FollowAnalytics
Last updated 26 October 2016
Table of Contents
FollowAnalytics is an add-on for providing mobile apps analytics, user profiles and engagement.
Adding user profiles to an application allows you to add context to your service, to personalize your communication with your customers and to broaden your customer knowledge.
FollowAnalytics is accessible via an API and offers a client library for Ruby.
Provisioning the add-on
FollowAnalytics can be attached to a Heroku application via the CLI:
A list of all plans available can be found here.
$ heroku addons:create followanalytics
-----> Adding followanalytics to sharp-mountain-4005... done, v18 (free)
Once FollowAnalytics has been added, the FOLLOWANALYTICS_SOR_IDENTIFIER, FOLLOWANALYTICS_API_KEY and FOLLOWANALYTICS_API_TOKEN settings will be available in the app configuration and will contain the credentials required to exchange profile data with FollowAnalytics.
This can be confirmed using the heroku config:get command.
$ heroku config:get FOLLOWANALYTICS_SOR_IDENTIFIER
a3e4b65caa34001
After installing FollowAnalytics the application should be configured to fully integrate with the add-on.
Local setup
Environment setup
After provisioning the add-on it’s necessary to locally replicate the config vars so your development environment can operate against the service.
Use the Heroku Local command-line tool to configure, run and manage process types specified in your app’s Procfile. Heroku Local reads configuration variables from a .env file. To view all of your app’s config vars, type heroku config. Use the following command for each value that you want to add to your .env file.
$ heroku config:get FOLLOWANALYTICS_SOR_IDENTIFIER -s >> .env
$ heroku config:get FOLLOWANALYTICS_API_KEY -s >> .env
$ heroku config:get FOLLOWANALYTICS_API_TOKEN -s >> .env
Credentials and other sensitive configuration values should not be committed to source-control. In Git exclude the .env file with: echo .env >> .gitignore.
For more information, see the Heroku Local article.
Using FollowAnalytics
FollowAnalytics allow you to instrument apps to obtain user analytics and perform messaging campaigns. FA holds a customer profile repository where multiple sources can push and fetch attributes.
To use the mobile app part of the product, you can login through your Heroku add admin panel. Please get in touch with support@followanalytics.com to get a mobile app provisioned on your account so that you can start instrumenting. Our Customer Success team will be delighted to accompany you along the steps to get started.
You can also access the profile repository from your Heroku app, as described below.
Using with Rails from 3.x to 5.x
Ruby on Rails applications will need to add the following entry into their Gemfile specifying the FollowAnalytics client library.
gem 'followanalytics'
Update application dependencies with bundler.
$ bundle install
# In an initializer:
Followanalytics.configure do |config|
config.api_key = ENV['FOLLOWANALYTICS_API_KEY']
end
Using the attributes
Create a client
client = Followanalytics::Attributes::Client.new(ENV['FOLLOWANALYTICS_SOR_IDENTIFIER'])
Setting a value to a predefined attribute
client.set_first_name("Tim", "customer-00001")
Setting a value to a custom attribute
client.set_value("apple", "favorite_fruit", "customer-00001")
Unsetting an attribute value
client.unset_value("favorite_fruit", "customer-00001")
Adding a value to an attribute of type set
client.add_set_value("strawberry", "fruit_salad", "customer-00001")
Removing a value to an attribute of type set
client.remove_set_value("strawberry", "fruit_salad", "customer-00001")
Migrating between plans
Application owners should carefully manage the migration timing to ensure proper application function during the migration process.
When migrating to a new plan, your level of access to the FollowAnalytics platform might change. However, no data can be lost in the process, and you can always rollback.
Use the heroku addons:upgrade command to migrate to a new plan.
$ heroku addons:upgrade followanalytics:newplan
-----> Upgrading followanalytics:newplan to sharp-mountain-4005... done, v18 ($49/mo)
Your plan has been updated to: followanalytics:newplan
Removing the add-on
FollowAnalytics can be removed via the CLI.
This will destroy all associated data and cannot be undone!
$ heroku addons:destroy followanalytics
-----> Removing followanalytics from sharp-mountain-4005... done, v20 (free)
Support
All FollowAnalytics support and runtime issues should be submitted via one of the Heroku Support channels. Any non-support related issues or product feedback is welcome at support@followanalytics.com.