Google Analytics causing slow loading WebHelp?

This forum is for all Flare issues related to the HTML5, WebHelp, WebHelp Plus, and Adobe Air Targets
Post Reply
jsandora
Propeller Head
Posts: 94
Joined: Thu Jun 23, 2011 5:56 am
Location: Boston, MA

Google Analytics causing slow loading WebHelp?

Post by jsandora »

I recently added Google Analytics to my WebHelp projects, and have noticed that when I click the Preview button for a topic, it takes much longer for the preview to load. I'm concerned this may translate over to my WebHelp projects and cause those to lag as well (I haven't published a live version of the projects with the Analytics code yet).

I used Analytics in a WebHelp when I first started using Flare a few years back, and don't recall having any issues then. We only stopped using it because we picked up the Feedback service. We're moving back to Analytics because we're close to having several WebHelp instances go live, and our users haven't used the commenting feature of Feedback once in the ~2 years we've had it live.

Anyway - is there something about Analytics that might be causing this lag? I have it placed in the header of my MasterPage as such:

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<html xmlns:MadCap="http://www.madcapsoftware.com/Schemas/MadCap.xsd" MadCap:lastBlockDepth="2" MadCap:lastHeight="91" MadCap:lastWidth="743">
    <head>
        <meta name="robots" content="noindex" />
        <script>
			(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
			(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
			m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
			})(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');

			ga('create', XXXX', 'XXXX.com');
			ga('send', 'pageview');
		</script>
    </head>
    <body>
        <MadCap:breadcrumbsProxy />
        <MadCap:bodyProxy />
    </body>
</html>
This MasterPage lives in my global StyleGuide project, which I import into all my other Flare projects. When all is said and done, the StyleGuide project will be used for ~6 live WebHelp instances.

Is there something about that code that's causing the lag? Implementation, location, etc? Or is it just that Flare needs to process it when generating previews, and web browsers will breeze over it quicker?

I don't have a live instance of WebHelp that uses Analytics yet, but we're releasing an update for our software next week, and I want to make sure the WebHelp won't be laggy.

Thanks ...
Software Documentation Specialist (but really, Tech Writer)
phriend_o_phlair
Propeller Head
Posts: 60
Joined: Tue Jun 11, 2013 6:05 am

Re: Google Analytics causing slow loading WebHelp?

Post by phriend_o_phlair »

What happened here jsandora? I'm considering integrating Google Analytics (GA), and am extremely curious as to how this worked out. I am reticent on using Pulse. Maybe we'll use it someday to watch what people are searching for, but we just don't need all the social goodies. I figure that we'll test the "analytical waters" with GA, see if we get any good data, and then maybe use Pulse to watch the user searches and optimize content. I could not even imagine how people would socialize around our content. :wink:

May I also inquire why you went with WebHelp as opposed to DotNet help? (Unless you don't use DotNet, of course)

Thanks!
jsandora
Propeller Head
Posts: 94
Joined: Thu Jun 23, 2011 5:56 am
Location: Boston, MA

Re: Google Analytics causing slow loading WebHelp?

Post by jsandora »

phriend_o_phlair wrote:What happened here jsandora? I'm considering integrating Google Analytics (GA), and am extremely curious as to how this worked out. I am reticent on using Pulse. Maybe we'll use it someday to watch what people are searching for, but we just don't need all the social goodies. I figure that we'll test the "analytical waters" with GA, see if we get any good data, and then maybe use Pulse to watch the user searches and optimize content. I could not even imagine how people would socialize around our content. :wink:

May I also inquire why you went with WebHelp as opposed to DotNet help? (Unless you don't use DotNet, of course)

Thanks!
Can't yet say how the Analytics code is working as we have yet to deploy an updated version of the WebHelp - next release is scheduled for Feb 25th. I have a feeling the lag I'm seeing is just in the Preview, and the live, published version will be fine. I'll let you know either way once it's pushed to production, though.

We went with WebHelp because all our solutions are SaaS. I'm hoping to eventually move over to HTML5 (looks much better than WebHelp), but need to wait until we boot support for the older browsers that don't play nice with HTML5 (yes, we still have customers using IE7, ugh). We've also started using our WebHelp projects as a CMS for inline help modals within the applications, pretty cool stuff.

I'm with you about Pulse: no need for the social aspect at all, not in our customer's wheelhouse in the slightest. I'm more interested in where they spend the most time within the help so we can beef those areas up (and also improve the software in those areas if it's causing trouble). I think I will miss the Search data from Feedback, but we should be fine with what Analytics can provide.
Software Documentation Specialist (but really, Tech Writer)
phriend_o_phlair
Propeller Head
Posts: 60
Joined: Tue Jun 11, 2013 6:05 am

Re: Google Analytics causing slow loading WebHelp?

Post by phriend_o_phlair »

Fantastic, thanks! Do let us know what happens. I have a few more questions for you:
  • Do you use F1 to call your help?
  • Is your help also context senstitive?
  • When you talk about your help modals, are you saying that you will eventually be single-sourcing both the WebHelp and the HTML5 output?
I'm trying to wrap my brain around a truly massive project that needs to be done this year; they've always used the MS HTML Help (.chms) here, and I really think it's time to help them move away from that. You use the term "laggy" in your post; only updating the user help at RTM time is the perfect example of "lagginess!"

DotNet wouldn't help us unless there's some way of pulling content off of a server and serving it up. I'm not a programmer, so I'm not sure about that. I want to help this organization move to a more responsive help system, something that we can update day-to-day.
jsandora
Propeller Head
Posts: 94
Joined: Thu Jun 23, 2011 5:56 am
Location: Boston, MA

Re: Google Analytics causing slow loading WebHelp?

Post by jsandora »

phriend_o_phlair wrote:
  • Do you use F1 to call your help?
  • Is your help also context senstitive?
  • When you talk about your help modals, are you saying that you will eventually be single-sourcing both the WebHelp and the HTML5 output?
... only updating the user help at RTM time is the perfect example of "lagginess!"
Yep, we're context-sensitive. User clicks a ? icon in the application that launches the WebHelp and displays the related topic. Right now we're only at the page level for context-sensitive help, but we're narrowing that down soon with the introduction of our inline help modals.

What I mean by "inline help modals": Whereas the current icons open a new browser window to display the full-blown WebHelp for the application, our inline help modals open pop-ups within the application itself - they're NOT new browser windows. These modals are movable and resizable, AND allow the user to still interact with the application behind the modal - so they can keep the help window open and perform desired tasks at the same time.

The content for these modals are pulled from topics within the WebHelp for the application. I have a separate folder in my project labeled "inline help" that feeds these modals, but don't appear in the overall Table of Contents for the WebHelp. I went this route so I could show a variety of topics in the modal that are related to the area where the ? icon is placed, but parsed down to the bare necessities so users don't have to scroll through lots of text to get something done (for example, the modal that opens from the Tasks table gives a brief description of what's displayed in the table, and has additional info on Completing Tasks, Searching for Tasks, Creating Tasks, etc., listed as expandable/drop-down text).

We're hoping to use these modals as a way to introduce new features to users after releases as well. So, the first time a user logs in to our system after a release, one of these modals opens to inform them of the new features that were delivered since their last login - again, content for the modal contained within the WebHelp, letting us use just ONE system to control content (Flare). Once a solid plan is in place for this effort, the help files will definitely need to be in sync with product - no room for lag there!

Anyway - sorry for rambling, it's been a fun project to work on, and getting more stoked the closer we get to releasing it across all our applications (hopefully sometime within Q2).
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Software Documentation Specialist (but really, Tech Writer)
phriend_o_phlair
Propeller Head
Posts: 60
Joined: Tue Jun 11, 2013 6:05 am

Re: Google Analytics causing slow loading WebHelp?

Post by phriend_o_phlair »

Nicely done! No need to apologize for "rambling." :wink: This is great food for thought and I appreciate you going into such depth. I'm putting together a report for management on how to concurrently improve the user assistance for both our old and new suites of products. I suspect that HTML 5 will be something that we might be able to do in a couple of years; they tend to support everything here! At this point, it seems like WebHelp will be our output of choice, although I think I'll ask a question or two in the DotNet help section. Cheers!
Ken Billing
Propeller Head
Posts: 55
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:33 am

Re: Google Analytics causing slow loading WebHelp?

Post by Ken Billing »

jsandora,

I'm not positive, but it looks like you might be using the old synchronous GA code. I'm using the asynchronous code and it's much smaller and I don't experience any lag. Your lag might be due to the preview waiting for a response from GA. The asynchronous code isn't dependent on any such protocol between the page and GA.

Might be something to check into, FWIW.
Ken
Ken Billing | Technical Writer
BlueCielo ECM Solutions
http://www.bluecieloecm.com

Image
jsandora
Propeller Head
Posts: 94
Joined: Thu Jun 23, 2011 5:56 am
Location: Boston, MA

Re: Google Analytics causing slow loading WebHelp?

Post by jsandora »

Ken Billing wrote:I'm not positive, but it looks like you might be using the old synchronous GA code. I'm using the asynchronous code and it's much smaller and I don't experience any lag. Your lag might be due to the preview waiting for a response from GA. The asynchronous code isn't dependent on any such protocol between the page and GA.
Thanks for the heads-up Ken. Can you post the GA code you use (minus the identifier of course)?

When I looked into the code I'm using, it seems that it's the latest version (at least according to this page from Google: https://developers.google.com/analytics ... alyticsjs/). This is the new analytics.js (as opposed to ga.js).

Is there a different version of analytics.js that I could use, or some tweaks I can make to what's there now to help streamline things?
Software Documentation Specialist (but really, Tech Writer)
Ken Billing
Propeller Head
Posts: 55
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:33 am

Re: Google Analytics causing slow loading WebHelp?

Post by Ken Billing »

Ha! Looks like I'm using the older code, ga.js. I hadn't heard about the Universal Analytics change. So I'll step in line behind you since now I'm curious as to whether the change would cause a lag in my page loads. If I make the switch, that is. Have to do some reading up on it, now.

Sheesh. I hate moving targets :roll:
Ken Billing | Technical Writer
BlueCielo ECM Solutions
http://www.bluecieloecm.com

Image
jsandora
Propeller Head
Posts: 94
Joined: Thu Jun 23, 2011 5:56 am
Location: Boston, MA

Re: Google Analytics causing slow loading WebHelp?

Post by jsandora »

Just updating this topic to say that the inclusion of Analytics code in our webhelp did NOT cause any lag. Pages load up just as before, no issues. Must just be the Preview mode in Flare that takes a while.
Software Documentation Specialist (but really, Tech Writer)
Post Reply