Interactor.js

A simple, light-weight (< 5KB minified), no dependency, front-end website interaction tracker for personal websites and web projects.

Collects usage data and send it to a user-defined server endpoint on the beforeunload event.

Great for creating a database to drive analytics, inform A/B testing, monitor engagement, and guide site optimization decisions.

This data can help you analyze:

How your users navigate your website
Engagement levels on a per-page and site-wide basis
What platforms, language settings, and browser dimensions your users have
Bounce rates, page and site bottle-necks, impressions, and conversions

Documentation

Documentation is currently being written. There’s a working (front-end) example of Interactor. To explore it, open up your browsers’ console and click on the interaction and conversion buttons.

Interactor currently supports modern browsers: Chrome, Firefox, & Safari. Additional testing & input is welcome.

What Data is Provided?

General Data:

Which page is loaded
When the user loaded the page
When the user left the page
The URL of the loaded page
The previous page location
The title of the page
The language settings of the user
The user’s platform
The port used to access the web server
The inner and outer width and height of the web browser

Interaction / Conversion Data:

The interaction type (i.e. general interaction or conversion)
The time of the interaction
The event that triggered interaction
The target HTML element tag
The target HTML element classes
The target HTML element content (i.e. text, etc.)
The cursor position relative to client
The cursor position relative to screen

Example Usage

Include the script in your HTML and invoke it.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <title>Interaction Tracker Example</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <div class="interaction"></div>
        <div class="interaction"></div>
        <div class="interaction"></div>
        <div class="conversion"></div>
        <script src="interactor.min.js" type="application/javascript"></script>
        <script>
            // An example instantiation with custom arguments
            var interactions = new Interactor({
                interactions            : true,
                interactionElement      : "interaction",
                interactionEvents       : ["mousedown", "mouseup", "touchstart", "touchend"],
                conversions             : true,
                conversionElement       : "conversion",
                conversionEvents        : ["mouseup", "touchend"],
                endpoint                : '/usage/interactions',
                async                   : true,
                debug                   : false
            });
        </script>
    </body>
</html>

To track a users interactions with an element, simply add the .interaction CSS class to the element.

Have a conversion point on your page? You can add that too, just add the .conversion CSS class to your conversion’s HTML element.

Want to track a user’s interactions and/or conversions with different element classes already on your page? Create multiple instances and allow each to target a specific element to track. No update to your HTML neccessary.

Example:

var elementsToTrack = [
    {
        element: "element1",
        events : ["mouseup", "touchend"]
    }, 
    {
        element: "element2",
        events : ["mouseup"]
    },
    { 
        element: "element3",
        events : ["mouseup"]
    }
];
for (var i = 0; i < elementsToTrack.length; i++) {
    var e = elementsToTrack[i];
    new Interactor({
        interactionElement     : e.element,
        interactionEvents     : e.events
    });
}

Default Parameters:

{
    interactions            : true,
    interactionElement      : 'interaction',
    interactionEvents       : ['mouseup', 'touchend'],
    conversions             : false,
    conversionElement       : 'conversion',
    conversionEvents        : ['mouseup', 'touchend'],
    endpoint                : '/interactions',
    async                   : true,
    debug                   : true
}

Can I Buy You a Coffee?

Sure! I’m a grad student – coffee is always very much appreciated! Thanks!