mixpanel-browser

What is mixpanel-browser?

The mixpanel-browser npm package is a client-side library for integrating Mixpanel analytics into web applications. It allows you to track user interactions, manage user identities, and create custom events to gain insights into user behavior.

What are mixpanel-browser's main functionalities?

Tracking Events

This feature allows you to track custom events in your application. You can specify the event name and attach properties to provide additional context.

mixpanel.track('Event Name', { property1: 'value1', property2: 'value2' });

Identifying Users

This feature allows you to identify a user with a unique ID. This is useful for tracking user behavior across sessions and devices.

mixpanel.identify('user_id');

Setting User Properties

This feature allows you to set properties for a user. These properties can be used to segment users and personalize their experience.

mixpanel.people.set({ $first_name: 'John', $last_name: 'Doe', $email: '[e-mail]' });

Tracking Page Views

This feature allows you to track page views in your application. You can capture the URL or other relevant information about the page.

mixpanel.track('Page View', { page: window.location.pathname });

Setting Up Funnels

This feature allows you to set up funnels by tracking a series of events. This helps in understanding the user journey and identifying drop-off points.

mixpanel.track('Sign Up'); mixpanel.track('Purchase');

Other packages similar to mixpanel-browser

amplitude-js

Amplitude is a client-side library for integrating Amplitude analytics. It offers similar functionalities to Mixpanel, such as event tracking, user identification, and setting user properties. Amplitude is known for its robust analytics and user-friendly interface.

google-analytics

Google Analytics is a widely-used analytics platform that offers a client-side library for tracking events, page views, and user interactions. While it may not offer as granular user property management as Mixpanel, it is highly scalable and integrates well with other Google services.

README

Mixpanel JavaScript Library

The Mixpanel JavaScript Library is a set of methods attached to a global mixpanel object intended to be used by websites wishing to send data to Mixpanel projects. A full reference is available here.

Alternative installation via NPM

This library is available as a package on NPM (named mixpanel-browser to distinguish it from Mixpanel's server-side Node.js library, available on NPM as mixpanel). To install into a project using NPM with a front-end packager such as Browserify or Webpack:

npm install --save mixpanel-browser

You can then require the lib like a standard Node.js module:

var mixpanel = require('mixpanel-browser');

mixpanel.init("YOUR_TOKEN");
mixpanel.track("An event");

Alternative installation via Bower

mixpanel-js is also available via front-end package manager Bower. After installing Bower, fetch into your project's bower_components dir with:

bower install mixpanel

Using Bower to load the snippet

You can then load the lib via the embed code (snippet) with a script reference:

<script src="bower_components/mixpanel/mixpanel-jslib-snippet.min.js"></script>

which loads the latest library version from the Mixpanel CDN (http://cdn.mxpnl.com/libs/mixpanel-2-latest.min.js).

Using Bower to load the entire library

If you wish to load the specific version downloaded in your Bower package, there are two options.

1. Override the CDN library location with the global MIXPANEL_CUSTOM_LIB_URL var:

<script>
  window.MIXPANEL_CUSTOM_LIB_URL = 'bower_components/mixpanel/mixpanel.js';
</script>
<script src="bower_components/mixpanel/mixpanel-jslib-snippet.min.js"></script>

or

1. Recompile the snippet with a custom MIXPANEL_LIB_URL using Closure Compiler:

java -jar compiler.jar --js src/loaders/mixpanel-jslib-snippet.js --js_output_file mixpanel-jslib-snippet.min.js --compilation_level ADVANCED_OPTIMIZATIONS --define='MIXPANEL_LIB_URL="bower_components/mixpanel/mixpanel.js"'

Upgrading from mixpanel-bower v2.2.0 or v2.0.0

If you originally installed Mixpanel via Bower at its previous home (https://github.com/drubin/mixpanel-bower), the two old versions have remained functionally unchanged. To upgrade to v2.3.6 or later (the first Bower version in the official repo) from a previous Bower install, note the changed filenames: previous references to mixpanel.js should become mixpanel-jslib-snippet.min.js (the minified embed code), and previous references to mixpanel.dev.js should become mixpanel.js (the library source) or mixpanel.min.js (the minified library for production use).

Building bundles for release

• Install development dependencies: npm install
• Build: npm run build-dist

Running tests

• Install development dependencies: npm install
• Run unit tests: npm test
• Start test server for browser tests: npm run integration_test
• Browse to http://localhost:3000/tests/ and choose a scenario to run

In the future we plan to automate the last step with a headless browser to streamline development (although Mixpanel production releases are tested against a large matrix of browsers and operating systems).

Generating and publishing documentation

• Create bundled source build: npm run build-dist
• Generate Markdown: npm run dox (result is at doc/readme.io/javascript-full-api-reference.md)
• Publish to readme.io via the rdme util: RDME_API_KEY=<API_KEY> RDME_DOC_VERSION=<version> npm run dox-publish

Thanks

For patches and support: @bohanyang, @dehau, @drubin, @D1plo1d, @feychenie, @mogstad, @pfhayes, @sandorfr, @stefansedich, @gfx, @pkaminski, @austince, @danielbaker, @mkdai, @wolever, @dpraul, @chriszamierowski, @JoaoGomesTW