search-insights

What is search-insights?

The search-insights npm package is a JavaScript library that allows you to send analytics events to Algolia's Insights API. It helps you track user interactions with your search and discovery experiences, such as clicks, conversions, and view events.

What are search-insights's main functionalities?

Sending Click Events

This feature allows you to send click events to Algolia's Insights API. You can track which products users are clicking on after performing a search.

const searchInsights = require('search-insights');

searchInsights('init', { apiKey: 'yourAPIKey', appId: 'yourAppId' });

searchInsights('clickedObjectIDsAfterSearch', {
  eventName: 'Product Clicked',
  index: 'yourIndexName',
  queryID: 'theQueryID',
  objectIDs: ['objectID1', 'objectID2'],
  positions: [1, 2]
});

Sending Conversion Events

This feature allows you to send conversion events to Algolia's Insights API. You can track which products users are purchasing after performing a search.

const searchInsights = require('search-insights');

searchInsights('init', { apiKey: 'yourAPIKey', appId: 'yourAppId' });

searchInsights('convertedObjectIDsAfterSearch', {
  eventName: 'Product Purchased',
  index: 'yourIndexName',
  queryID: 'theQueryID',
  objectIDs: ['objectID1', 'objectID2']
});

Sending View Events

This feature allows you to send view events to Algolia's Insights API. You can track which products users are viewing.

const searchInsights = require('search-insights');

searchInsights('init', { apiKey: 'yourAPIKey', appId: 'yourAppId' });

searchInsights('viewedObjectIDs', {
  eventName: 'Product Viewed',
  index: 'yourIndexName',
  objectIDs: ['objectID1', 'objectID2']
});

Other packages similar to search-insights

segment

Segment is a customer data platform that helps you collect, clean, and control your customer data. It provides a unified API to track user interactions and send them to various analytics services. Compared to search-insights, Segment offers a broader range of integrations and data management capabilities.

mixpanel

Mixpanel is an advanced analytics platform that helps you track user interactions with your web and mobile applications. It provides detailed insights into user behavior and allows you to create custom reports. Mixpanel is more focused on in-depth analytics and user behavior tracking compared to the more search-focused search-insights.

google-analytics

Google Analytics is a widely-used web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic. It provides comprehensive insights into user behavior, traffic sources, and conversion rates. While Google Analytics offers a broader range of analytics features, search-insights is specifically tailored for tracking search-related events.

README

Search Insights

Search Insights lets you report click, conversion and view metrics using the Algolia Insights API.

Table of Contents

• Getting started
  • Browser
  • Node.js
• Use cases
  • Search (Click Analytics and A/B testing)
  • Personalization
• Examples
• Contributing
• License

Cookie usage

You're looking at the documentation of search-insights v2, which is the new major version. (Click here for v1.x documentation.)

v2 introduces a breaking change which is useCookie being false by default. If it's false, search-insights doesn't generate anonymous userToken. It means no event will be sent until setUserToken is explicitly called.

Payload validation

Since v2.0.4, search-insights no longer validates event payloads. You can visit https://algolia.com/events/debugger instead.

Getting started

Are you using Google Tag Manager in your app? We provide a custom template to ease the integration.

Browser

1. Load the library

The Search Insights library can be either loaded via jsDelivr CDN or directly bundled with your application. We recommend loading the library by adding the snippet below to all pages where you wish to track search analytics.

<script>
var ALGOLIA_INSIGHTS_SRC = "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/search-insights@2.6.0";

!function(e,a,t,n,s,i,c){e.AlgoliaAnalyticsObject=s,e[s]=e[s]||function(){
(e[s].queue=e[s].queue||[]).push(arguments)},e[s].version=(n.match(/@([^\/]+)\/?/) || [])[1],i=a.createElement(t),c=a.getElementsByTagName(t)[0],
i.async=1,i.src=n,c.parentNode.insertBefore(i,c)
}(window,document,"script",ALGOLIA_INSIGHTS_SRC,"aa");
</script>

2. Initialize the library

Initializing the library is optional, as you can specify the credentials for each event when sending them. This gives you the flexibility to manage your Algolia credentials on a per-event basis, without having to configure them upfront.

// Optional: configure default Algolia credentials for events
aa('init', {
  appId: 'APP_ID',
  apiKey: 'SEARCH_API_KEY',
});

// Optional: set the analytics user ID
aa('setUserToken', 'USER_ID');

Option	Type	Default	Description
appId	string	None	The identifier of your Algolia application.
apiKey	string	None	The search API key of your Algolia application.
userHasOptedOut	boolean	false	Whether to exclude users from analytics.
region	'de' | 'us'	Automatic	The DNS server to target.
host	string	None	The URL to route requests through before they're forwarded to Algolia.
useCookie	boolean	false	Whether to use cookie in browser environment. The anonymous user token will not be set if false. When useCookie is false and setUserToken is not called yet, sending events will throw errors because there is no user token to attach to the events.
cookieDuration	number	15552000000 (6 months)	The cookie duration in milliseconds.
userToken	string	undefined (optional)	Initial userToken. When given, anonymous userToken will not be set.
partial	boolean	false	Whether to preserve previously passed options without redeclaring them.

To update the client with new options, you can call init again.

By default, all previously passed options that you don't redefine are reset to their default setting, except for the userToken. To preserve previously passed options without redeclaring them, use the partial option.

aa("init", {
  appId: "APP_ID",
  apiKey: "SEARCH_API_KEY",
  region: "de",
});

aa("init", {
  appId: "APP_ID",
  apiKey: "SEARCH_API_KEY",
  partial: true,
}); // `region` is still `"de"`

Note for Require.js users

When using Require.js, the default UMD build might conflict and throw with a "Mismatched anonymous define() modules" message. This is a known Require.js issue.

To work around this problem and ensure you capture all interactions occurring before the library is done loading, change ALGOLIA_INSIGHTS_SRC to point to the IIFE build, and load it via a <script> tag.

<script>
var ALGOLIA_INSIGHTS_SRC = "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/search-insights@2.0.2/dist/search-insights.iife.min.js";

!function(e,a,t,n,s,i,c){e.AlgoliaAnalyticsObject=s,e[s]=e[s]||function(){
(e[s].queue=e[s].queue||[]).push(arguments)},i=a.createElement(t),c=a.getElementsByTagName(t)[0],
i.async=1,i.src=n,c.parentNode.insertBefore(i,c)
}(window,document,"script",ALGOLIA_INSIGHTS_SRC,"aa");
</script>

Node.js

(Node.js >= 8.16.0 required)

1. Install the library

Insights library can be used on the backend as a Node.js module.

npm install search-insights
# or
yarn add search-insights

2. Initialize the library

Initializing the library is optional, as you can specify the credentials for each event when sending them. This gives you the flexibility to manage your Algolia credentials on a per-event basis, without having to configure them upfront.

const aa = require('search-insights');

// Optional: configure default Algolia credentials for events
aa('init', {
  appId: 'APPLICATION_ID',
  apiKey: 'SEARCH_API_KEY'
});

Add userToken

On the Node.js environment, unlike the browser environment, userToken must be specified when sending any event.

aa('clickedObjectIDs', {
  userToken: 'USER_ID',
  // ...
});

Customize the client

If you want to customize the way to send events, you can create a custom Insights client.

// via ESM
import { createInsightsClient } from "search-insights";
// OR in commonJS
const { createInsightsClient } = require("search-insights");
// OR via the UMD
const createInsightsClient = window.AlgoliaAnalytics.createInsightsClient;

function requestFn(url, data) {
  const serializedData = JSON.stringify(data);
  const { protocol, host, path } = require("url").parse(url);
  const options = {
    protocol,
    host,
    path,
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
      "Content-Length": serializedData.length
    }
  };

  const { request: nodeRequest } =
    url.indexOf("https://") === 0 ? require("https") : require("http");
  const req = nodeRequest(options);

  req.on("error", error => {
    console.error(error);
  });

  req.write(serializedData);
  req.end();
};

const aa = createInsightsClient(requestFn);

Use cases

The Search Insights library supports both Search and Personalization Algolia features.

Search (Click Analytics and A/B testing)

Initialize

To enable click analytics, the search parameter clickAnalytics must be set to true. This tells the Algolia engine to return a queryID on each search request.

const searchClient = algoliasearch('APPLICATION_ID', 'SEARCH_API_KEY');
const search = instantsearch({
  indexName: 'INDEX_NAME',
  searchClient,
  searchParameters: {
    clickAnalytics: true,
  },
});

function getQueryID() {
  return search.helper.lastResults.queryID;
}

Report a click event

aa('clickedObjectIDsAfterSearch', {
  index: 'INDEX_NAME',
  eventName: 'Click item',
  queryID: getQueryID(),
  objectIDs: ['object1'],
  positions: [42],
});

Option	Type	Description
index	string	The name of the index related to the event
eventName	string	The name of the event
objectIDs	string[]	The list of IDs of the result that was clicked
positions	number[]	The list of the absolute positions of the HTML element that was clicked (1-based and not 0-based)
queryID	string	The queryID of the search sent from Algolia

Report a conversion event

aa('convertedObjectIDsAfterSearch', {
  index: 'INDEX_NAME',
  eventName: 'Add to basket',
  queryID: getQueryID(),
  objectIDs: ['object1'],
});

Option	Type	Description
index	string	The name of the index related to the event
eventName	string	The name of the event
objectIDs	string[]	The list of IDs of the result that was clicked
queryID	string	The queryID of the search sent from Algolia

Personalization

Initialize

To enable personalization, the search parameter enablePersonalization must be set to true.

const searchClient = algoliasearch('APPLICATION_ID', 'SEARCH_API_KEY');
const search = instantsearch({
  indexName: 'INDEX_NAME',
  searchClient,
  searchParameters: {
    enablePersonalization: true,
  },
});

Access userToken

In cases where the userToken is generated, you need a way to access the userToken so that you can pass it to the searchClient.

const searchClient = algoliasearch('APPLICATION_ID', 'SEARCH_API_KEY');

aa('getUserToken', null, (err, userToken) => {
  // for algoliasearch v3.x
  searchClient.setExtraHeader('X-Algolia-UserToken', userToken);

  // for algoliasearch v4.x
  searchClient.transporter.headers['X-Algolia-UserToken'] = userToken;
});

Listen to userToken change

If you want to attach a listener for userToken change, you can call onUserTokenChange.

aa('onUserTokenChange', (userToken) => {
  console.log("userToken has changed: ", userToken);
});

onUserTokenChange accepts callback(required) and options(optional).

aa('onUserTokenChange', callback, options);

Option	Type	Description
immediate	boolean	Fire the callback as soon as it's attached

aa('init', { ..., useCookie: true });  // ← This sets an anonymous user token if cookie is available.

aa('onUserTokenChange', (userToken) => {
  console.log(userToken);  // prints out the anonymous user token
}, { immediate: true });

aa('init', { ... });
aa('setUserToken', 'my-user-id-1');

aa('onUserTokenChange', (userToken) => {
  console.log(userToken); // prints out 'my-user-id-1'
}, { immediate: true })

With immediate: true, onUserTokenChange will be immediately fired with the token which is set beforehand.

Report a click event

aa('clickedObjectIDs', {
  index: 'INDEX_NAME',
  eventName: 'Add to basket',
  objectIDs: ['object1'],
});

Option	Type	Description
index	string	The name of the index related to the event
eventName	string	The name of the event
objectIDs	string[]	The list of IDs of the result that was clicked

aa('clickedFilters', {
  index: 'INDEX_NAME',
  eventName: 'Filter on facet',
  filters: ['brand:Apple'],
});

Option	Type	Description
index	string	The name of the index related to the event
eventName	string	The name of the event
filters	string[]	The list of filters that was clicked as '${attr}${op}${value}'

Report a conversion event

aa('convertedObjectIDs', {
  index: 'INDEX_NAME',
  eventName: 'Add to basket',
  objectIDs: ['object1'],
});

Option	Type	Description
index	string	The name of the index related to the event
eventName	string	The name of the event
objectIDs	string[]	The list of IDs of the result that was clicked

aa('convertedFilters', {
  index: 'INDEX_NAME',
  eventName: 'Filter on facet',
  filters: ['brand:Apple'],
});

Option	Type	Description
index	string	The name of the index related to the event
eventName	string	The name of the event
filters	string[]	The list of filters that was clicked as '${attr}${op}${value}'

Report a view event

aa('viewedObjectIDs', {
  index: 'INDEX_NAME',
  eventName: 'Add to basket',
  objectIDs: ['object1'],
});

Option	Type	Description
index	string	The name of the index related to the event
eventName	string	The name of the event
objectIDs	string[]	The list of IDs of the result that was clicked

aa('viewedFilters', {
  index: 'INDEX_NAME',
  eventName: 'Filter on facet',
  filters: ['brand:Apple'],
});

Option	Type	Description
index	string	The name of the index related to the event
eventName	string	The name of the event
filters	string[]	The list of filters that was clicked as '${attr}${op}${value}'

Batch Events

You can send multiple events in a single HTTP request, by using sendEvents method.

aa('sendEvents', [
  {
    eventType,
    eventName,
    userToken,
    ...
  }
]);

Option	Type	Description
eventType	'view' | 'click' | 'conversion'	The name of the index related to the event.
eventName	string	The name of the event.
userToken	string (optional)	search-insights uses anonymous user token or a token set by setUserToken method. You can override it by providing a userToken per event object.

Sending events to multiple Algolia applications

The Search Insights library sends all events to the Algolia application it has been initialized with, by default. In some cases, you might have data coming from more than one Algolia application which all need events.

You can use a single instance of the Search Insights library while still customizing the Algolia credentials on a per-event basis. All click, view and conversion methods support an additional argument where you can specify credentials that will override those set during initialization (which is optional).

aa('clickedObjectIDsAfterSearch', {
  index: 'INDEX_NAME',
  eventName: 'Click item',
  queryID: getQueryID(),
  objectIDs: ['object1'],
  positions: [42],
}, {
  headers: {
    'X-Algolia-Application-Id': 'OTHER_APP_ID',
    'X-Algolia-API-Key': 'OTHER_SEARCH_API_KEY'
  }
});

This also works with event batching, using sendEvents:

aa('sendEvents', [
  {
    eventType,
    eventName,
    userToken,
    ...
  }
], {
  headers: {
    'X-Algolia-Application-Id': 'OTHER_APP_ID',
    'X-Algolia-API-Key': 'OTHER_SEARCH_API_KEY'
  }
});

Option	Type	Description
headers	Record<string, string>	A dictionary of headers that will override those set by default. You can check out a list of headers for authentication in the Algolia API reference.

Examples

The following examples assume that the Search Insights library is loaded.

• InstantSearch.js
• AlgoliaSearch Helper

Contributing

To run the examples and the code, you need to run two separate commands:

• yarn dev runs webpack and the Node.js server
• yarn build:dev runs Rollup in watch mode

To release, go on master (git checkout master) and use:

yarn run release

It will create a pull request for the next release. When it's reviewed, approved and merged, then CircleCI will automatically publish it to npm.

License

Search Insights is MIT licensed.

Changelog

2.6.0 (2023-04-20)

Bug Fixes

• readme: update code snippet to reflect version (#445) (edd2b3a)

Features

• userToken: generate in-memory anonymous user tokens by default (#441) (161c933)