr.io dashboard, select the domain, then click Show integration guide.

Script tag

[!TIP] Easiest way — no build tooling required. See "integration guide" in ostr.io analytics panel to copy-paste <script> element

<!--
After including script-tag
analytics automatically executes in 'auto' mode,
its instance is available in global scope as `OstrioTracker`
Example: OstrioTracker.pushEvent(foo, bar);
-->
<link rel="preconnect" href="https://analytics.ostr.io/" crossorigin>
<link rel="dns-prefetch" href="https://analytics.ostr.io/">
<script async defer src="https://analytics.ostr.io/{{trackingId}}.js"></script>

NPM

Install from NPM or YARN

npm install ostrio-analytics --save

Then import or require()

// TypeScript
import Analytics from "ostrio-analytics/source";
const analyticsTracker = new Analytics('{{trackingId}}');

// ESM
import Analytics from 'ostrio-analytics';
const analyticsTracker = new Analytics('{{trackingId}}');

// CommonJS
const analyticsClass = require('ostrio-analytics');
const analyticsTracker = new analyticsClass('{{trackingId}}');

Minified version

Copy-paste minified version of the analytics script. Or use Unpkg/JSDelivr to load minified version from CDN.

Load from Unpkg

<script src="https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/dist/ostrio-analytics.min.js"></script>

Load from JSDelivr

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/dist/ostrio-analytics.min.js"></script>

Copy-paste minified analytics script

[!NOTE] After adding minified analytics code to a project (using any of the methods above) — it will be available as OstrioTrackerClass in the global scope

// Example:
const analyticsTracker = new OstrioTrackerClass('{{trackingId}}');
// Example 2:
const analyticsTracker = new window.OstrioTrackerClass('{{trackingId}}');

Usage

Use default settings or extend with additional options object

Constructor

new Analytics(trackingId: string, options?: OstrioWebAnalyticsConfig);

interface OstrioWebAnalyticsConfig {
  auto?: boolean;            // default: true
  trackErrors?: boolean;     // default: true
  trackHash?: boolean;       // default: true
  trackQuery?: boolean;      // default: true
  ignoredQueries?: string[]; // case-insensitive query keys to drop
  ignoredPaths?: (string|RegExp)[]; // '/path/*' prefix, '/path/' exact, or RegExp
  transport?: 'fetch' | 'beacon' | 'img';  // default: 'fetch'
}

[!IMPORTANT] Constructor throws Error('[init] {{trackingId}} is missing or incorrect!') if the trackingId is not a 17-char string

• trackingId {string} - [Required] Website' identifier. To obtain trackingId go to Analytics section and select a domain name;
• options - {OstrioWebAnalyticsConfig} - [Optional]
• options.auto - {boolean} - Set to false to disable automated page navigation tracking
• options.trackErrors - {boolean} - Set to false to disable automated page-level JS errors and exceptions tracking
• options.trackHash - {boolean} - Set to false to disable automated tracking of changes in #hash of the page; All reported URLs will have hash omitted
• options.trackQuery - {boolean} - Set to false to disable tracking changes in get query ?get=query; All reported URLs will have get-query omitted
• options.ignoredQueries - {string[]} - Array of case-insensitive query keys to exclude from analytics tracking
• options.ignoredPaths - {(string|RegExp)[]} - Array of case-sensitive paths and RegExp with URI paths that will be ignored and excluded from web analytics; Use /* to define "beginning" or the path; Use to exclude "service" URLs from tracking like /admin/*; Examples: ['/path/starts/with/*', '/exact-path/', /^\/category\/[0-9a-zA-Z]{10}\/?$/]
• options.transport - {'fetch' | 'beacon' | 'img'} - Set preferred transport; Default: fetch

[!TIP] After initializing new Analytics() — it's good to go, visitor navigation will be collected and reported in ostr.io analytics. For {auto: false}, additional settings, and custom events - see below.

All Methods

List of all methods and its arguments available on OstrioWebAnalytics instance:

import Analytics from "ostrio-analytics/source";
const analyticsTracker = new Analytics('{{trackingId}}');

// CHANGE SETTINGS DURING RUNTIME
analyticsTracker.applySettings(settings: OstrioWebAnalyticsDynamicConfig);
interface OstrioWebAnalyticsDynamicConfig {
  trackHash?: boolean;
  trackQuery?: boolean;
  transport?: Transport;
  serviceUrl?: string;
}

// CHANGE TRANSPORT DURING RUNTIME
analyticsTracker.setTransport(Transport); // [Transport.Fetch, Transport.Beacon, Transport.Img]

// ADD IGNORED PATH DURING RUNTIME
analyticsTracker.ignorePath(path: string | RegExp);

// ADD MULTIPLE IGNORED PATHS DURING RUNTIME
analyticsTracker.ignorePaths(paths: Array<string | RegExp>);

// ADD IGNORED GET-QUERY DURING RUNTIME
analyticsTracker.ignoreQuery(queryKey: string);

// ADD MULTIPLE IGNORED GET-QUERIES DURING RUNTIME
analyticsTracker.ignoreQueries(queryKeys: Array<string>);

// ADD HOOK FOR .pushEvent() CALLS
analyticsTracker.onPushEvent(callback: Function);

// ADD HOOK FOR .track() CALLS
analyticsTracker.onTrack(callback: Function);

// TRACK CUSTOM EVENT
analyticsTracker.pushEvent(key: string, value: number | string);

// TRACK PAGEVIEW; USE WITH {auto: false} SETTING
analyticsTracker.track();

// STOP AUTO-TRACKING
analyticsTracker.destroy();

Track Custom Events

Use analyticsTracker.pushEvent(key, value) method to collect and track custom user's events. Custom events are useful for tracking certain activity on your website, like clicks, form submits and others user's behaviors.

• key {string} - [Required] The length of the event key must be between 1 and 24 symbols;
• value {string} - [Required] The length of the event value must be between 1 and 64 symbols.

If the length of key or value is longer than limits, it will be truncated without throwing an exception.

Examples:

// Various examples on tracking custom user's actions
analyticsTracker.pushEvent('userAction', 'login');
analyticsTracker.pushEvent('userAction', 'logout');
analyticsTracker.pushEvent('userAction', 'signup');

analyticsTracker.pushEvent('click', 'purchase');
analyticsTracker.pushEvent('click', 'purchase-left');
analyticsTracker.pushEvent('click', 'pricing - more info');

<script type="text/javascript">
  // make analyticsTracker global variable
  window.analyticsTracker = analyticsTracker;
</script>

<form>
  <h2>Buy Now</h2>
  <select>
    <option disabled>Select product</option>
    <option>Blue</option>
    <option>Red</option>
    <option>Green</option>
  </select>
  <input name="qty" />
  <!-- Example on tracking form submit -->
  <button type="submit" onClick="analyticsTracker.pushEvent('checkout', 'buy-now-form')">Checkout</button>
</form>

In a similar way using .pushEvent you can detect and track AdBlock usage and Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP).

Custom Navigation Tracking

Manually dispatch a pageview.

[!TIP] Use .track() method with {auto: false} to manually and precisely control navigation's events and send tracking info. This method has no arguments.

Examples:

/* jQuery or any other similar case: */
$(document).ready(() => {
  analyticsTracker.track();
});

/* JS-router definition (pseudo-code!) */
router({
  '/'() {
    analyticsTracker.track();
  },
  '/two'() {
    analyticsTracker.track();
  },
  '/three'() {
    analyticsTracker.track();
  }
});

/* Although "History.js" and "History API" supported out-of-box,
you may want to optimize tracking behavior to meet your needs. */
History.Adapter.bind(window, 'statechange', () => {
  analyticsTracker.track();
});

Event Callbacks

Use .onPushEvent() to hook into .pushEvent() method. Read how to use this method for deep Google Analytics integration.

Examples:

analyticsTracker.onPushEvent((key, value) => {
  console.log({ key, value }); // { key: 'testKey', value: 'testValue' }
});

analyticsTracker.pushEvent('testKey', 'testValue');

Tracking Callbacks

Use .onTrack() to hook into .track() method and browser navigation in {auto: true} mode. Read how to use this method for deep Google Analytics integration.

Examples:

// Callback will be executed on every browser navigation and upon calling `.track()` method
analyticsTracker.onTrack(() => {
  console.log('Tracking a session'); // Tracking a session
});

Destroy Tracker

Call .destroy() to unbind listeners and timers (useful on SPA teardown/HMR).

analyticsTracker.destroy();

Advanced

Explore advanced settings and its usage

Transports

• { transport: 'beacon' } – uses navigator.sendBeacon when available (best for unload/background sends, but commonly blocked by browsers)
• { transport: 'fetch' } (default) – uses fetch with { mode: 'no-cors', cache: 'no-store' }
• { transport: 'img' } – legacy image-pixel transport for top compatibility with various browsers

const analyticsTracker = new Analytics('{{trackingId}}', { transport: 'img' });

// OR DURING RUNTIME:
analyticsTracker.setTransport('beacon');

Ignoring paths

Exclude paths from tracking with exact match, prefix, or RegExp. Use .ignorePath() or .ignorePaths() to add ignored paths during runtime:

analyticsTracker.ignorePath('/admin/*');
analyticsTracker.ignorePath('/payment/status/complete');
analyticsTracker.ignorePath(/^\/_next\//i);

// OR ADD ALL AS ARRAY IN ONE CALL
analyticsTracker.ignorePaths(['/admin/*', '/payment/status/complete']);

Use ignoredPaths as part of the Constructor config object:

const analyticsTracker = new Analytics('{{trackingId}}', {
  ignoredPaths: [
    '/admin/',      // exact match
    '/api/*',       // prefix match
    /^\/_next\//    // RegExp
  ]
});

Ignoring queries / search params

[!NOTE] Note: Referral source is tracked via HTTP headers

Remove noisy query keys (case-insensitive) from URL change detection and payload. Use .ignoreQuery() or .ignoreQueries() to add ignored paths during runtime:

analyticsTracker.ignoreQuery('utm');
analyticsTracker.ignoreQuery('ref');

// OR ADD ALL AS ARRAY IN ONE CALL
analyticsTracker.ignoreQueries(['gclid', 'fbclid', 'sessionid']);

Use ignoredQueries as part of the Constructor config object:

const analyticsTracker = new Analytics('{{trackingId}}', {
  ignoredQueries: ['utm_source', 'utm_medium', 'gclid', 'fbclid', 'sessionid']
});

Hash & query tracking controls

Control what constitutes a “new page” for SPAs:

const analyticsTracker = new Analytics('{{trackingId}}', {
  trackHash: false,   // don't treat #hash changes as navigation (default: true)
  trackQuery: false   // don't treat ?query changes as navigation (default: true)
});

// OR UPDATE SETTING DURING RUNTIME:
analyticsTracker.applySettings({
  trackHash: false,
  trackQuery: false
});

Examples

Explore various custom usage examples

Google Analytics integration

Using .onTrack() method and .onPushEvent() method we can send tracking-data to Google Analytics upon navigation or event.

In your <head> add Google Analytics as instructed:

<script async src="https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js"></script>
<script type='text/javascript'>
  window.ga=window.ga||function(){(ga.q=ga.q||[]).push(arguments)};ga.l=+new Date;
  ga('create', 'UA-XXXXXXXXX-X', 'auto');
</script>

import Analytics from 'ostrio-analytics';
const analyticsTracker = new Analytics('{{trackingId}}');

analyticsTracker.onTrack(() => {
  // Track navigation with Google Analytics
  ga('send', {
    hitType: 'pageview',
    page: document.location.pathname,
    location: document.location.href,
    title: document.title
  });
});

analyticsTracker.onPushEvent((name, value) => {
  // Send events to Google Analytics
  ga('send', {
    hitType: 'event',
    eventCategory: name,
    eventAction: value
  });
});

Google Tag Manager integration

Using .onTrack() method and .onPushEvent() method we can send tracking-data to Google Tag Manager upon navigation or event.

In page's <head> add Google Tag Manager as instructed:

<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-XXXXXXXXX-X"></script>
<script type='text/javascript'>
  window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
  function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
  gtag('js', new Date());
</script>

import Analytics from 'ostrio-analytics';
const analyticsTracker = new Analytics('{{trackingId}}');

analyticsTracker.onTrack(() => {
  // Track navigation with Google Analytics
  gtag('config', 'UA-XXXXXXXXX-X', {
    page_title: document.title,
    page_path: document.location.pathname,
    page_location: document.location.href
  });
});

analyticsTracker.onPushEvent((name, value) => {
  // Send events to Google Analytics
  gtag('event', name, { value });
});

Compliance

• ostr.io GDPR
• ostr.io CCPA
• ostr.io Privacy Policy

Opt-out for end-users

[!TIP] Provide a one-click opt-out link in project's legal/settings pages to follow the best privacy experience practices

https://analytics.ostr.io/settings/manage/opt-out/

• Add one-click opt-out link to legal documents and "settings" page
• Click here to check your browser current settings