Thoughts on GA custom variable (and w/ new Google analytics.js, custom dimensions/metrics) about analytics.js HOT 5 CLOSED

Do you have a link to the differences between custom variables and custom dimensions/metrics?

#1 is the best for sure. The problem with it though is that looking for a slot property already means you're only tracking one of five slots. Ideally you could fill all the slots with useful data.

A couple more ways you could do it:

• 4 — Take the first 5 properties of the identify and map them to the 5 slots. This is really unstable because it requires the properties to not change order.
• 5 — Recognize 5 properties as the properties we keep in slots (eg. 1:plan, 2:revenue, 3:gender, etc.) for analytics.js and if any of the properties are there, record them to their slot.
• 6 — Similar to 5, but allow the properties we look for to be passed into initialize. Problem is this is just a lot of extra work for the person initializing the Google Analytics provider. And even then, what happens when you want to switch slots?

Open to others if anyone wants to chime in. At this point, it seems like a lot of work for not that much gain. If you really need this kind of tracking this badly, why not use Mixpanel or KISSmetrics which are built for trait tracking.

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After reading more about custom dimensions & metrics, I think they match the existing analytics.js API more closely than custom variables -- they are sent along with pageviews and events rather than separately.

https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/platform/features/customdimsmets

I don't currently have access to the new universal analytics features, but if/when I do I'll see about integrating pageview() and track() with those features.

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Definitely, we'll be open to taking another look at these. I'm gonna close this for now, but feel free to re-open whenever it happens

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I'm also really interested in passing traits from identify to Google Analytics. I don't care as much about the identifier/email address, but more generic custom traits like isPaying.

I'm not really sure if "Custom Dimensions & Metrics" or "Custom Vars" are the answer, but seems like one of them is. The page above actually says:

The fundamental difference between the two is that custom dimensions are primarily managed on the server side, whereas custom variables are primarily managed on the client side.

Seems like analytics.js might be a better fit for Custom Vars, set at the "Visitor" level.

https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/methods/gaJSApiBasicConfiguration#_gat.GA_Tracker_._setCustomVar

Then again it's tricky because you can only send up to 5 vars.

Any more thoughts on this?

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Any updates on this? From what I understand there's still no way to use analytics.js with setCustomVar methods from piwik or GA. Is that correct?

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